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VERIZON HERITAGE

April 15, 2008

Kyle Thompson

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

JOHN BUSH: Kyle, thanks for coming by a spend spending a few minutes with us. You grew up in the up state of South Carolina, so obviously this is an important tournament for you being in the Palmetto State. Let's just get your comments on playing the tournament this week.
KYLE THOMPSON: This is an event I've been looking forward to all year, playing in front of a lot of my friends and family. It's always great to come back to your home state. Compared to the rest of the year, we've been out west and Puerto Rico and Mexico, it's really kind of great to get back on some familiar turf.
JOHN BUSH: Just talk about graduated from the Nationwide Tour last year. You were out there three or four years --
KYLE THOMPSON: Five.
JOHN BUSH: A little bit longer than you were hoping, but just talk a little bit about your preparation for this TOUR and getting ready for your rookie season.
KYLE THOMPSON: I can't say enough about the Nationwide Tour. What a great place to learn how to travel, how to compete and how to play for money, all the little things that go into the game that you don't see on TV. Nationwide Tour was great for me. Like I said, I really learned a lot out there. Learning how to win was probably the biggest thing. I feel like after winning twice last year that if I'm playing like I know I can that I can win out here. I'm really glad I've got that experience behind me, and hopefully I can just play my best golf this week and make a run at it.
JOHN BUSH: And just looking at the season for you so far, probably not the start you wanted, but yet you finished top 15 at Puerto Rico, so comment a little bit about that.
KYLE THOMPSON: Yeah, kind of a slow start. I got married this December and bought a new house. We were just really busy leading into this year. A wedding takes a lot out of you. Not just money, either.
But it was just really busy, didn't get a chance to practice a whole lot. The start of the year wasn't what I hopped for, but I'm been working a lot with my coach, Puggy Blackmon, but we worked a lot this year and started to really play a lot better. I finished 15th in Puerto Rico, should have Top Tenned, but kind of made some mistakes on Sunday.
And then the following week I didn't get into New Orleans so I went and played in Lafayette and finished 2nd there. I feel like I've got some confidence and some momentum, and we'll see where it gets me.

Q. What was the reason for going to the Nationwide?
KYLE THOMPSON: Well, looking at it, I wasn't sure how much golf I would get to play, so I had two weeks off. I felt fresh. I played in Puerto Rico, had a good finish, and the way it works is if I'm not able to play in a PGA TOUR event, I'm allowed to go down and play in a Nationwide Tour event. I just wanted to have some -- as a rookie, it's hard to really make your schedule. I've just got to play wherever I can get in. That's the hardest part of being a rookie. Thankfully I got a sponsor exemption here this week or I wouldn't be playing this week. I played that week and then I played the following week and then I played Houston, so I had a three-week stretch in a row which was really nice to kind of get some momentum and a little bit of confidence.

Q. Do you feel like it's been a difficult adjustment coming from the Nationwide Tour? Is there that big a difference?
KYLE THOMPSON: No, not really. The competition on the Nationwide Tour, it's pretty stout. It's not as good as PGA TOUR, but it's pretty dang good.
For me, it was really nothing new because I've been doing it for so long out there. I'm a rookie this year and I really don't feel like a rookie. I look down the range, and I know 80 percent of the guys because they've come through the Nationwide Tour in the last five years.
So for me the reason I haven't played particularly well is just because I haven't played particularly well. I mean, last year on the Nationwide Tour I missed my first six cuts and ended up having the best year of my career. I'm always kind of a slow starter.

Q. You went a long time without a win. Is that a painful feeling?
KYLE THOMPSON: You know, it's tough. I mean, I had four seconds before I ever won, you know, and it took me a long time. I used to win a lot in junior golf and a lot in college. I won five times at South Carolina, and I used to really know what it was like to win.
And then when I had kind of that dry spell of a couple years, you kind of forget all the great things you've got to do mainly inside of your head to win. The two weeks that I won last year were completely opposite. One week I led wire to wire and one I came from way behind to win. Those experiences are going to help me in the future if I'm ever in that situation again on this TOUR, hey, I've done this before, I can do it and get it done.
There's really nothing -- I can just tell you this is what I learned from those two weeks. It's just kind of in your head, I guess.

Q. You mentioned early on about getting married and buying a house. What's your wife's name? Where are you living now?
KYLE THOMPSON: Her name is Emmi, maiden name is Nakatsu. She's half Japanese. She's from New York but we met in Greenville, where her whole family lives now, and we met there and she -- I think eight or nine months later I was engaged, and I proposed out at Pebble Beach and got married eight or nine months after that. It's been a whirlwind.
It's been awesome. She's been traveling with me every week, and I can't say enough about what these Tour wives go through. It's just hard work coming out and supporting us, going to bed and then helping us out with our travel, our laundry, everything, the kids. Some of these guys -- a lot of these guys have kids, but we're not there yet. We have a dog that's kind of like our kid. It's just a lot of work that goes into their lives that they don't get a whole lot of appreciation for except from the pros. It's not as glamorous as a lot of people think.

Q. How do you spell her last name?
KYLE THOMPSON: N-a-k-a-t-s-u.

Q. Any special story on where you asked her out at Pebble Beach?
KYLE THOMPSON: I took her down Highway 1 to what I think is the most scenic part of that whole area, down towards the Big Sur. You kind of go across the big bridge.
It was kind of funny, that day warming up to go play, I'm playing a Monday Pro-Am there at Pebble, and I'm warming up and I've got Ricky Barnes beside me and one amateur on the other side, and all the other Ams are down with Davis Love doing a clinic. And Ricky is like, hey, what's going on, what's new, and I said, well, I'm getting engaged today. He's like, really? I said, yeah, hopefully I'm not playing with any hackers so I can fly around here and get done and make it done by sunset. And the amateur guy was just laughing, yeah, hopefully not, whatnot.
There must have been 200 guys playing in this thing, and sure enough, he was paired with me sitting in the cart with me. He comes walking up, and he says, "Man, I hope I'm not the hacker you're talking about." It was pretty funny, really random. I was the hacker that day. I shot 80 or so. I was so nervous. Luckily I had a good tournament. I think I finished 25th. That was pretty cool.

Q. Just talk about past experiences you've had playing this golf course and what are some of your favorites in South Carolina.
KYLE THOMPSON: First time I played here it was Lucas Glover and I. We were 10 or 11 years old, and his granddad Dick Henley brought us down and we played here in a junior event. And then since then I might have played once or twice, and then I played back in 2003 here. It's a great golf course. I mean, it really benefits a great ball striker. That's no surprise KYLE THOMPSON won last year. He hits it as good as anybody.
But you've really got to be able to control your ball, hit it the right distance, more so here than a lot of other golf courses. And you've got to be putting good. The greens are small, so when you hit the greens you need to be rolling in some putts.
It's up there as far as my favorite courses we've played this year. I'm really excited to play here this week.

Q. What are a few place you like playing around here?
KYLE THOMPSON: I've played a ton of golf here. When I was at South Carolina we used to play Secession and Old Tabby Links over on Cat Island. Where else? We used to play everywhere in college. So I really like this area. Coach Blackmon is from Beaufort, so we always used to do a low country boil over at his parents' house, and this whole area is very familiar to me.

Q. Do you have a favorite course in South Carolina?
KYLE THOMPSON: I really love Secession. It's a great track. It's totally different from a lot of these other courses. I haven't played all of them down here. I know there's a lot of good ones. Belfair, we used to play the Players Am. That was a good golf course. Never played Berkeley Hall but I've been out there in their practice facility and it's phenomenal. I think this place has exploded since I was a kid and it's great to see.
JOHN BUSH: Kyle, thank you, and play well this week.

End of FastScripts

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