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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 4, 2007

Brandt Snedeker

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: We'd like to thank Brandt Snedeker for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the BMW Championship. 17th on the FedExCup, pretty safe for next week, and you ended last week with a 66 there yesterday, on Labor Day. So that's a good start coming into this week with a short week.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: I know you're having fun out there.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Exactly. It was kind of a struggle at the Barclays. I missed the cut. And then last week was frustrating, but I made the cut and played well on Sunday. So hopefully I can take that 66 and parlay it into some good golf this week.

Q. It looks like you're going to be in the TOUR Championship field next week. Was that even in your mind six, eight months ago coming out of Nationwide Tour?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: You know, it was a goal, but I wouldn't say it was my first and foremost worry. I think my main goal this year was trying to finish in the Top 70 to be exempt for the invitationals next year. I thought that would be a good year, a good rookie year especially.
I got hot for about six or seven weeks and made a lot of good putts and kind of dumbed my way through it and woke up and was ninth on the FedExCup point list, pretty much locked up for the TOUR Championship. So it was a great way to end the year and certainly a surprise. I'm not going to sit up here and lie to you and say I saw myself doing that because I really didn't. I was just trying to work hard, and hopefully good things would happen.

Q. I think you got a lot of people's attention in San Diego early and you kind of established yourself. What did the win do for you and the rest of your season?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: You know, it just kind of validated my place out here more than anything, just trying to prove myself. As a rookie out here, it's very hard to feel at home, to feel like you belong, to feel like on Sundays late afternoons that you're ready to compete. So when you do get a chance to close out a tournament on Sunday and you are successful, it's very gratifying.
I had a chance in San Diego, and I got kind of "Tigered," I got welcome to the world of Tiger on Sunday, and I got to find out what that was like, so it was great. It was great to learn some stuff and to learn how to fail, and with that you learn how to win. So that was very exciting for me just to be in that position and to learn from it. So hopefully I can be semi-intelligent, learn from the few experiences I have out here, and improve on them.

Q. Just from your perspective as a new player on the TOUR, you hear all the debate about the format for this. What would you like to change about the playoff format? Is there anything?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: You know, I'm not really -- to be honest with you, I'm not even smart enough to field that question. I think the Playoffs are great. We get the best fields in golf for four straight weeks, and that's all you can ask for. Whether we need to modify the fields or modify the points system or whatever, I guess it is up to the membership and it is up to the players, but being a rookie, I'm not really smart enough to -- I don't feel comfortable trying to tell people how to run something because I'm not really that intelligent. I feel there are a whole lot of people out here who are more experienced, more intelligent, and really know the workings of the TOUR and the way this thing should work a whole lot better than I do.
I'm just happy to tee up and play -- we're playing for $7 million this week. Are you kidding me? I was playing in tournaments last year for $500,000. So this is a great experience, and I'm just excited to be here.

Q. You're a young guy, so it probably doesn't affect you, but playing four straight weeks, is that physically a problem at all?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: No, you know, like I've said before, I'm very lucky, I don't have really anything keeping me at home right now. I have a girlfriend back in Nashville, but other than that I don't have any family obligations, I don't have kids I need to see off to school, I don't have any of the pressures that most of the guys out here do have.
So I'm traveling; I want to play every week just about just so I can see what cities I like, what golf courses I like. If I don't like them, I'll know not to go back there next year and that kind of stuff. This will be my fifth tournament in a row, and hopefully next week will be six, and I'll be so excited next week playing the TOUR Championship that it's not going to be a big deal being fatigued at all. Six in a row is really not a big deal for me. I played 10, 11 in a row last year on the Nationwide Tour, so this is still not even anywhere near my fatigue zone yet, so we're doing all right.

Q. So the TOUR Championship is a big deal for you next week?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Very big deal. I think that just solidifies how well you played all year. I think everybody that tees it up out here at the beginning of the season says, if I make it to the TOUR Championship it's been a successful year. If you've done that you've played good not just one week, you've played good pretty much all year long. I think that's everybody's goal and I'm very excited to do that my rookie season. I know I'm very fortunate and very lucky to do that, but hopefully that's going to be my goal starting out every year is making the TOUR Championship and playing well in majors. That's everybody's goal. So hopefully -- I was fortunate enough to do that this year, and hopefully I can keep doing that.

Q. Did you get a chance to look at the course today?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I did, yeah.

Q. What were your impressions?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Very good. This is an unbelievable track. It's a great old-style golf course, a golf course you don't get to see too often very much anymore. Big trees, big greens, ball striker's golf course, but it doesn't really suit itself up to a long hitter or a short hitter's golf course, which is what I think a golf course should be. I think everybody has their advantages and everybody has their same disadvantages on the golf course, so I think it's great.
You can just look at the past champions that have played here and won here; it seems to identify very good champions. So that's what you look for in a good golf course, and I think everybody that's playing here is very excited about playing this golf course.

Q. Just getting back to this idea of you're excited to be here, I mean, this is all still a novelty to you. I'm sorry if the big story today is that Phil Mickelson is not playing here. He's a veteran, but for you, you're the other side; you're thrilled to be here and to have this opportunity?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Exactly, yeah. I think 90 percent -- all the rookies out here, if you ask most of the guys, if they make it to this week, it's been a good year. Phil decided to take this week off. That was what he felt was in his best interest. You can't fault him. I mean, that's unbelievable, he won last week, and that's what he chose to do.
Obviously I think BMW and the TOUR wants him here. I think it would have been awesome to see Tiger and Phil play again in a group on Thursday and Friday. I know I'd probably go watch that (laughing). I know I wanted to stay on Sunday and watch them play at the Deutsche Bank, so I know that's what drives ratings. I'm not naïve. I know that they're the reason why we get to play for what we play for out here, so I'm disappointed that he's not here.
It's his decision. He does what he wants to do. But it still means there's going to be 66 guys here this week that are -- I'm disappointed he's not here from a ratings standpoint, but I'm excited playing-wise he's not here because it's one less guy I have to beat. I'll take every advantage I can get.

Q. Have you felt a different atmosphere at the first two tournaments, the first two playoff tournaments, compared to regular TOUR events?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I thought last week was a completely different atmosphere. I thought it was extremely loud, extremely rowdy, exactly what I think the TOUR was looking for, what we needed out here, some excitement.
You know, I probably had 15 voicemails Sunday after the tournament just saying -- friends of mine who watched the tournament and said it was awesome, and I can rarely say that happens to me, especially when I'm not in a tournament, when I'm getting done at 10:00 o'clock on Sunday.
So that's exciting. I think definitely last week was rowdy. There were tons of fans out there, everybody was excited about being out there, finishing on Monday, Labor Day, being in Boston, being there when a no-hitter was being thrown, and the fans were crazy all week, and it was great. I think it's exactly what we needed, and hopefully the Cubbies throw a no-hitter this week and everybody gets excited and comes out and watches golf on the weekend.

Q. I know they had those big scoreboards out there. I don't know if they projected where you were in the standings. Do they have those out there?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: They do.

Q. Did you find yourself kind of looking to see where you were and where other guys were?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Definitely. I know I got done and looked on the computer all afternoon and watched where guys were. They had projected FedExCup points lists, and you're watching guys ahead of you, seeing one stroke puts them ahead of you or one stroke puts them behind you. I know I was watching John Mallinger and Bo Van Pelt fight it out to get in the Top 70, and that was exciting for me.
That was kind of neat, a different atmosphere for us. It was kind of like the Top 125 at the end of the year for guys keeping their card, but it was happening three straight weeks, which is pretty different. I think it's exciting.
I was watching it, but I know I'm a huge golf fan, so hopefully other people were doing the same thing, and I think they were. It was kind of neat to see that on the leaderboard.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Brandt.

End of FastScripts

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