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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 7, 2008

Johnson Wagner

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

CLAUDE NIELSEN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As you all know, the competitor on my left, Johnson Wagner, held off late challenges, finished 16-under, and won yesterday's Houston Open by two strokes. The victory earned him the last invitation to the 2008 Masters, his first Masters appearance.
Johnson, congratulations on yesterday's victory, and a very special welcome to the 2008 Masters and to Augusta National.
Would you like to open with a few remarks, and then we'll have questions from the media.
JOHNSON WAGNER: Definitely, well, first of all, I'd like to may thank you to the Membership at Augusta National. This is a dream to come true for me to be here and just such a treat to be me to play at the Masters this week. I can't state it enough. This is a lifelong dream.
Last week I tried not to think about getting into this event but it was the Masters and hard to not think about it. But I'm glad it's over and glad I'm here now and really looking forward to a great week here.

Q. We asked Drew about this about British Amateur last year, but yesterday at had a point during the round did you have to force yourself to shove this out of your mind and concentrate on what you had to do and after the last putt dropped, how close was this to being your next thought?
JOHNSON WAGNER: I think it was -- obviously, the putt dropped, the first thought was, oh, my gosh, I just won on the PGA TOUR. But immediately after that, I said, holly cow, I'm in the Masters and I think in the media center on Thursday in Houston someone asked me if I was thinking about the Masters and I said no, try not to, but Sunday standing on the 18th tee I'll probably think about it.
So yesterday we had about a five-minute wait that felt like about an hour so there were some thoughts going through there and it's just unbelievable to be here right now.

Q. Did you have to forcibly think to yourself, put this aside now and let's win the tournament first?
JOHNSON WAGNER: I think the brain can only hold one real thought in your head at one time so I tried to think about something else real quick and get it out of my head and hit the tee shot and it was kind of over from there.

Q. What was last night like? I know you flew here; did you celebrate or pinch yourself or anything?
JOHNSON WAGNER: I've been pinching myself all day. This is just incredible. Last night was crazy. As soon as I finished on 18, rushed around, took a bunch of pictures and did some interviews and my management group with the help of Sea Island had arranged a flight for me to get here with my wife and my caddie and someone to drive my RV from Houston right now; I don't even know where it is. It's just been crazy. I haven't really had a second to sit back and think about what's happened.

Q. Your caddie said he had to eat the price of the plane ticket back home. Do you feel bad about that?
JOHNSON WAGNER: No, I think I can help him out with that if he needs it. (Chuckling).

Q. You were clearly excited and gave the usual fist-pump but it seemed to go on for a minute or so, you just kept on reacting.
JOHNSON WAGNER: I think of myself as being pretty calm and reserved and I don't generally fist-pump unless I'm playing a Tuesday match with some friends; I get them on 17 or 18, I've got to give them a fist-pump.
But it was such a feeling of relief when that putt went in on 17 and on 18, and I'd like to see what I looked like, but I'm sure I looked pretty silly getting crazy with it. You know, it was just what came out.

Q. Who provided your jet transportation here?
JOHNSON WAGNER: Sea Island, the Sea Island company in Sea Island, Georgia.

Q. What was that like? What time did you get here?
JOHNSON WAGNER: We left Houston about nine o'clock last night and it was a two-hour flight plus an hour time change, so I think we landed about midnight last night.

Q. One last thing, someone told a story that after midnight you had a notion about practice skipping golf balls off water?
JOHNSON WAGNER: I woke up this morning, I probably fell asleep at about 4:30 and week up about 16, and all I could think about was skipping balls across 16 and getting the gallery to give me a big roar.

Q. Did you want to practice at the swimming pool?
JOHNSON WAGNER: Oh, last night the house I stayed at last night and will stay at again tonight, they had a swimming pool and there's just a perfect little grass hill and I thought this is a great chance, but I think this was a house on the other side. (Laughter) They probably wouldn't appreciate it.

Q. Drew was in here and was saying that for six or eight months, he's been kind of inching up to this and the excitement has been building, but for you, literally it's just a few hours; who is at a better advantage, you having not thought about it or him prepared?
JOHNSON WAGNER: You know, I think we are equally blessed both being here at the Masters. It would be nice to have six months and hopefully after a good week this week, I'll know that I'll be back next year, but you know, I don't mind getting in last minute and getting here and just the excitement of everything coming so quickly has been incredible.

Q. The other part of it, I wanted to clarify, when you played here four or five years ago, is it your great uncle who is a member?
JOHNSON WAGNER: My grandmother's brother, yes, he's a member here. I stayed right off the first hole in the Eisenhower Cabin, and I had just flown in the second stage of Q-School and got through and I think I got to the gate at one o'clock or two o'clock and went up so the security guard and I was just fired up to be here. I had driven up from Atlanta and I think I said -- I think I said, "Hey, do y'all have any tee times for the morning," just joking with him. He wasn't in the mood to hear it, but he let me in. (Laughter).
I didn't sleep that night, either. This is such a special place for me as a golf fan and as a player and it's hard to sleep around here.

Q. What was that week like compared to today?
JOHNSON WAGNER: The golf course is probably not as long as it is now. And it definitely wasn't in the same kind of shape. It was in November, so the overseed had not really fully come in yet, but it was as good as it gets.

Q. How did you do at 16 today? Did you skip it over?
JOHNSON WAGNER: My first one was pretty pathetic. It skipped and went right into the bank. And then I hit a another one, and it just barely crept out just in front of the green, and I was pretty happy with it.
Tomorrow I thought I was going to have a hole-in-one today, skipping it, but maybe tomorrow.

Q. What were you hearing from people going around the golf course, were people congratulating you?
JOHNSON WAGNER: It was amazing. You know, it seemed like everybody, every time I looked into the gallery someone said: "Hey, Johnson, congrats, great playing last week," and it was amazing that so many people knew my name and knew what happened yesterday. It was probably the greatest day on the golf course I've ever had.

Q. Real quick, what is your great uncle's name?
JOHNSON WAGNER: Bob Berry.

Q. And what were you planning on doing this week? Did you have any plans with your wife? This is normally a week off for everybody who is not playing here.
JOHNSON WAGNER: One of my best friends who I played with at Virginia Tech and he played on the PGA TOUR last year and is playing on the Nationwide Tour this year, Brendan De Jonge, his wife and my wife and I were going to go to Kiawah Island today and stay until Thursday, and I was going to head back home to Charlotte and watch the Masters all week.

Q. What's he doing now?
JOHNSON WAGNER: I think he's still planning on going down there. I haven't talked to him yet, though. (Laughter).

Q. How did you get a place to stay last night?
JOHNSON WAGNER: I've got a great management team, and they have two houses close by just in case one of their guys won the tournament, so it was very easy. Everything was taken care of, and my home sweet home will be delivered tomorrow morning and I'll be in my own bed again.

Q. You have won local tournaments on great courses. You won on Bethpage Black and on Winged Foot; how does that serve you?
JOHNSON WAGNER: It's totally different. It's the same kind of old, classic course, but you know, they were by no means set up for a major championship. The rough wasn't up at Winged Foot. The rough was up at Bethpage, but you know, I don't think that anything can prepare you for this week.
I've played in two U.S. Opens, though, and I can draw on some of that experience.

Q. Obviously you didn't have much time to prepare. Did you have to pick Drew's brain a little bit out there today?
JOHNSON WAGNER: A little. I guess he's been down six times, and he's played numerous rounds and he knew where the pins were; and we also played with David Toms on the front nine, and David was great. And I feel like I've watched the Masters every year since I've been alive, so it's pretty easy for me to find some pins, too. So it's always nice to have guys who have played here kind of tell where you to hit it and where not to hit it.

Q. Give us a little scouting report of your take on Drew's game, and I guess comment on the fact that since the ACC Championship, this is pretty much a high watermark in Virginia Tech golf history, isn't it?
JOHNSON WAGNER: No doubt about it. First of all, drew just absolutely kills the ball for such a little guy which irritated me today when he was hitting it by me.
Par he hits it great. He hits it high, he hits it far, putts it nicely, and he's got a really good short game. And I think he can do really well here this week. You know, Virginia Tech winning the ACC tournament last year, I don't know if that's what you're referring to, but when they won it right after what happened on April 16, that was maybe one of the greatest accomplishments in golf. They kind of came from nowhere, and it was great to see. Hopefully they will do it again next week.

Q. You have pretty much been flying on adrenaline at this point. Do you worry that you can't sustain this adrenaline for the rest of the week or that you'll run out of gas or something?
JOHNSON WAGNER: No. I'm going to get some sleep tonight and this afternoon I'm going to take it easy today, and I can run on adrenaline at Augusta National for months I think. I'm so excited to be here, I don't think that's going to go away.

Q. When they reinstated the invitation for a victory last year, one of the things that Mr. Payne said was that they wanted to see that joy there that somebody gets from winning and that being his ticket to Augusta, and I guess in retrospect, outside of a check or a trophy or two-year exemption or anything like that, how close is this to being the best reward you get for winning?
JOHNSON WAGNER: It's not just close; it is the best reward for winning. Kapalua is nice; $1 million is nice; two-year exemption, everything that goes along with winning on the PGA TOUR is incredible. But being able to come to a place like this, it's beyond belief. It's just a dream come true to be here. I don't know what else to say about that.
CLAUDE NIELSEN: Johnson, welcome to the Masters, thank you very much. Good luck, play well.

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