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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 13, 2007

Paul Goydos

HONOLULU, HAWAII

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome Paul Goydos after a third round even par 70 at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Paul, in the lead there for most of the day and then you were in trouble on 15 and 16.
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, I was hanging by a thread there. I played tough out there. Par was not going to be a horrendous score. I kind of kept it -- somehow kept it around par, maybe under par most of the day.
Yeah, 15, I just didn't hit a very good second shot and then I didn't hit a very good bunker shot. The reality is, I didn't hit a very good putt. So earned that.
And then 16, I hit driver if the bunker which probably is not the right play, just not a comfortable hole for me, the 3-wood, just thought we'd take our chances. I hit a pretty good shot out of the bunker, about 15 feet below the hole, and that's where the trouble started, that straight-up-the-hill putt, knocked it probably three feet by and the next one didn't even think about going in. The putter was, in honour of Luke Donald, dodgey all day. Just lucky to be alive I think after today the way the putter felt.
Made a bomb on 11 but that was a Hail Marry putt more than anything, no expectations. Other than that, the putter was a little bit shaky, but compared to yesterday, everything was a little shaky. All in all, still in pretty good shape. What you're really looking for is a chance on Sunday and I've got that.

Q. On the putt on 12, that kind of dove to the right there, they showed on TV the putter bouncing and then you started to take it back and stopped and then just kind of kept going, was that a --
PAUL GOYDOS: That's called the flinches.

Q. Was that a flinch?
PAUL GOYDOS: I kind of give a (wavering) oh, that's pretty good. I've been doing that for 12 years. It's kind of part of my routine of my putting. If you watch the tape yesterday, you see -- that's pretty good right here, let's start again, okay. It's been going on for awhile. I can remember just having these issues, just getting the putter started, that seems to be where my problem is putting.
But that's been going on. Yesterday, I have days where obviously like yesterday where it's not a big deal and I have days where it's a bit of a problem and I just attribute it to being just a case of the nerves.
My answer to that is I'd rather be nervous than not nervous. If you're not nervous, that's when I'll get worried. If I walk out there tomorrow and play my round of golf and I have no butterflies, then I'm going to have find something else to do. We want those challenges. And today, you know, playing the last group is a great challenge. Tomorrow with a chance to win is going to be a great challenge and that's what we want to do.
We want to test ourselves and how we deal with circumstances. That's really what golf teaches you out here is how you deal with circumstances. I can't play defence. I can't go out there and body-block Luke. I have to go out there and play my game and see how my game reacts to all the situations.

Q. I'm going to assume that before Tampa, it had been a while since you had been that Sunday nervous; how do you think you handled that, and how much help does it have your next start be in the same spot?
PAUL GOYDOS: I've talked about this issue a lot.

Q. Am I not listening again?
PAUL GOYDOS: No, with different people, and what causes it. There is a school of thought that it's caused by mechanical problems; your setup gets bad, and therefore, you don't do things well. I really thought today, actually 16 was horrendous. But 17 I hit a really good 3-footer -- I hit the worst putt on 16 you could imagine. You could have taken a five-year-old, spun him around 25 times and he'd hit a better putt. (Laughter).
But 17, I do think there's a function of setup that causes bigger problems, and I really don't think it was necessarily -- it's nerves, but it's more the issue is my setup gets bad, so my putting struggles.
17, I hit a good little 3-footer. 18, I hit a good little 2-footer, and those putts were solid and went in. And I worked on some things and I hope what I did on Friday will lead more into that. I'm a believer more not that it's the yips but my setup gets bad.

Q. Thought you were talking about butterflies, nervous in terms of --
PAUL GOYDOS: I deal with that every day. I'm nervous first tee Monday.

Q. But aren't the nerves different playing towards the last group on Sunday?
PAUL GOYDOS: To a point they are, I agree. We're human, everyone as far as I know out here is. It's that expectation. I think nerves and struggling with that becomes result-oriented. You want to be process-oriented. The one thing, going back to the Sunday at Tampa, and obviously the ten weeks I spent a lot of time, people congratulating and how well you played and what happened. The one thing that stands out is I was able to stay in the present. There was one thing that mattered and that was the next shot at hand or this shot at hand.
I had no issue whatsoever thinking about the consequences of this shot and why I was able to do that that well that week, I don't know. But that's the one thing that stands out more than all of the other things that I did that week is when I was on the 16th hole, I was concentrating on that shot and not concerned well, I'm at 8-under, I'm at 9-under, I have a chance to finish second. That was not even part of my process pretty much the whole day, which is really what I think I'm probably most proud of that day.

Q. Didn't you make like a 3- or 4-footer at 18?
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, I made a 4-footer straight up the hill. They are all important -- to be honest with you, the putts I struggle with the most are straight up the hill. Those are the ones I tend to struggle with the most, and I hit a good a putt there as you can hit. Very, very pleased with that putt.
Today was just one of those days and today's putting was more like I putted most year last year, but that's fine. As long as you learn. I think hopefully, I learned something out there today and I'm going to take that over to tomorrow and press on.

Q. You mentioned a minute ago that you think everyone in the field is a human being, what did you think when you saw Fujikawa's name on the leaderboard, probably about the time you were teeing off?
PAUL GOYDOS: I walked on to the putting green when he was going to 9 and 10. I actually got a chance to meet him this morning at breakfast. Seems like a great little kid. How old is he, 16? 16 years old, I could not even think about shooting those scores on this golf course. It's beyond belief how well he's played.
I think that's the story this week. I think that's just one of the great accomplishments. He seems like a really good kid. He seems like he's got a pretty good head on his shoulders. He played in the U.S. Open last year, I think that's where he first got noticed if I remember correctly. I think it's a great story. I hope he plays exceptional tomorrow. I think it's going to be a fun day.

Q. Would you have thought that when a kid makes the cut and he's 3-under that he would be up to, I think he was probably 8-under at one point.
PAUL GOYDOS: I think the answer, you would expect him to almost say, hey, I've accomplished something and lay down, and this kid obviously didn't do that. (Laughing.)
Charles Howell shot 5-under today, he shot 4-under, and that was probably the second best score of the day, on Saturday. It's windy; it's difficult. He shot 8-under par I think the last two rounds. That's better than I did those last two rounds. That's an amazing accomplishment.
And it sound like he's not -- like I said yesterday, resting on his laurels. Sounds like he came out with a goal in mind to play the best golf he could and he wasn't just happy to be there and that says a lot about him.

Q. You hear guys talking about Hilton Head and Colonial and the Westchester course, but you don't hear them talk much about this course; where does it rank for you?
PAUL GOYDOS: I think it's one of the more underrated golf courses. It's exceptional. You have to keep the ball in front of you, you have to work the ball both ways. Someone was saying Bubba was with Faldo because he likes to have to work the ball, and you have to do that, you have to do everything pretty well.
But the reality is you really just need to keep the ball below the hole and keep the ball towards the middle of the greens because if you short-side yourself here, you've got a world of trouble and it is a very good golf course.
And this is a pretty typical day. It blows 15 to 20 miles an hour with the tradewinds, and it challenges you, there's no question. They have made some changes here to make it more difficult, seven, eight, nine years ago. I definitely think it's one of the top five or ten golf courses on TOUR, if not higher than that.
TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Paul.

End of FastScripts

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