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VALERO TEXAS OPEN

September 22, 2006

Eric Axley

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay. Eric, bogey free 7 under 63. Your career low round on the PGA Tour.

Very nice playing and you're right in the thick of it going into the weekend.

Couple thoughts about your round today.

ERIC AXLEY: Today was pretty stress free. I hit I think I might have missed one fairway and maybe just, maybe only one green where I actually chipped.

I think the other two greens I missed were just in the fringe and I putted both times and just never had to work really real hard today.

Seemed like all my birdie putts I did make were between, you know, eight and 12 feet without much break. So it was just pretty stress free.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Course play about the same for you as yesterday or little easier today?

ERIC AXLEY: It was a little less wind and so, yeah, it played a touch easier because of that but the firmness and everything seemed to be very similar to yesterday.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay. If you could, just take us through your birdies. If you had any good saves, tell us about those, too.

ERIC AXLEY: Birdies. No. 1, I hit a good drive and laid up just probably 30 yards off the front edge of the green and pitched it to eight or nine feet and made that.

I birdied 4. I hit a driver and pitching wedge to about five feet and made that.

7, I laid up with a 3 iron off the tee and wedged it to probably eight, nine feet, again, and made it.

I hit 3 iron, lob wedge own No. 8 to about five feet and made it. Driver, sand wedge on 9 to about eight feet and made it.

And drove it just off the front of the green on 11 and chipped to about two and a half, three feet and made. And driver, 3 iron on 14, just to the fringe and 2 putted from the fringe.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay. We'll just go with questions, Tim, Natalie.

Q. You were talking about a lot of eight and ten foot birdie putts so were you hitting the irons pretty crisply to the greens?

ERIC AXLEY: I hit it very solid today. I really can't think of a shot that I really missed. Yeah, I really hit my irons well.

Like I say, I only missed one fairway so just the ball striking was really good today and it seemed like, you know, a majority of my shots were on the correct side of the hole.

Q. Sounds like you caught a couple drivers real flush, too. 1 and what was it, 11? Big drives there?

ERIC AXLEY: Yeah. Like I say, I almost drove 11. 1, I had a good one. Seems like I hit a lot of solid ones today. 14 was a good one and 12 seems to be a tough tee shot and I hit a really good one right down to the edge of the fairway there. So yeah, those a few really good ones in there.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Want to tell us about your year to this point, sort of a rookie out here?

ERIC AXLEY: I am a rookie. I just made a lot of mistakes. I feel like I played well really since New Orleans. I've started playing really well but just keep making, you know, mistakes at the wrong times.

You know, have a double or triple in there for no reason and it's held me back quite a bit but, you know, there's still in tournaments left and try to take the positives out of everything and play well from here in.

Q. 63 is your PGA Tour career low. Have you had that 63s before PGA Tour?

ERIC AXLEY: Competitively? I mean this 63 was a 7 under. I've shot I know of a 9 under competitively. I've shot 7 under once or twice this year but is that what you're talking about, competitive rounds?

Q. Yes.

ERIC AXLEY: 9 under is my low as a professional.

Q. Have you played here before?

ERIC AXLEY: No.

Q. Did you know of the reputation to really get it going here and score here?

ERIC AXLEY: I didn't know. I came in and didn't have any expectations as far as the course. I had no idea. You get to each week is a different course and new scenery for me so I try not to listen a whole lot to what everything, all the hype about a course or not hype for that matter but just try to come in and feel it out for myself and see what I think about it.

Q. When you play a new course for the first time, how do you go about creating a game plan for it?

ERIC AXLEY: I try to play it as many times as possible. I try to play the Monday Pro Am and try to play a practice round on Tuesday. Just like for example this week, I played Monday and Tuesday and we had a north wind both days and unfortunately starting Thursday it was a south wind so it was a total new golf course starting Thursday but if you're lucky, you get to play with two different winds on Monday and Tuesday and kind of see how it plays both ways but that's how I don't get much rest that way but I feel like the more comfortable you get with each tee shot and course, then, you know, you catch up to the veterans that have been here for ten years.

Q. So with the different wind these past few days, how did it sort of affect or change

ERIC AXLEY: It changed a lot. It makes I was driving it on No. 7, I had been hitting 3 wood on the green and No. 16 I had been driving the green in both practice rounds and both par 5s were downwind.

Now all of those were into the wind so I have a totally different strategy on those. On the flip side of that, some of the more difficult holes seem to play downwind like No. 10 we were hitting driver, 6 iron in there and driver sand wedge today so it makes some of the holes easier and some a little more difficult.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay. Anything else? Eric, continued good luck.

ERIC AXLEY: Thanks very much.

End of FastScripts.

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