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AT&T NATIONAL

July 6, 2007

Billy Andrade

BETHESDA, MARYLAND

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Billy, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at AT&T National. Another round of 68 and looking good for the weekend. Maybe just talk about your play as of late and today out there.
BILLY ANDRADE: My play as of late has been pretty good. I think that I haven't shown any results, and that's what's very frustrating to all golfers; you know, when you feel like you're playing well and you don't play anything out of it, you don't finish as strong as you like, you make a few stupid mistakes to go from a great week, maybe a Top-5 or a Top-10, and I've done that the last few weeks.
But I would say really this whole year I've hit the ball well; I just didn't got the ball in the hole. When you don't do that very well, you struggle.
It's great to see Tiger, who yesterday said he can't put, he 3-putted four times, and he's got to find something; you know, it takes most normal human -- most normal golfers, you might go through a funk six months, and you can't find your putting stroke, never mind six hours, you know. (Laughter) So I'm glad that he "found" whatever he lost there for a day.
But when you don't have your putting out here, you can't compete. I did a nice job of that. I've been putting a lot better in the last couple months, and today was a good day with that and a good day of not leaving shots out there. I think that's another key that a lot of players go through when you miss a green and you don't get it up-and-down. And if you hit it in there close, when you don't make birdies, it's very frustrating.
So yesterday and today, I didn't leave a whole lot out there. I played well, I played well again today. I drove it well, I was in play most of the day. My only bogey was a 3-putt on 6.
I chipped in on 4 for birdie.
5, I hit it close, I hit it about three feet with a sand wedge from the middle of the fairway.
Bogeyed 6.
Birdied 7. I had a sand wedge about three feet there.
10 was a great birdie. I hit a 5-iron about 20 feet right of the hole. I had a downhill putt and made a nice birdie there.
Drove it in that right rough on 14, which is thick. I don't know, I think that might be the thickest rough out there and didn't get it to the green and made a nice bogey. And then parred in.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: How are conditions out there, is it a little windier than yesterday?
BILLY ANDRADE: I think so. I thought you had a nice, steady brisk -- it was up. It was up more today than it was yesterday. So it made it a little dicier.
But it was a swirly wind, and then it would die at times, and you had to pay attention that you didn't catch a lull when you were hitting into the wind so you wouldn't hit it way over.
But overall, I thought it was a -- I saw the scoring this morning before I went out, and it looked like some guys were having a tough time. So I thought if you could keep it around par, it would be a good score. So 2-under, I'm real happy with that.

Q. I think on 16 is looked like you had an awkward stance underneath a tree.
BILLY ANDRADE: I drove it in the left rough there. It was of down right-to-left. You lick your chops when you get -- most guys that don't hit it like monster-long, you get excited when you get on a hole where, yeah, you might be able to get home in two if you get two good ones. I swang at it a little too hard and hooked it in the left rough up near those trees. I chipped out with a 9-iron and hit a wedge to 15 feet. So it was okay.

Q. Actually Tiger didn't change his stroke; he just added a little lead tape to the Scotty Cameron?
BILLY ANDRADE: Oh, is that what he did? How about that. God, that's so great. I'm happy for him. (Laughter).
I'm happy that he figured that out. Takes guys years to do that.

Q. Lead tape?
BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah. You know, heavier putter, lighter putter. You know, that's really great.

Q. The top exempt player here gets into Carnoustie; I wonder if that's on your radar?
BILLY ANDRADE: Say that again?

Q. The top exempt player here gets into Carnoustie, I wonder if that's on your radar?
BILLY ANDRADE: Sure. I would love to go back --
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Actually it's top three.
BILLY ANDRADE: I was there the last time. Pretty funny story, I went to Rhode Island for the summer. My tooth was bothering me, I had a crown. I went in to see this doctor I had never seen before, first time. He said, "You've got a biting problem, you're fine." Didn't X-ray me. He just kind of filed down the tooth. Fly to Carnoustie, I was starting to have problems. I shot 75 the first day, I was in 13th place, the scores were high.
Second day, I couldn't put my socks on before I teed off at 1:45. At 1:00 I was in a doctor's office in downtown Carnoustie. The guy -- I was begging the guy to shoot me up with Novocaine so I could go play. And I parred the first four. And on No. 5 tee, the Novocaine wore off, and I was done. (Laughter).
I shot the highest score of my life I think in competition. I got done at, you know, 6:30 or 7:00. My wife met some dentists on the course, they were following Brandt Jobe who I was playing with, whose wife, she's a dentist -- she's something. She cleans teeth, whatever you call that --

Q. Hygienist.
BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah, that's it. They took me an hour to St. Andrews to their practice. I had two hours of surgery to get the tooth out to do a root canal to get me so I could fly back home to Rhode Island.
Make a long story short, I'd love to go back without a bad tooth, and I think I can do pretty well over there. You know, if the dentist is out -- we've got him. He doesn't practice anymore. He's out. (Laughter).
But I don't want to mention his name. I don't want the guy calling me up.

Q. Go ahead, mention it.
BILLY ANDRADE: No, I won't. Dr. Brown. (Laughter).
So, yes, I would love to go back. I haven't played a major this year, so I think all of us, all players that play out here want to play in the biggest tournaments. So it would be nice.

Q. So the tooth was more painful than the golf course.
BILLY ANDRADE: You know what, the dumb thing was that I kept playing. Like, what am I doing? I couldn't even move my neck. I had -- it was about an hour away, the guy said when he was cleaning it out to where I would have to stay in Scotland for about a week and a half until the infection went down, but I got it just in time.

Q. Can't make that stuff up.
BILLY ANDRADE: No.

Q. You see Tiger shoot 66 today, surprising, is this something you see all the time with this guy?
BILLY ANDRADE: No, you see it all the time. It's surprising when he 3-putts four times. The TV said he 3-putted 9 all year. Maybe he should have had twins and then he would have 3-putted more today, I don't know.
But no, he does it all the time. He's obviously the best, and he always comes back. He's always there even when you don't think he's there, he's around, and he's going to be lurking again. He'll be right there at the end.

Q. Can you talk about your comfort level in this area? Obviously you won the Kemper in '91 and then second last year at the Booz Allen and now you're in position going into the we can end.
BILLY ANDRADE: I love it here, I do. I'm going to buy a home maybe. (Laughter).
No, I don't know what it is. My sister went to college here, this is halfway between Wake Forest and Rhode Island.

Q. Where did she go to school?
BILLY ANDRADE: Georgetown. And she lived here after that. I stayed here when I won when she was living here. So this is kind of -- I know the area. I don't know if that makes a difference on playing well. But I've also paid lousy here, too, on occasion.
You know, this is the summertime and the summer I usually start playing better. I don't know, I've always been a slow starter, and here we go again. So another year, another slow start. But I love -- this terrain is a lot like Rhode Island terrain. It's very similar, sort of classic course, and I like playing courses like this.

Q. You have to like your position, three back at this point.
BILLY ANDRADE: Sure. I think anybody under par right now is looking pretty good. I think you've got great players, K.J. is a great player -- who else is tied with him?

Q. Appleby.
BILLY ANDRADE: He's obviously a world-class player. So you know, it's nice to be where I'm at. But tomorrow's moving day. Tomorrow is, you get yourself in a position to have a chance to win, and that's what all of the rest of us are going to do.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Billy.
BILLY ANDRADE: Thank you, Joan.

End of FastScripts

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