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April 13, 2008
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA
Q. Zach, just talk a little bit about what this year's meant to you now that you're getting ready to give up your reign as Masters champion?
ZACH JOHNSON: It's meant a lot. Having the green jacket in my, on my back, I guess, if you will, for a year has been fantastic. It's one of those things you don't want to give up. But, you know, that's why we play it every year and whoever wins it this year, it looks like it's fairly certain, is very deserving of it, so I'll be very, very proud and very have honored to present whoever with it.
Q. Going back playing today, was it hard enough to have memories of what a great Sunday it was a year ago?
ZACH JOHNSON: I stayed pretty focused on today. Just because it was so is tough out there. It's hard not to just think about what you're doing at the present. It was just a very, very difficult test.
Q. Can you describe how tough it is on the way up?
ZACH JOHNSON: Very, very difficult. I reminisced maybe even to Saturday of last year, that's about as close as I can get. I just remember the gusts of wind that made it tough.
Q. What was the craziest shot you had to hit?
ZACH JOHNSON: The hardest ones are the putts because the ball's oscillating, you don't want to ground your putter, that sort of thing. The craziest shot I had to hit though? I don't, I don't have anything too outrageous, no. Nothing really to speak of.
Q. You had a couple birdies to start and came close on a couple more. Then the chip, just about holed the chip on 5. That was a good start.
ZACH JOHNSON: No, I was just a little off mechanically with my putter and then I finally got that back on the back nine. Yeah, but it was just, you know, couple shots here, one of those things where I didn't time the wind correctly on a lot of my bogeys. Namely 12, and 14. I hit two great shots there. Put me in the same position with the same wind I would have hit the same shot and I would have made bogey every time just because of the gusts I got.
Same on -- I made a bad putt on 7, but I got a gust on 9 on my putt. And it's little things like that that you can't control sometimes.
Q. You spent a lot of time in the Butler cabin the last two years, would you like to make that a habit?
ZACH JOHNSON: Absolutely. That's a good habit.
Q. How well do you know Trevor and how do you think you'll do handing that coat over to him? Do you have his dimensions?
ZACH JOHNSON: Well, fortunately that's not for me to decide his dimensions. But I know him fairly well, I don't know how well I really know him, but my wife and I have gotten to know he and his wife and yeah, they're a great couple and obviously Trevor's a fantastic player.
Q. Be a little easier giving up the green jacket knowing you still got one in the locker room?
ZACH JOHNSON: Absolutely. Not hard to pass it on when you have got one yourself, so.
Q. How would you describe your play here for 72 holes?
ZACH JOHNSON: Well certainly roller coaster like, but plus I got a cold right now. My feelings I've had around the greens have not been, it doesn't help. Having that cold doesn't help. But yeah, up-and-down.
I think it was a matter, it's just a momentum thing. I got off to a good start and I thought things were going the right way and then you make a couple putts and hit a couple gusts and things turn the other way. So all in all, I mean not bad. Certainly not great, but not bad.
Q. Do you feel like coming here and playing 72 holes and do you feel like maybe that's, obviously that's not what you wanted for your return, but playing 72 and insure that you've got some shots on this course it makes you feel better coming back like you will for the next couple decades?
ZACH JOHNSON: I'm sorry, I don't understand.
Q. Do you feel like coming back, playing well this year, will help when you come back the next years?
ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah, well I think the more you play it the better off you become. It's just experience. You can't put a price on playing it year in and year out. That's just, the more I play it, the better off I'm going to become.
Q. Is the Ryder Cup something that's on your mind now at this point?
ZACH JOHNSON: No, not right now. Not yet. No. But it's always a Major goal.
End of FastScripts
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