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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 18, 2008

Justin Leonard

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Another great round out there today, a little 67, no bogeys and five birdies. Just talk a little bit about what you've been doing well this week.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Really I've been hitting the ball well. Really the first day made a couple nice putts at the end of the round. Yesterday I really putted well all day long.
Today I putted well, but I misread a couple putts and I feel like I left two or three shots out there. So, but really all week I've been hitting the ball really well and hitting a lot of fairway, putting the ball in the right spots on the greens and just give myself a lot of chances.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: All right. Thank you. Questions, please?

Q. Justin, it looked like, I don't know if it was actually like this, but it looked like you didn't miss a shot, really. Is that accurate or did you have any that weren't flush on the club face?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Today, yeah, I hit, I think I hit everything on the button today. The weather was very nice. Yesterday it was a little bit windy, but today it was pretty calm. I hit the ball very solid. I didn't always hit it exactly where I wanted to, but I hit the ball very solid.

Q. Where are you, I know you've been up and you slipped and then you came back, where is your game compared to the guy who won the British Open in '97 and made the big putt at the Ryder Cup in '99? Are you back in that type of golf?
JUSTIN LEONARD: I feel like I'm getting there. And I feel like I'm as close now as I have been in a long time.
I'm playing with confidence. I like the way I'm rolling the ball. I don't have a lot of swing thoughts. So the game, I'm just trying to make it as simple as possible. And all of the work and swing thoughts that I had last year is really starting to pay off, because so much now has become habit and so many things that I had to think about consciously last year are just happening naturally.
So I can just really go out and focus on what kind of shot I want to try and hit and it's made the game for me a lot easier. So I think that by not really having a whole lot to work on right now, other than just pay attention to a couple things, I'm able to go out and really focus and play aggressively. Now that I'm playing with some confidence again, it makes all that adds up in the into lower scores.

Q. You've gone through this, I know, but an amateur, a sports writer would ask a guy who wins a Major, how does it, what happens to the confidence? I mean, what happens to the game? Does it just slip away before you know it?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, it can happen pretty quickly. And the Major that I won was 11 years ago, so it's hard to carry confidence for that long. But, yeah, it's -- this is a difficult game. There are highs and lows with it and the key to great players, their lows don't last very long and they don't let, don't let those times get in their psyche.
There for awhile I was just a little bit lost with what I was trying to do with my golf game and kind of got away from the things that made me successful early on in my career. And I had to get back to those things.
But I wouldn't trade any of the things that I have done as far as working with Butch Harmon and all that I learned from him to now being back with Randy Smith, those steps are what have molded me into the way I'm playing right now. And I enjoy the process, not always while I'm in it, but I enjoy the whole process of what's taken place here in the last nine or ten months and I feel like right now I'm kind of reaping the rewards of all that hard work.

Q. When you won here in 2005 you came from I think three shots back the last round to win over at PGA West. For 72 holes here is it really just about staying in touch and are you kind of surprise that had 67 was enough to get you a share of the lead today?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, a little bit. A little bit surprised that I'm still tied for the lead. But it's a nice surprise.
Yes, it's really hard to, because the golf courses are different, you're not sure if you catch a windy day, you need to be on the right golf course, and really until Saturday night, you know, it's kind of all guess work. But I like the way I'm playing, I like the way I'm hitting the ball and the way I'm putting. So is I'm just looking forward to the next two days and trying to continue to do the things I'm doing and play aggressively and see if it's enough.

Q. You said you were lost for a little while, was one of the things that side tracked you the fact that you were trying to take advantage of technology and hit it farther at one time?
JUSTIN LEONARD: I don't think so. I think we're all doing that. I'm hitting a 47 inch driver. So I'm still taking advantage of technology. If anything, being with Nike, I'm at a huge advantage because of all of the technology that they have. So I think it was -- it's hard to put it on anything. I think it was just a time that God wanted me to go through. And I think I'm a better person after going through some trials and tribulations for a year and a half and I got a lot of great perspective out of it and I think I'm a stronger and better person because of all that.

Q. They have made a point on the Golf Channel last couple days in talking about you, that, talking about it's all about desire for Justin Leonard. Can you kind of speak to that and they cite you starting your family and really having a nice focus in your life on that side, but was there a time there in the last few years where, with outside things and with your family, your young family and all that, that you had a little bit of a wane in desire, a little bit of a wane in interest for what was going on on the course?
JUSTIN LEONARD: No, I don't -- I never really experienced a lack of desire. Other than times I was playing bad. And then it's not really a lack of desire, but just a lack of confidence. I'm a pretty passionate person. You don't always see it on the golf course. But internally I pride myself at working very hard. I pride myself on never letting up, never giving in. And those things have shaped my career. I think a lot of people look and say, well, he's got a young family and other interests and things like that, but my desire to be on the golf course has never been stronger.
Now my weeks off I don't spend as much time playing or practicing, and even when I leave the golf course, I don't spend as much time thinking about the game. But I think because my family travels with me the majority of the time, it's a wonderful diversion away from the game, so that I know when I get to the golf course that I can spend the time I need to and focus solely on golf and when I get done leave it at the golf course.
So I wouldn't say that I have experienced any lack of desire. If anything, what I've been through, not that it's some huge deal, but just struggling with my game, for a year and a half or so, now that I'm back to playing well again, my desire's even stronger.

Q. On another subject, Golfweek replaced the editor who ran the cover and the Tiger Woods comment controversy. Do you have any reaction to that at all? The whole thing?
JUSTIN LEONARD: No. There's no reason to.

Q. In the stuff that you've done with Randy, is it more returning to what you guys were comfortable with before or did you do a bunch of new things and how much of an adjustment and how much of an overhaul did you do?
JUSTIN LEONARD: It really wasn't an overhaul at all. It was just a couple little changes, a little grip change to get my grip a little bit stronger. And now working on kind of shortening up my thumbs a little bit, to bring the hands in. And really it was just about getting back to working the ball. And changing the height, changing the shape of the shots and really getting my eye to see those shots rather than you got so much into thinking about my golf swing and what I need to do that I became more one dimensional. And I don't hit it far enough to be one dimensional. So I had to get back to really thinking my way around the golf course and hitting those different shots so I could play more aggressively.

Q. You talked about wanting to carry over the momentum that you had at the end of last season. And that seems like a tricky proposition, you got a couple of months there, but you said that you've, you feel you've done it successfully, what was the key to doing that? Did you do much different this off season?
JUSTIN LEONARD: I had, I took three weeks off and didn't really touch a club. And then I practiced for a couple days before the Shark Shootout. Played the Shark Shootout. And when that was over I didn't touch a club for another three weeks. And the first time I hit any balls was the Saturday before the, before Kapalua. I was in Colorado skiing with my family for Christmas for a couple weeks.
And so I, trust me, I didn't do -- it was a conscious thought, but I didn't do anything to well I want to practice a lot so I keep a feel for the game, I was fairly surprised when I got to Mercedes that everything felt as good as it did. And then that I was able to, not that I was able to go play well, but I was able to go play well without having to make some significant changes or do some work. After three weeks off, I got there and I obviously I felt very fresh. But I didn't feel like I just had three weeks off. I felt like it was more like three days.
So I really attribute the being able to bridge the momentum to all of the work that I put in last year. And all of the balls that I hit and the time that I spent working on my game. And so all of those little things, and they are little things, but they all became more natural to me. And so I was able to just go out and kind of pick up where I left off.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Justin, for joining us on the phone and we appreciate the extra time that you had to wait but we'll see you over here tomorrow.
JUSTIN LEONARD: All right. Thank you, Joan. No problem.

End of FastScripts

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