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THE BARCLAYS

August 23, 2007

Jeff Maggert

HARRISON, NEW YORK

Q. Jeff, what was the key to your round today?
JEFF MAGGERT: I just played a good, solid round. With the wet conditions, the greens are soft, and I was able to hit some shots close to the hole and made a few putts.
I love this golf course. I've played well here in the past, and I always feel like if I'm playing well and putting well, I always have an opportunity to win here.
So the last few weeks, my putter has been cooperating very nicely, and I hit the ball -- you know, I could have hit the ball a little better today but chipped in once and made a couple long putts and just kept it going with the putter.

Q. How important is it for you to get off to a good start this week?
JEFF MAGGERT: Well, you know, you try and approach this week as just another tournament. Obviously it's the first Playoff event. I had a slow start to the year because of a broken rib. So I feel like, you know, I lost probably two or three months of the season with that.
So I think I'm 100th on the points coming in; I'd like to move up a little bit. Chicago is one of my favorite places to play, and if I'm not in the Top-70 I'm not going to get an opportunity to play there. Really, that's the main goal. You know, you come in 100th on points, the expectations of winning the Playoffs is pretty minimal. So I'm just trying to play these four tournaments like they were any other tournaments. They are great golf courses, and Barclays is doing a great job with this tournament and I enjoy being here; and I love Westchester and hopefully play well this week and chance to move on.

Q. Any more urgency than usual given your desire to get to Chicago?
JEFF MAGGERT: I wouldn't say Boston is one of my favorite courses. I would actually skip Boston if it was the normal season, but I'm going to try to play as well as I can here and I'm going to go Boston. They made a lot of changes to the course and maybe the changes will be different for me and my game. Just try and play well here and play well next week.

Q. You mentioned Chicago, in years past, if you were 100th on the list with two events left, THE TOUR Championship would be a pretty unlikely scenario, and now it's within reach, given this new format; how much thought have you given to that?
JEFF MAGGERT: Under the old format. I'd have about nine more tournaments to have a chance to get into THE TOUR Championship, as well. With this TOUR Championship ending so early in the season, just by the fact that my being injured early in the year kind of, you know, just put myself far behind; I didn't really have a chance to really get caught up.
But I would always play this tournament and always play Chicago. So those are two of my favorites places to go and I just want to play well enough here to have an opportunity. I'd love to go back to Atlanta and play East Lake again, but I've got to take care of business this week and next week and the week after that.

Q. What has been your impression of this Playoff format, and how has it changed at all now that you're actually immersed in it?
JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I think the concept is good. I made some comments last week in the press that were probably, you know -- I said that because I believed that. I love the concept of the Playoffs. I'm not a fan at all of ending the Playoffs now. I think they should be at the end of our season. I think a lot of tournaments kind of got the short end of the stick. I think Wyndham and Greensboro -- normally Greensboro is a great tournament. It's been a great tournament for 50 years and now they are stuck with a very unfortunate date. You know, Wyndham is going to be a great sponsor there and unfortunately everyone is talking about, you know, their date on the schedule and all that.
You know, hey, maybe we can move some tournaments around a little bit and so the same tournament doesn't get stuck with that date every single year after year. I don't know, like Tim said, this is kind of a work-in-progress. I think you know, the concept is going to be very good. It's very exciting. I'd like to see Tiger play all four tournaments. I'm sorry he's not here. I think it would be good if he was here but he's not. Maybe we can tweak the format to force the top players to play.

Q. The TOUR has said that part of the reason of not wanting to go all the way in late October and November is to stay away from football; do you think if they moved this to the back end that people would be paying attention?
JEFF MAGGERT: Let's face it, Tiger drives TV ratings on TOUR. He's the greatest player in the world right now and very well could be the greatest player ever. So when he plays, TV ratings are great. They would be good ratings in November if he plays, and they will be good ratings in September if he plays.
I understand, you know, the football schedule and all of that, and hey, that's let's just try to build our sport and make it better and get more fans watching. And maybe we don't have to worry about football anymore, I don't know. There's no easy answer. But I'd like to see maybe the format tweaked.

Q. How would you tweak it, Commissioner?
JEFF MAGGERT: Commissioner Jeff. Well, there's not a chance of that happening.
But you know, I think -- well, for one, this is just one opinion of one player. I would like to see the Playoffs end at the end of the year.
The other thing is I'd like to see some type of criteria or rule that if you pull out of a tournament, you're pulling out of the Playoffs. So if, you know, Playoffs started this week, if you pull out, you're pulling out for all four weeks. I think that's a good rule. Obviously there's going to be a lot of players that aren't going to like that rule, but if you want to promote the Playoffs as "the Playoffs," some of the rules are going to have to be a lot different.
Another thing is I would like to see the last tournament, maybe everyone starting equally, because then you eliminate the fact that a guy could win the first three tournaments and the last tournament means nothing.
So if you start over on the last tournament, everyone has the same amount of points, that's the Super Bowl of golf. Everyone has the same opportunity.

Q. Have you aired any of your thoughts to anyone, the Commissioner?
JEFF MAGGERT: We talk about things all year long. You know, like I said, that's just my opinion. And I'm sure there's going to be 30, 40, good opinions. Mine might get tossed out or they might like some.
I don't want to talk away from this year's format. I mean, you know, a lot of people put a lot of effort into making this happen. I think the way it is, it's going to work. Just this week, a few more weeks and see how it turns out.

Q. Will your season end after THE TOUR Championship?
JEFF MAGGERT: For me, no. There's some tournaments I like to play in the fall. You know, that's a whole other side of the coin, this issue on ending the season early and these other tournaments and what are they going to count for. And you know, if you win a tournament during the FedExCup, you get into the Masters; if you win a tournament after the FedExCup, you don't get in the Masters. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me; it's tough to win out here no matter what event you're playing in.
There's just a lot of different things that have changed, and time will kind of smooth things out.

End of FastScripts

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