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BARCLAYS CLASSIC

June 8, 2006

Tom Lehman

HARRISON, NEW YORK

Q. Tom, can you talk about getting it going pretty good? You were 5 under and then stumbled a little bit the last couple holes?

TOM LEHMAN: Yeah, I did. I played really well for really most of the day. The last few holes coming in was a bit of a disappointment obviously. It's easy to dwell on the negatives. It would have been nice to finish that round off because I was playing so well, 6 under through 15 holes, and then the three straight bogeys hurts. I did a lot of things right today. I haven't played much the last couple of weeks, been home, and just nice to get off to a good start, and 3 under is a good start here.

Q. What about this golf course in terms of how difficult it plays when it's wet?

TOM LEHMAN: You know, it plays longer. I'm not sure it plays more difficult, though. I actually feel like this golf course plays at its best when it's firm. It plays much more difficult when it's firm. The soft conditions, you should see some lower scores.

Q. Does that impact the scoreboard at all, or sometimes do you not want spin going onto wet greens?

TOM LEHMAN: Well, there's that element. You know, the 7th hole on the front nine, that little short par 4, I made a bogey on the hole simply because I was thinking about spinning it too much. I wanted to make sure I hit it past the hole, didn't want to spin it off the front of the green and I hit it too strong and it went just over the back edge and I made a bogey. You're right, the spin can be a concern. You can bring it back off some of these greens.

Q. How do you not think too much when you're doing that?

TOM LEHMAN: Well, you can over think. I was telling my caddie, in some ways, you get a little bit uncommitted to the shot, you're thinking I don't want to spin it too much, make sure I hit it hard enough, and you never really get totally focused on what it is exactly what you want to do, it's more what you're trying to avoid doing. That's no way to play, and mistakes always happen when you do that.

Q. What are the differences between this course and next week's course?

TOM LEHMAN: That one is a lot bigger. It's a longer course. I haven't played there yet this week, but remembering from the PGA in '97, it's a really big golf course, and they added length and it's longer. The fairways are narrow and the greens are bigger and there's a lot of slope. There's some similarities, but that course has got some real, real teeth. I always feel like at Westchester you can work your way around this course and you can manage to get par if you're playing halfway decent, no matter what the conditions are. Winged Foot you're going to be very happy with par.

Q. Is this in any way conditioning for that?

TOM LEHMAN: Oh, yeah, you need to drive it straight out here. The fairways are a bit wider but the rough is thick. You have to be good touch on the greens. The rain has slowed those down a little bit. There's a lot of things about classic golf courses, you can't short side yourself, you have to keep it below the hole; all the things that will work next week work this week.

Q. Captain had it going pretty good as a player for a while. That's kind of nice, isn't it?

TOM LEHMAN: That is nice. You don't want to dwell too much on the negative, but whenever you bogey your last three holes, you always walk off a little bit frustrated. Like I said, not having played at all the last couple weeks, I knew it was going to be his and miss with some of the weather, so my preparation has been very poor. It's almost like this week was going to be the week to prepare for next week. To get off to a 3 under start, if you would have told me on the 1st tee I was going to shoot that, I would have been happy.

Q. (Inaudible).

TOM LEHMAN: Well, in order to be really great at anything you do, you've got to be really single minded about it. That's just the way it is. You have to be focused and you can't be distracted. So it's impossible not to be distracted and impossible to be single minded and really focused on my own game. I don't generally make mistakes like I made today coming in, but obviously it's a lack of preparation.

Q. Overall happy despite what happened at the end?

TOM LEHMAN: Overall happy, yeah. I hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens, hit a lot of really good shots, made some nice putts, so it was a good start.

Q. Given the honor of the captaincy, is it (inaudible).

TOM LEHMAN: You don't spend time thinking about something else. Guys that play a lot, you get in playing mode and you usually don't make mistakes like that. That's what I'm saying. Is it worth it? Absolutely. It's a great honor to be the captain of the Ryder Cup team.

Q. It's early, but if you look at some of the guys, it's guys in their 40s who have probably been around this golf course.

TOM LEHMAN: It's people who can hit it straight. That's one thing the course does do, straight hitters and guys with good short games the good ball strikers almost always do well here.

Q. But in terms of just knowing your way around and having played here

TOM LEHMAN: That helps, too, no question. Like any course, it helps to know where the don't miss places are and the places where you can get it up and down from, and you play learn when you get to know this course that short is always good. That always gets a little dicey.

Q. Especially with conditions today the way they were?

TOM LEHMAN: Well, soft conditions, it made getting up and down easier. With the greens being softer, it made it a little easier to save par. But this course when it gets firm is at its best.

Q. Obviously first and foremost you want to win the Ryder Cup?

TOM LEHMAN: Yeah, it's been pretty civil the last few Ryder Cups from what I observed watching on the television. It seems like the style of competition, the sportsmanship has been just fine.

End of FastScripts.

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