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GINN CHAMPIONSHIP AT HAMMOCK BEACH

March 31, 2007

Brad Bryant

PALM COAST, FLORIDA

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Brad, 4-under, 68 today. And 9-under, you're right in the thick of it heading into tomorrow's round. Another windy day out there, a challenge for everybody. But the scores were a bit better today.
BRAD BRYANT: Were they?
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Actually, yes.
BRAD BRYANT: Mine was a shot worse. And I'm still happy. I played very well today. And I think the golf course was a whole lot different today, because basically we had -- the wind was not quite 180, but close, a completely different wind today than what we had yesterday.
So I think today was probably, the breeze was a little bit easier to manage than the wind we had yesterday. So overall today I played pretty well. I still hit a couple shots that were kind of funny, but I'm here again today. I pitched the ball very well and putted it pretty good from the short distances. Kind of kept me going.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Want to go through the round? Nice eagle at the second hole to start off.
BRAD BRYANT: Hit a 3-wood from about 260 and ended up about two feet from the hole, which was pretty cool. That was -- so I had a very short, I don't know, it was maybe three feet there for eagle.
And then I birdied -- I bogeyed 5. I made a nice bogey there, actually. I could have gone for a real big number. I hit the ball, I thought I had a pretty good shot, just a little left. And it was probably going to be 10 high in the bunker, right on the fringe of the green, we thought. Went over the bunker into the deep stuff. And so I chipped it into the sand trap and got it up and down from there, made a nice putt for a 5. So it was sort of a real big -- I could have lost all of my momentum at that point.
So making that bogey was actually a big part of being able to shoot under par today. Even though it was a bogey, it could have been a double or a whoops. So it was good.
I birdied the par 5. The next hole I hit a 6-iron, beautiful shot. Thought I was going to have another eagle putt. The ball kind of rolled down the hill and I made a nice 2-putt. Birdied the 9th hole. Hit a pitching wedge about two and a half feet.
Birdied the 10th hole. I kind of hit sort of between clubs on my second shot and hit it short of the green and chipped it up about six or eight inches, just for a tap-in there.
And then I made pars the rest of the way, I think. Didn't I? I made all pars the rest of the way. And I sort of made a couple of mistakes coming down the stretch. But my short game really saved me today. I hit some beautiful pitch shots and got up and down from the sand on the last hole.
I hit a really nice iron shot on the last hole. It ended up going down in the bunker. It was very unfortunate. But then I hit such a good bunker shot I made a par anyway, which is all we really wanted on that hole.

Q. Is it hard for you to believe this is a first-year event? It looks like everything is here that ought to be here. And they have this thing down to a science.
BRAD BRYANT: It's still a first-year event. There's a lot of things, if you really pay close attention to details, you can tell that there are areas where they're still learning, which is really good, because like we talked about yesterday: You don't want to do everything perfect the first time, because then you learn nothing.
It's like learning the golf course. If you play a perfect golf, perfect round the first time, you're going to have a terrible week. You just know it.
The worst thing you can do is go shoot 63 in a practice round. You don't want to do that. But they've done a magnificent job this week. The golf course is in the most tremendous shape. It's just beautiful.
Apparently, three weeks ago or four weeks ago they said the greens were kind of iffy. And right now they're about the best surfaces I think we've putted on since (indiscernible). So that's pretty good.

Q. You've had rounds of 5 and 4-under. What do you think it's going to take to win tournament? Seemed like guys were eeking a little down the stretch. Is it going to make for an exciting finish for the last four holes?
BRAD BRYANT: Yes. I think it will be an exciting finish. Unless someone -- the first 10 holes here you can get it pretty deep under par. And then from there on you're really kind of holding on.
I think that it completely -- the tournament tomorrow will completely depend on what we wake up to in the morning as far as wind. If we have the wind that we had today, the 18th hole, you're just trying real hard to make a par there. That's all you really want.
The same way with 17. I hit a really good shot at 17 and had a good birdie putt, but those two holes you're just trying to make pars. The 16th hole, there again, it just depends on what the wind does.
If we wake up and have an off-shore, sort of an off-shore sort of wind, if the wind is going out to sea, look out. There will be some really high numbers. I don't think we'll see that. That's more later in the year, usually. But if we get a wind out of the west, this course will be brutal.

Q. Speaking of brutal, nothing to do with the task at hand, but I was wondering whether you played Oakmont, any of the majors they had back there back a few years back and, if so, what your experiences were and if you hit one in the church pews?
BRAD BRYANT: I think I did.

Q. As a preacher's son, it must have been a religious experience for you? Did you play?
BRAD BRYANT: I played Oakmont once. I think it was the first year that Larry Nelson won, I think. That was enough. I don't want to go back there.
We stood on Tuesday morning, my brother, myself, and I can't remember who we were playing with, another professional. On the 12th, 13th hole, it's a par-5, we stood 65 yards from the front edge of the green. Each one of us hit a sleeve of balls and didn't get a ball on the green.
I'm not a great wedge player but my brother is, and we couldn't put a ball on the green. I mean that's just absurd.

Q. Was it easy to overcompensate today considering the wind was coming from almost a direct opposite direction than yesterday?
BRAD BRYANT: I'm not sure what you mean by "overcompensate."

Q. I mean some of the balls that maybe went left and would have gone right today.
BRAD BRYANT: I don't think so. I think the guys are going to pretty much take every shot as it comes. I mean you don't want to get ahead of yourself. The one thing that we didn't have the benefit of today that usually you have is how you played your round yesterday.
Today we played from completely different spots on the golf course. For instance, the 9th hole, yesterday I punched a 4-iron left of the green. Today I hit a pitching wedge.
So normally you get out there and you go, okay, I look at Tony: What did we have here yesterday? We hit it in about the same place. Today we're hitting it 50, 60 yards from where we drove the ball yesterday, because yesterday 9 was into the wind. Yesterday I hit a pitching wedge over the green on 18. Today I hit a 3-iron.
So pretty much you just have to take it the way it is. Hopefully we'll have one or the other of the two winds that we've had tomorrow so we'll have the benefit of experience. Experience is the best teacher.

Q. First thing you wake up tomorrow get moving around do you check a flag somewhere and see which way the wind is blowing?
BRAD BRYANT: First thing I do is exercise for my back. And then I get up, see which thing hurts the most.

Q. You exercise before you get out of bed?
BRAD BRYANT: Yes. I have a routine of exercises that I have to do before I get out of bed for my lower back, because once you stand up your back compresses. So the exercises are designed to keep your back from compressing, and so I have to do them after I've been horizontal.
So I get up. And from there you find out what hurts the most and drink coffee. Then you go outside and see what the wind's doing. That's pretty much the norm out here on the Champions TOUR. You have the Champions TOUR breakfast: Three Advil and a Diet Coke, and you take off.

Q. Wind doesn't matter much if you can't walk?
BRAD BRYANT: Yep, that's kind of the deal.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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