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BARCLAYS CLASSIC

June 24, 2005

Brian Gay

HARRISON, NEW YORK

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Brian, thank you for joining us. Two good rounds for you so far, 69 66 puts you just one off the lead at 7 under par behind Jim Furyk. Start with some opening comments, a good couple days for you.

BRIAN GAY: Yeah, very good. Pleased, especially today's rounds. I thought it was really tough out there. The greens were really getting baked out and I putted really well. I just tried to play smart.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'll go right to questions.

Q. You were the only one that seemed like in the afternoon was able to shoot a good round; any reason you can account for that? Everybody else seemed to be kind of stuck in motion there.

BRIAN GAY: Like I said, it was really tough. You know, the hard holes I tried to do the best I could to make a par and tried to take advantage of the birdie holes. That's kind of what I did. I had some really good long lag putts and birdie putts and able to get down in two for par when I wasn't near the hole and made a great save on 8.

Q. It seems like this has kind of been an up and down year for you, what do you start to feel when you get in contention, because you only have I think two Top 25s so far?

BRIAN GAY: Yeah, it's been a little bit of a struggle the last couple of months. Been going through some swing changes and you know, hopefully it's coming around and getting better and getting back to where I need to be.

Q. What are you changing?

BRIAN GAY: Just, I'm not going to get into anything technical, just kind of a new move for me this year, and it's just taking some time for it to kind of get in the habit of doing it. Hopefully it's getting ingrained in there pretty good and it definitely felt better so far this week than in quite a while.

Q. What's the feeling about being one shot out of the lead at this point? It's been a while.

BRIAN GAY: It feels good. It just feels good to play well.

I don't know what to say besides that. It's always nice to play well. It's always good to be in a position to have a chance and hopefully I'll have a good weekend and just continue to play smart.

Q. Is there always that question about if you make a swing change and then it's a question of how it holds up under pressure, so I guess tomorrow would be a pretty good test of how the swing holds up in your eyes?

BRIAN GAY: Absolutely, yeah, it just takes a while for when you make changes, you know, you seem to go back to old habits. So the more you can ingrain the new stuff in, the easier it will be to repeat it.

Q. When you're going through a year where you've had a lot of missed cuts here, how hard is it to keep positive and to keep getting in the frame of mind where you can produce?

BRIAN GAY: It's very hard. I was really frustrated a couple of weeks ago. Felt like I was getting close, but was still missing cuts and had a nice week off last week and was a little more refreshed coming here. Things just started feeling better.

Q. Anything about this course that suits you especially do you think?

BRIAN GAY: Well, yeah, I like the course a lot. I think it suits my game pretty well. You don't have to be long. It's all about position and control and you've definitely got to be good on the greens.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Brian, if we could go through your score card. You had six birdies and a bogey, starting on the back side with a birdie on your first hole, the par 4.

BRIAN GAY: I hit a little pitching wedge, actually, out of a divot in the fairway. I hit iron off the tee, I usually don't hit driver there, even though sometimes you can reach it. I hit it about 15 feet underneath the hole and made it.

Bogeyed 13. Green was really firm. Ran through in the back rough and had a bad lie, tough chip from back there and didn't get it close. Probably had a 12 footer for par and didn't make it.

15, I hit a great drive and hit a pitching wedge about three feet.

17, I hit a driver and a lob wedge about seven or eight feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: On the front side, three birdies starting with No. 5.

BRIAN GAY: No. 5, the par 5, I laid up. I actually hit it just in the first cut on the left side but had a good number with an L wedge, about 83 yards and I hit it about ten feet and made that.

Next hole, par 3, I hit a 9 iron probably seven feet.

No. 9, I hit it on the green in two and I lipped out the eagle, tapped in for birdie.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: First hole you said you were in a divot and still made birdie. Had to make for a nice start to the day.

BRIAN GAY: Yeah, it was nice to hit a good shot, unfortunately laid it up perfect off the divot down there in a flat shot. It was in a divot but hit a good shot and it was a good start.

Q. How adventuresome was the eighth hole, off the green, what would you say about 30 feet or so?

BRIAN GAY: Yeah, probably 30 feet with seven or eight feet of break down the hill, super fast. I was just trying to trickle it down there and get it close and take my five and go on but it went in.

Q. 9, how far would you say you were there?

BRIAN GAY: 9, the eagle putt was probably 35, 40 feet short of the hole.

Q. What did you hit in there?

BRIAN GAY: 4 wood.

Q. What does it do for you to get a shot like that at your 17th hole and you're in contention like that? What does it do for your frame of mind?

BRIAN GAY: It keeps the momentum going to, have such a tough putt go in for par and have a nice save there without losing a shot.

I just didn't get in position off the tee. I hit it too far off to the right and left myself a long shot into the wind. It's one of the tougher holes out here and a really tough pin there, you can't go left, so I was trying to keep it right and hit it really short and just drew a bad lie out of the rough. Got away with a four.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Brian, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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