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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 19, 2007

Steve Stricker

CARNOUSTIE, SCOTLAND

STEVE STRICKER: I bogeyed the last. It was playing about a par-5 today. I hit a good drive and had 248 to the hole. Laid her up and tried to get her up-and-down but didn't get her up-and-down. It was a good round. Good start.

Q. How is the course playing?
STEVE STRICKER: Very fair. Even with the conditions we had this morning, it's very fair. With the rough being wet like this, it even put a little more premium on getting it into the fairway. Even though the rough isn't very thick, when it gets wet like that it gets a little more grabby. It's a little tougher if you miss the fairway.

Q. How were the conditions this morning?
STEVE STRICKER: Well, you know it wasn't as bad. We played six holes on Monday morning, so we got a taste of what bad really is. This morning wasn't as bad as Monday morning. So it was kind of good that we did that on Monday and got the feel of that. But it wasn't much fun early on. It was testing conditions, but it didn't last too long. It would let up for a while and give us a break, but still, you had to kind of keep your head about you.

Q. Greens are soft?
STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, fairly soft. You know what, it's pretty firm for the amount of rain that we've had. The fairways seem to, not roll out, but if we had the amount of rain we had here back home, we probably wouldn't be playing or be really sloppy. It's not the case here. It's in great shape. The greens are rolling good, and the fairways are fairly firm and tight. So it's great. It's in good shape.

Q. (Inaudible.)
STEVE STRICKER: Well, we're not used to this. It's a bit different for us, even though I grew up in Wisconsin and we played on days like this all the time when we were kids. But as you get older and when you're playing a lot of golf, you tend to not go out on days like today. And so we don't get a lot of practise really anymore. But you've just got to tough it out and do your best.

Q. Have you played Whistling Straits on a day like this?
STEVE STRICKER: I've not played Whistling Straits.

Q. How could that be?
STEVE STRICKER: I wasn't eligible for the PGA.

Q. You haven't played here since '02, I think it is?
STEVE STRICKER: Right.

Q. What's it like being back? Do you have to kind of relearn a couple of things?
STEVE STRICKER: I love being back. It's been four or five years. Yeah, it's just different. You've got to play the game a little bit differently over here. You have to hit the ball a little bit lower at times and hit it up in the air at other times. You really need a variety of shots. And sometimes there's no getting away with shots here.
Back home if you have generous fairways or whatever and you miss it with a driver or whatever, you can kind of get away with it. But here sometimes when you miss it or something goes a little off line you end up in a bunker or in the rough where it gets pretty penal at times. So that's the difference, I think. You've got to focus a little bit more and try to get it in the fairways and do all the little stuff around the greens and maybe a bump-and-run, or it may be putting from 50 yards short of the green. So it's a lot different, but it's enjoyable for the week out here.

Q. What's your reaction to what Gary Player said yesterday about players out there using drugs?
STEVE STRICKER: Well, if he knows so much -- I've never heard anybody using anything. But obviously he has, if he said that. We'll find out once we get that drug testing policy in place. I'm sure it's giving all the guys, if they are using it, time to stop using whatever they are using by the time the testing comes about.
That's an interesting comment. I really thought we had a clean slate here, clean players, and maybe we don't. It's just hard to say. But that's interesting. I don't know. It would be interesting to see who would test positive for it.
But it's going to be such a long time before it's in place, I don't think by that time anybody is going to test positive for anything.

Q. Does that force them to speed up the timetable, do you think, him making those comments?
STEVE STRICKER: I would think they would want to speed it up. But still, we've been talking about this for quite a while already. If anybody was using, I'm sure it's out of their system if they stopped using. I don't know how long that stays in your system, but I'm sure it's been long enough already to get out of their system. I don't even know if it's going to make a difference if they get going right away with it or not.

Q. (Inaudible.)
STEVE STRICKER: That's a good question. No, I don't think so. I mean, I don't think that would be fair to Gary. I don't know why he would even say that yesterday. I don't think so.

Q. In all fairness to him, he was asked that question.
STEVE STRICKER: He was? He could have just said --

Q. He could have not been truthful?
STEVE STRICKER: Just skirted the issue. But that creates a lot more headaches for everybody, I'm sure. But here's a guy that has built his body and prided himself on working out and conditioning himself, and I'm sure it kills him to see somebody else that is cheating, to do it the way that -- the way they're doing it compared to the way he's done it. I'm sure that's probably one of the reasons why he said it.

End of FastScripts

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