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SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

April 5, 2008

Johnson Wagner

HUMBLE, TEXAS

DOUG MILNE: Okay, Johnson, thanks for joining us.
Nice 60 round -- 69 in round three of the Shell Houston Open.
JOHNSON WAGNER: Sixty would have been better.
DOUG MILNE: Another 69. Just a couple comments on the day and just, you know, you've talked all week about keeping your nerves in check, and obviously you're doing a great job.
JOHNSON WAGNER: I was definitely nervous starting the day, and I had some good chances early, putts weren't really falling and made a bad bogey on five, but just really held it together nicely, hit a bunch of greens, didn't really have to work too hard.
Got a couple of great breaks off the tee on the par-5s on the back-9. I think I hit a spectator and kept it in play. Knocked it off a tree, came back into play. I had some lucky breaks, but, you know what, I've had a enough bad breaks not to feel bad about the good ones. It was a great day. Hit good shots when I needed to and got shots when I needed to.
DOUG MILNE: Just go ahead and open it up for some questions.

Q. How much were you kind of looking over your shoulder today at the leaderboard?
JOHNSON WAGNER: I didn't really have to. Chad was right in front of me and I saw him hoop wedge shots and draining putts and hitting it tight all day. I kind of knew where he stood. I guess I saw it on 7, I saw that we were tied or he was -- he had just bogeyed to go one back. I don't really no. I pretty much knew where it was all day. And Charley, who I was playing with, played well, and I tried not to look at it, but it was hard not to know.

Q. Did having a guy in front of you like that, does that feel like a good dress rehearsal sort of for what you have in front of you tomorrow?
JOHNSON WAGNER: Little bit. I don't really know. Chad played great today. Seeing him do what he was doing in front of me, I don't know that it prevented me to make birdies at the end of the front-9 and turning to the back, but I definitely didn't like starting with the 3-shot lead and seeing it erased immediately.
I don't know if that answers your question.

Q. As someone who has never played at Augusta before, do your thoughts of Augusta creep into your head?
JOHNSON WAGNER: Yeah. Last night and this morning, definitely. It's hard not to think about it but, you know, I'm not too worried about it. I want the play tomorrow's round. If I were to win here, then obviously that would be just an incredible bonus. But no, I'm not -- I didn't think about it once on the golf course, and I'm not going to think about it tomorrow, hopefully.

Q. So the pressure of just winning one tournament is enough?
JOHNSON WAGNER: That's more than enough pressure for me.

Q. Have you decided whether you would go to Augusta if you won? (Laughter)
JOHNSON WAGNER: I probably wouldn't play because I played four in row and haven't been home in six weeks. I'd probably take it off.

Q. Probably be an expensive flight?
JOHNSON WAGNER: I would be driving. I don't want to talk about it.

Q. No, you'd be flying.
How will you mentally prepare for tomorrow?
JOHNSON WAGNER: I would like to just completely not think about golf for the rest of the night. I'm glad that there's some basketball on. I struggled watching TV last night. I'll watch basketball, hopefully fall asleep right after the second game, and sleep through the night would be nice.

Q. Who is your pick?
JOHNSON WAGNER: Well, you know, North Carolina and UCLA going to the final game, so I need both of those guys to get there for me to have any chance in my pool.

Q. Is that a head pick or heart pick?
JOHNSON WAGNER: Little bit of both. I haven't followed college basketball as closely as I would like to this year. I watched Carolina play a bit. They looked pretty hard to beat.

Q. So what happened on the shot where you hit the spectator?
JOHNSON WAGNER: Par-5, playing downwind out of the right. I was really trying to just kill a tee shot down there so I could get home in 2. I got a little crossed up with my stance. Just quick hooked it a little bit. Kind of got riding the wind. I don't know if it would have gone in the hazard or not, but I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that. Thank you for spectators being out there.

Q. No blood, no foul?
JOHNSON WAGNER: She said she was okay. Said it hit her shoes.
DOUG MILNE: If you wouldn't mind, if you would just take us through your birdies and give us some clubs and description there.
JOHNSON WAGNER: No. 4, the par-5 was playing dead downwind, and I hit a good tee shot and had 220-something front, 222 front, and just hit a 3-iron right to the middle of the green even had a very easy 2-putt.
Then No. 5, I hit 4-iron short of the green, chip it up there to about 5 feet, missed the par putt. 9, hit 4-iron to about 15 feet or so, and made that nice putt. Kind of got me going there, going into the back-9.
11 hit a very nice 9-iron from 142 just behind the hole to about 12 feet and made it. And 12, I hit a sand wedge, perfect, just flew behind the hole and spun back to pretty much a tap-in, just a couple feet.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. Well, we wish you good night's rest and best of luck tomorrow.
JOHNSON WAGNER: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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