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BUICK INVITATIONAL

January 26, 2006

Stuart Appleby

LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

JOHN BUSH: We've got Stuart Appleby in at 6 under par 66. Thanks for coming by. Nice playing today. We'll get you to comment on the round for us.

STUART APPLEBY: Started off with a birdie on the 1st hole, so a good clean start to the day. Holed about a 20 footer there.

I missed a short putt sort of early in the round for par. I don't remember what hole it was, but I played solid all day and just got a couple of good breaks here and there.

Made a good shot on 8, second to the last hole, made a 2 there. So that was really the crux of sweetening up the day.

I was looking for birdie on my last, which was 9, to really capitalize and get the most out of my round. It wasn't like I scrapped it around, but I played decent and did the right thing at the right time.

JOHN BUSH: 20 footer on No. 10 to start the round. How far was the one you missed on 11?

STUART APPLEBY: 11 was probably three foot.

JOHN BUSH: Then birdie on 14, par 5?

STUART APPLEBY: That's what's confusing me. I don't know, write down whatever you want (laughter).

JOHN BUSH: Any significant birdies?

STUART APPLEBY: No, none significant. The 1st was probably the most significant because it was the first hole and it was good length, and nothing else. Some two putt birdie on the 18th well, 9th, and then obviously the eagle was really the thing that moved that round from a good round to a better round.

JOHN BUSH: And the club and yardage on that?

STUART APPLEBY: I hit a little three quarter wedge out of the left rough. I think I had about 135 yards.

Q. (Inaudible).

STUART APPLEBY: I could see it, yeah, it landed about 20 feet short and released up to the hole, just trickled in.

Q. How did that feel?

STUART APPLEBY: Really good.

Q. Talk about the 11th hole.

STUART APPLEBY: It hit the cup, which was probably a good at least 30 short of the flag and then hopped over the back. That was where I got a big break because if I was anywhere else well, I would have made a 4 probably, but it would have been a difficult challenge. But then I ended up making a 3. That was a gimme birdie, and then obviously the gimme 2 on 8 were the two shots that were given to me. I don't remember too many rounds where you get shots given to you. Usually ones are taken away from you.

Q. (Inaudible).

STUART APPLEBY: I didn't even know it hit the car park because when I saw my caddie walking, I was like, I know it flew past Tiger. My ego was going good. Reality said I knew there was a story to that ball landing over the back of the green. When you get lucky there's very much a just factor, just this and just that. It was a good chip from a bad lie. It was a good 3.

The rest of it was solid. I putted well, and the greens are obviously as smooth as a pool table. The ball is rolling nicely. You've just got to stroke it good and see what you can get going.

Q. (Inaudible).

STUART APPLEBY: Well, I think he'll probably come back tomorrow and perform more down the road he travels than the road some other of us travel a bit. You'll see him firing up tomorrow. Yeah, you're right, he makes a good point, that this was the course where you could try and sneak more under par than you're likely to get on the other course.

Q. (Inaudible).

STUART APPLEBY: I think it's official actually I don't know if it's official. It's about the middle of March. I think we're going to the extraction date is going to be the 1st of March, which I think is like the middle of Doral or something, I think, Tuesday or Wednesday of Doral.

Q. Do you know what it is?

STUART APPLEBY: No, we'll leave it as a surprise. You don't open your Christmas presents early, do you? Neither do I.

Q. Wasn't it January last year, the first one?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, she just turned a year Sony week.

Q. (Inaudible).

STUART APPLEBY: I played all right at Sony, probably didn't drive the ball because it's a very tight golf course and didn't drive the ball well enough. Putted really well; my scrambling game was fantastic. I'm done with one round today, but I'd say my golf has been very, very good after the Mercedes, but the courses we've played have been very different, extremely. Wide at Kapalua, windy. Sony, windy but narrow and very small, and here, very different grass, very soft.

Q. (Inaudible).

STUART APPLEBY: This portion of the year for each sector? I don't really remember. Well, last year I was in Australia for a while, so I never really did anything until well after a month after the first child was born. So I did nothing early on. I had a very soft small amount of West Coast appearance, then I went back to Australia in late April, the last two weeks of April, so there was nothing happening for me last year, but I don't really remember much about the year before that. Really, I guess, the focus is on moving the type of golf I'm playing now, just to get the body more consistent and the mind more consistent, and those two will improve my scores, I think, noticeably.

Q. Are you disappointed that you didn't play as well throughout the rest of the year as you did the first one last year?

STUART APPLEBY: Well, you could have played the way I played all through the year and then turned up and won the last event, the TOUR Championship. I guess it's both equal. Finishing is always a good finishing a round with a birdie or finishing a year with a win I think maybe feels a bit sweeter than the other way around because you're asking a question right next to a good event, something that's happened. Maybe it's six of one, half dozen of the other.

I think starting the year is important right now. It really is. If you ask the question now, I say now it's important to start. If you ask the question at the end of the year, I'd say winning at the end of the year is important, too.

If you look at World Rankings or Money Lists or potential tournaments where you felt like you should have played better or scored better or something like that like Chris DiMarco had a great year and didn't win. I'd say he had a great year. Well, how would he rate it? Would he say if I would have won I'd call it a great year? You have little goals and things.

For me I'd certainly like to have my first year with multiple wins. I think that would be a good thing.

Q. (Inaudible).

STUART APPLEBY: I was not as much in Australia this year. I left to come back to the States on the 19th of December, spent a little bit of time with my in laws at Christmas and then went back to Florida just before Hawaii to loosen the old limbs up a bit and shot over to Hawaii, so I probably had four or five days of practice in Florida. Normally I would have gone straight to the Mercedes from Australia.

Q. (Inaudible).

STUART APPLEBY: I'm just taking each shot, each round as it's come. I'm not going anywhere beyond that, really. There's no need to. I only can control what I think I need to do now.

Q. (Inaudible).

STUART APPLEBY: I mean, I've played like this before, so it's not like something that's new to me, but doing it more often is, I guess ask me the question later in the year, I guess (laughter). I'll tell you if I feel like it's elevated. I might say it's going the right direction or whatever.

JOHN BUSH: Nice start, keep it going.

End of FastScripts.

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