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THE COMMERCIAL BANK QATAR MASTERS

January 27, 2007

Edward Michaels

DOHA, QATAR

CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Ed, thanks for joining us. A nice little round to get you right in it. You must be feeling you're still in a dream or something.
EDWARD MICHAELS: Yeah, exactly, I told you it was like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, that one. I don't know where that came from. I hit the ball just with as bad as you can hit it. I don't think anybody in the tournament hit it probably that bad for the first 15 holes. But the good part was we hung tough, made a lot of nice saving pars and was able to turn it around the last few holes, that's about it.
CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: So just one fairway for the first 12 holes.
EDWARD MICHAELS: Something like that. I actually hit a couple good drives the first few holes but just didn't account for the wind very well. So they ended up in the rough and when you end up in the rough, you're struggling. But I hit a few sprayers as well but was able to get up-and-down.
When I did have a birdie opportunity on the green, I was able to capitalise on it. I don't know how I shot 69 out of that mess.
CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: You finished with eagle, birdie?
EDWARD MICHAELS: 14, I just made bogey on the par 3 and said to my caddie, if we want to be able to do anything tomorrow we need to start thinking birdies instead of trying to grind out pars. I hit a good drive and a good 7-iron on I think it's 14, and made a great putt. Then hit a great drive on 15, so I had some confidence going, made a nice par.
Then a got a good break on 16, I didn't hit a good drive, it was kind of a little toe-hook, that hit in the rough, it had to, to trickle on the green to five feet. That was more luck than anything. I hit a good putt and made a good birdie there on 17. I thought I hit a really good approach shot into 18 but came up short.

Q. (Where are you from)?
EDWARD MICHAELS: I'm originally from Atlanta, Georgia in the States and now live in Nashville, Tennessee. This is my third year on the Asian Tour. And of course I took last year off with shoulder surgery, so this is actually my first tournament since Okinawa 2005. I was saying I think the golf gods are doing me a favour right now, so hopefully they will give me one more day of being nice to me.

Q. How long do you spend back in Nashville?
EDWARD MICHAELS: Well, typically when I was traveling over here before we come over for anywhere from two to six weeks and go home for two to three weeks. But this year I'm going to stay out longer and play more tournaments simply because I haven't played tournaments for so long I probably need to get my feet back under me and that kind of stuff.
I'm planning on staying out all the way through the Singapore stretch and past the Johnnie Walker and then maybe going home for a while. If I play well for the first five or six events, then I might take a little time off.

Q. Are you into country music?
EDWARD MICHAELS: Love country music. Love it. It's not the reason why we moved to Nashville. I went to college at a place called Vanderbilt, but it certainly was a big appeal. They have all the live music and anywhere you go, all of the singers are world-class. They have all the honkey-tonks downtown and stuff like that. We don't line dance or anything, but we like to go listen to the singers and hang out. It a good city, a lot of fun.

Q. Was there any time you were coming back from the operation that you thought this might not happen and you would have to give it up?
EDWARD MICHAELS: Every day pretty much. It still is kind of touch and go. No, it's supposed to be back in May after the first operation. Maybe June and I started to play a little bit. Had to shut it down for six weeks and then had to have another surgery in August, and then thought I would be back for Q-School in the United States and shoulder went bad on me again and I took six weeks off. Then played again over Thanksgiving and it went bad on me again and had to take three weeks off. So I played 12 holes leading into this tournament since Thanksgiving.
It really was every day that I didn't know any was going to be back or not. But my wife was amazing. She, I don't know how she made it through, I was a bear, just moaning and groaning.

Q. What's her name?
EDWARD MICHAELS: Missy Michaels. She encouraged me. She went back to work because we had bills to pay and I wasn't bringing any money. She went back to work, and every night she'd just come home and tell me it was going to be all right and everything was going to work out. I'm hoping to play well tomorrow so I can bring her over so she can quit her job. That would be a great reward for me.

Q. What does she do?
EDWARD MICHAELS: She's in advertising. She's an account executive for a company in Nashville.

Q. Did you feel nervous going into this tournament?
EDWARD MICHAELS: No, not at all, not until today. The first probably seven or eight holes today I was still shaking. It's been so long since I've been in a position like that. And I didn't really think we were in contention, per se.
You know, when you've got Goosen 11-under and you're four back of Goosen and you haven't played as long as I've played, you're just kind of out there for the day. That's what I was trying to tell myself when I got on the first tee and I was shaking in my boots.
Hopefully tomorrow I can calm my nerves and hit a few more solid shots. It grind on you too much to have to get up-and-down every hole. You can only do that for so long. But I'll take one more day, though.

Q. 54 holes, how is it holding up?
EDWARD MICHAELS: The last three holes it started talking to me a little bit but the adrenaline was kind of pumping, it was all right. 18 after I laid up, the adrenaline kind of dissipated and it's burning a little bit right now. So I've got to go hit some balls and then I'll go through some ice on it.
CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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