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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 27, 2006

Brad Bryant

EDMOND, OKLAHOMA

KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant, ladies and gentlemen, in with a 1 over par 72 today, alone in second place after three rounds of the 67th Senior PGA Championship. Brad, some comments, please, on a very windy day here at Oak Tree.

BRAD BRYANT: I'm in a fog. What now? It was a windy day? Yes, it was. It was not pretty out there today. I know that my caddy on about the, I don't know, the 10th or 11th hole or something he said well just hang in there, because this is like, it's a war of attrition out here today.

So that was, I think, a pretty good way of describing it.

KELLY ELBIN: Would you go through your card for birdies, bogeys, etcetera.

BRAD BRYANT: Okay. Let's see, I bogeyed 1. Just hit a I just had the ball terribly today. I hit it unsolid, although I did manage to hit it fairly straight most of the time.

The third hole, I hit the ball in the trees with my second shot. I kind of had a tree sort of almost in my back swing and hit this wedge up about four feet and knocked that in for birdie. It was just a pretty remarkable shot, very lucky to come out of the trees that way.

Then I birdied the 7th hole, which is, that was my one shining moment of the day. I hit a really good solid 3 wood off the tee, just right straight down the middle of the fairway, I hit a, just a beautiful little 8 iron sort of just worked the wind perfectly in right underneath the hole, about 8 feet. And I putted it in.

And then I bogeyed 9, which was as pretty as 7 was, 9 was much uglier. And I was lucky to make five there. I was in the trees and the long grass and then I was in the trees and the long grass. And then I finally got out of the trees and near the trees, but sort of in the medium grass. And then chipped it up about a foot and tapped it in for five. It was very fortunate.

Let's see, No. 11, I made a double bogey, which is my first double bogey in quite a long time. I hit it just dead behind a tree off the tee. I have this 3 wood that I have used off the tee a whole lot, and I hit the ball pretty far with it, and generally very straight. It's been my most dependable club now for about a year. And today I just hit it straight left almost every time. I hit it way left on nine, way left on 11. I got it stymied right behind a tree, chipped out. Hit a beautiful 7 iron that the ball, hit a little too for and then 3 putted for a six.

Then I bogeyed the 14th hole. I hit a really ugly drive and an uglier second shot. And got the ball on the green and from out of the trees with my third. 2 putted for a five.

15, I made a really beautiful putt. I kind of hit a bladed 1 iron off the tee and had to hit a 4 iron to the green and hit a really nice 4 iron up about 30 feet from the hole and my caddy just made the absolute perfect read. We kind of stood there and I said what do you think, and at this point I was pretty well shot. And he Peter's coin was just up in front of me he said I think if you can just miss Peter's coin up on the left it will just go right down into the hole. And sure enough I just missed Peter's coin on the left and it rolled right down into the hole. So that was kind of a birdie for Tony. Really it was more of a, he was more responsible for that birdie I think than I was.

And then I birdied the last hole. I finally hit a good drive and kind of hit a half bladed 7 iron slice shot that rolled kind of up around the green and up about 8 feet from the hole and somehow just found the grace and the courage to hit a good putt on the last hole. And it went in. And so I got to finish today only shooting 1 over. So it was very fortunate. Could have been a whole lot worse.

KELLY ELBIN: Questions?

Q. Can you just talk about the value of keeping composure from 7 under to 3 under and back to 5 under, to be right there?

BRAD BRYANT: Man, if I would have known I had done all that, I might have got mad.

(Laughter.)

It was such a hard day that you knew some bad things were going to happen. I mean when you teed off you knew, okay, some bad things are going to happen. And on a day like today patience and composure are more important than anything else. And I did a nice job out there today. I didn't make a fool of myself once. And which was really nice. Because generally in wind like this, you know, I make a fool of myself a couple of times. And so today was really a, from that standpoint it was a good day.

I think that playing with Gil and Peter helped a lot. Gil has probably the most level attitude that I know of in the game of golf. He and my brother are that way. My brother's that way. Very, very level. Just rolling along and so I kind of try, as much as I could today, I just sort of watched Gil and watched him go through his routine and I just tried to sort of draft off of Gil a little bit, so that I could kind of, like you say, keep my composure.

Q. You already won twice this year on the Champions Tour, but you didn't win on the Regular TOUR. What's been the key for you?

BRAD BRYANT: My putting. This year I've had the best putting year of my life. And I've gone to the claw putter, or the claw grip almost full time. And it's helped me. I've eliminated math juror tee of my three putts, although I have had three putts this week, I 3 putted once every day, but that's kind of unusual this year. Today I did not putt well. I really, you know what, I just kind of stung the place up today. I really didn't do anything very well, except that I finished with two birdies. Which is, you know, yesterday I played really good and then finished with an eagle and a birdie. Today I played kind of really mediocre but finished with two birdies, and I'm really proud of that, because I could have given up out there pretty easily today. I'm very tired and I'm emotionally just drained and it was hard. But I hung in there and made it through.

KELLY ELBIN: Brad, you've played the last four holes in seven under par over the three rounds.

BRAD BRYANT: That's pretty good.

KELLY ELBIN: Yes, it is. Question?

Q. Today notwithstanding, how much has the two wins this year helped your confidence in how you feel as a player?

BRAD BRYANT: You know, I swear I don't feel any different. I mean I know that the guys treat me differently. A little bit. It's been really strange, you know, actually having the guys respect me.

(Laughter.)

That's very different. Yeah, I haven't gotten any of that. We won't go that far, you know, but it's been good.

I think it's been a long time coming for me to reach an age of maturity that allows me to play the kind of golf that I've played this year. And I'm much more proud of the way that I've conducted myself this year, I think, than my golf game even. My attitude has been better, I've really accomplished a lot. And I think that's really part of what's led me to play better golf.

Q. Just a question about the claw. Have you noticed that when it does get really windy it's a little tougher, just because you don't have quite as firm a grip on the club with both hands. It seems like it's a little more susceptible when there's wind to putt with the claw?

BRAD BRYANT: There's no question. And when you're putting the claw, you're a little more erect, your arms hang a little longer, a little lower, so have you a little more, you're kind of a little more elongated, the way you putt. And so you can't bend over as far. Very, very difficult in this much wind to get the feel for the greens. None of us had a real good feel for the greens today. Especially in our group, we putted, we hit some really ugly putts. There were a few times that we looked about like 10 handicappers. The way we were putting. But we also came back and hit some really great putts. And I think that that's indicative of reading the wind and trying to figure out the speed of each green, because each green dries so much differently.

For instance, where was it? The 4th hole. They didn't turn the fountain off. Out there in front of the green. And so the wind was blowing very hard and blowing water, mist up on to the green and all three of us putted it up there this far short (Indicating) because there was a mist on that green. So in this strong of a wind, conditions change so rapidly that it's difficult to get a real feel for the green. The claw makes it even that much tougher. But still, from inside of three feet today, I putted pretty well, I don't think I missed one short putt the whole day.

Q. The last couple days Pete said he would watch Gil where he was hitting and kind of follow him around the golf course that way. Did you do that at all and is there a challenge playing against him on his home course?

BRAD BRYANT: Well, I'm not good enough to follow Gil around. I would like to think could I hit it where Gil does. But for the most part I hit it in the trees today and I hit it kind of crooked.

Gil is a very unusual player and the wind suits him very good, because he's got a couple of different speeds with his driver. He can just sort of sweet swing a driver and hit a real low kind of running shot. Which I can't do. If I try to take that much off of my driver, I may find the next county rather than the golf course.

So generally I back off and hit my 3 wood. And today my 3 wood just wasn't quite working as well as it might be.

Gil and I tend to play sort of the same type of game, although I tend to flight the ball a little bit higher than Gil does when it's calm. So Gil has not only does he have a little bit of an advantage knowing the golf course, but he has a little bit of an advantage playing in the wind. But even a little bit of an advantage can be overcome in this game if have you a real good day.

Q. You talked about being proud of the way you conducted yourself this year, a couple years ago would you have handled a day like today as well as you handled it today?

BRAD BRYANT: 10 years ago, no. Couple of years ago, yes, maybe. I'll sort of wax philosophical here for a minute. I think that in a great many respects I've really grown up over the last five to eight years. Much more than I have before. I mean we're still, none of us are perfect. But I feel like that I know myself a little bit better. I think that my I think that my faith in Christ is a lot stronger. I think that I understand a lot better that my significance is going to come from a relationship with God, not from how well I play golf. And I think that those things matter a lot. They have always mattered to me, but now days they matter a whole lot more. And then having two teenagers at home really makes you grow up. You know. That's really been a struggle for me, because there's sometimes where my 13 year old is a lot smarter and more well adjusted than I am. Definitely a lot more patient.

KELLY ELBIN: Brad, you said that the, some of your fellow players treat you differently than before. In what ways have they treated you differently.

BRAD BRYANT: Well, they don't make fun of me as much. So that's good. I don't know, it's just different. I think that the guys have sort of looked at me and realized that I mean, most of the guys, you know, I've always been a pretty good player. I've always been a pretty good ball striker. I've always been a really bad wedge player. And so over the last couple of years the things that I've really worked hard on are I've worked on getting my swing a little bit sharper, and I've worked real hard on become ago better wedge player and a better putter. And that has really paid off in regard to having played that much better, although last year I had a couple of events where I really played well, I just didn't close very well. I played poorly coming down the stretch. Where this year I've played, gosh, I don't know what my scoring average is on Sunday right now, but it's pretty good. I've had some really good Sundays this year. And that, if you look at that, I think that that's a little bit of understanding that I can go out and play have been have a good time and enjoy myself and, so I'm so far this year I've played with a lot more joy than I've ever played with in my life. In fact, my wife is sitting back there and at Birmingham she ran up to me on the green when I won and she put her arms around me and she said, "This was really fun."

And it was, it was fun. It was playing with Mark that day and both of us were playing Dick was playing great too. I mean our group just hit lots of great shots. It was a lot of fun. Up until Mark hit the ball in the water on 17, that wasn't much fun. But other than that was really fun. It was a fun day. And so I think that, one of the things that I would like to do tomorrow is go out and just have a lot more fun. Today wasn't much fun. It was really a hard day. And watching Peter a couple of times today was really difficult. It was, you know, Peter, I don't know whether you all know, but Peter's playing in a lot of pain. And he had a couple of shots today where he had to stand on some pretty severe slopes. And as he was standing there I'm going, lord, please just let his legs hold him up. And I'm over, kind of standing over on the side of the fairway, just praying for Pete that he doesn't fall down. Because he's in a lot of pain. And you know, what a great tribute to such a great player that he can come out here and compete like this at really and probably, about, you know, 70 percent strength.

KELLY ELBIN: Brad's scoring average on Sunday is 68.9. Questions? Brad Bryant, thank you very much.

BRAD BRYANT: Okay. Thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts.

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