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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 10, 2008

Justin Leonard

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

Q. Talk about how you played today.
JUSTIN LEONARD: I played really good today. 2-under through 13 and missed a couple shots coming in. But I had some putts there in the last four holes and didn't make any of them. And so that's a little disappointing. But it's a good start to the week.

Q. Obviously you're out there playing, you don't really see what's going on a lot, there's very few guys that are under par and if you finish at even you got to be, even though I know you're not happy about what happened at 18, you got to be happy with the position no matter what at the end of the day?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, I am. It's nice to play a good first round. It seems like I've been behind the 8-ball a lot here after the first day. So it's nice to get in a good round and it would have been great to get it under par, but still, I have to look at the day as a whole and not just the last few holes.

Q. Can you talk about 18.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Oh, by the time you do all the adjusting and everything, I don't even know what I had in. But it was a 3-iron.

Q. The putt.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Oh, the putt? Oh, it was a 6-footer and just didn't hit it hard enough. So it's hard on these greens to hit aggressive putts. And that was one where I probably needed to certainly play a little more aggressively than I did --
Q. Do you feel, coming in, how do you feel like your game is coming in and is this pretty much what you thought you could do out here ball striking wise and putting wise?
JUSTIN LEONARD: -- yeah, I played, except for Friday last week in Houston, I played pretty solid. Didn't make a lot of putts over the weekend in Houston. But I know some other guys had a little trouble with the greens and reading them.
I've had some nice practice days here, so I definitely had the attitude I could come out and play well and I'm not surprised at all by the way I played.

Q. Do you feel like, you talked about being behind the 8-ball here before, do you feel like this course fits your eye? Do you feel comfortable on this golf course?
JUSTIN LEONARD: I don't think anybody feels really comfortable on this golf course. But I do like the way it looks. Sometimes on the greens, it's hard to hit putts or even approach shots with a whole lot of conviction when sometimes you're playing it 30 or 40 feet away from the hole.
But I do enjoy playing here and I don't know how well the course sets up for me, but I love the difficulty of it and it's just a huge challenge on every swing and I enjoy that.

Q. Because you, because it's not a rite of passage every year for you now, you're here this year, do you approach this a little differently than you might have approached some of the other ones?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, I probably, I wouldn't say that I took it for granted, but somewhere along those lines that I would be here every year. And I think I feel pretty good about being here this year because of January 1 I wasn't in the field. And I went out and earned my way in and didn't get my invitation until last Wednesday, but it's been good. I enjoyed the first part of this year and earning my way in and now I need to work on earning my way back.

Q. Your game has changed for the better, going in a good direction now. Does this bode well going into the other Majors and to the rest of the year just the way you're playing?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, I feel like it is. I'm pretty rested. I played a lot on the west coast and then I had three out of four weeks off. And I felt like I've played just enough to keep my game sharp and focusing here on this week and I'm playing the two weeks after this, which is usually good, because you, for me personally, I put a lot of work into getting ready for this week and it's kind of a shame to go and take a week or two off after this and let all that hard work just kind of fizzle out.
So I'm playing the two weeks after this, which I'm excited about. And I'm certainly looking forward to the rest of this year a lot more than I was this time last year.

Q. The waiting for the invitation, was that kind of like you knew you were in, but kind of like, well, where is it?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. We had looked into housing a few weeks ago, but it's nice to actually get the invitation in your hand. And it was funny because not everybody, but a couple of my friends called me Monday and goes, did you get your invite yet? And I'm like, no. I guess the rankings come out Monday and then, you know. Fortunately the mail's not too slow, it only took a couple day, I guess.

Q. Is it just a card that comes in the mail from Augusta National?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah. Actually, I didn't get to see it because I was in Houston. But my agent has it. So I'll get it from him.

Q. Is there an RSVP involved with that?
JUSTIN LEONARD: You know, in the past because I have usually gotten my invitation in December and, yeah, I'll write a little note, but I think that David took care of it, let them know I was coming.

Q. If you had gotten the invitation say in January would you have come and had a couple practice rounds during the year?
JUSTIN LEONARD: No, not really, but because the golf course it really plays -- I did that in '93 and I came here, my first time, I came here about a month before and it played so differently. And I knew they had made a few changes here and there, but I think the real reason I did it then was to kind of take the awe out of it, which I don't know if you could ever really do that, but in a way.
And there's no, you can't replace putting these greens at the speed where they are during the Tournament week. And so, no, I don't think I would have made an extra trip.

End of FastScripts

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