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CANADIAN OPEN

September 9, 2006

Kevin Sutherland

ANCASTER, ONTARIO

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Kevin Sutherland, thanks for joining us here in the press room at the Canadian Open. You made the cut on the cut line yesterday, then go out and shoot 63, tying the course record. Maybe some opening comments on a great day. You're in contention heading into the final round.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, it was a great day. I putted extremely well. It's something I've been kind of struggling with a little bit. Boy, today was one of those days. I made quite a few 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 footers for par. Kind of keep the rounds going. Obviously made a few for birdie. I actually had two eagles. That kind of helps out the round a lot.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Questions.

Q. Is it just the weather, do you think?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: It's the weather. The course, I wouldn't be surprised if someone shoots 8 under or 9 under behind me. I don't know how guys are doing.

The greens are soft. The greens are really good, which lends itself to shooting good scores. The rough is thick, but if you're driving the ball straight, you're going to have a lot of good birdie putts. Obviously, the fairways are bigger because it's so soft. The ball is not rolling into the rough.

It's probably playing about as easy as it's going to play. I was able to take advantage of it today. I feel fortunate just to be here. I made about a 20 footer on the last hole for birdie yesterday to make the cut, so...

All this is kind of gravy.

Q. At events like this, we heard it at the PGA, the first couple days here, when the greens are soft, late in the day they'll get spiked up. Is it just a matter of luck that that doesn't come into play for some guys and other guys it ruins their round?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: There's no question. I was one of the first guys out there, so the greens are really good. The greens are going to be a little more bumpy later in the day. Poa annua, when it's soft, it's going to get a little bumpy.

Yeah, some guys I guess deal with it better than others. Some guys understand it's going to be bumpy; they kind of try to deal with it as best they can. Other guys get really upset.

It obviously makes it more difficult to make putts. It's something obviously it's a situation we're going to have to deal with today. The guys who are at the end of the field today are probably going to. I don't know what to say to that. You kind of have to roll with it.

Yesterday the greens were that way when I played late, and you've just got to deal with it.

Q. After getting through and making the cut, did you have a sense coming into today you could get yourself back in the tournament because the leaderboard was quite bunched up?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, you know, I kind of you know, I felt like if I could shoot a really good round today, I could get back into it. Everybody was so packed together. I'm not sure whether 7 under was leading today, going into today, and even par was the cut. It seemed like at lot of the guys were more towards the even par. It seemed like if you could shoot a really good score, you could really jump up the leaderboard.

You know, I shot 3 under par yesterday on my last nine holes. I kind of felt like I was starting to play a little better than I did the first 27 holes. I played with a little more confidence than a guy who made the cut on the button. I felt like I was kind of getting a little bit more momentum going that way. It just kind of worked out the way at the end of the day for me.

Q. With the rain this morning, was there ever any question about playing it up? They're adamant they don't want to play it up. Was that ever a factor with mud on the ball or anything?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: There was mud on the ball today. As far as I am what I've been told, when the PGA TOUR determines whether they're going to play the ball up or not, it has nothing to do with whether they've got mud on the ball. It has to do with the casual water. There was no casual water out there. Their decision was probably an easy one for them, to play the ball down.

But we did get mud on the ball. As far as I know, they don't factor that into it. I don't think they do.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: True.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: With mud on the ball on the fairways, it's tough. It's kind of a crapshoot. You don't know what you're going to get. Sometimes the ball kind of squirts way off line, sometimes it knuckles straight. It's just a matter hopefully you don't get very many of them. If you're hitting a lot of fairways, you're probably going to get a few.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: With the casual water, point of relief would be in the rough. You're going from the middle of the fairway, maybe the closest point in the rough, who knows what you're going to get there.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: They determine they're playing the ball up basically on casual water, not really anything to do with the mud on the ball.

Whether you agree with that, that way of thinking, that's just the way they go.

Q. Do you wear soft spikes?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah.

Q. Have you seen a change since more guys are going to soft spikes? Is it the metal spikes that make Christmas trees on the greens? Would it be better if everybody wore soft spikes?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: That's a question, you know, if you asked everybody in the field, I think half of them would say it's better with soft spikes and half of them would say it would be better spikes.

I kind of think the soft spikes are better. Obviously you don't make any spike marks, but you might make a few indentations. Depends on the soft spikes you're wearing. The (indiscernible) kind of spread out. They don't make too big of a hole. Some of the smaller ones make a bit of a hole.

I think it's better. That's just my personal opinion. But you could the next guy that comes walking in here could think exactly the opposite way. I don't know the right answer, to be honest with you.

Q. Are you a scoreboard watcher when you're in contention?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I don't obsess by looking at the scoreboard. When I get down towards the end, I'll probably take a peek. If it was on the front side, I probably would not be looking too much. If it got down to the last two or three holes, yeah, I'm going to kind of know where I'm at. I'd like to know.

Q. At one point this morning I think there were 15 guys within one shot. If it's anything remotely like that tomorrow, would it matter to look at the scoreboard?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Not really. If it was 15 guys, you're within two shots or something, you just know you need to go out and make some birdies. If it was like one guy, you're kind of like then, yeah, it makes some sense to look to see what he's doing.

You know if there's 15 guys, one or two or three or five of those 15 guys are going to be making a birdie somewhere. You know that you're going to have to be one of those guys making a birdie if you want to win. In that situation, yeah, it probably wouldn't matter.

I don't really know what the leaderboard looks like right now. I'm assuming it's probably bunched together like it has been the last few days.

Q. How many shots do you have to be within to give yourself a shot at winning the tournament?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: You know, one thing I'd like to add to that, it kind of depends how many guys are in there. If it's four or five shots and there's one guy, then, yeah, I'd say. If there's four or five shots, there's 30 guys, then probably you're going to have to shoot something really, really good. It just kind of depends on the number of people there.

If you're within five shots, you got a shot. You probably got to be breaking the course record (laughter). I think you got a shot.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could go through your score card starting with an eagle on No. 4.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I hid a hybrid three feet, three and a half feet. I made that for eagle.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: No. 5.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Hit driver short of the green, chipped it up to about five feet, made that.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 6.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: 6, I hit a 5 iron I guess eight feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 10.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I hit a little pitching wedge from like a hundred yards to four feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Then 12.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Hit a sand wedge to eight feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Only bogey of the day on 13, par 3.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, I was kind of in between clubs a little bit. I kind of chose the longer club, tried to hit it easy. I didn't make a very aggressive swing. Hit it out to the right into a bunker. Didn't get up and down. Missed about a 15 footer.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Then 17, eagle.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Hit a hybrid into the right bunker, holed it out of the bunker from 35 feet, 40 feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: One of your fellow competitors on 18 holed out, nice shot. You had another chance at birdie on 18.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah. Bo Van Pelt made it just before I hit. I hit it about pin high left 25 feet. I gave it a run. I mean, I wanted to make a birdie there. I hit it probably four feet by the hole, made it coming back. I missed it low. It's just so hard to get the ball high enough on that green, so much slope. I was going to get it there, see what happened.

Q. (No microphone.)

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: No, it's more than another event, no question. It's the Canadian Open. It's Canada's national open. It means a lot, absolutely. It's a very old, distinguished golf tournament. I don't know, how long has it been around? A long time. It definitely has its own feel. It's a great tournament. Definitely means a lot more than a normal tournament.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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