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SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

April 21, 2006

Mathias Gronberg

HUMBLE, TEXAS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mathias Gronberg, 68, 69 the first two rounds, one off the lead of Trevor Immelman, a lot of players still on the course but you have to certainly like your position after two days, rounds in the 60s both days. Maybe some opening comments.

MATHIAS GRONBERG: It's been very pleasant the first two days. I played very good. I made a couple of mistakes each day, but today was really nice. I hit 18 greens. I haven't done that for a while, so that was good. Some of them weren't too close to the hole, but it was a very nice day. I made quite a few birdies, I made 11 birdies the first 36 holes, so that's good. Just very happy that I kind of found my game. I've been playing very good the last few weeks, so it's been good.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You guys did have a delay this morning, but it certainly has to be nice to be finished and not have to worry about getting up first thing in the morning and you can probably relax and sleep in a little bit tomorrow. Talk about frame of mind heading into tomorrow now that you're done with 36 holes.

MATHIAS GRONBERG: It's only halfway through the golf tournament, so tonight I'm going out with friends and my caddie, we're going to go to the Houston Arrows, the hockey team in town, and then come out tomorrow, kind of prepare myself the same way, do the normal warmup and go and tee it up.

Q. You said you hit all your greens, every one?

MATHIAS GRONBERG: Yes.

Q. Was that a result of good driving or good iron play or both?

MATHIAS GRONBERG: More a combination good iron play today. I didn't really drive the ball as good as I really wanted. Both days I've only made par, was struggling to make par on 8. I've driven it in the bunker there both days, and that's like two shots wasted for me because normally I would reach the green in two.

I made a few mistakes. I'm really happy to be in the position where I am. I played some really great golf, and I can just hopefully capitalize and make a little bit more putts and keep it going.

Q. 18 greens, are you ready to retire now? I mean, you've perfected the game, haven't you?

MATHIAS GRONBERG: No, I was just talking with my playing partners about how rarely we do it. We're supposed to be professionals, but at least for me it's like maybe a year in between or two years since I did 18 greens.

Some of the better players are probably doing it a lot more often, but it feels nice when you do it.

Q. What did you feel like you I guess your last you played pretty well your last time out. What did you feel like you found because things had obviously been a struggle for a while for you.

MATHIAS GRONBERG: Yeah, I struggled for kind of a year and a half or two years where I really haven't played the golf that I wanted. I worked hard on my game, kind of just trying to play golf and reading a couple of good mental books that are out there in the market like Gio Valiante's book "Fearless Golf" is good. Jack Nicklaus, "Golf and Life" was good, and the new one with Pia Nilsson's and Lynn's book about "Every Shot Must Have a Purpose." It's kind of like just digging in and trying to be passionate about golf, and it's paying off.

Hopefully you've got to finish off the golf tournaments, too.

Q. Has it been a difficult adjustment trying to play on this turn because obviously you played very well on the other side of the pond before you got over here, and I'm just wondering was there an adjustment thing?

MATHIAS GRONBERG: There is an adjustment with the golf courses. I think they're a little bit harder golf courses. The green surface is normally a little bit harder and the pins are a little bit more difficult to shoot at, so it is a different game. The biggest change has probably been to play new golf courses, where in the beginning I was missing to the wrong places, and it's taken me a while to kind of get used to it.

Of course, this is a brand new golf course, but normally it takes a couple years. It's a big difference of playing a golf course your ninth or tenth year on Tour compared with maybe your first year or second year.

Q. You had talked about the mental side, reading those books and things. I'm wondering, if you go through a time when you're struggling, is it easy, considering all the advanced equipment and everything you guys have out here, to maybe get paralysis by analysis or thinking too much about the technique and stuff like that? Do you have an extended period where you're

MATHIAS GRONBERG: I think it varies player from player. I've never really been too technical. I've really been more focused on getting the ball in the hole, but I'm sure some people are working way too much on their technique and some people are working too little on their technique. It all depends on the player.

Myself, I've been pretty much in between. I realized that I needed to do a little bit of work, and I had Wayne Warms for about five years up in New Jersey, and then last year in January and February I started working with Phil Ritson out of Orlando. Even last year was starting to pay off. I drove the ball very well last year, and it's kind of in between. I try to not work too much technique when I go to a golf course or a golf tournament, just try and play good golf.

Q. Is there anything specifically you were struggling with mentally that drove you to start reading all these different books that seem to be focusing on the mental side of the game?

MATHIAS GRONBERG: It's more you have to work on all things in golf, kind of all physical exercises and then mental. You have to work on everything, and I kind of didn't really work as hard on the mental game maybe as I should, so I just picked up I like to read and I like to pick up some good books, and the last three weeks, these three, have been very, very good. Just this week I had another one, I think it's a Jackie Burke, Jr., who's written a new book, so I haven't even picked that up yet. It's nice to read books about mental golf anyway.

Q. How different were the conditions today than yesterday afternoon?

MATHIAS GRONBERG: They were harder yesterday, much harder. There was a lot more wind and gusty wind, and today I think Trevor shot 5 under, and I'm amazed that no one really shot lower than 5 under in the morning. Maybe someone did, but it was really there to be to shoot a low score today, I think. We had perfect conditions. It started to be a little bit more wind on the back nine, but some of the par 5s and par 4s it kind of helped us. I drove the ball very close to the green on 12. If it wouldn't have been downwind there, I wouldn't have hit driver.

Then the par 5, 15, I think normally you wouldn't even be close to reaching it, and I should have reached it today.

Q. So 18 was into the wind then, wasn't it?

MATHIAS GRONBERG: 18 was a little bit into the wind. It was a tough hole.

Q. Little different hole today than yesterday?

MATHIAS GRONBERG: Yeah, it's a hard hole because you see the water and you see the bunker, and it's hard to focus on the fairway.

Q. How did you think it held up in terms of drainage and all that kind of stuff? Were you concerned about how wet it was going to be out there this morning?

MATHIAS GRONBERG: No. I mean, it's a brand new golf course, so it should be holding up very good with the new drainage and everything like that. The golf course played great. The greens held up very, very nice. They've been perfect. They roll very true, and it's been nice to play on the golf course.

Q. Based on the way you've played for two days, you shoot 69 in the wind, you hit all 18 greens today, you've got all these mental things in your head from all this book reading. What's the state of your confidence that this is going to be a special week for you?

MATHIAS GRONBERG: You never know. I think it's been a golf course where it's very packed in, the field. Pretty much anyone within about six or seven shots of the lead can win the tournament, so it's a long way left. I feel very confident in what I've been doing, and I've been doing quite a few mistakes. I'm surprised that I'm so high up on the leaderboard.

The whole field is still out there playing, and they're going to have perfect conditions kind of, so they can shoot very low, and we'll just see. But I feel confident in what I'm doing, and I kind of feel like I've turned around the hard stuff and I've been playing good for about probably two, three months now. It feels very nice to play good golf.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You had four birdies and one bogey. If we could touch on those briefly. You birdied the first par 5, No. 4.

MATHIAS GRONBERG: Yeah. I had about I actually started very solid. I missed some putts 1, 2 and 3 and didn't hit them too close. Then on 4 I was just going to lay up short. I was 270 to the green, and I hit a little draw with a 3 wood and it hit on the downslope and actually rolled onto the green, so I two putted for birdie from about 50 feet, 55 feet. So I was a little bit surprised. I thought I would be about ten yards short. It's not every time you hit a 3 wood 280 or something.

Birdied No. 7, par 3,, I hit an 8 iron short off the ridge and had probably at least a 40 footer, 45 feet, and I made it up the hill. It felt great to make a putt. I haven't really made any longer putts than over nine, ten feet, so that was good.

Only bogey of the day on No. 11. I was coming out of the rough, and I hit 8 iron a little bit short on the green and three putted. The first putt was way too hard. I probably hit it about seven feet too long and then missed the putt there.

The second putt was heavily into the grain, and it seems like the grass on the greens has grown a lot, so when you're putting into the grain, it really is into the grain.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Came back with birdies on the next two holes.

MATHIAS GRONBERG: Short par 4, No. 12, I was disappointed with my three putt on the hole before. I shouldn't really have made bogey from where I was in the rough on the left hand side. I had a good line to make at least par on that hole, so I was disappointed with that. I was like, am I going to lay up or go for it. But I really thought we could reach, but it was more left to right, so I just played it up maybe eight, nine yards short of the green and pitched it up to about a foot or two.

Par 5, 13, I hit a very good drive, and then for some reason, I was going to try and hit a driver off the fairway, and I duffed that forward, luckily over the ditch and everything. I think I had 86 yards to the hole, and I hit it up to less than a foot. So that was a good stretch there to come back after the three putt.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Best of luck the rest of the week.

End of FastScripts.

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