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JOHNNIE WALKER CLASSIC

February 9, 2006

Kevin Stadler

PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

GORDON SIMPSON: Kevin, welcome to the Johnnie Walker Classic. And with a round of 64, and as far as invites go, this is turning out to be a pretty smart invitation in your case.

KEVIN STADLER: Yeah, I'm having a good time so far and really enjoyed playing the golf course. A great start to the tournament.

GORDON SIMPSON: And the key to the round looked to be around the turn - six birdies on the spin, wasn't it?

KEVIN STADLER: Yeah, five or six, felt like more, I had a couple good pars before that. I made a couple 10-, 12-foot putts for par and started off on 9 and just rattled off a bunch after that.

GORDON SIMPSON: Are you here for a few weeks? You're going to play on the co-sanctioned Nationwide events.

KEVIN STADLER: Yeah, the next few weeks.

GORDON SIMPSON: Unless you win, and then you're exempt on The European Tour.

Q. Disappointed not to go lower?

KEVIN STADLER: I wouldn't say disappointed, obviously it's a fantastic start, best I've played in a while. Overall it was a very good round, but obviously not the way I wanted to finish, making bogey from about 20 feet on 17, and making par with a 5-iron in my hand on the last. But still a good round and very happy with it.

Q. Your father played here quite frequently, has he given you any advice?

KEVIN STADLER: He didn't say much. I couldn't tell you when the last time he was down here. I know he came down for the Match-Play at Royal Melbourne. And he was here at the Vines, I don't know when he was here last but I know he's played a few times. He didn't have much to say. He just talks about he loves coming to Australia, coming to play down here. I tagged along with him a few times, I was too young to remember much. I was probably eight, ten years old.

Q. You were here when you were eight and you and your dad got in a car and went around the coast? Do you recall anything about that?

KEVIN STADLER: No.

Q. He drove you around.

KEVIN STADLER: Well, I was only eight years old. That was a while ago. (Laughter).

I do remember. I think we drove from Sydney to a couple friends' places on the coast south of Sydney. I don't know where we ended up. The only thing I remember from that whole trip was playing cricket out in the street with some kids that were friends of my parents. I was too young.

GORDON SIMPSON: I believe you watched go cricket last week in Melbourne, didn't you?

KEVIN STADLER: Yeah, first time I've gone to the games. It was fun.

Q. Did you understand it?

KEVIN STADLER: Towards the end, yeah. Took a little while. I had no clue what was going on at the start, but it's a sport, something to go to, fun to watch.

Q. Do you play much golf with your father?

KEVIN STADLER: Not too much, really. I've moved down to Arizona. My folks live in Colorado. I see them over the holidays, a couple times throughout the year. He's pretty much strictly playing the Champions Tour and kind of -- we played in the same events maybe a handful of times all year. Other than that, it seems one of us is always on the road, so I don't get to see him all that much.

Q. Have you ever beaten him?

KEVIN STADLER: Have I ever beaten him? I would hope so. Not when we've both played well, I haven't beaten him. But I think I've beaten them a couple of times.

GORDON SIMPSON: Presumably your goal now is to get that card back. You're doing a lot of traveling to do so; you played in Argentina, won, and now you're down here in Australia.

KEVIN STADLER: Yeah, it's obviously not the place I want to be playing, but it's not the worst thing in the world. I love traveling, seeing different places and just enjoy -- I really enjoy the traveling. It's going to be a year-long goal to get back there. It's nothing that's going to happen right away. Just going to try and have as much fun as I can on my way to it.

Q. How do you cope with being the son of a famous professional golfer?

KEVIN STADLER: It never really bothered me. It's a question I've gotten my entire life. It is kind of started to wear me out a little bit last year just hearing it week after week after week. I don't know, it's always kind of been the question, like, I don't know how to answer it; what's it like having your dad being a professional golfer. It's like what's having your dad be a doctor or a physician or something like that. I have no idea how to answer that question.

It's obviously opened a lot of doors for me that people might not have. I was exposed to golf at a very young age and what I wanted to do for life. I imagine it wouldn't have happened if he wasn't already out there doing it.

Other than that, I don't know it's had too much to do with what I'm doing. I know he definitely has not pressed the game on me at all, ever. He could care less whether I play or not. I've got one younger brother that doesn't play. It's good to have him to fall back on. He's opened the first few doors and he's always there to talk.

Q. Craig, what was the event you won in Argentina?

KEVIN STADLER: That's what I get a lot, too (being called Craig) -- (laughter). It was just the Argentine Open, they were joint with the Challenge Tour down there. It was my dad had gone down there -- and played once; he's played it probably a dozen times. First professional.

Q. Why did you try for the invite?

KEVIN STADLER: Honestly, I was planning on playing in Pebble Beach this week. A couple friends at home told me I should try and come play down here because I was 100 percent coming to play Adelaide and New Zealand and they said why don't you try to go and get into the Perth tournament. They were kind enough to let me in. It worked out great for me to come down for a little longer than two weeks.

Q. Did you just call them up and ask for an invite?

KEVIN STADLER: My management people called.

Q. Who is your management?

KEVIN STADLER: Lynn Roach, Players Group. He's the same one that works with Freddie Couples. I ran into him and he said he was coming down, so I think that kind of helped me out.

Q. What happened with the bogey on 17?

KEVIN STADLER: Yeah, I just hit a really bad putt. I thought I hit a great second shot and just got a little out of place, hit it past the pin. Probably the fastest putt I had all day. It was only 15, 20 feet maybe, but I rapped it 10 feet past the hole. It was one of those ones where I needed to get it started and it would have gotten there. Just caught the left edge on my second putt.

Q. Hoping for more of the same rest of the week? Anything to work on?

KEVIN STADLER: I just hope my putter sticks in there. I putted as good as I have in two years today. Yesterday playing in the Pro-Am, I felt really comfortable on the greens. I'm striking the ball all right. I'm driving it better. Been driving it pretty poorly the last year or so. Last six, eight weeks it's coming around, I drove it pretty well today.

Other than that, that's when I was playing well, it's been a little while since I played well. But it's just the driver and putter and get it in play and hole some putts. And they all add up at the end, so hopefully they can keep going.

Q. Do you share your father's temperamental disposition?

KEVIN STADLER: Unfortunately, yes.

Q. How would you describe the course?

KEVIN STADLER: It's a lot different than what I'm used to. I love playing courses like this. It takes the ball -- players that hits it a million miles, not takes them out of it, but brings the whole field into it. The whole front nine, I think I might have hit two drivers on, where I think everyone in the field is going to be hitting it to the same spot.

I think if you play here a few times, it will obviously help on the greens. The slope, you just have to know where you're going. With huge greens you can be 30 feet on one side of the pin and 10 feet on another.

Q. Are courses getting too long?

KEVIN STADLER: Yeah, I think, so, definitely. Every new course they go to seems to get longer and longer. Courses that are 7,500, 7,800 yards, just long and a lot of rough, relatively wide fairways and just kind of blast it and go. There's hopefully penalties if you don't hit it on the fairway. But the guys that are hitting it so far now, you get up there in the rough and just have an 8 or a 9 or a wedge on the green, no matter how long they make it is.

The kid that won last week (J.B. Holmes), I played with a few times. He hits the ball so far, it's out of control.

Q. How far would you say he hits it past you?

KEVIN STADLER: I would say 50 yards. I played with him in San Diego. I thought I hit a good one on the 14th or 15th. The old course used to be a 3-wood and a wedge and now it's a driver, I hit driver and 5-iron. And I hit probably my best drive of the week, and he was up maybe 120 yards from the green with just a lob-wedge in.

Q. Inaudible?

KEVIN STADLER: No, they are probably very comfortable, but it's out of control.

Q. When somebody hits it that far, can you look at them and see why?

KEVIN STADLER: I can't tell. I know hardly anything about the golf swing. This kid, Holmes, a tiny swing -- I felt a little bit -- they were showing him with Daly and a huge hip rotation which supposedly makes you hit the ball farther.

Q. You won early in your career, didn't you?

KEVIN STADLER: Yeah, it was just a little tournament.

Q. But do you feel like you're where you want to be or where you hoped to be or do you feel behind?

KEVIN STADLER: Tough question. Obviously not where I want to be after being out on the PGA TOUR last year. But I don't think I'm all that far behind. I've never really set any goals. I just kind of go and play every day and see where that takes me. I'd rather stay on the Tour rather than float back and forth.

Seems like my game has really progressed in the last couple of years. I feel like I played pretty well last year and just didn't get anything out of it. Just a little off, there wasn't anything really wrong. I was hitting it fairly well and not scoring. I know if I had -- it didn't seem like it did much different today than I've been doing for the last two years, really. For some reason today -- if I can hit it like this and shoot 71 or 72 and be stuck in the middle which seems like I did all last year, last year. I'm happy with my golf, regardless of where I'm at.

GORDON SIMPSON: Very well played.

End of FastScripts.

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