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THE INTERNATIONAL

August 11, 2006

Ian Leggatt

CASTLE ROCK, COLORADO

THE MODERATOR: Ian Leggatt, thanks for joining us here. Great day for you. Rough start, but really recovered, and you and Patrick played great today.

IAN LEGGATT: Yeah. It was definitely a bad start, but the way this format goes you just never know what could happen out there. I've been starting to play much better the last month or so. Haven't been putting very well, and today I managed to make a few and got some confidence going.

THE MODERATOR: With a format like this like they ave at the INTERNATIONAL, it's never a good time to make a double bogey. But you can just kind of throw it out the window and start fresh. Yeah, you lose three points. Talk about your mindset. It might be a little different than a stroke play event.

IAN LEGGATT: Yeah, it is. You still have an opportunity to get back into it. A double bogey is more penalizing in a stroke play format because you still have that five point option out there that gets you back in the game. That's what you're thinking.

And with 17, you're always thinking of making 3 or 4 on that hole, and I got fortunate today to make 3.

THE MODERATOR: As far as your health, you had some injury bugs out here since you won in 2002. You seem to be a little healthier.

IAN LEGGATT: Yeah, everything's good. My hand is feeling fine. It's been a long, hard road back. This is sort of where I left off with all my injuries is getting myself into positions like this a lot in '02. So it's nice to have that feeling again.

THE MODERATOR: Okay. As far as your two eagles, let's talk about those: 8 and 17.

IAN LEGGATT: Yeah. On 8 I hit a really good drive there and I got to figure out the numbers here. I had 220, I think, to the flag. Hit a 6 iron to about 20, 25 feet and made that.

I hit 3 wood off the 17th tee and had 195 I think it was to the flag, something like that. Hit a 7 iron to about 18, 20 feet and made that.

THE MODERATOR: Okay. Let's take some questions.

Q. Earlier Patrick mentioned how you guys can feed off each other one when guy is playing well. Did you feel that way today?

IAN LEGGATT: I think so. You know, Patrick got off to a really nice start, you know. So it definitely I think even more so in this kind of a format, more so than stroke play, I think you can get the whole group on a roll.

We were all playing pretty good. It's different if one guy is struggling with his game. You know, just chopping it around out there.

But all three of us were hitting it quite nice. You know, just so happened Patrick and I did fairly well on the back nine starting out. Chris struggled a little bit and he made a couple birdies. We all hit it fairly close on 7 and then the eagle and birdie on 8 for Patrick.

So you do, you get going, gelling together with a group. For sure that can happen.

Q. With the injuries, was there a point where you wondered if you could get back to the top of the leaderboard here?

IAN LEGGATT: Yeah. You know, I'd be lying if I said no for sure, because I missed such a long period of time. And the surgeries that I had were never sort of, you know, guaranteed that everything was going to turn out fine.

So the biggest problem I've had is just the mental part of leaving the game when I left it. I was playing so well, and I was really advancing my career. Finished, I don't know what, 45 or 6 on the money list in '02. I was moving along in the right direction, so that was very difficult to sort of be pushed out of the game that way.

So mentally it's been a very, very hard grind to come back, because I did play through a lot of those injuries in '03 and was playing very badly. So the mind and the body wasn't matching up, so and I played very poorly even coming back. I think I came back a little too early from the first surgery, and so I think that that also put a hindrance on my track to getting back to where I was in '02.

But there have been times definitely when I'm sitting around that, you know, whether I was ever going to get my game back for sure.

Q. When was it that you came back that was you said was too early, and how long have you been feeling like you're kind of back into it a hundred percent?

IAN LEGGATT: Well, I came back from my first surgery and I missed almost all of '04. And I went down to Australia and played a couple tournaments. I had been hitting balls for about 6, 7 weeks. You know, I had been chipping and putting.

So it had been a couple months, I guess, getting a club back in my hand. I went down to Australia to play and it was way too early. I actually possibly caused another injury with a TPC tear in my hand. That happened there.

Came back from there, and it was January the 8th or something like that I had the second surgery on my hand. Went in there with that and the doctor discovered a couple other things going on.

Then I missed a good part of '05. I came back in '05, and I definitely came back too early again. I could have I think the strength in my hand and everything wasn't quite there even though I was practicing, and I didn't want to be considered one of those guys out here that sort of takes advantage of that medical situation.

I came back at Hilton Head, and it was just a little too early. So I could have spent a couple more months just getting everything right.

Q. When did you start playing golf in Canada?

IAN LEGGATT: Well, I lived in South Africa when I was a kid, and we moved back when I was 7. Just shortly after that. Used to go to the golf course with my dad. Lived about a mile from the golf course. I think I became a member when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I really started playing when I was 7 years old.

Q. Any hockey?

IAN LEGGATT: I played hockey until I was about 12 years old, and then I actually speed skated after that. Kind of just backed into it. Started doing some speed skating to some exercise time for hockey and got good at it and left hockey behind.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else. Okay. Ian, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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