THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 24, 2006

Greg Owen

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Greg, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at THE PLAYERS Championship. Kind of a bumpy start this morning after that double bogey but you bounced back beautifully and finished great being 5 under par for the tournament. Make a couple comments about today's round.

GREG OWEN: I started really rough. It was a bit too early for me, I think. I could have used a half hour more in bed. It was a tough start, but we had a par 5 afterwards and made the most of that, which is great. Then I just played pretty steady all the way. Fairways and greens, and just took a couple of opportunities, the par 5s treated me well today, and I two putted a couple of them. It's been good. I played very well.

Q. How did you get the 6?

GREG OWEN: I missed a putt for a 5 (laughter).

Q. We've been telling guys that

GREG OWEN: How did I get the 6? Let me off of last week, come on.

Q. Do you feel like you've overcome something already?

GREG OWEN: I hope so. It still pops back, but I'm proud of myself to play well this week because it was tough last week. I knew I was playing well and I was hoping to keep up the same form, but you still wake up and you think of the worst things that happened.

But I remembered a lot of good things, as well, so that's kept me in good step for this week.

Q. How have your mates propped you up, patted you on the back?

GREG OWEN: Nearly every player has said well played. It's been unbelievable. Even the big names. I mean, Tiger came up to me this morning, shook my hand and said well played last week. That's all he said. That's great because people could say shame about this and shame about that, but people have just said well played. I appreciate that from all the players. It's been really great, especially being a foreigner, as well. They didn't have to do it, but they treated me well.

Q. I wonder what the fan response has been, as well. What are people saying on the golf course?

GREG OWEN: Pretty good. I'm getting recognized a little more. I wish it was something else. Everybody is wishing me well, which is great. They know what happened, and I'm sure they've done it a million times themselves, and they recognize what it is when it happens, when they play for such big purses in such big events, especially for Arnold's trophy.

Arnold was on the back of the green and I saw him, and I thought I bet he wished it hadn't ended like that. The fun has been great. I think I've got a few more supporters than I had last week.

Q. Have you looked at the replays?

GREG OWEN: Once, Sunday night. It hit a lot of the hole, didn't it? Both of them. I mean, it's fractions. Okay, it wasn't a good thing to do and maybe shouldn't have done it, but they could have easily gone in, and they didn't. So we're here now.

Q. The commentary on your last putt on 18 was how could it have gone out? It looked like the perfect putt. Which was harder, that having struck what you thought was a perfect putt and have it not go in, then 17?

GREG OWEN: Well, I still went up 18 with a share of the lead. It wasn't a case of I threw a couple of shots away. I didn't hit it well. I got a bit of a bumper out of the rough and played it well. I hit a better than average bunker shot. I thought, come on, just hit a putt. I hit the putt exactly where I wanted to, and if I had the putt again I'd hit it exactly the same place. I more or less turned around and I just caught a glimpse of it coming out of the hole again, and it was just a case of, ouch, that really hurt. The one on 17 was hard, but then I felt like it was an even bigger kick on 18.

Q. Has Dr. Bob given you any ways of turning this around and using it to your advantage?

GREG OWEN: No, we're just working on exactly the same things we worked on last week. It was my fault, I just lost concentration. It wasn't what we're working on or anything like that. It was a case of keep doing the same things but do it better. So we're just thinking of the positives and just trying to relax and have fun at it.

Q. You had mentioned before the golfing gods and what happened. Do you think they owe you something now, or is that the way it works?

GREG OWEN: You guys play golf. You know, you never know what's going to happen on the golf course. I nearly had a hole in one yesterday. I left it three inches short right in the middle. You're asking questions again, but golf is a tough game. When you do it for a living and you're relying on a good bounce here or there, you're not always going to get them. You've got to appreciate the good ones and try and forget the bad ones.

Q. You've shown so much class in responding to this. You could easily hide from us. Could you just talk about your attitude?

GREG OWEN: What's the point? I mean, it's the game of golf. I mean, there's so many worse things going on, Tiger with his dad, Darren Clarke with his wife. What's the point? I'm healthy. You know, I didn't even know I was playing golf two years ago. I'm healthy, I've got a great family and I'm happy. I enjoy playing out here and the response has been really good and I hope I can keep playing for years.

Q. A lot of people's theories are two things can happen after something like that; it can rattle around in a guy's brain and haunt him forever or make him tougher. How good a sign is today that it has maybe made you tougher and why do you think it will?

GREG OWEN: I don't think I'll ever forget it. It's a great chance to win a tournament on the PGA TOUR. You've got to learn from it. Hopefully I've learned that take your time, make sure that the tournament isn't over until you've holed out on the 72nd hole. I was so confident and comfortable on 17, it was nothing to do with nerves, it just happened. I have no explanation. I wasn't even that nervous on 18. I was just a little rattled.

I'm just trying to take the positives from playing well in the last group on Sunday, and I'm playing better than the majority of the field.

Q. You said Tiger shook your hand. Did you know Tiger at all?

GREG OWEN: I played with him at Bay Hill last year. His caddie, Steve, as well. They say hello in the morning. I get on with Steve pretty well. He's a great guy, Tiger is a great guy. He has a job to do, and sometimes he has game face on and just wants to get his job done, but off the course, mostly he says hi and a wonderful guy and a great ambassador to the game.

Q. Do you look at three foot putts the same?

GREG OWEN: No, I look harder (laughter). They're tough. They've been tough this week. I had two on the last two holes from like three feet, and I'm thinking the crowd is, as well. 17, 18, and you're thinking, oh, not again. Settle down, knock it in the middle, and I hit two good putts.

Q. I heard you basically gave up on sleeping on Sunday night and basically got up Monday morning and washed your car was it?

GREG OWEN: I tried to go to bed at about half 11:00. I got up at 12:00, went for a walk, got to sleep just after 2:00, woke up at 4:30 and I washed the car at 5:30.

Q. In the dark?

GREG OWEN: No, it was pretty light, just got light. I waited until it got light before I went out. I think it was dirty.

Q. Was that in Orlando still?

GREG OWEN: Yeah, in Windermere.

Q. Can you just make a couple comments on the conditions out there today?

GREG OWEN: Blistery. It picks up and then dies down. They say about it swirling on 17; that's not the only hole. 13 was tough, as well. You've just got to be on the right side of the slopes and actually choose the wind. That's where you need luck. You need the right gust of wind at the right time. The course is pretty soft, which is a good thing, helping, but if that wind picks up it's going to be tricky.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Your six birdies, can we go through those?

GREG OWEN: 2nd was a 5 wood to about 30 feet and two putts.

7, 8 iron to about two feet.

9 was a lob wedge to I think it said 5 foot 11 inches. They've got the ShotLink right near there.

12 was eight foot, sand iron.

14 was a 5 iron out of the bunker to about ten feet.

16 was a 5 iron to about 30 feet and two putts.

Q. What did happen at 1?

GREG OWEN: I drove it in the rough and then hit my second shot in the rough and then chipped it out and three putted.

Q. Your daughter obviously knew a little bit about what was going on there the last couple holes and was crying.

GREG OWEN: No, she was just tired. She was just happy to see her daddy and I was happy to see her.

Q. Do you try to explain to her what happened?

GREG OWEN: No, she's just three and a half, she just wants to play. So we went out and played football that evening.

Q. Sunday?

GREG OWEN: Yeah. She's such a happy little girl. She's brilliant, and I don't know what I had done before her. She makes things a lot easier.

Q. You say football, you mean soccer?

GREG OWEN: No, I mean football. She's got a little soft ball and she likes hitting that and jumping around.

Q. You mentioned your days in the pro shop. How long were you in there and how far away did this all seem when you were working there?

GREG OWEN: I never even dreamed of playing on the Tour, not even the European Tour. It was about four years I was in there. I got my PGA qualifications and then just started playing in local tournaments, Pro Ams, and then me and my coach, we got better and better as I was going through my qualifications, and my boss, who is my coach, as well, still is my coach, David Ridley, I owe a lot to him, he's like a father figure, really. He's easy to talk to and he understands it; he used to play, as well. Then we just decided that we'd go to Tour school for European Tour and just try and see if we can learn and see how good we were.

I got this 37th card my first year and played nine events, but it got me on the Challenge Tour, and I learned it from there, really.

Q. You mentioned the two tough putts coming in today that you made. Did you have an example yesterday of maybe the first time you had one that length that you really had to concentrate over and that you felt good about getting past?

GREG OWEN: I missed one on 16, missed a short one on 16. And I missed a short one on the 1st today. I'm trying not to think about it. I mean, it's gone. I'm going to miss short putts. Everyone is going to miss short putts. I'm hopefully going to hole more long ones and not even worry about the short ones.

There will be times out there when the pressure gets going that I'm going to miss putts. It's just going to be I've done it before. I've done it plenty of times before. It's just because of the situation I was in, you know.

Q. Your wife was a good athlete in her own right. Was that at all helpful, and is she able to say anything?

GREG OWEN: She was a national gymnast, and she damaged her knee so she couldn't go any further. She said to me she didn't know what to say. I mean, what can you say? I mean, the thing I worked so hard for was in my grasp and I dropped it. There's nothing anybody can really say. I mean, the best response has been from the players, just well played and they appreciate the good things because they know what it's like. Everyone has been through it.

Q. You guys are always butting heads, competing against one another out here. Do you almost feel like you saw a different side of the Tour in the way everyone has been so empathetic?

GREG OWEN: Believe it or not, golf is a hard life. I mean, we get paid really well and it's a great sport and we've got a great office. But everybody is trying to go out there and win, but everyone realizes that it's not always down to us, and they accept when things happen. They try and comfort the other players when it hurts. They don't want anybody to do things like that. I'm sure they don't, because they realize it could happen to them.

Yeah, I mean, you see these top guys and you think they're all hard and they don't have any sympathy, but they recognize what happened last week, and I'm glad to say that they've been very supportive.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Greg, for joining us.

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