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MERCEDES-BENZ CHAMPIONSHIP

January 4, 2007

Brett Wetterich

KAPALUA, HAWAII

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Brett, thanks for joining us here, a Mercedes-Benz Championship rookie after winning the EDS Byron Nelson last year and also played on the Ryder Cup Team. Dream season for you last year, and obviously you started off well again this year with a 4-under 69 in the first round, tied for the lead with several other guys. Maybe some opening comments on a great year for you.
BRETT WETTERICH: Yeah, great to be able to come out today. I wasn't expecting very much out of myself today, and to come out and shoot 4-under, I'm obviously very pleased.

Q. Why the low expectations?
BRETT WETTERICH: Just I took a long time off, I took a month off because I wanted to after the year was over last year, and then when I came back, my shoulder was hurting me a little bit so I didn't get to do as much as I would have liked to. So that held me back even more than when I -- you know, what I wanted to do, it really held me back.

Q. Shoulder okay now?
BRETT WETTERICH: Yeah, it seems to be fine. It was bothering me up until this week, and it was starting to feel a little bit better at the end of last week, so, you know, I've still got to watch what I'm doing, warm up slowly, but once I get going, I'm fine.

Q. Right or left?
BRETT WETTERICH: Left.

Q. How do you build on last year? What are you looking to do?
BRETT WETTERICH: I want to have another solid year, whether it means winning or, you know, just finishing and having another great year without winning. Either way and I'll be happy as long as I keep moving forward and improving on my game, I'll be happy.
Obviously I'd like to win, and maybe even more than once, you know, if the opportunity is there. As long as my game is improving, I'll be happy.

Q. How would you describe the difference in atmosphere, a field that's got 34, as opposed to a field had a has 144?
BRETT WETTERICH: I don't know, it's nice not to have a cut. That part's nice. (Laughter)
It is different knowing there's so few guys playing in it, but I think you still go at it the same way as if there were 144 guys, just you get to play a lot faster. I think that's about the only difference.

Q. How did you deal with the wind today?
BRETT WETTERICH: I don't know. You know, I wrestled with it all day long. It wasn't very easy out there hitting, you know, 6-irons when you're normally hitting a pitching wedge.
It was tough, and I did the best I could with it. I hit a few bad shots that cost me a bogey, but I can't complain about my round today.

Q. Last year you started out with a Q-School number and here you start out at the Mercedes. Do you feel you can free-wheel it more?
BRETT WETTERICH: This year, yeah, you can say free-wheel, it I guess, if you want in a sense. But I'm still going to go out there and try as hard as I did last year. I'm not going to take anything for granted and just lollygag around and whatever happens, happens. I'm coming out here and trying to win tournaments and go from there.

Q. Q-School to Ryder Cup, how proud are you of that? Is that a big deal to you?
BRETT WETTERICH: It is. It's kind of weird that it sounds like that, being that I was earning points the year before, but then did I have to go back to Q-School. So I'm really proud of myself. It was a great year. I'll always remember it, for sure, you know, maybe a lot of people won't agree with maybe me making the team, but that's the way it was, and everyone had the same chance that I did.

Q. What's the best thing that you took away from that whole experience?
BRETT WETTERICH: You know, I don't know. It's kind of weird. I just know I need to, you know, be more patient around the golf course after being out there and being in an atmosphere like that. It was kind of a little nerve-wracking at times for me.
So maybe I need to work a little more on that if I can, if there's some way that you can do that.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Talking about your round today, you birdied three of the last five holes. Maybe we could just touch on 14, 15 and then 18 and we'll take one last question.
BRETT WETTERICH: 14, I hit a little like 58 yards into the hole and I knocked it just behind the hole about maybe three, four feet and kind of a tough putt, a little sneaky going down the hill and I made that one.
The par 5, I hit 5-wood just over the green and had about a 20-footer maybe for eagle and knocked it to a couple of feet and ended up making one.
Then even on like the next one, I left one dead short, like dead in the center.
The par 4, I made a good par on 17 and ended up making a 4-footer for par there.
18, I hit two good shots, I hit a driver, 3-iron to 35, 40 feet, whatever it was and knocked it up there to about a foot. The last hole was easy, anyway.

Q. What's been the best part of this week for you, being here?
BRETT WETTERICH: Just relaxing I guess, you know, being able to be in Hawaii for two weeks. My girlfriend and I are having a good time. We went and took a helicopter ride yesterday around the whole island, and that was pretty cool. Just being able to say that you played in the Mercedes is a pretty neat deal knowing that you won a golf tournament, being able to qualify for another one. The whole experience has been really great.

Q. What was windier, the helicopter ride or the round of golf?
BRETT WETTERICH: Probably the round of golf. The helicopter ride might have been a little more bouncy.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Brett, thanks.

End of FastScripts

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