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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 13, 2006

John Senden

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome John Senden at 7 under 64, one of the co leaders at this point in the first round of the John Deere Classic. A lot of birdies out there today for you.

JOHN SENDEN: Well, this golf course can really let go with a lot of birdies because of the softness of the course, the great condition that it's in, and it's right there. Today I felt good with the putter and hit it reasonably close and knocked them in, so it felt good.

TODD BUDNICK: This course is playing a little bit softer than normal. I know it's typically a hard and fast course. Talk about the difference there so far.

JOHN SENDEN: Well, obviously we had some rain on Monday and Tuesday, and it softened it up a lot. You know, I think that the golf course will change over the next few days because of the high humidity, the heat coming in, and that's just the way golf courses are set up basically, hard and fast on the weekend.

I think that I don't know whether they'll pour a little bit of water on them because they don't want the greens to sort of burn out or really because it's dangerous for the bentgrass to do that. But I think that looking at the scores, I think that maybe 2 , 3 under, is an average score for the week.

With the way the golf course is playing, holes like No. 2 and No. 17, reachable par 5s, you're thinking that par for the course is almost 1 under or possibly 2 under, and also the softness of the surfaces is there for good scoring.

TODD BUDNICK: Talk about your season so far. You're 63rd on the Money List. It appears you had a good start, had a period there where you struggled a little bit and now come back on strong.

JOHN SENDEN: Well, I had a good start at the Bob Hope, Top 6 or Top 5, it felt good. Also I had three Top 5s on the Australian Tour leading into the Bob Hope Classic. I was mediocre through February and March, had a rough time in Florida. I think I missed four out of four cuts in Florida I think it was, and basically three of those by one stroke. It wasn't as if, oh, I was playing terrible, but I just wasn't scoring. Florida was a rough month.

Then just sort of felt like I was consistent throughout April, May and June with some Top 25 finishes.

You know, so looking at that, this has been my best year so far, and I've always felt that the second half of the year I've always played better golf, so I'm excited about the second half of the year, get out there and finish off what could be the best year I've had to date.

Q. What made the front nine seem to be so playable for you? Just walk us through that birdie string there.

JOHN SENDEN: No. 2, I got it onto the green there for two and had a long putt for my eagle but managed a two putt for birdie there.

No. 4, the dogleg right, the 4th hole, I hit a good drive and 8 iron into about probably 18 feet, holed that.

No. 5 was driver and an 8 iron again to about six feet, holed that.

And then 3 iron and a wedge on No. 6 and managed to hole a downhill putt from probably 12 feet.

And then 8 was driver, 9 iron to about 18, 20 feet, holed that.

And then the last hole was up and down out of a trap to save a par.

You know, the front nine was just it felt like a real flow with the putter. If you look at my stats, I think that my putting is probably the poorest part of my game, but it's due to hitting a lot of greens in regulation that just makes that stat look weaker. My stroke average has actually improved almost every year; not saying that I'm a bad putter, but that's just the way stats look. It's kind of a little bit misleading in that way.

Yeah, so we'll go from there.

Q. The two other guys at 7 under used new putters this week. Did you change putters this week?

JOHN SENDEN: No, I used the same putter that's been in there for a while. It's probably been in there 18 months. Yeah, so I don't know. Maybe that was the secret for them.

Q. How long did it take you to get the double out of your head?

JOHN SENDEN: What happened on that hole, obviously it was a bit of misfortune. I always thought that this golf course was can have a lot of birdies on this course because it's playing soft, the ball is going quite a way with the heat, and everyone else is shooting low scores, and I thought that, hey, look, don't throw it away right here now. I felt that the way I was playing I could have at least four to six birdies out here no problem and try to minimize mistakes from there.

So I went out there and got two quick birdies straight after on No. 12 and 13. That kind of thought to me, after four holes, there was no damage. I mean, I was back to even. And then that was definitely a turning point of the round because, hey, you have two pars or if you're just mediocre through the back nine, all of a sudden you're 1 or 2 under par turning and you really are on the back board, a step from the rest of the field.

I was happy to turn a couple under from where I started.

Q. How did you while away the delay and how did it affect you?

JOHN SENDEN: Well, it didn't really affect me at all because my tee time was like ten to 8:00, which was at least 50 minutes after the first groups had teed off. I was in the clubhouse waiting until I knew that the first group had teed off, and then I could just prepare like I normally do. I normally take an hour or 50 minutes to warm up.

So yeah, thinking that, hey, as soon as I knew the first group went, I went straight out there and got into it. It was an early start to the day, but then again, sitting around for a couple of hours, thinking, oh, when is this ever going to lift.

I think that it was a misfortune with the weather, but hey, hopefully if tomorrow is a clear day, we can get back on track. The tee times should be normal tomorrow afternoon.

TODD BUDNICK: Just your double on 11.

JOHN SENDEN: Yeah, it was a 3 wood and it went into the left hazard, and I just had to chip it out. I had no shot so I had to chip it on the fairway. 8 iron, two putts on the green from 40 feet.

12 was a 5 iron to 6 feet.

13 was driver, wedge to about ten feet.

16 was an 8 iron to about eight feet.

17 was driver actually hit the tree on the left and dropped down, 4 iron up the center, wedge on, two putt sorry, holed the putt for birdie downhill from maybe 16 feet.

Q. This event sometimes has a reputation of it can be a turning event for someone who is not in the public eye as much. Do you look at this field and say it's wide open, I've got a shot?

JOHN SENDEN: That's right. It obviously is a weaker field than probably your Westchesters or your major championships, obviously. But I look at it like that a little bit. You think, hey, the depth of players is not as great, and I can look at that and say, well, look, good opportunity to get out there and have a really good chance to set a goal of a Top 5 or a win.

Every time I step out and play, I set a goal to win the tournament. Secondary goal is to get a Top 10. Yeah, it's one of those things. You look at there's a lot, lot of good players here, too, this week. The field is still strong. It does not affect the scoring one bit, really, whether you've got the best players in the world here. I think that the scoring is definitely good.

I don't know, I still think that it's quite consistent throughout the whole year, the Tour, whether you've got a really good field or whether you've got a field that's not quite as strong. For some reason, it doesn't really affect the scoring. It's not as if because you've got a weaker field, the cut is not going to be over par, you know what I'm saying? Which is great because that's for good TV. Lots of birdies and plenty of nice drama holes coming down the stretch, and I look forward to giving it a go.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, John.

End of FastScripts.

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