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CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

October 27, 2007

Denis Watson

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Denis, 15-under. Maybe just take us through your day real quick.
DENIS WATSON: Got off to a good start. Hit a 3-wood, hit a wedge in there about 15 feet at 1 and made it. And then, geez, missed a tiny putt after a good pitch at 2. Probably a 4-footer and missed a 5-footer at the next hole that I thought was going in maybe six feet. Made a great putt for par after missing the green a little bit left. It was almost such a good shot in there.
Then I started having some problems. I started hitting my driver left. And I hit it a foot in the rough and I made a great up-and-down from 10, 15 yards short of the green. And then I hit it left no, I hit a good tee shot there and ran a putt right over the top of the hole. I thought I made it. And par 3 somebody fired up a generator right just as we were getting ready to hit back there on 7. And it was really noisy. I really never got into my shot. I didn't hit a great shot. But I 2 putted and par. Then horrible shot at par 5. That was probably my settler because I really made a mistake with my second shot.
I was thinking about laying up and then I decided to hit a hard 7-iron and I slipped on I guess I was standing on a twig that I didn't see. I slipped and I pulled it with a 7-iron. And I got away with it.
I was able to hit it under the trees. Went over the green. Hit a great chip shot and made a par and I could have very quickly gone south on that hole.
And good birdie at 9. I hit about 65 yards from just left. I was kind of lucky my tee shot went far enough I didn't hit a tree. Made a 4-putter for birdie. Beautiful tee shot at 10 with a 3-wood, ran a foot into the rough. Bad bounce in the fairway. I couldn't believe it. Hit a great shot, pitched short of the green. Thought it was going to be perfect. It ran over the back of the green into a nasty little lie. I was lucky to get that up-and-down.
11, beautiful tee shot. I thought you gotta pitch it eight to ten paces past the hole and it should draw back. Man it must have hit a soft spot because Eduardo's ball pitched right past mine for the same distance. His didn't come back. Mine came back off the green. I made a great up-and-down there. I was really happy about that.
And then hit an 8-iron out of the fairway at. 12, I thought I hit a beautiful shot. And it drifted right and I thought the wind was right to left. I was very disappointed the way it ended up.
Then I didn't have much of a shot. Then when things are not going well I pitched right on the collar and the fringe in the green and shot forward and misread the putt. Everything went wrong.
That was my bogey. Great 4-iron at the next hole, after a good tee shot, about 12 feet, 15 feet behind the hole, left of the putt, right in the mouth. That was the only green that putted slow today. I was really shocked. Good 6-iron at the par three about a 20 footer down the hill. Right in the middle. That was a happy time.
Then I missed another fairway by a couple of inches at 15 and a beautiful, I hit a beautiful shot out of there the putt lipped out from about 12, 15 feet. And hit a 5-iron into the middle of the green at 16 after a good drive and kind of rushed my first putt past the hole and misread the one coming back. Made a beautiful putt swung right out of the hole and hit a soft 9-iron at 17 to about 25 feet behind the hole and made it coming down the hill. And then decided to lay up at 18. It was kind of cool and I wasn't quite sure if I could carry the bunkers if I didn't hit it perfect.
So I decided to lay up because the pin was up on the front part of the green hit a hybrid off the tee. My 2-iron and an 8-iron to about 12 feet.
And misread that one, too. So but all in all a great day. I really scrapped it out. Kind of fighting with my swing a little bit until the back nine.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How much more ready I guess or excited are you about being going into the final day in your beginning years. You said you felt lucky this year?
DENIS WATSON: This is great. I haven't been in it for a while. I've been kind of fighting it a little bit. This is exciting. I was a little nervous today. I love playing with Eduardo. He's a great guy to play with. He hits the ball so well. It's what you live for you gotta love it. I was really shocked to see my score at the top at the last hole. I knew I was thinking I had to birdie 16, 17 and 18 to maybe tie. I saw Jimmy sort of taking off there. So nice to be in that position after feeling like you didn't have the greatest day. I kind of hung in there, made some good up and downs and hopefully I'll get it back to A plus tomorrow.
The guys going to go low. Some greens got fast today. But they're still soft. I was shocked. I thought they were going to firm up a little bit and had some balls spin back that I didn't think were going to. Even the one at 16, I thought it was going to release at least five or six yards and it didn't. I hit a hard 5-iron and it just stopped right on its mark.
So we'll see. The guys are going to be going at it. You've seen guys come out of the middle of the pack and win this tournament with a low round in the past. I have my work cut out tomorrow. I guess I'll be playing with Jim, I think. Jim and Brad. Maybe Brad.

Q. Do you have a number in mind that you might have to shoot to win this?
DENIS WATSON: No. One better than what anybody else shoots would be good. But I try and go at it one shot at a time. Today the course seemed to not want to give up a lot. The pins were in some tough spots and they were hard to read. Didn't look like anybody made a lot of putts. What was low today, 67 or 66?

Q. 66. About 67.
DENIS WATSON: He can putt on anything. He's brilliant at reading greens. The faster they are the more he likes them. A guy like Mark had a bad start, he's way up there, where is he 11 or 12 under par, 13 under par? 11. So I think anybody 10 under and better has got a shot, anybody can go shoot 64, 63. Have a hot day on the greens.
So I have to bring it tomorrow. I have to have my game.

Q. Looked like there were a few pins out there that were --
DENIS WATSON: They were really tough if you made a mistake and short sighted yourself. And I did that myself a couple times. I was being aggressive. I was feeling like I was going to hit some good shots eventually and I started kind of pushing it a little bit and didn't quite happen. But there's some good pins. They're hard to get close to. Even the ones right on the front edge, like the one at 3. That was a tough little pin. When the greens were -- when the greens were soft like that it makes it a little easier.

Q. How much will you draw on how well you played on Sunday. I know it's a completely different golf course?
DENIS WATSON: I think any time you've had a win it does you good mentally but you know you can. And you know you stand up on the tee like even with everybody every day. And golf is funny. Guys don't -- you don't go out and play the same every day. I played fantastic golf yesterday. Today I scrapped it around. I mean I was really fighting for my score. And you are never quite sure what you're going to get. You have to show up with a good attitude and go for it. Just try and hit shots and play.
And Jim was saying, you go at it as hard as you can and you see what happens. Tiger, he's got a number in mind he thinks at the can beat everybody by five. I haven't quite got there yet.

Q. How encouraging is it to know that you didn't have your A game today you were fighting and yet you look at the end of the day and you're still in the top?
DENIS WATSON: Very gratifying, very encouraging, very gratifying I felt good that I scrapped it out on the front nine. I mean after missing short putts at 2 and 3 and then just slightly missing a shot at the par 3, that's a long shot. 4-iron in there, and a yard right of where it hit and it would have hopped down right next down to the hole. All of a sudden I hit a really great chip shot and I've got a 10-foot putt for par. And to make that get it up-and-down from short of the green was a tough pitch shot that I had at 5. It makes you feel good.
I forgot how to hit a lot of shots. I'm going what do I do here? And then finally I sort of settled on, okay, I think it's going to do this. So I kind of turned it in here and it worked out great. Almost holed it. Beautiful chip shot at 8. And it was some shots you gotta flop them. Some shots you gotta turn it down a little bit and sort of bunt it out and make the ball release. And when it works out it makes you feel like, geez, I remember how to do this. These other guys have been doing this all the time, they don't forget.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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