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BUICK CHAMPIONSHIP

July 1, 2006

Ryan Moore

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Ryan Moore for stopping by, 8 under par through three rounds of the 2006 Buick Championship. Ryan, you put yourself in position to win, which is what everybody wants to do out here. You're still looking for your first victory. A very good position for you, especially with coming off hand surgery earlier this year. Did you expect to bounce back as easily as you have?

RYAN MOORE: Well, I mean, it's not exactly been easy the last few weeks or couple months since I've had the surgery, right around three months ago, March 26, I believe, was the date. For it to feel as good as it does right now, that soon after, I'm excited about that; the fact that I can just go out there and take a good, aggressive swing and not even have it be a thought in my mind right now. This is the first week that it's been that way. So that's very exciting.

I kind of happened upon actually, my younger brother happened upon a little swing thought, something I was doing that normally I didn't, and my swing feels great and I'm getting back to where it was when I was playing really good a couple years ago.

TODD BUDNICK: Talk about your round today. You had two bogeys in the first five holes and you came back with four birdies over rest of the way to put yourself in contention.

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, it was a little shaky to begin with. I pulled it off the tee. I almost hit it out of bounds off 1 and I made just a wonderful little bogey there. Then bounced back with a good birdie on the second hole from the left rough, kind of behind the trees and made a good birdie.

5, I had a weird little lie. I thought I hit a good shot but just got caught up in the rough and had an awkward lie and didn't come out how I expected it to.

Really from that point on, made some really good swings. Just solid, hit a lot more fairways and greens to give myself chances. That's what I did really well the first couple days. I just gave myself a lot of good opportunities from that 15 to 25 foot range. Unfortunately I didn't make as many as I would have hoped to coming down the stretch and I missed about a 4 footer for eagle on 13, the par 5 on the back. It couldn't have been more than four and a half feet, just pulled it a little bit. Kind of sweating over that one; like if you don't birdie this one, that wouldn't be good, but I was able to make that. And made a good birdie there on 15, and hoping to get another one at least over the last few holes and gave myself good chances and didn't make the putt.

Q. Did you see where you were or the leaderboard today?

RYAN MOORE: To be honest, the first leaderboard I saw was on 17. I didn't really even think about looking all day long. They were never like in my direct line of view or whatever. I just wasn't it's not that important to me. I'm just trying to hit every shot as good as I possibly can and that's all I'm out there doing.

Yeah, I didn't really even see that until I think 17. And then I was even out of the corner of my eye, saw somebody was at 11 and a couple guys were at 9 or 8 or somewhere around there. I guess I wasn't paying attention too much, and I'll be the same way tomorrow.

Q. Said this is the first week you really haven't had any pain in your hand? What was it, just couldn't hit shots properly?

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I mean, the surgery was right here on the palm of my hand. So not the greatest of locations for a golf swing or for your grip. But it's just more of a strength issue.

Since the surgery, it has not really been painful, but it gets sore and tired after practice, and I didn't use it for a couple months really. But getting it back up to the strength is more the issue now, getting it back to where it was. So it's definitely getting, you know, it's not 100% yet by any means, but it's up in the 80 percent range, which is a lot better.

Q. So it's strong enough?

RYAN MOORE: It's stable through impact. For a while there, I felt like I just couldn't hold on. It would break down eventually throughout the swing. This week I felt like I've been really firm and can keep it really solid.

Q. What's the little tip your brother gave you and what's his name?

RYAN MOORE: Jason. And it just had to do with weight, I guess my weight distribution. It was actually he pointed out something I was doing with my hips or something. It was on the range maybe Wednesday and I was just out hitting balls. I was doing something with my hip that just didn't look right to him.

He just said whatever it was and then that got me thinking about what could possibly be causing that to happen. I realized my weight had gotten a little bit more on my right side where I usually keep a pretty stable left side and then fire my right side into it. So it's a bit more, I don't sway a whole lot. I keep it really centered. So I started doing that again and all of the sudden, just crisp contact, which again is something I've been kind of inconsistent over the last few weeks. I've had good days and bad days but really wasn't hitting the ball very consistently. Now I'm hitting the ball very consistently again.

Q. Is he younger?

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, he's 18. He's a golfer and he's obviously played a lot of golf with me and he knows me very well. Yeah, I listen to him, definitely, if he has something to say. I don't just dismiss it. I think about what he has to say, and in this case, it was very big. It was right on the point of exactly what I was doing wrong.

Q. How did you injure the hand?

RYAN MOORE: Golfing is all I can figure. I guess a wear and tear kind of thing. I think it was in the U.S. Open because I hit in the rough like every single hole. I was fortunate enough to make the putt this was at Pinehurst. But made the cut and hit the ball in the rough every hole the next two days, two days straight days of hitting on my hand pounding on the rough. I think that's where it started and injured it originally and just kind of got worse and worse over time.

Q. You played golf the remainder of the season?

RYAN MOORE: All last year. That's all I can figure. It hurt from right after the U.S. Open on. So that's all I can figure is it must have at least started to be fractured.

Q. Looks like you will be paired with Camilo tomorrow. Have you ever played with Camilo?

RYAN MOORE: That would be great. I get along with him really well. We played together in college quite a bit and we played match play events against each other and stuff. That would be a lot of fun actually. I'd really be looking forward to that if that's the case.

Q. Have you ever been this close on a Saturday night?

RYAN MOORE: I lost the Canadian Open last year by one shot. I don't know, I was probably three behind maybe, so I was probably about the same position. I really don't know exactly. I was probably more behind than this. I think it was more like five. He shot a couple over and I shot like 2 or 3 under I think.

I'm happy to be back here. For the last couple years in college, that was my goal that I had set with my coach was just to have a chance to win going into the final round, whatever that meant. Sometimes that means you're within seven shots; on a certain course, you can really get it going. Whatever it is, I wanted to give myself a chance going into the last round and that's really what helped me, to not really think about winning too much or anything like that, just to get yourself into that position and kind of let it go from there. I'm in that position again and I'm just going to go out and play as hard as I can tomorrow.

TODD BUDNICK: You said you pulled off the tee on the first and from there?

RYAN MOORE: On the first hole, I had to lay up like a 6 iron probably 40 or 50 yards short of the green and wedged it up to 30 feet and missed it.

Second hole, pulled it into the left rough, had about 85 yards and hit a lob wedge out of the rough to about 12, 15 feet and made it.

Third hole, driver right down the middle. I had 158 in, a little 8 iron maybe 20 feet left and left it an inch short right in the middle.

5, 3 iron hit a wedge to maybe ten feet and just missed it.

8, hit a 6 iron about ten or 12 feet just short of the hole, right up the hill.

13, I hit to about four feet above the hole, 3 wood from 251 or 256 to the pin. I hit 3 wood back into the wind and hit it four feet.

15, hit 3 wood on to the green, probably about 40 or 45 feet short right, kind of in the middle right side of the green and left it about four feet short and was able to make that. I wasn't making it easy on myself.

TODD BUDNICK: Good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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