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CANADIAN OPEN

September 8, 2006

Arron Oberholser

ANCASTER, ONTARIO

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome Arron Oberholser, who followed up a 65 yesterday with a 2 under 68 today, tied for the lead at 7 under through two rounds here at the Canadian Open.

Arron, a much different day today than yesterday for most of the field.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Yeah, it was, for sure. Wind blowing pretty good. 10, 15 pretty much all day. Gusts to 20 miles an hour I'd say. Firms this golf course up, makes it a little faster. Whenever you make a golf course faster, it's going to be a little bit more difficult, as it showed in 2003 with the scores here. Played fast all week. You did well to drive it in the fairway.

I think if this continues, I don't know what the weather is supposed to be like tomorrow, I heard showers, rain, but if it continues to get firm and fast, then this golf course will really start to show its teeth on the weekend and you're going to have to hit very good golf shots and play smart golf to get a round here with a good score.

TODD BUDNICK: You picked up your first win earlier this year at AT&T Pebble Beach. Very solid year. Four top tens. Give us an assessment of your season and continued good play today.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Well, thank you. The season's been very good. You can always do better. I've got high standards for myself, like most players out here who want to contend in major championships and win major championships. That's the ultimate goal. Every time you put yourself in a position to win any golf tournament, it just helps to I guess get you more prepared for that moment when you're in that situation in a major championship.

I just try to get better every day. This year is just another steppingstone. The year I've is just another steppingstone toward the ultimate goal, which is to consistently be there for majors and so on and so forth.

TODD BUDNICK: We'll open it up to questions.

Q. Normally it's nice to be in the lead, but you have to share that with three other guys.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Sure.

Q. Looks like the cut is going to be at 7. You only have a seven shot lead, but there's 70 guys.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I think that's what makes this golf course great and exciting and why, in my opinion no offense to any other golf course in Canada but this golf course seems to do this. It did it three years ago and it's done it this year. I know the membership here, they're giving up their golf course a week for the tournament. You have a short season here. We thank them for that.

But, man, it would be great to have the Canadian Open here every year at Hamilton Golf Club. I know they like to move it around, like we do the U.S. Open, the British Open, have it on a rotation. But this place is fantastic.

Because it's not too long, a lot of different players are in there. You see shorter hitters, you see longer hitters, you see guys who putt well, you see guys who are good iron players. You see a bunch of different types of games up towards the leaderboard.

Gosh, if you're seven back going into the weekend at even par, that's awesome, especially when the golf course is going to get tougher. You go out and shoot 66 or 65 tomorrow, Saturday early, post it, that's a healthy score. Let the leaders go off on bumpier greens in the afternoon. I think that's what makes this place exciting.

Q. Could you talk about your success in Ontario. I believe you have a couple of Canadian Tour victories here and a Nationwide Tour victory here.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Ontario has been good to me. Canada has been good to me, without a doubt. I enjoy playing up here. I enjoy the people. I enjoy the atmosphere. I spent two great years up here on the Canadian Tour here learning how to play. Drove the country twice. I've probably seen more of Canada than most Canadians.

It was fantastic. I still regard those days, those Canadian Tour days, those two years, as the most fun I've ever had playing golf and learning how to play and traveling with the guys. It was a great time. It was a great time.

I won the CPGA at Diamondback. I won The Heritage Ontario Open at Sault Ste. Marie, and I won the Eagle Creek Classic up at Ottawa were my wins in Canada.

Q. Are you available, Arron, for any tourism endorsement deals? I think they could use you.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: You know what, I'm sure I can be available for a price (laughter).

It's true, though. It's a lot of fun to come up here. The people are wonderful. It's just a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Great country.

Q. Hate to bring this up, but both of your bogeys so far in the tournament have been on the same hole.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I don't have a club for that hole. I literally do not have a club for that hole. 5 wood is too much, 3 iron is not enough. I told my caddie, Tomorrow we're just laying it up. We're either going to lay it up in the bunker or lay it up on the front edge and just chip it or putt it from the fringe. I literally do not have a club anywhere to put me in the middle of that green. I didn't bring all the tools. I didn't think I was going to need it.

I remembered that hole three years ago being a 3 iron, just being a standard 3 iron. I get there, I don't know if I've lost distance or what. I can't get there. Today I couldn't get there for sure. I ended up over on the fourth fairway just trying to back off of a 5 wood, which is not a fun shot. I was on the ladies tee. I took a drop on the ladies tee on 4 so...

That hole's kind of you know, it is what it is. It's a great hole. I just don't have a club this week for it. I left my 19 degree, which is a perfect club for that hole, at home. I'll be laying it up, trying to get it up and down the next two days.

Q. You're kind of a shot maker. This is a shot maker's course. Is that partly why you've done so well here?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Well, I didn't do well at all in 2003. I missed the cut by a hundred miles. I think my game is starting to round into form again. It was in the beginning of the year all the way through about the U.S. Open. I had an unfortunate accident. I cut my finger. I had to miss a month. My game kind of, right at the wrong time, right when I'm trying to get on the Ryder Cup team, just kind of left me.

A good weekend at Bridgestone really helped out a lot. Then I've just carried it on. Week off last week. This is my sixth out of eight weeks on the road. I'm due for a couple weeks off after this tournament. My game feels like it's rounding into form. When I'm playing well, I can hit all the shots, I think.

Trust me, if we ever went back to an old golf ball, I'd be the first one jumping for joy. I love curving the ball. I love hitting cuts. I love hitting hooks. I love hitting it low. I love hitting it high. This golfcourse lends itself to that. With these new golf balls and new equipment, it's tougher to work the ball.

It's a bit frustrating at times when I want to hit a shot and my equipment won't allow me to do it at times. But that's the way everybody's equipment is nowadays with the ball and the clubs.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through your birdies and bogey. No. 10, started off with a birdie today.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: 10 I birdied. I hit a driver down the fairway, hit a little bump pitching wedge. Tried to take the spin off of it. Hit it about 10, 12 feet below, left of the hole, made that for birdie.

TODD BUDNICK: 14.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: 14, I hit a good drive, kind of curved one around the corner there off the TV tower, hit the fairway. I hit a pitching wedge to about 10, 12 feet, made that for birdie.

Then on 4, what did I do? I hit driver in the fairway bunker, 9 iron up the left hand side, hit a lob wedge from about 85 yards to 10, 12 feet, made that for birdie.

Then had a bunch of good 2 putts along the way from distance. Just that one bogey on 6, like you heard the story. I don't have a club. It's a little difficult when you don't have the right club.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Arron. Good luck this weekend.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Okay.

End of FastScripts.

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