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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 22, 2007

Brad Bryant

KIAWAH ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA

KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant, ladies and gentlemen. Joining us at the 68th Senior PGA Championship at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort. This is the third Senior PGA Championship for Brad. Finished, runner-up last year in a three hole playoff at Oak Tree Golf Club in Oklahoma to Jay Haas. But was a winner Sunday at the Regions Charity Classic in Alabama.
Welcome to the Ocean Course, Brad. I would imagine it must feel pretty good to be playing well coming into a layout such as this.
BRAD BRYANT: Sure does. I haven't seen the golf course yet, but it's nice to feel like I am hitting the ball fairly solidly, because I'm assuming that we're going to have wind this week. Is that the sort of the M O of this golf course? Right? Pretty windy? So hopefully I'll be able to hit the ball like I did a couple of days ago.
KELLY ELBIN: Open it up for questions.

Q. Last year after the playoff you were so great about the playoff with Jay, about how you thought he deserved to have the title. With the way that you played coming in here and the confidence that you have after your win last week do you feel like maybe Brad Bryant is deserving to win the championship now?
BRAD BRYANT: I don't know about deserving. I sure hope I win one. I don't know. There are certain players that you feel like that they really deserve something like that, because of what they have meant to the game. And Jay is one of those guys. And I'm -- I was, honestly, I was very happy for Jay last year. I was elated that he won.
I really wanted to win. Right now I would say that I'm playing the type of golf for the last year and a half that it takes to win this type of event. Now like I say, I haven't seen this golf course. As far as deserving that title, we don't deserve half of the stuff we get out here on the Champions Tour. We're pretty spoiled. We get a whole lot more than what we deserve.

Q. You've never played here before?
BRAD BRYANT: No, sir.

Q. Does it worry you that you will go in with perhaps only one day of seeing the golf course?
BRAD BRYANT: No.

Q. Perhaps your knowledge is not as good as you would like it.
BRAD BRYANT: No. In fact, not knowing where most of the trouble is might be good. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. I don't know, having not seen the golf course, I don't know. But generally Tony and I learn a golf course pretty quick. And having the two of us working as a team really helps. That makes a big difference. So I feel like that we'll probably learn the golf course fairly quickly. I'll try to play a few holes late this afternoon and, when Tony gets here, and then play some tomorrow morning and really it's more about getting a feel for the type of golf course and the way it plays, than it is knowing the holes and knowing where to hit and not to hit and things like that.
By Friday we'll have the golf course pretty well figured out, I hope.

Q. As a follow-up to that first question, could you contemplate what it would mean to you to win a Major championship?
BRAD BRYANT: What's first place? 300, 360,000 or something? So that would make my wife real happy. Happy wife, happy life.
I think that it would mean a lot to me to win this event. This is obviously one of our biggest events. And being a Major, it would really, it would be very special to win.
However, I think that for me if everything goes really well, if I continue to play the way that I have for the last year and a half, I'm probably only going to play two more years full-time anyway. So right now the more money I can put in the bank, the more time I can spend fishing in a couple of years.

Q. As a follow-up, have you given any thought or is it important to you, you talked about what certain players have contributed to the game, about your legacy and your name in golf history?
BRAD BRYANT: I don't need a legacy. I got a legacy that's Jamison and Jonathan. That's good enough for me. Here one of these days I hope that -- it is my fondest dream that in 10 years people it won't matter what I've done. And I just hope that my sons, that they go on to do what they want to do and be and that they have a good life. Other than that, who cares? You know. I'll be retired and I told them when they were kind of, we were having a, what would you call it with teenagers? A learning moment, here a couple months back and I told them you better be careful, I'm guy that changed your diapers when you were little and you're the guys that are going to be changing my diapers when I'm old. So you better be nice to me.
So that's really all, having a legacy, that really, who cares. 50 years from now it won't matter. There are other things that are a lot more important than winning golf tournaments.

Q. Can you explain why some players seem to have had more success on the Champions Tour than they did in the Regular Tour and maybe vice versa?
BRAD BRYANT: That's a difficult thing to answer. We have talked about that a little bit. I think that part of it has to do with the fact that we don't have a cut on the Champions Tour. I know that when I played the Regular Tour by the time Friday afternoon finished, I was pretty exhausted because making the cut was very important to me. And trying to finish in the top 125. Where on the Champions Tour, once you finished in the Top-30, like I did the first year, my second year was really all about going out there and just trying to go as low as you could.
So I think that that suits some players better than others. Also I think that there's also part of it that there's a few of us that are like myself, couple other players that I can think of, that we had good PGA TOUR careers, but not great PGA TOUR careers. And so this is kind of a second chance for us. And I think that when you're given a second chance it maybe means more to you. You kind of messed up once and you get a second chance. You don't want to mess up your second chance.
And I think that some of us have worked, I know that I worked as hard to qualify for this TOUR and I've worked as hard for this TOUR as I did for the Regular Tour back when I was 25 and 30. Now I'm a lot older so it hurts a lot more.

Q. When you noted wind could play a significant factor as it probably will here, and you know that going in, do you adjust your style or your thinking at all versus going to a golf course where the wind may not be such a factor?
BRAD BRYANT: My, I don't adjust a lot. I have adjustments that I make in my equipment. For instance, this week I'm pretty sure that I'll be playing a 1-iron rather than a 5-wood. Last week the golf course in Birmingham was a 5-wood golf course for me. Because a couple of the par-5s. This week it will be important to keep the ball down a little lower. Overall, I've been trying to lower my trajectory of all of my shots quite a bit. Coming on the Champions Tour, on our TOUR it's all about driving the ball in the fairway. That's really important on our TOUR. Much more so on our TOUR than the Regular Tour. The Regular Tour it's important to launch the ball high and hit it very, very far. As you know, my brother has had tremendous success on the Regular Tour being a low ball hitter over the last few years, but he's kind of the only guy that really is a low ball hitter that's had a lot of success. So that TOUR has kind of gone to guys that can really hit the ball high, launch the ball far.
On our TOUR it's much more important to be able to hit the ball lower and have the ball more under control, because our courses are a little bit shorter, they're not nearly as short as what a lot of people think. Last week we played a 7400 yard golf course. But on our TOUR there is a real premium on getting the ball in the fairway off the tee. That is, on our TOUR I think that's probably the most important thing. And so when you're driving the ball well, getting the ball in the fairway, you better shoot low scores.
So having made those adjustments, I've also gotten a new driver that I started using last week that I can hit quite a bit lower. And I've been experimenting with drivers for two reasons: Because of this course and because of Muirfield this summer in Scotland.
And hopefully the adjustments that I made in my equipment will help me get the ball down on the ground a little quicker, both this week and maybe Scotland and maybe I can have good weeks. So those are the adjustments I made. So I actually have made some fairly sizeable adjustments in my equipment but not in my golf game.

Q. How much is it a question of less loft or different shaft in the driver?
BRAD BRYANT: Different -- I've gone to an Adams driver. With a different shaft. And actually if anything a little bit more loft. Rather than less loft. But a little less spin and a little flatter lie. So I'm kind of hitting the ball a little lower with a little flatter trajectory than the driver that I was using.
I'm also using a driver that's just about a half an inch shorter. And that helps keep the ball down a little bit. We made a driver last week that I could hit quite a bit higher and further, but obviously this week that's not necessary. The ball might end up somewhere in Georgia instead of staying in South Carolina if you hit it too high this week.
So just in the driver that's really the only club that I made a change in. I have a 3-wood that I hit really, really good and part of the reason why I have the particular 3-wood in my bag is because I use it off the tee a lot because I can hit the ball very low with it.
KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant. Thank you very much for joining us.
BRAD BRYANT: All right, guys, I hope I see you later in the week.

End of FastScripts

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