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TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 19, 2007

Ryan Moore

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Ryan, for joining us for a few minutes in the media center at the Travelers Championship. Last year you had a lot of success, and I'm sure it feels good to come back and play here again. I don't know if you played a practice round, if anything has changed out there, but why don't you talk about the good lies and coming back to a place where you've had pretty good luck.
RYAN MOORE: It's always great. Actually, the only other time I had taken second previous to this tournament, the tournament wasn't going to be at the same course the next year, the Bell Canadian. It's nice, I haven't played well on a certain golf course and now I'm going to come back here and be comfortable with this. I haven't played yet, I don't know if there have been any changes or anything, the course looks phenomenal again. I'm excited to go play again.

Q. You have great credentials as an amateur, what's the hardest think about making the transition to a professional?
RYAN MOORE: That's a good question. It's a lot more golf. Personally, I've been injured for the whole time I've been a professional, pretty much. That's made things more difficult. It's just another level of things to deal with and everything, along with just more golf and responsibilities and playing for money instead of playing for the sheer fun of it. There are a lot of things that have changed. I think it's overlooked how big of a transition it really can be.

Q. What changes have you made with your swing throughout the last few years? You mentioned the injuries you've gone through. Haven't you always made -- kind of take it the way you address the ball to --
RYAN MOORE: I've fiddled with it quite a bit, especially with the way my hand was feeling for awhile. At address, I kind of started parallel to the ground just to be able to swing so my hand didn't hurt really bad, it still hurt, just so it didn't hurt as bad.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: You're not doing that anymore?
RYAN MOORE: No, I've been able to swing fairly normal the last few months. It's felt better and better and better, and it's a matter of getting comfortable with it again. I actually played well a couple of weeks ago at Columbus, which is a great confidence booster to get back in the thick of things, and did it in a somewhat creative way.
I made a few birdies coming down the stretch to make the jump there. For me, I actually hit the ball on Friday at the U.S. Open, unfortunately I missed the cut by one, with Cabrera birdieing the very last hole. That was painful to watch, but I left it up to him, I didn't take care of him. I hit the ball on Friday better there than I hit it the entire year. I hit inside, 10, 12 feet, eight times that day. At the U.S. Open, it was a difficult golf course and I still shot 73. So I still have a lot of confidence in my swing and how things are feeling right now, it's the best it's felt all year.

Q. Any problems?
RYAN MOORE: No. Really for the last couple of months, it hasn't really bothered me. At least it's been pain-free pretty much the last three, four months now. There's a little irritation here and there, but it's all muscle pain now. It gets a little tired after a round of golf or something like that, but never something that carries over into the next day. And it's not painful. I can just do what I feel like doing without having to give it a second thought, which is a great feeling.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Did you have to do icing or anything beforehand?
RYAN MOORE: No. Recently I haven't had to do anything, which is yet again nice, not to have to do a lot of extra stuff, to be able to get up the morning and feel fine and go play.

Q. Last year you shot four rounds in the 60s. Is there something about this course that you like?
RYAN MOORE: I didn't realize I did that, actually. I was actually trying to think the other day what I shot here. I honestly have no idea how many under I was last year and what I shot.

Q. 12.
RYAN MOORE: I was 12, okay? Yeah, I do like the golf course, I like the layout. There are a lot of different shots and different holes and you have to work it off the tee a bit and into the green. It's a fair golf course. If you hit a good shot, you're going to get rewarded. They put the pins in some tough areas, but if you play smart and hit good shots, you're going to have some birdie chances. But at the same time, if you miss some shots, you can get into bad spots out here. I think it's a very fair, fair straightforward golf course, and I like it. It's right there in front of you.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: You're kind of doing the same thing, the way you came in this week? I know obviously you have played this course for the first time last year, now you've had the opportunity to come back and play again, but have you done kind of the same progress of practicing and doing what you did last year? Did you stay consistent or is that not something you think about.
RYAN MOORE: You know, it's actually kind of funny because last year I got in at the very last minute, and I had to play my practice round -- I got into the airport at 4:00 and drove straight out of here and went out and started playing at about 4:30 to 5:00, somewhere around there, and I didn't even the whole course in.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: On Monday?
RYAN MOORE: On Tuesday, because I wasn't in the Wednesday Pro-Am. So the last two or three holes were in the dark. It was a little stressful. I don't know. Wednesday kind of settled things down a little bit. Last year it was a little more hectic. It was nice to get in a little earlier and have the whole day yesterday. I actually didn't come out and practice. I went down to New York. My brother is caddying for me. He had never been to New York City before. It's not too far away, so we went there and did some fun stuff. It's been very relaxing, kind of nice.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Would this be like one of the first courses you would have played for the second time?
RYAN MOORE: No. This was just -- well, where did I start? I started at Westchester two years ago.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: So you've played a lot of courses for the second time.
RYAN MOORE: Yes.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Talk a little bit about how comfortable it is to go back to a place and play a second time.
RYAN MOORE: It's nice knowing what to expect and knowing there are certain things you're going to have to work on. And when you're going out practicing, you know a couple of the pin placements or collection areas that there's a good chance ball is going to end up here. There are some good places to practice and really prepare yourself on. If you're going in blind, that can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing, both.
I think it paid off a lot at the Memorial a couple of weeks ago. I barely snuck in on Tuesday. I was an alternate, and I got in. I loved the course before, and just getting -- I knew what to expect. I knew the kind of shots it was going to take, and a lot of the pins and how the weekend -- because I had made the cut the year before -- how the weekend kind of played out, and I was much more prepared.
And that week I only played nine holes on Tuesday, because I was sick the whole beginning of the week, so I didn't get to practice all that much, but I had the built-in knowledge of how it was going to be and I think that helps a lot, for sure.

Q. After your amateur success, is there a point at which winning gets to be pressure up here. A lot of guys never win in their first two years.
RYAN MOORE: I don't really look at it as pressure. It's more outside pressure than what I put on myself. I am out here to win. That's what I play golf for. I'm not saying I had an excuse for last year. I definitely was physically capable of doing what I know I'm capable of doing on the golf course for the last couple of years in putting and chipping and all that stuff. It was the little stuff that was so hard, and the putting is truly the key to winning out here. You make a couple more putts and that could be it right there. My hand affected that stuff so much more than I was actually expecting it to. I thought it would hurt my swing a bunch. I didn't hit the ball great, but I didn't hit it bad. But it's the little things, the putting and my speed control was horrible, which is not normal for me. Little stuff like that is very hard for a couple of years. It's hard. The level of this competition, if you don't have anything working and at least not putting well, you're not going to have a chance, with as competitive as it is now.
I definitely don't look at it as pressure. I don't look at it, "Oh, no, I still haven't won, what am I going to do this week?" I don't go into events like that. I just look at it as a great opportunity, I'm comfortable with the golf course. I've played here before. I'm excited to get out there and have another chance at it.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you for your time.

End of FastScripts

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