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EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

May 11, 2006

Nathan Green

IRVING, TEXAS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Nathan Green, thanks for joining us here after a 3 under par 67 on the TPC course. Maybe we could start with some opening comments on a good day and a good start to the EDS Byron Nelson Championship for you.

NATHAN GREEN: Yeah, it was good. I've sort of been starting the last few weeks terribly. I just wanted to get out there today and try and get it somewhere around par or a couple under. Yeah, just managed to make a few birdies early on. I struggled a little bit towards the end, but just really happy to get there at 3 under.

Q. Did you just need some nice Australian wind to get going today?

NATHAN GREEN: I don't know, I'm sort of based here now. I've sort of been practicing in the wind a fair bit. Mostly I enjoy playing in the wind and when the course is fairly hard and fast. I know when par is a good score, that's the courses I tend to play a little bit better on.

Yeah, just starting to get a little bit of that feel of everything is starting to dry out. You're getting rewarded for hitting it straight and starting to control it coming into the green. I got lucky a few times today, managed to make a few up good up and downs but happy to get off to a good start.

Q. Was your part of the country very windy, also? We tend to think of all of Australia as windy.

NATHAN GREEN: Most everyone lives on the coast at home. We've got a fair bit of wind. Most Australians tend to hit the ball a little bit lower than the American guys. Probably we have a small advantage. There's going to be some good scores, but the conditions of the course have improved a lot. I know it's a bit different, I don't mind a strong wind because at least you sort of know where it's coming from. The last few weeks we've been getting a light breeze and kind of swirling and you're sort of guessing a little bit. When it's blowing hard, at least you know where it's coming from.

Q. You were on the TPC course?

NATHAN GREEN: Yeah.

Q. You birdied 3?

NATHAN GREEN: I birdied the 3rd, yeah, hit driver, 3 wood and made about a 20 footer there. It was almost like an eagle this morning. It was straight into the wind.

I struggled a little bit early, got done with the first two and then birdied that and kind of got away with a couple. I was in a good frame of mind. I just had a couple of bogeys, bogeyed 14, 15, and I felt it sort of sliding away a little bit and managed to sneak one on 16. I was still trying to carry it in, trying to keep it about 3.

Q. How tough is 3 playing? Is it dead into the wind?

NATHAN GREEN: Yeah, we played it on Monday in the Pro Am and I never thought much about it, hit driver and about a 5 iron in there. We were off the slightly forward tee, and I hit a good drive and saw the sprinkler head and it said 245 to the middle of the green. The other two guys came up just short, and I've got a pretty good strong 3 wood and managed to just carry it on. It's playing pretty strong.

Q. You had such a good week at Torrey Pines and gave yourself a chance to win. After you went through that week, did that cause you to reevaluate what you might be able to do out here your first year?

NATHAN GREEN: It was funny, I came over with no expectations at all. My main goal was just to keep my card. I didn't really give myself a great chance at that. After the first two weeks, I don't know, it was I seem to think I play better when I am struggling a little, if anything. The four months after that or three months after that I probably just lost my focus and that sort of thing a little bit, probably just worked on a few of the wrong things instead of just trying to play golf, was just tinkering a little bit with my game. Yeah, just trying to refocus what I want to get out of the year now.

I don't know, it's such a good opportunity, playing for $6 million every week. You just want to keep your game sharp. The main goal now is to try and consistently make cuts and try and work my way up there.

Q. You said your main goal is to keep your card and you didn't know how good your chances were. I mean, it doesn't sound like you have much of a future writing golf books. Do you just tend to be really hard on yourself?

NATHAN GREEN: Well, I went through a period a couple years back where I was a really poor ball striker and I was lucky to get it airborne most of the time. I'm definitely an improved player, but I just think my confidence is sort of struggling to keep up to where my game has got to a little bit. No, I'm very quick to get down on myself, I think. I'm trying to change that a little bit. It's tough to change bad habits.

My ball striking is getting a little bit better. My stats are pretty ordinary, but I've always been a reasonably good putter. I'm sort of targeting weeks where I've played reasonably well and hit a lot of greens, and hopefully the putter fires up. I think everyone out here is continually working on their game just to try at some stage you've got to make a few bad choices and go back a little bit, but you're just always aspiring to change your game and make it a little bit better, and that's probably what will happen.

I feel like I'm hitting enough good shots out there to compete.

Q. How do you like your chances of keeping your card now?

NATHAN GREEN: Pretty good (laughing). It was just a strange feeling for me. I've always struggled first year on the Tour, and just to come over and get it done that quickly, it was just a totally new ballgame for me, to almost be able to free wheel it the rest of the year and be able to keep my card. I probably just went about things the wrong way for the next few months. I'm not sure what happened.

Q. Are you all settled in in your place in Plano?

NATHAN GREEN: Probably about a month and a half ago, we sort of had three weeks there. It's just good. I never really realized how big an advantage it is to have a base over here. In previous years we've gone home for a good spell in the middle of the year, for three or four weeks sometimes. I never thought I would think of a place in the U.S. as home, but we're loving it.

It's different not having family around, but we've got a lot of friends, a lot of other Aussie guys based in Dallas. We've just been really welcomed. The people at Craig's Ranch, where I practice, have been great. It's something new and something different. We're sort of trying to make the most of it.

Q. Will you have anybody come over later?

NATHAN GREEN: My parents are coming in this afternoon. They're here for about three weeks, and I think that's about it. I don't think we'll go home during the year. We'll sort of head back in November and play a few events on the Australian Tour and then back again next year.

Q. You won't have to fire up any urns for old time's sake?

NATHAN GREEN: Yeah, that's one reason to keep practicing, so I never have to do that again. I'm just so happy with the way things are going at the moment.

Q. Is there anything different you said you hadn't liked your approach the last few months. Is there anything you're latching onto this week that's any different?

NATHAN GREEN: A little bit. I've just trying to just free wheel it a little bit, just give myself the best chance to hit a good shot, not worry about the outcome so much. I didn't think it would help as much as it did, but I haven't worried about my swing as much this week, just tried to hit fairways and greens. That's how it felt at the start of the year. It felt simple. The game felt kind of easy, which it does when you're playing well.

Probably the last three weeks especially it's felt like hard work. I've been working on the range, and come Thursday I've been a little bit tired, just not on.

I might go out there tomorrow and play bad, but tomorrow I'm going to do the same thing, give myself every opportunity to hit a good shot, and if I don't hit a good shot, then bad luck, go to the next one. I just get caught up a little bit too much in the technique side of things a bit too much.

Q. Does playing in the wind help take you away from that a little bit?

NATHAN GREEN: You've definitely got to focus more in the wind. You're picking out more definite starting lines and things like that. It doesn't take much to turn your confidence around. I hit, as I said, good shots early, and definitely the birdie on 3 was a good settler. But today I sort of didn't compound my mistakes like the last, I can't remember a round in the last three weeks where I haven't made a double bogey at least, and I've had a couple of triples and that sort of thing. My mistakes have been really bad. At the start of the year I had three bogeys for an event.

That's all I've been trying to do, really, minimize my mistakes, and today I had a pretty hot putter and I was able to make a few birdies. I'm not saying it's a turn around yet, but hopefully I can sort of keep going on this path.

Q. Did you beat yourself up after Torrey Pines, or did you take positives from it that you contended so early in your season?

NATHAN GREEN: I definitely took positives from it, yeah. I seriously never thought I'd get to the PGA TOUR. I know at 30 I'm pretty old for a rookie, but I got a lot out of that. I think probably that helped me play well at the Buick.

I'm not too sure, I probably got a little bit impatient over the next month because I felt like I was playing well and just wasn't getting the results, and that was probably the point where I started to it was just a slow decline, losing your confidence. I've still been making cuts, but just haven't had the real good round in a tournament, 5 , 6 , 7 under. It's always been 1s and 2s, and that's sort of really not competitive out here.

No, I'd love to be able to compete again and get my name up on the leaderboard a bit more often. I'd love to spend a few years here. That would be good.

Q. What's the strangest thing about living here compared to what you're used to? What do you look at here and go, "Why do they do this like this here"?

NATHAN GREEN: The main difference for me is probably just the beach and that sort of thing, easy access to the beaches, and the populations and that sort of thing. Everything seems like 100 miles an hour sort of thing, people rushing around. It's definitely a little bit Australia has definitely got a bit more relaxed feel about it, I think. I'm not sure if there's any major differences.

Food wise it's a little bit different, but I've sort of been here for three, four years now so I've sort of become accustomed to that. There's so many positives, as well. I sort of balance it out and just accept it for what it is.

Q. What can't you get to eat here that you wish you could eat?

NATHAN GREEN: I'm not too sure. I don't know, in your hometown you've always got your favorite restaurants and that sort of thing, and the seafood in Australia is really good and really cheap. We eat a lot of that at home. Here I know you can't every place has got great steaks, which we don't really have at home. It's just slight differences. I've just sort of accepted it and I just enjoy living here now. This is going to be my home for the next few years.

Q. Do they have pretty good Tex Mex in Australia?

NATHAN GREEN: That's what I was going to say. The greater Newcastle area has probably close to a million people, and I can probably think of two Mexican restaurants in the whole area. Definitely more of a lot more sort of Thai and Asian influences at home in our food. Just sweets and that sort of thing, stuff you grew up with, is a little bit different here.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Nathan, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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