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STANFORD ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP

June 9, 2007

Adam Scott

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 54 hole leader, Adam Scott, thanks for joining us after your third consecutive round in the 60s here at the Stanford St. Jude Championship.
Pretty steady day for you, especially on the back 9, three birdies. Great finish, 68. Maybe some opening comments?
ADAM SCOTT: I was happy to get it together on the back 9 after an indifferent front 9, but turned it around and played some good golf and had a chance to really make a move with the eagle at 16. Would have been nice but very happy with the finish anyway.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Okay. We'll take some questions.

Q. What was different about the front 9?
ADAM SCOTT: Well, I missed a few more fairways than I have been, therefore, missing a couple of greens and not giving myself the birdie opportunities like I had most of the other days. Hit a lot of greens and had a lot of chances to make birdie and I was scrambling a little on the front 9.
But I knew if I had a good back 9 I could get myself right back to where I want to be and played very solid coming in.

Q. You said that you wanted to be in contention tomorrow and that's the best way to prepare for next week and everything else.
Do you feel pretty comfortable about where you are and you don't feel like you're far enough ahead that you're not going to have the nerves that you said you want to be dealing with tomorrow?
ADAM SCOTT: Three shots is nothing, really. That's a couple-hole turnaround out there. There's plenty of trouble to get in on this golf course.
The pins are in quite difficult positions and they have been everyday, so if you get out of position, it's hard to get it back in position. Three shots is definitely not a big enough lead, as far as I'm concerned. But it would be nice to get off to a good start tomorrow and make it hard for them to catch me.

Q. Greg Norman won here once with birdie, birdie, birdie down the stretch and I know you were influenced by Greg.
How much -- can you talk a little bit about that, growing up, and then when you first met him and your recollections of growing up and watching Greg?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah. I remember when he won here. We were watching at home on Monday morning. Birdie, birdie, birdie. At that point it seemed like Greg had a chance to win every week he played out there. We would all be watching every weekend.
It was big news when Greg played a tournament and, you know, he was a role model for every kid my age at home who played golf.
He's had a big influence on the game back in Australia and I think a lot of the success of the guys out here is from his influence on the game and making it popular and inspiring all of us. And then I finally got to meet him in -- I finally played with him in I think it was the start of 2000 was the first time I played golf with him.

Q. Adam, you mentioned the ability to turn things around. Gay had two-stroke lead on you and ran into trouble on 12 with his consecutive bogies.
Were you paying much attention to what he was doing at that point or just focusing on your game, and how key were those consecutive birdies for yourself?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I wasn't really too worried about Brian at that point. If he kept making birdies I would have been but, obviously, when he struggled with the bogey, bogey there at -- it put me back up in front with him -- you know, it was more important -- I was thinking about my own golf and hitting fairways and greens, which I started doing and, you know, the birdie on 15 was nice to make right in front of Brian because it made him have to think a little more about his putt and then obviously played 16 well.
So, yeah the back 9 was very important for my tournament this week so far.

Q. Do you have theories on why -- obviously the wind wasn't there today, on why people haven't been able to go out and post the number that maybe people have been expecting all week long?
Why is this course still tricky?
ADAM SCOTT: I got to say the pin spots are probably harder than usual on Tour. They're on some quite slopy areas and with the greens being quite grainy, long putts are tough because maybe they'll start into the grain and halfway will turn into down grain and judging the speed might be a little more difficult.
But, you know, it's fairly narrow golf course. You've got to hit fairways, otherwise you can't really control your ball out of the rough on to the green. I think it's set up very well, though; just a good challenge.

Q. Have you done anything else in Memphis while you've been here or just been playing golf, going home and playing golf?
ADAM SCOTT: Pretty much playing golf and going home, although I might go for some ribs tonight or something, some barbeque.

Q. You remember Norman playing here. Do you remember the Mize chip-in? You might remember all the agony, too, of Greg Norman? Did you agonize along with him?
ADAM SCOTT: Sure, absolutely. He was my hero, so -- you know, I lived and died off every shot he hit there, especially in majors and, you know, the Larry Mize chip-in was probably the first time I really remember watching him play golf because I got to stay home from school that morning to watch and, you know, there are a few others but, you know, it's nice to remember his positive things that he did as well, like maybe one of the best rounds ever at Ralston, Georgia in '93.

Q. Just looking at this tournament, I don't know if there were 17 Australians or something, you had another one in your group.
Are you all pretty close on the Tour and is golf more democratic in Australian than it is here? Wha's it like playing golf in Australia compared to what you sense the States are like?
ADAM SCOTT: I think -- well, firstly, I think we're all pretty close, you know, we've known each other for a long time. And I think golf is very available to kids in Australia, it's cheap and probably one reason why there are so many good young players coming out of Australia, and the programs to nurture young talent are very good down there.
There's a lot of backing from the government. We've instituted sports. They give a lot to golf, as well, so I think it's kind of an attitude to make sure that talent doesn't go waisted.

Q. I own this microphone, now.
Will people in Australia be watching Monday morning, will it be Monday morning in Australia when you are in the last group tomorrow and watching and is it winter there?
ADAM SCOTT: Yes.

Q. Do you think kids will be skipping school, not necessarily for Memphis, but they might be skipping school next week? Do you expect that people will be watching this Monday morning back home?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah. I mean it comes on early in the morning like 5 in the morning, I think so. Hopefully my friends will be watching (laughter).

Q. And lastly because I had to ask this, have you had any communications with Sharapova since she put you in her blog or --
ADAM SCOTT: Haven't heard anything from her. It's a hoax.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Anything else? Okay, Adam. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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