THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 22, 2006

Jim Furyk

STEWART McDOUGALL: Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Furyk, 66 and back to 11 under par.

Jim, you're right back in contention for The Open Championship. How does that feel now?

JIM FURYK: Very good, very good. I haven't played real well here in quite a few years. I haven't seen the pressroom at the Open, haven't seen the weekend at the Open for a while. I'm happy with my position. I'm happy with the way I played today, especially going out the first 11 holes at 6 under and I was really in control of my game. So I'm excited.

We'll see what the leaders do. They still have a bunch of par 5s to play, and hopefully they don't pull away too much and I'll stay within earshot and have a run at it tomorrow.

Q. You said you haven't seen the weekend at the Open too often recently. What's been the difference for you today?

JIM FURYK: Well, I just did a better job, I think, adapting to the conditions this year. I've struggled. As I've tried to improve and change my game early in my career, I hit the ball very flat and low. I was known as a pretty good wind player. I adapted my game a little bit for the States to hit the ball higher to compete on some of the newer golf courses that we play, to hit the ball higher, to spin the ball more to carry the ball farther and I just as I did that, I changed my equipment a little bit. I don't know if I changed my swing, but it adapted to hit the ball higher.

And when I came over to play The Open I did a very poor job of adapting back. A good player should be able to do that, and I did a bad job of it. So I blame myself, but I've tried the last couple of years to make some adjustments and to come over here and still feel like I still feel at home and I play well in the wind and still feel like the bump and run style is good for my game. And certain courses over here, especially like this course where power is not really a main in ingredient. I wanted to get back to it but I'm just starting to see the results right now, I guess.

Q. Talk about playing with Sergio and building off of what both of you were doing out there today.

JIM FURYK: We had an exciting front nine. He made four birdies and an eagle. I made four birdies. I knocked in some good putts, he holed in an iron on 2 for eagle. We really had a good front nine and I turned around and birdied 10 and 11 and we were both 6 under. We stalled a little bit from that point. I finished 6 and he finished 7, but I think we were he hit some beautiful irons and I felt like I was really in control of my game early on. It was a good start, I think. We were able to I think when you're playing along with someone that's hitting really good shots he hit it on 7, 8, 9 he hit it probably inside six, seven feet, three in a row. It's nice to see them hit good shots, you can feed off them.

Q. I know it's yesterday's news, but can you relive that putt you made out of the bunker on the 4th hole?

JIM FURYK: Kind of 1 out of 100. I got in one of those funny spots on the bunker where I could have played out to the right of the green but probably would have I would have had to hit a fantastic spot to put it in a place where I could get the ball up and down. I was having a hard time just turning it and hitting the ball back in the bunker, and I would have had a funny angle to get it up and down from that bunker. I asked my caddie if he thought I was nuts. Could I putt this ball, ride the ridge for a while and it might come out in this area, and come between the two bunkers and get up on the green somewhere. And he said the worst thing I'm hoping it will get back around the bunker where I can take a swing, if you think I'm crazy thinking that could actually happen. And he said, it could.

And I could have probably put a bucket of balls down and hit that once. It missed the right bunker by maybe two inches. It looked the whole time like it was going into the right bunker and it scooted down and ended up making a 15 footer on top of it for par. So really an effort to try to make 5, I put myself in a bad spot. I was upset with myself because it was with a sand wedge, and it came up short and hit the face and shot back into the corner. So I was upset with myself to be in that position, just trying to make 5. And I feel like I stole a shot by making 4.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JIM FURYK: No, one of them asked me if I was practicing that, because they saw Vijay practicing a lefty wood or something, a left handed wood out of the bunker he was getting it out with. I've got a lot of other things to worry about that with my past record than putting out of the bunker.

STEWART McDOUGALL: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.