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BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

March 30, 2006

Gavin Coles

DULUTH, GEORGIA

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay, Gavin, 8 under par and your career low round on the PGA TOUR. Nice start to the 2006 BellSouth Classic.

GAVIN COLES: Thank you.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: A couple thoughts about today and take us through any highlights.

GAVIN COLES: I don't know, it was just a little run there from I birdied 15, parred 16, and I holed a 5 iron out of the bunker on 17, and then I made a long putt on 18 for birdie and hit the flagstick with my second shot on the 1st, so it was a nice little run and sort of got me really going.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Did you see a round like this coming?

GAVIN COLES: Look, I've been working hard with my coach, really hard. He's been over in the States working with Rodney Pampling obviously at Bay Hill, and I got to squeeze in a little time with him. I played last week, didn't play very good until about the last five holes where I started to play quite nicely. My swing is getting better all the time and I'm getting more comfortable out here all the time.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Your coach's name is

GAVIN COLES: Gary Edwin.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Sort of summarize your year to this point if you could.

GAVIN COLES: This is my fifth tournament, so there you go. There's the year in a nutshell. Five events.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the medical exemption you're playing under? What happened with your ribs? Obviously it would be huge to finish way up on the leaderboard here this week.

GAVIN COLES: It would. Actually you could say it's a little embarrassing, but I hurt my back last year playing at the John Deere, and I tried to get a little extra on the 2nd tee, which was my 11th hole on the John Deere Classic tournament there, and cracked my rib. It just went snap, under my right arm. I don't know why I played, but I actually finished the round and got up and played the next day for some reason. I really couldn't tell you why, but I did.

Q. How do you get your time in with Gary?

GAVIN COLES: He's pretty good, he tried to schedule enough time so we all get enough time. We just try to share the time as best we can.

Q. Did you wrench your back?

GAVIN COLES: Yeah, I did have a sore back, one of my muscles on the lower right hand side of my back was sore and progressively got worse, and I think we just said that's enough, you need to have a rest.

Q. How did you know you had broken the rib?

GAVIN COLES: After I had an X ray about a week and a half later. It was not very nice trying to roll over in bed anyway.

Q. Your play today, what was clicking for you in particular, what part of your game?

GAVIN COLES: I've been working really hard with with Gary two weeks ago and trying to get my golf swing to somewhere so that I hit the ball where I'm looking, not somewhere else. Actually the ball went where I was looking today.

Q. (Inaudible).

GAVIN COLES: Yeah, it went pretty good today. I think I missed two greens today, one was by an inch and one was probably eight feet, nine, ten feet off the green on No. 7 where I made my only bogey of the day.

Q. How did the course play today in general?

GAVIN COLES: Well, I think most courses if they're firm and fast and the ball is actually running on the fairway it actually helps me out. I don't hit it very long but I hit it pretty straight. These fairways are pretty generous on some holes, and some holes are not. I like it when it's firm and fast and I can actually get it up there. Last year I hit 4 iron into the 5th hole because there was no run. 4 iron on that green is pretty difficult at the best of times. It helps me out, like today I hit 8 iron. It's definitely easier.

Q. Talk about your second shot at 17 out of the bunker, what club and what did you have?

GAVIN COLES: Well, I had 190 yards, a downhill shot, pin was front right, and I just sort of aimed it at the right side of the green and hit a 5 iron and it flew over the slope that I had and it came out perfect, landed right on the front of the green. I didn't really see it go in, but it went in. They sort of made a little bit more of a cheer than they normally would.

Q. You said you weren't hitting it where you wanted to hit it. Were you losing it right, left, everywhere?

GAVIN COLES: Well, generally with my swing I get a little wide on the takeaway with my arms, and I'm short and I don't swing it very fast so obviously the ball doesn't go very far, so it goes left to right. I fixed my backswing and I'm pretty right on the downswing.

Q. What sort of score are you going to be looking for tomorrow?

GAVIN COLES: I don't know, I'm going to hit my tee shot off the 1st and I'm just going to play one shot at a time.

Q. You've got a limited amount of time and a certain amount of money to keep your card. How big would it be to have a sizable check?

GAVIN COLES: Oh, it would be huge, no doubt it would be huge. Everybody wants to play this Tour. Everybody in the world who plays professional golf would love to play and win on the PGA TOUR. I mean, that's what we all grew up to do. We all want to do that, and it would be huge to actually do that. The week before The Masters, I mean, it's a great course, it's a great event, and it would be just it would be the icing on the cake, wouldn't it.

No one expects me to do any good. Any pressure will be what I put on myself.

Q. Good year for the Aussies so far. Is there anything that you can think of to account for that? How much play is all this getting back home with what Stuart Appleby and Rod Pampling

GAVIN COLES: They're all friendly, great blokes, nothing to do with the golf (laughter). No, I think we come from 20 million people live down there, but we have great facilities, great golf courses that we play, and we play a lot of tournaments on really, really good golf courses that are set up similar to this one. You know, I think we just learn to control our golf ball. The ball, we don't necessarily attack it. It's a different game over in Australia, and I think the guys come over here and they take a lot to adjust and we sort of learn how to play like you guys do.

End of FastScripts.

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