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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 19, 2004

Retief Goosen

SHINNECOCK HILLS, NEW YORK

RAND JERRIS: We're now joined by 2001 United States Open Champion, Retief Goosen, Retief a 69 today for a three-round total of 5-under, 205. Why don't you start us off by taking us through the birdies and bogeys on your card, please.

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yes. The bogey on the 2nd, I hit a 4-iron short right, chipped down to about ten feet and missed the putt.

Par 5, the 5th, I hit driver, 6-iron to about 20 feet, two putts.

10, I hit 2-iron, lob wedge to about eight feet.

13, I hit 3-iron in the right rough and then hit a 9-iron over the back, chipped to 20 feet, two putts.

14, I hit 2-iron in the rough, then hit an 8-iron over the green, chipped down to about three, four feet and missed that.

15, I hit 3-wood off the tee and wedge probably 25 feet.

And 16, I hit driver, 6-iron in the bunker out to about eight feet or six feet.

Q. Did it feel more like a U.S. Open today than it did yesterday?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, definitely. Today the wind got up. It really turned within one hole. When we played the first hole we played it downwind, and when we got to the second tee, the wind was completely turned around and we were playing into the wind instead of downwind. The wind suddenly switched within one hole, and that made the golf course play a little bit different.

Today the golf course really played like a U.S. Open. The greens were pretty much dead out there. There's a few pins that we saw on TV, the ball runs up to the hole and runs away from the hole. And the fairways and the wind got up, so today the course really showed its teeth.

Q. Do you have a recollection of the first time that you met Ernie way back in the day when you guys were in the Air Force and you were driving the bus and you guys were running around? Who was the better player back then?

RETIEF GOOSEN: The first time I met Ernie was at a junior -- South African Junior Championship in a place called Bloemfontaine in South Africa. I think he had just that year, won Junior World or something like that I think he won. So we were both then 14 years old.

I remember playing a practice round with him, and his brother Dirk was caddying for him. That was the only time really I met him until later on when we started playing, when I managed then to make it into a provincial team, and that's the only other time I started playing with Ernie or against him, in provincial teams.

Q. There are three South Africans in the top six. Is that coincidence or does this course remind you of home?

RETIEF GOOSEN: There's not too many golf courses like this around the world. There's probably one golf course in South Africa /-PB /HAOUL /ARD in Port Elizabeth, which is similar to this, very links, and that's the only golf course that I've really played in South Africa, or a few times we've played tournaments in this world, that's quite linksey.

But Timmy Clark grew up in Durban in South Africa, which is a very windy area, and he really knows how to play in the wind. It showed today when the course played very tricky that he can play. He's a very straight hitter.

Q. You talked about some of the holes that gave you a little difficulty out there. Could you talk specifically about No. 7 and that green and the challenges there today?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, No. 7, I don't know how many players hit the green there today, not too many I would imagine. I hit it twice, and today it just ran over the back. So I've done pretty well.

I think if you make 3 or 4 there, you've done pretty well. 3 feels like you've made birdie. I hit it just over the back there today and probably had about a five-yard putt that I aimed two yards left of the hole, and the ball still came down and nearly went in and then I was praying that it stayed on the green.

It's going to be tricky, and where the pin is going to be tomorrow, it's going to be on the front, front right there. You know, you land on the green, you go over the back. So at least you've got all the green to work with chipping back up the hill. But it's going to be impossible to get it close.

Q. Could you tell us at what stage of the round today did you decide that you may not want to challenge or play aggressively out there?

RETIEF GOOSEN: There's pretty much not one hole that you feel like you want to play aggressive. I would think that the only hole that you feel like if you don't make birdie is No. 5. I think No. 5 I would probably think is the easiest hole on the golf course, the par 5, and I think everybody feels like you need to make 4 there. It's about the only chance of having a birdie out there.

The rest is just fighting. I mean, you've just got to try to put it in the middle of the greens and two-putt, but some of the two-putts aren't even easy.

Q. Retief, you guys are so used to shooting 64s, 65s, making a lot of birdies. What did your 69 feel like today?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, 69 around this course is probably like shooting 64, 8-under. Either way, I like the courses that you need to grind a little bit on and not have to shoot 63 to make up some ground. I know on a course like this, especially the way I played today, I told myself if you shoot level par today, you're going to be very close to leading this event, and I shot 1-under, had a good run down 15 and 16, which sort of got me back into things again. I holed a good par putt on 17 to stay at 5-under.

Q. Although the course isn't similar to Southern Hills, how can you use that experience to your advantage tomorrow?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, it is very much like Southern Hills, a lot of elevation and sidehill and uphill lies and things like that. I think it does remind me of that. Southern Hills the greens were probably a little bit better, but in a way, yeah, I think of this golf course exactly the same as Southern Hills. You've just got to try and hit the fairways and keep it below the hole and give yourself uphill putts, which some of the holes are pretty impossible to leave yourself an uphill putt.

Q. How special will it be to be paired with Ernie, a fellow countryman, at the U.S. Open, and conversely, how much will it help that you're not paired with Phil Mickelson, who obviously everyone would have been rooting for if he was in the last group?

RETIEF GOOSEN: I don't mind playing with Phil. I've played with him a few times, a very nice guy and always acknowledges a good shot. Obviously playing with him would have been a little bit of an earful. I think we would have had to wear earplugs out there.

I've had some support out there, as well, today. It was nice. The guys keep encouraging me to play well. Playing with Ernie tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it.

Q. In what ways are you better or different as a player than when you won at Southern Hills?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, I think experience and knowing that I can do it, more self-belief. Southern Hills I know I had a very hot putter for the week to get me going, and this week my putting has been pretty average really, but I think I'm hitting quite a few greens in regulation and I'm getting it up-and-down when I need to.

I think, yeah, I've learned a lot from that and hopefully that can help me going into tomorrow, what I've learned at Southern Hills.

Q. What was the state of your game coming in here, and does it make a whole lot of difference the way you were playing on this course now?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, after Augusta I played okay. Augusta I just putted terribly, but I played pretty nicely, and the following week at MCI I missed the cut. Before Augusta I didn't play that well.

So I really got into quite a bit of a fitness regime again and worked a bit on my fitness the last three months and my flexibility, and I've practiced a bit more since I've had some time off, but I've done a bit more work off the golf course than I normally do when I have time off. It's paying off. I feel like I'm playing pretty well. I played pretty well in the PGA and the Deutsche Bank I was starting to hit the ball better and better, and so I was looking forward to coming here.

When I played the practice round on Monday, I liked the course right away.

Q. I read recently that your wife said you're funny and have a great sense of humor. Is that true? Are you a bit of a cutup away from the golf course?

RETIEF GOOSEN: You know, when you're around your friends you're comfortable and you chirp away and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I'm a bit of a shy guy and keep my head down and just do my thing. We all have our funny moments and our not-so-funny moments. I won't say I'm a Fred Funk, that's for sure, but once you get out there you're in your zone of concentration and it's difficult to -- for me it's difficult to sort of go away from that and start focusing on other things, so I try and just do my thing there and we'll celebrate afterwards.

Q. I was going to say, it would seem like I know we're always teasing you about you being so even keel in your personality, but that would seem to be looking for when you're going through hole by hole torture out there like that, just don't get excited.

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, major championships are not easy to just have a nice laugh around the golf course. It's hard work and a lot of grinding. One bad shot can lead to a double or triple. It's difficult to really just let your mind go to other things around the course.

Q. How big will this be in South Africa, the two of you paired in the final group? Outside of rugby, is golf next, or where does it fall in the --

RETIEF GOOSEN: I think we're going to have good TV ratings in South Africa come tomorrow. It's going to be nice to speak with Ernie and we get to speak a bit of Afrikaans. I haven't had a chance to speak Afrikaans with anybody the first three rounds. I'm sure we're going to have lots of support down there and hopefully me or Ernie or Timmy, one of the three of us can pull it off tomorrow.

Q. Thus going into that final pairing with Ernie, will it feel more comfortable or less comfortable?

RETIEF GOOSEN: I suppose since I've played with Ernie so many times, I can probably feel a bit more comfortable, but it's never easy to feel comfortable. It doesn't matter who you play with. You've got to get down and do your own thing.

Q. Five different people, yourself included, had the lead by themselves at some point during the round today. Were you at all taking note of the board, and at any point were you surprised to find yourself as the one standing alone at this point?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I dropped to 3-under pretty early, and then Jeff Maggert got to 7, and I thought to myself, Jeff is very steady and I'm probably thinking that 6-under could probably lead by the end of the round, but the wind kept picking up and the greens dried out more and more.

You know, after I made the two bogeys on 13 and 14, I told myself let's just try and get this back to level par at least, and we're not going to be far off. It turned out that I managed to birdie 15 and 16 and somehow got a two-shot lead. But these last three holes are not easy.

RAND JERRIS: Retief, congratulations on your fine play, and we wish you luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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