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BUICK CHAMPIONSHIP

June 30, 2006

Peter Lonard

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Peter, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the Buick Championship. Scott Verplank was in here earlier this morning when he finished and he didn't think 6 under would be that close to the lead.

PETER LONARD: I usually look at the boards and I can't say I was taking much note of it as I was walking around today. I figured I would be a good three or four back, and I looked at the board on probably 16. I asked, "Is 7 under leading?" He goes, yes. Okay, we still have a shot. We'll birdie the next and make it around the mark.

Q. Given the course isn't that long, but is it soft? Was it a little tricky?

PETER LONARD: I think this place is a little tricky golf course and it's the type of course where guys shoot low the earlier players probably shoot lower. Of course it's dried out considerably compared to yesterday or the day before. Maybe there's a little bit more bounce in the fairways which gets you more into the rough.

There is definitely a bigger first bounce on the greens, as opposed to yesterday. Yesterday, the ball was pretty much plugging as soon as it landed. Today you get the odd bounce before it spun.

Definitely the hole placements are all on little edges and unless you get your pace right, they don't go in. I supposed at the end of the day, it's always relative to where the holes are and how much tricky breaks are around the hole.

Q. Was the wind a factor at all? Did it make you think a little bit more before you actually were able to hit some shots more than others?

PETER LONARD: It was okay. Same as yesterday and today, it seemed to be across a lot of holes. You don't seem to get many holes just straight downwind or straight into the wind. Nowadays, they put pins four off the front, four off the back, four off the edges. If you can't quite work out whether it's helping you a little bit or hurting you a little bit, it's quite difficult to get it close. In that regard, it was quite tricky.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Let's go through your birdies and bogeys.

You made bogey on 6.

PETER LONARD: 6, I hit a couple of good shots up to 90 yards from the green, and got aggressive and flew it 95 and landed on the downslope and bounced up into the spectators. Didn't kill anyone. Everyone was all right. Didn't have to kiss anything better, which was good. Flopped it back on the green and made a 6. That wasn't very enjoyable. I'll blame my caddie on that one.

9, I hit a nice 3 wood down the middle, sand wedge to about three feet.

14, hit a drive down the fairway, hit a wedge to about four feet.

17, hit a 3 wood into the middle of the fairway, punched an 8 iron to 20 feet, I suppose, and holed it.

Q. Are you striking the ball as good or better than you have all year?

PETER LONARD: I'm driving the better than I have all year. The front 9 today, the hole that I made bogey on, I was thinking, you beauty, it's going in the hole. The next thing I'm removing it from the fouled up chair. Outside of that shot, I was really happy. I hit a lot of shots that were quality shots. Lipped a couple out. Just didn't hole any. A few went in earlier, I think I could have definitely gotten it going, but it wasn't a birdie.

Q. 75 or 80 guys at seven shots and 36 holes to go.

PETER LONARD: The way it's working at the moment, unless someone goes really low tomorrow that is leading, we could have another Sunday like Faxon got, one of the early guys coming out and shooting 60 odd and put a lot of pressure on the guys hitting off later in the afternoon.

Q. You have a scramble there for 36 holes with so many guys close?

PETER LONARD: Yes. Every year it gets tighter and tighter. When I started 20 years ago, I don't know whether they kept stats on what the average cut is relative to the guy that's leading. But I reckon when I started, 10, 11 shots was the cut mark from the guy leading to the 70th guy. Some weeks it looks like it's going to be 4 or 5, some weeks it's 6. At the end of the day, anyone can win if they get it going on on the weekend.

End of FastScripts.

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