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SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

April 4, 2008

Mathew Goggin

HUMBLE, TEXAS

JOHN BUSH: Okay. We'd like to welcome Mathew Goggin into the interview room.
Mathew, great playing today, an 8-under par 64. Get some opening comments on the day.
MATHEW GOGGIN: Want me to go through the round?
JOHN BUSH: General comments first.
MATHEW GOGGIN: Played very well. I hit the ball well yesterday and today. Hit a lot of greens. Gave myself a lot of opportunities. Did -- birdied the holes you should birdie. Nice sort of craziness except for holing the 8-iron. That's what kick-started the round. All in all, it was a good day.
JOHN BUSH: Take us through the two eagles on numbers 5 and 8.
MATHEW GOGGIN: Holed an 8-iron from 148 meters in the middle of the fairway and then on 8, I hit a 4-wood just pin high in the trap and had a great lie, really easy bunker shot, and just came out pure and went in.
JOHN BUSH: Okay. Questions.

Q. I guess one thing we didn't ask you, with the weather coming, how good is it to go ahead and get your round in?
MATHEW GOGGIN: It's always nice because it seems to be the last two months we've been plagued by delays all over the place every week. So it's a little frustrating when you've got to stop and start and keep warming up. It's hard to build any momentum. Hopefully the storms will stay away this afternoon. They'll be no complaints from me about getting finished if it doesn't.

Q. You've been putting together some pretty good tournaments here last few weeks. Kind of what do you think kind of got your season kick started and what --
MATHEW GOGGIN: I certainly play well most of last year. Sort of been a steady continuation, really. I've been striking the ball really well and starting to putt a little better. Putting sort of been a little bit of my -- the thing I've struggled with most. I started off the year playing well and actually had mono. That sort of set me back for a month. When I sort of felt -- got my energy levels back and started being able to practice again. That was sort of the week before Honda. It was more of a continuation of how I felt like I've been playing. I played well the last couple weeks.

Q. Anything about your putting that's kind of gotten you back on -- are you one of those guys that tries a million things?
MATHEW GOGGIN: It's been the TaylorMade Spider putter. I changed to that at Pebble Beach. Maybe that's it.
I've worked hard on it. I tend to overthink a bit when I putt. And if I start to putt poorly, I get into my technique too much, apart from being really free and detached, I guess would be the right word. There's a few issues with my stroke that I worked on quite a bit last year. Once I sort of -- that was with Marius (phonetic). He's a bit of a short game guru. I got on his little machine and pointed out a few things wrong. Once I sort of got those things sorted out, I was a little more consistent and started to putt a little better. Just taking the next step and really being free.
You just got to get it to where it's World Class. You can't be an average putter and expect to compete out here week in, week out. If I can get it to the same level as the rest of my game, I believe probably have a lot more success.

Q. When you're a guy who tends to overthink, how do you teach yourself to shut the -- if you've got a brain that's racing --
MATHEW GOGGIN: With the rest of my game, I don't do it. Like if I've got to hit a 2-iron or something, I don't think about doing. I hit it, driver, whatever. That's sort of the strong part of my game. For whatever reason, the closer I get to the hole, I tend to think a little bit too much.
The goal has been to really have no thoughts at all and not really care about how you putt which is very difficult because it's the final putt of the hole. Great shots mean nothing if you don't convert the birdie putt. I guess that's why I tend to overthink it a little bit. It's a work in progress, I would say.

Q. This is a follow-up to what we were talking to you about outside. How much do you miss the adrenaline rush of being in contention?
MATHEW GOGGIN: I guess I had it a couple weeks there back in Honda and Tampa. I mean, it's a cliche. That's why you play. Do you want to play to grind out 50th place in New Orleans, do you?

Q. Did you have any points today where you felt like you did a good job of kind of harnessing your thinking and the thing that you were talking about where you might have, you know, at another point, you know, gotten out of your routine?
MATHEW GOGGIN: I guess it's a -- it's not as if it's on and off. It's just -- it's going from that sort of feeling of trying to make putts to just sort of knowing you're going to make putts. You know what I mean? You have days where you go out there and it just seems clear as everything and flowing. You don't think of anything. You just make putts. You do it all day.
Then you sort of have those days where it becomes left edge, get the right speed. You're really trying too hard to make putts. That's when it's not on. Obviously, you know, really good putters, say like an Aaron Baddeley or Tiger Woods, they just roll -- they have more day where it's just coming to them as opposed to trying to impose their will on the ball, I guess. It's a little bit more detailed than just it comes on and comes off, I would say.

Q. When you're holing out from the fairway like today, what does that kind of do with --
MATHEW GOGGIN: Obviously it was a bonus. You're always think that when you hit the shot -- only one shot, not two because the ball is going stiff. It always seems like a bigger deal than just the one shot. But, you know, it's important the next two holes not to give them back. The next two holes are not necessarily easy, and I sort of had to 2-putt from long range on the next. I sort of 2-putted from 60 feet. It was a really tricky 2-putt. You feel like you've solidified the eagle.

Q. Did you feel like you fed off of that, then?
MATHEW GOGGIN: Actually holing the bunker shot on 8 that really got things going. I don't know what -- what did it get me to 4-under, I guess? I hit a great 5-iron on the next drive. All of a sudden, I didn't hit a bad shot for the rest of the day and had plenty of opportunities. That sort of really got things going.
JOHN BUSH: Let's finish up the card. The birdie on No. 10.
MATHEW GOGGIN: I hit a sand wedge to about 2 feet, and then on 12 I sort of pulled my drive a little bit, but the right miss where I was pin high left of the green. Chipped it to about 9 feet there. Par 5, hit a perfect drive and 4-wood off the front of the green. Chipped to it within a foot. The next par-5 I hit a drive just a bit too far left, actually. I was in the left rough. But the rough not being a problem, I hit a 4-wood just in front of the green. Chipped to it about 8, 9 feet and holed it.
JOHN BUSH: Okay. Anything else?

Q. Is there some sort of secret Australian handshake that you have when you get -- people have when they get to this course?
MATHEW GOGGIN: Maybe. We always have -- I don't know why we play well here. It's not like it's a classic Australian golf course. It's not like it it's set up that we play anything at home. It's wide open, bent greens, and it's more like a smashing -- maybe we're just all better on courses you don't have to think around, you just "smash it and go find it" type thing. (Laughter). You "dumb it" for us, we do alright.

Q. When you come to a place like this, does it give you any sort of thought, "Maybe I'll play well here, too"?
MATHEW GOGGIN: I guess on this golf course, if you look at the type of players, Scotty and Stuey, they belt it a million miles, take advantage of the par-5s. That's how they play. This is perfect golf course for them. No rough. Geoff is no slouch in that area, either. It's probably more my strength. It's the only reason. Obviously the old course was a very good golf course.
I would imagine that's why Australians -- they tend to do better on the classic golf courses, I would say. Probably not correct, but we feel like we do well on those golf courses just because they're the ones we grew up on.
JOHN BUSH: Mathew, play well this weekend.

End of FastScripts

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