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BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 17, 2006

Robert Allenby

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

JOE CHEMYCZ: Robert Allenby, a 5 under, 67, 9 under par total, looking at your stats, Robert it looked like you had you hit 13 fairways and nine today. That seem right?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Did I miss that many today?

JOE CHEMYCZ: Talk about your round today and how you hit the ball.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I'm hitting the ball good. I'm driving the ball well, hitting a lot of good iron shots and I'm doing everything pretty consistent. I'm making the odd putts here and there, but not as many as I feel like I should be. I felt like I missed probably, I don't know, maybe five putts on my first nine holes today on the back nine probably inside 12 feet for birdie. I missed a few putts that I probably should have made.

But I'm just putting it down to I just don't have the speed for the greens at the moment. I say that and you probably think, "Oh, well, he's 9 under, what do you mean?" I'm hitting the ball good but I'm just not making any putts. I'm making the odd one or two, but if I was to make some putts, I'd probably be about 15 under, so a big difference. That's golf, and you've got to take what you're given sometimes.

Q. There was a big one on 17.

ROBERT ALLENBY: 17 was into the wind this morning a little bit, obviously it's died down to nothing now, but just trying to smooth a little flighted 3 iron in there. I hit it perfect, maybe one groove too high on the club and looked like the wind was sort of holding it up and it plugged under the face of the bunker and I had no shot whatsoever. I could hardly even go sideways. And as it was, if I had give ten a big hit it probably would have hit the lip where I was under and shot back into the water, and I got it out on to the grass somehow, don't know how, it went ten feet but it did. Then it was sitting down sort of plugged in this long sort of six inch rough. Here I had got it on to the green about 30 feet and made it for bogey.

That was the longest putt and that was the best putt all week so far. I was unlucky there because I hit a great shot straight at it and the sand was so thick around those bunkers that you could bounce it and unplug it in those bunkers at the moment.

But anyway, that was about it. Next question. (Laughter).

Q. What is the story with the caddie situation? What happened with your caddie and how did you hookup?

ROBERT ALLENBY: We think my caddie got food poisoning on Wednesday night on the way home from the basketball. We stopped off, he had not eaten there, he got there late because he ran out of petrol and everything had closed down. On the way home, we got KFC and woke up the next morning crook as a dog. I think I was teeing off about 12:21, called him at ten o'clock, I was going to come at ten o'clock to putt for an hour and a half before going out. And anyway, I called him just to tell him I was running about 15 minutes late. They said, "He's on the throne," which is the toilet, by the way. (Laughter).

Anyway, he was not having a good time. He had been on there for an hour and couldn't get off it. He was on it for another hour and a half, eventually moved him over to the locker room into the players locker room. Got a doctor and a nurse to come and see him. By then it was coming out of both ends, left, right and center. Anyway, they rushed him down to the hospital because he was severely dehydrated.

I tried to call him yesterday after I finished, and he called me last night and said that he had four bags of drips and just still throwing up, still coming out of the other end. They are keeping him in for the night because his heart had the way he described it was his heart had been stopped so to speak, and it was drawing all the fluid out of his body and his veins was starting to shrink and they had trouble getting the needles into his arm. So, yeah, it wasn't looking good for him as far as getting better quickly.

So I haven't called him yet to see how he is today, but hopefully he's doing all right and hopefully he'll be back tomorrow. But we'll see what happens.

And Glenn Parry, I called up a friend of mine, Todd Woodbridge, and his wife and his kids are over here at the moment on holiday. He's retired from tennis now. He's a tennis doubles player, one most amount of tennis doubles tournaments in the world. I was going to get him to caddie for me. He's a member at Isleworth and he's staying out there with Tracey Stewart, and so I just thought I'd give him a call. And he was out on the golf course and he was playing golf with Glenn Parry and Craig Parry and Wayne Grady. So he said, "Oh, look, I've love to do it, but why don't you get a professional and get Glenn to do it." So Glenn's done it the last couple of days. And Glenn's caddied for me before, too. So that's just, he's a ring in.

Q. How does that sort of change things for you the last couple of days? How has it affected you?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Well, the only way it's affected me is I just feel sorry for Dion that he's not here. I hope he gets well quick. My son had it; he was vomiting last week. My daughter just got it two days ago, and my wife got it yesterday, and they are still down in West Palm. They haven't come up here yet. So it's something going around. They say they was food poisoning, but chicken will do that to you if it's not cooked properly.

Yeah, there's something going around at the moment, I'm not sure what the story is. But hopefully he'll be back, if not tomorrow, maybe Sunday.

Q. So are you afraid to eat or be around anybody right now?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Am I afraid?

Q. To eat or to be around anybody right now?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Oh, I'm definitely not afraid to eat. I could eat a horse at the moment.

Q. I don't know quite how to follow that, but the way you played at the end of last year down in Australia, what does that bring to you, your psyche going into this meat of the season now with the majors coming up and THE PLAYERS Championship next week, how do you feel about your preparation and how ready are you to maybe be more confident this year?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I think my preparation so far has been pretty good. I haven't done anything really. I haven't done anything over here yet this year. This is only my fifth tournament. I finished third down in Johnnie Walker in Perth in Australia about a month ago. But I just haven't really had the breaks.

You know, last week I hit the ball great last week, played great, but those dinky greens down there, you hit a great shot, hit it to five feet and it will roll off the green and next minute, three chips later, you're back on the green. I watched Davis Love last week hit four chips on one hole, from the same spot. So, you know, I felt like I played pretty good last week but I finished 1 over. I played so much better than that. I played like I did this week. I haven't played any different this week to last week, it's just this week, it's just a little fairer, that's all.

Q. Do you feel with the PLAYERS Championship and The Masters coming up that you're in better shape than you were a year ago?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Oh, absolutely. Winning those three tournaments, that definitely gave me a good confidence boot boost. I haven't played well, I haven't won a tournament for a couple of years down there and I haven't won over here since 2001. I'm not worried about it. It's not going to be a life threatening thing for me. I'd like to play well on the weekend, and I'd like to definitely play well next week and then I'd like to play really well at Augusta.

But I like where my game is at the moment, I'm hitting a lot of just all types of shots and really experimenting out on the golf course with all different shots. You know, I like the way I'm swinging it and the shots that I'm coming up with. My whole game feels pretty good.

Q. I'm sure winning one tournament at home is a big deal, but to win three in a row like you did, can you just describe how big that was, maybe what it would compare to over here, if anything?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Winning three over here in a row. I don't know, it's a different scene. Obviously the depth of the fields over here is a lot stronger than what we get in Australia.

But for me when I go back to Australia, it's more of a fun thing and I enjoy going back there and playing and catching up with all the family and friends. Every tournament, I've got probably 30 to 50 people that are just having a good time with me. It's a bit of a fun event. I always seem to play pretty well. That's kind of like the scene that I probably need to do over here, but I don't know 50 people over here. I'm going to have to get the wallet out and start paying people just to be my friend no, I won't do that. (Laughing.)

Obviously I won the Australian Open, the Australian PGA and the Australian Masters and they are the three biggest tournaments we have in Australia, and no one has ever won all three. But it's really been sort of the last five years that those three tournaments have actually been in consecutive weeks. But no one has ever won all three in the same year.

Obviously to win them all three, week in, week out, three weeks in a row, it was a lot of fun. I'll definitely remember it and obviously Australia, all of the Australian people that follow golf down there will remember it for a long time, too. It's nice to create history and stuff like that.

I think if I could win one here, I'd probably go win the next two or three as well because that's the type of player I am. I really thrive on confidence, and once I get the confidence going, I feel invincible and it doesn't matter who I'm up against. I know on my given day, I can beat them.

Q. How do you explain when confidence sits in, is suddenly it's there, and do you feel different, do you do things that you would not try before?

ROBERT ALLENBY: What it is, is you hit shots without fear. We all have fear in us. We all have fear of pulling it left in the water or pushing it right in the trees or whatever it may be. We all have that fear. But when you're confident with your shot making, you can just stand up there and it doesn't matter if the whole green is surrounded by water. You can stand up there and hit it to a foot, because you're not thinking of any of that. All you're thinking about is putting that ball as close as you can to that flag, and that's confidence.

When I get my confidence going, the only thing I see is the flagstick. I don't see anything else. I don't see the bunkers around the green. I don't see the mound over the back or anything like that or the water short. The only thing I see is the flag and I just go straight at it. So I can't hit it 20 feet left of the hole to be safe; I have to go at it, because I've got the confidence to it. If I aim 20 yards left, 20 feet left of the flag, I'll push it right. My subconscious will force me to push it right. That's just the way it is. That's just me. I can't help it. (Laughing). If I try to play safe, but my brain won't let me.

Q. Can you feel those stretches coming on and can you feel them going away?

ROBERT ALLENBY: It's getting close now. Getting very close. My ball striking the last couple of days, I've been very happy with it. I'm nearly where I want to be. So hopefully I can continue over the weekend, don't get sick, and don't have to go to the hospital or anything like that and I'll just keep playing the way I'm playing.

Q. When you are on, and you're feeling confident and on top of your game, how good do you think you are talent wise? Having not won in five years on TOUR here, have you not lived up to your talent, do you think, or is a matter of the confidence and the talent coming around?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I don't think I've lived up to what I'm capable of doing, definitely not. If I have, I probably would have had three or four majors by now. I know I'm good enough to win any tournament there is. It's just a matter of getting out of your own way sometimes and letting yourself come through, and I haven't done that yet.

I'll be the first one to tell you that I haven't come to my senses yet. But, you know, it will happen and when it happens, it will probably just keep flowing on. I used to be pretty hard on myself and I expect a lot, but then also, a lot of people expected a lot out of me, too. And they still expect a lot out of me, but now I know that if I'm patient and stay confident and focused, I know I can do whatever I want.

Q. How much of that is injuries, how much has that held you back?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Obviously '96 was a bit of a bummer with the car accident. That definitely put me a couple of years, at least a good two years out of my career. That just took a long time to recover from that. Not only mentally but physically, probably a lot more. Just more of the fact that, you know, I damaged a lot of muscles and a lot of muscles needed repairing and needed a lot of physio to get them right. I had a lot of tight muscles that have been tight for a long time and it was ruining my golf swing. But now I'm good as gold at the moment.

Q. So the hands aren't an issue?

ROBERT ALLENBY: It's still attached to me so, you know, some mornings I wake up and it's still puffy. Other mornings, it feels great. It feels good at the moment. So I try not to think about it. I just sort of I know it's there.

Q. So what do they tell that you it is?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Nothing. No one knows. Nothing. Don't know. Maybe I'm just a psycho, making it all up.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Take us through your mind starting with your birdies on 13.

ROBERT ALLENBY: 13, I hit 5 wood off the tee there and hit a sand iron to about ten feet.

I hit a 6 iron into 16 to about 25 feet, just lagged it down the hill.

17 I've already told you about.

The first hole, 3 wood off the tee, just in the left rough, hit 6 iron to about a foot.

4, driver, 3 wood, just off the green to the right, pin high, chipped it down to about six feet, made it.

5 wood, wedge on 5 to 15 feet and made it.

5 iron at 7 to about 20 feet and made it.

Q. So winning the Australian Masters, Open and PGA in a row, are you now targeting the U.S. Masters, open and PGA?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, that would be nice, wouldn't it. (Laughter).

Q. You feel that's the next step?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, I think that's my next step for my career, yeah, or I bloody hope so. (Laughter).

End of FastScripts.

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