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BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

March 31, 2006

Jose Maria Olazabal

DULUTH, GEORGIA

PHIL STAMBAUGH: A fine 8 under 64 today and you move up right now into second place at 9 under. A couple of thoughts about your round, a little different than yesterday. I guess you putted quite a bit better?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I played a lot better than yesterday without question. I made a lot of putts today and that was the key for today's round. I hit my irons okay. The only maybe, you know, area where it was not all that good was the driving. Even though I hit most of the fairways, I did not feel comfortable with it.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Any changes in the course? Did it play about the same as yesterday.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Pretty much the same. Maybe when we started, the wind was not blowing that much. Maybe the last few holes like let's say, 14 on. The wind started to pick up and made it a little more difficult, especially club selection.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Phil has got a pretty good lead but we look back in the book and in 1990 you had a nine stroke lead at the World Series of Golf, so you know what it's like to play with a big lead. A couple thoughts about that.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I think he's feeling pretty comfortable about his swing. Obviously the way he's scoring, he must be playing really great golf and putting well. It's going to be very difficult for anybody to catch him unless we play some really awesome golf on the weekend.

But, you know, we've seen so many things that, you know, it's very hard to predict what's going to happen. But at the moment, I think Phil is playing wonderfully well. 16 under, I think he is, correct me if I'm wrong, after two rounds, and that is some great playing.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Any highlights in your round today?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I managed to make a couple of good saves on 16 and 17. I overclubbed on 16 and went all the way to the back and made par from there.

On 17, I pulled my second shot in the bunker left and I made a good save there.

Q. Just wondering about the conditions and the course out there, we're talking about Phil at 16 under, I think the record may be 29 under for four rounds. If the weather keeps up, do you see some amazing numbers going up there this weekend?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I think at the moment Phil is the only one really doing the fireworks. I think he's the one that really has maybe that record in his eye sight. The rest of us, I'm 9 under par, I'm not going to shoot 10 , 20 under par in the next two rounds, that's for sure well, you know, I'm not. (Laughter). So I think it's up to Phil.

But I don't think the golf course is playing any different to how it played maybe last year or a couple of years ago. It's just him that is playing great golf.

Q. Could you have imagined shooting 71 64 and being seven shot back? What did you think when you looked up at the board?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I could not have imagined shooting 64 today to start with. You know, the way he played yesterday, you would expect for him to shoot something around 5 under par today, especially playing early in the morning with the better greens. It was not that far out of the equation to see him somewhere around 14 , 15 under par.

Q. So you're not surprised?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: No.

Q. There are a lot of comparisons made between this course and Augusta and the fact that it's good preparation. The greens seem to be rather slow this year than they have been in the past.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Yes, they are slower than they have been in the past, that is true. But you have to also consider that if the wind blows around here, and they make it really fast, they might have some problems with the ball moving on the greens. So I think they have been a little bit conservative in that area.

But, you know, the greens are actually I think they are very good preparation for next week. They are very similar. They do have a lot of undulations on the greens. They are usually very quick. Not so quick this year, but, you know, the only difference will be that this golf course off the tee is more forgiving than it is at Augusta at the moment.

Q. You played well last week; so confidence level, where would you put it, 1 to 10?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, the area that I really don't feel so comfortable with, especially this week has been the driver, as I said earlier here today. The putting stroke has been off, except for today. I mean, I didn't putt well last week. Actually I haven't putted well pretty much all season long.

Confidence, I mean, I'm comfortable with at least the attitude so far is pretty good, which is important.

End of FastScripts.

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