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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 20, 2006

Greg Owen

HOYLAKE, ENGLAND

STEWART McDOUGALL: Ladies and gentlemen, Greg Owen, 67, 5 under par and leading The Open Championship. Greg, yesterday at this time did you think you would be in that position, leading The Open Championship?

GREG OWEN: No, basically I've not been playing much for a couple of months. I've had a little bit of an injury. And last week was my first week in five weeks. So I was lacking a little bit of form coming in here. But I've got my coach with me and he works miracles. So I've got to thank him and all my team for making this week easy for me. I was very calm out there and played really well.

Q. What did your coach tell you? What did he do?

GREG OWEN: Just the same as we always work on. We've been together now for near on 19 years, so we're pretty understanding of what we need to work on. I had a few posture problems, and just sorted those out and started swinging well as I used to do, and I just hit plenty of fairways and greens today.

Q. After the experience from last year, those words, leading The Open, does that mean even more now?

GREG OWEN: You know, The R&A run this tournament, it's their tournament and what they say goes. And they obviously recognized there's a little bit of flaw in what happened, because on the entry form this year, so you have to respect what they say. It's their tournament.

I was injured for the qualifier, as well. I asked them if they would release me, but rightfully so as it said on the qualifying sheet that you had to turn up. So I turned up and played. And I can't fault them for that.

Q. The way you got in this year, with the way the American qualifying was abandoned, was it sort of fated that you might have a little bit of a good run coming in here?

GREG OWEN: I think it's one for me and The R&A. I think it's straightened itself out. The Open is fantastic. I haven't played it in a couple of years and I've missed it. I think it's good for me, I can plot the ball around the golf course and hit it pretty straight. I'm just glad to be here and play well. And after the injuries it's just nice to feel free and swinging it properly again.

Q. You're leading The Open. Obviously a few years back if if you stay in this position for a while, what did you learn then that's going to help you?

GREG OWEN: I just got really ahead of myself, started thinking what was happening and I just I let three bogeys go on the last three holes on the Saturday, which really took me out of everything. And I think I've learned to stay patient and just trust what I do, and if the Golf Gods are in my favor then I'll be good enough to win. You go in and you can only try your best and see what happens.

Q. It sounds like The Open Championship, if you had to choose one of the majors to win, this would be the one?

GREG OWEN: I'll take any of them. No, I don't mind, I think every major has its part. And this is my sixth British Open, so I'm used to playing in this. Obviously it's nice being back in England and playing only two hours down the road from where I live. It's nice to have a few friends and family, because I don't get many in the States. But it's nice to come back, feel the support, and any tournament I'd love to win. And if it's a major, then I'm very fortunate. So I'll just take what comes.

Q. Your Bay Hill experience, how long did it take you to get over that and how do you sort of come up on from that?

GREG OWEN: I don't know, it still hurts now even thinking about it. But it's golf. You probably all play it and you all know that things happen, a bad bounce here or there or anywhere, and I just hope I'll never do it again. It may happen, it may not. But I take a lot more care lately, and I don't think I've got a lot of sympathy from people and I think it raised my profile. And I made a good check, as well.

I played really well that day. I did everything I could to catch Rod.

I played really well today, so that was great. I brought back four shots behind, I had a chance to go two ahead. I did everything right apart from just, I don't know, just didn't concentrate. I was in such a comfortable state of mind that I just went up and went okay, just hit it. It caught a lot of the hole, both of them, 17 and 18.

Q. Your golf today, that shot to the short hole, the start of the second half, could you talk us through that?

GREG OWEN: I dropped a shot on 12, which annoyed me. I was in the middle of the fairway, and a lot of the greens have runoffs and it just went down, I think, an average chip. And thought I hit a good putt, I just read it wrong. It just set me off. So I concentrated on the next hole, and there's a little slope on the front of the green and the crowd actually jumped up, thought it went into the hole. I think it went into the shadow of the flag or something, and it was only three feet away.

It was a nice chance to get it straight back, and I played the next hole perfectly, I had 4 iron to about 10 feet, which is a really tough hole.

Q. Is that the first day you've played with Rod since that day?

GREG OWEN: No, I played with him at Memorial, my last tournament before Loch Lomond. Rod's a great guy. He was very courteous with his speech. And I have no problems with Rod at all. He played well, he hung on well, he made a great par on the 18th at Bay Hill. And that is never easy. Someone has to win, I'm not going to feel any ill feeling towards anybody that does it.

Q. It wasn't mentioned at all, not the subject of conversation?

Q. Can we get the name of your coach and any background on him? And also your injury?

GREG OWEN: The injury?

Q. The second part is your injury and how you did it?

GREG OWEN: My coach is David Ridley. He coaches at a golf club calls Coxmoor, which I'm attached to in Nottinghamshire. He coaches EGU, which is the English Golf Unit, he coaches the elite team there. And he's been a he was my boss when I was working for him. He's probably one of the finest coaches I'll ever meet, and gentleman. He's really like a father figure to me, and he helps me out a lot.

My injury is when I had surgery it was because of a I was told it was a burst disk, which is basically the disk is gone and started crushing my sciatic nerve against my spinal column. So they had to go in and trim the disk up to relieve the sciatic nerve. I lost a lot of muscle down the left side, and I think that's the problem I'm having now. The imbalance I have with the muscles, they're very tight on one side and they're just pulling at my lower joints in my back and just I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as it was, but it keeps me from playing properly if I don't take care of it.

Q. Do you have to do an extensive stretching regime before you start playing?

GREG OWEN: Since last Monday when I've been over here I've been to physio twice a day, before and after. And it's getting a lot better. When I first started I couldn't believe how stiff I was, that was after four weeks, and then I think I was okay. It's all about just keeping things moving now, and I've got a lot of strengthening to do, but the muscles have to be working properly to so I can get better out of that work.

STEWART McDOUGALL: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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