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VALERO TEXAS OPEN

October 4, 2007

Justin Leonard

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Thank you, Justin, for joining us for a few minutes here in the Media Center at the Valero Texas Open.
Nice start to the week, 65. Your low round the year. And you played pretty well couple weeks ago at Turning Stone. Any changes?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, yeah, I'm rested, which is about the first time all year. Because of the way I played at the beginning of the year, I had to play a lot more golf May through middle of August than I really hoped or wanted to and just I got pretty tired towards the end of that stretch and I had a couple weeks off before Turning Stone and was off again last week and, you know, I think just being rested makes a big difference.
JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Questions, please?

Q. This course, obviously you've had some remarkable results here and probably fits your eye and know where to hit the ball, know what you're aiming at.
Coming in a tournament like this, does your confidence level rise a little bit when you go into a course like this that you had such great success at?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Little bit because you do have some good memories to pull on. Doesn't mean you're going to come here and play well but, you know, the fact that I've played well here in the past I think makes it a little easier to come here and with some confidence, sure.

Q. I joked about it when you came in, lot of names on the leaderboard have been here before. How is the course playing now compared to even going back when you won a couple times?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, fairly similar. It's firming up since I played Tuesday, and it firmed up a little bit more today and seems like the rough is a little thicker than it has been because of all the rains we've had this summer. Feels like the golf course is playing a little more difficult than it has the last few years.
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JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Let's go just go quickly through your birdies and bogies. Looks like you had an interesting start.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah. Bogeyed 10. Hit it in the greenside bunker on the right and didn't quite get it to the green and got that up and down.
Then made about a 25-footer at 11. Actually chipped in for birdie at 14 from just off the green. 16, made about a 15-footer. 18, made about a an 8-footer. 1, made about a 15-footer and 4, made about a 12-footer and then made about a 30-foot par putt on 6.

Q. What was the break on that 30-footer, an interesting putt or just pretty straight?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Not really. Breaking a couple inches left.

Q. Justin, is there anything in your game the last month or so that has kind of clicked to where you get in position to shoot your best round of the year?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Not so much with my game but I think probably more mentally, just having a little more aggressive attitude.
You know, I think I've been guilty a lot this year of just going out and playing and kind of finding my game along the way, and kind of trying to ease into the round a little too much, where I think the last couple weeks I've come out trying to play more aggressively and make some birdies and I've been able to do that quite a bit.

Q. We're used to seeing you on President's Cup teams and Ryder Cup teams. Does the success of watching perhaps last weekend give you some motivation to get back to that stage?
JUSTIN LEONARD: I don't have to look outside myself for motivation. The fact I wasn't on it, haven't been on the Ryder Cup team for awhile is enough motivation itself.
I loved watching our team win last week. I would rather have been there myself helping them do it but, you know, the fact that they won or played well doesn't motivate me anymore than I already am.

Q. You said being more aggressive. Has the break in being aggressive kind of put the light bulb up to get more aggressive?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's hard to play out here when you're tired. I probably played -- I added, three, four, five tournaments trying to give myself more opportunities because I got off to such a slow start and not that I want to go back and do the same thing again because I had to, but I think my play last week just kind of showed -- I didn't touch a club for ten days. I worked pretty hard before, you know, the few days before I left.
But, yeah, for me it makes a big difference to be rested, especially this time of year because everybody is tired. I'm not the only one.

Q. You used to work with Randy Wright. Even early in the year you fell back into pretty much of a conflict zone.
Has that been a good thing? Did he have to kick you a little bit on coming out and finding your game instead of coming out and playing aggressively or just something that you worked on yourself?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, it was -- it's not just Randy, it's Brian Smith, my caddie, sees every shot on every hole that I play and he and I talked about it.
He was up at Turning Stone last week and watched me play a couple rounds. It's something that I figured out is that you have to -- you have to take what people tell you and make it your own. You know, you can tell me all day long I need to play more aggressively and, you know, do this and do that in order to play well, but, until I really get it into my thick head and it becomes my own, you know, that's when I think I see progress and so it wasn't just one person telling me.
I think it was, you know, just talking about it with everybody and realizing that that's what I need to do.

Q. Speaking of Randy at Royal Oaks, haven't you moved close back closer to the club?
JUSTIN LEONARD: I'm working on that.
JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Everybody all set. Thank you Justin.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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