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EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

May 9, 2006

Rory Sabbatini

IRVING, TEXAS

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Rory Sabbatini for stopping in at the 2006 EDS Byron Nelson Championship. Rory, a great start this year, first six starts, six top 20s, including a victory at the Nissan Open. You spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Money List for the first time in your career. Start with talking about the great start to the season.

RORY SABBATINI: You know, just everything seemed to work out in the right fashion to start off the year. It was easy going it seemed like. Everything seemed to be just working out well. I was enjoying it and just relaxed out there, and I rode that wave for a pretty long time.

It was obviously better than could be expected, and I'm looking to hopefully bringing it in for the rest of the year.

Q. The waves do come and go throughout a season, and now you're not off your game, but it does seem like that wave kind of went. Is there anything in particular that's different now from the start of your season?

RORY SABBATINI: It seems like the last couple events, including The Masters and that, you know, not doing anything differently, still putting well, hitting the ball well and everything like that, but just one or two shots a round just kind of seem to put me in a pretty precarious position. Just getting started it doesn't seem like there's been that spark to get the round going for me of late. It's one of those things that comes and goes out there, and you know it's going to happen, but you never want it to.

Hopefully I kind of got that all out of the system the last couple weeks.

Q. You really were getting it going there for a while. I think you played like did you play seven in a row or something like that?

RORY SABBATINI: It was like seven or eight in a row, yeah.

Q. I'm wondering is that schedule tough on you considering how much success you've had? Would you maybe keep playing like that, playing all the time?

RORY SABBATINI: Obviously when you play well, you never want to take time off, you know. You want to just keep playing because it seems like everything is going right. You can't do that. Your body just eventually says to you it's time to take a break. I was kind of getting that sense, and it was good timing and everything like that to take some time off, and as I said, it's nothing that I'm doing or nothing that's really happening that has changed the results for me. It just seems like as the beginning of the year went, there seemed to be that spark during the round that would kind of get things going the right direction for me, and you kind of just go with the momentum.

It just hasn't really been happening of late. That's just one of those things. You can have that happen for a couple weeks and then all of a sudden it's back there again.

Q. I was wondering did it finally catch up to you like after the Nissan?

RORY SABBATINI: Well, no, I wouldn't say fatigue or anything caught up to me. It's just I needed a break. I knew it was going to be a long year, and you never really want to burn yourself out early on in the season. You want to try to keep things consistent throughout the whole year.

I've had two good breaks of late and it's great to be at home for the next two weeks and playing and being able to sleep in my own bed, so hopefully I'll be able to use that to my advantage and turn in some good results here.

Q. How do you keep it from being frustrating, getting off to a good start and having this wave as we talked about? Does it get frustrating, or do you look at it as the ups and downs of the year?

RORY SABBATINI: Obviously it's frustrating. Any time anything like that happens it's obviously going to lead to a little bit of frustration. Ultimately you've got to look in the perspective of all things considered, you don't have that much to be frustrated about.

It's going to come and go and things like that are going to happen. When it does happen you've got to have a short memory. I remember seeing an article with Ernie where he talked about his putting where he missed a short putt. He said, "You've got to have a short memory and a lot of confidence." It's kind of the same thing with your performance, you've got to have a short memory and a lot of confidence.

Q. Did you have a sense this kind of season was coming? When did you think that you might have this breakthrough year?

RORY SABBATINI: I've always felt I've had the possibility of doing that. You know, it's just over the past couple years I sensed it more and more, and then last year was just a complete letdown, a lot of disappointment. I think this year just changing my perspective, going into the year, just made it a lot easier, not putting added pressure on myself and setting goals, going, I want to accomplish this, I want to do this. Just go out there and just play. That's definitely provided a lot less frustration out there for me.

Q. Did you change your off season routine after last season?

RORY SABBATINI: No, I didn't really change my routine. Obviously I think this off season I spent a lot more time focusing on physical fitness, and I think that just kept me from getting rusty out there and getting lazy during the off season.

Q. You mentioned obviously it's a special couple weeks because you do get to stay at home, but talk about these two tournaments back to back, the history of them and just being involved in them.

RORY SABBATINI: Obviously I don't think there's two events that you can have a better history of. You've got Byron Nelson and then you've got Ben Hogan, two of the greatest players to ever play the game. I think the significance behind them obviously means a lot of the players, and it's a tradition that I think we all want to continue.

You know, obviously it's great location, it's always an interesting time of year with the weather, but to be able to play in Dallas and then only 30 minutes over to Colonial, it works well; it's convenient for the players. Both of them two completely different types of golf courses. You've got Colonial where accuracy is everything, it plays fast and hard, and here it's just you've got to be precise. It's not as long and the golf course doesn't play as long. Obviously you've got Cottonwood Valley which provides some pretty low scoring, and then you never know what can happen on TPC. You go to one week where it's a birdie festival to next week where it's a bogey festival.

Q. Next year they're split apart, so I guess that would

RORY SABBATINI: Yeah, I understand that they split them apart. I feel bad for the caddies. They're the ones that have really got to bear the brunt of it. They've got to absorb a lot of cost in their traveling associated with that.

I think in some regards, it may actually provide a better atmosphere for the two tournaments because you always find local people like, well, I can either go to the Byron Nelson or The Colonial. Now it's going to be separated so they're going to have kind of both opportunities. I think in that sense, it might provide a better atmosphere for the tournaments.

As a local player that's living here, you know, obviously it'll be a little tougher not to be able to have two weeks at home, but ultimately I'm still going to get two weeks, just not together.

Q. What's a good pairing for you? You get up on Thursday and you're looking ahead at who you've got. Is it personality that makes a player

RORY SABBATINI: Me, myself and I. That's a good threesome (laughter). No, I don't have any preference. I'm not worried about what my playing partner is doing or anything like that. I'm just going to go focus on my job. I don't have any set preference or anything like that.

Q. Personalities or anything like that doesn't matter, guys that you really know or anything like that?

RORY SABBATINI: I've got my caddie. He's my personal cheerleader. I can talk to him.

TODD BUDNICK: Thanks for stopping in, Rory.

End of FastScripts.

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