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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 19, 2006

Shaun Micheel

MEDINAH, ILLINOIS

Q. Shaun, what was out there today?

SHAUN MICHEEL: You know, I started off great. You know, obviously I made the putts today that I wasn't making the first two days, and I said that yesterday, at Oak Hill when I won, I made a lot of 20 footers, and I made them on the front, didn't make them on the back.

I played a great round of golf. It's just on the back nine, I missed a couple fairways, put myself in a couple precarious positions and made one really good up and down there on 11. But it was just tough. I just was in between clubs on every shot it seemed like I wasn't really able to get too aggressive for some reason.

You know, the last hole, it was a good pin for me, but I was kind of in between clubs and I had to kind of take my medicine. And I did that pretty well. I hit a lot of greens, just did not make the 20 and 25 footers. I mean, I was close, but you've got to make some of those.

Q. If the leaderboard holds, what's it going to take for someone to take Tiger Woods out of being a closer when he's in the lead?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I don't know. I mean, he's a great front runner. You know, he's obviously played extremely well out there now. I saw Mike Weir was 7 or 8 under for the day for a while. I don't know how he finished up.

I mean, it's out there. The golf course, it's soft, so if you're hitting the fairways you can attack the pins. It doesn't matter what club you've got in. They've got No. 13 playing at 250 today and I'm hitting a 2 iron in there and it held. It's going to take a low round because you know Tiger is playing flawless golf, and he's going to be a tough man to catch.

Q. Can you talk about the pressure that you or anybody out there might have been feeling today just to keep up, to keep pace? You see these numbers going up and all the low scores.

SHAUN MICHEEL: I felt like I was in Palm Springs playing the Bob Hope there with all the birdies. You know, it's nice to see that, though. When you start out you're not really sure how everybody is going to play. It's Saturday so everybody is sort of jockeying for position. You don't know if everybody is going to play more conservative to stay in the hunt or what.

But it was pretty evident to me when you started that there was a logjam, must have been eight or ten guys at 8 under at one time. You know, you're just out there playing the golf course, of course. If you make some putts, if you hit some good shots, you can really get it going out there. I mean, it's a great golf course.

Just we have ideal conditions for scoring. I'm hitting a lot of fairways, and that's obviously the key for me and for everybody.

Q. What's awakened in you this week? You look at your record and it's not like you've been

SHAUN MICHEEL: I worked on a lot of things last year. I had some minor health issues last year, some poor swing habits, and that kind of transcended into just a total lack of confidence. I started spending more time, I think, practicing the game. I mean, all the guys at TPC Southwind in Memphis are seeing more of me this year and last year than they have seen of me the first six years on Tour. I spend a lot of time hitting balls.

I've been working with a kid from Kentucky. He's a good friend of K.P.'s. In Charlotte we started working together and I finished 12th. I had a bad Sunday, shot 4 over, finished 13th the next week with a good Sunday, and had an even par round in Milwaukee. So there have been some things happening there, but when you've been kind of away from it for a while, it's kind of hard to make yourself mentally stay aggressive. You're always kind of worried about the bogey man coming unglued.

Today I didn't do that. I mean, I got off to a good start, so obviously that was my key to Oak Hill, and that's what I told everybody. I birdied that first hole and I think that was kind of the key for me. I hit a great shot today on 1 about two inches, so that was a great start, kind of a nerve settler.

Q. What did you learn at Oak Hill that you carry into Sunday?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I learned that it's got a twin golf course in Medinah. This golf course reminds me so much of that. I've mentioned that several times. I don't know, I mean, look, I won this tournament a couple years ago playing some pretty good golf, and I feel like I'm playing good golf now, so there's really no reason why I shouldn't keep going. Like I said a couple years ago, I was sick and tired of losing, and I'm kind of sick and tired of working on my golf game on the golf course instead of just playing. I've noticed the last couple of weeks I've just been playing golf instead of critiquing every swing or every missed putt. I finally quit doing it and I have confidence in what I'm doing.

You know, good putting and good iron play helps all that stuff, but I don't know, I've just got a lot of confidence for some reason this week.

End of FastScripts.

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