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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AM

April 20, 2008

Mark Wiebe

LUTZ, FLORIDA

DAVE SENKO: Mark, thanks for joining us. I guess just your thoughts --
MARK WIEBE: Do you want to go through all my birdies on the front nine? (Laughter)
Man, I played pretty good. I played pretty good. Kind of -- golf is a weird game, isn't it? My driver is my favorite club right now, and it wasn't the first drive on 15 that cost me; it was the second one. The first one I pulled it or I aimed there, one of the two, but the second one hurt, because I had to lay up out of the trap.
I think if I get my second one in the fairway and make a six there, I probably would have had a different outcome for my score. I don't know if I would have one.
The second one, that was a tough one to take. You know, I came pretty close; what, four holes away from having a shot at it, anyway.
Like I said, my driver is my favorite club and if something let me down today, it was my driver. Hard to believe.

Q. What are you feeling right now?
MARK WIEBE: I'm tired. It's hard. I've had this in the past. It's been awhile. When you go from having a chance to win to not, it's really hard to tee it up. It is hard to -- you know, you try like hell, and you know, you can't win.
So, you know, I'm not really mad. I'm disappointed, of course. But the sun will come up tomorrow. It's going to be a long week and I'll take a couple of days off and try to regroup, but going from trying to win the tournament to trying to conduct myself in a good way, because I'm bummed, you know.
And again, I think the second drive on 15; and then doubling 17 was a shocker, because I was thinking, I've birdied 18 the first two days. I didn't hit that bad of a shot. It was a little left on 17, but it ended up in a bad spot. Scott's ball was up top where he could putt, and mine had gone down; and not only that, it kind of sunk into that bermudagrass. God, I hate that stuff, man. We have bent and stuff on the West Coast, and poa annua. We don't have bermuda. I kind of guessed that there. I thought if I hit a 3-wood it might come galloping out of there. Geez, I didn't even get it two yards from the green.
And like I said, 18 was hard to play. It was just hard. Your emotions are kind of shot and it doesn't matter. I want to finish strong, and I don't even know what place I ended up. But I've had a tough time with that in the past, and I'll tell you who is great at being -- the guy that I really look to that doesn't do that, is the winner. He plays every hole the same. I mean, if I would have played 18 like Tom Watson, I probably would have made a birdie or a par, but I had a hard time sucking it up.

Q. One of the characteristics of golf is that a lot of good work can be undone by one swing or shot; how long did 15 stick with you? Was 17 a direct result of that?
MARK WIEBE: No. You know, I hit a great drive on 16 and I said, "God, I could have used that on the last hole." I mean, on one of my drives on 15, I could have used that.
It's like I said, golf's a weird game and my favorite club, and I get up with the same thoughts and hit a beautiful drive on 16. Actually I made a really good par on 16. But the double on 17 hurt equally as much as the 7 on 15.

Q. How surprised are you that Scott missed that shot on 18?
MARK WIEBE: Shocked. I've known Scott for, geez, a long time. You know, once I was out of it, I'm not rooting against anyone, but I wanted him to make that putt. I thought he had a pretty good chip. And I was kind of over there with my caddie and we're talking about licking our wounds and having a short memory because on days like today you want to have a short memory and move on.
I just couldn't believe he missed it. He's a good putter. My God, he's a good putter. He's got a stroke similar to mine, kind of a shorter takeaway and accelerate through, which usually on shorter putts is a good thing to do, but I missed a little tiny one on 17, too.
I think both of us were out of sequence. He hit the worst shot I've ever seen him hit today on 7. That's the worst shot I've ever seen Scott Hoch hit, ever, and I've known him for probably 25 years. I was shocked. I don't know if you know the seventh hole, but he hit in those trees. I had 211 to the front or something, and he was passed me. I was shocked. It was kind of a weird day. He was making some birdies and bogeys and doubled 7, and I was making all pars and we had no giddy yap, neither one of us.
I'm going back to, golf is a weird game.

Q. As disappointing as today is, in the grand scheme of things, compared to where you were a couple of years ago, is it nice to be in the position to be disappointed?
MARK WIEBE: Well, yeah, I think I said yesterday, we all play to have a shot on Sunday late, and I had a shot Sunday late on the back nine. So that part is great. I'm tickled.
I don't know if I ran out of gas or -- still, it's hard to second-guess myself on 15. It's a driver hole. The only thing that's different is that the tees were in a different spot today. They were up on the right and they were back on the left and it does change the angle of the hole quite a bit. One is kind of shooting -- well, when you're on the front right, it just -- for my cut shot, anyway, it just seemed to fit nice, and when they put the tees back left, maybe that's the only thing that I can think of that's different is I just didn't get a good line on my drive.
But I'm tickled that I had a shot at winning. You know, if I could have -- I'd love to have a shot late Sunday on the back nine; that's what it's all about. And it was pretty good for a while. It took me forever and I finally made a birdie, and I followed it up with a double and a triple. Now I wish I wouldn't have made the birdie; if I had parred in I would have won -- or I would have won by two. I don't know. I don't know.

Q. On 15 were you trying to cut it over and what went wrong there, and obviously, you came close to the water again --
MARK WIEBE: Well, the second drive was really hard. The first one wasn't hard at all. I drove it great this week, honest to God I drove it great. Real happy with it. Favorite club in my bag this week. I'm going to give it the MVP for me this week. I just drove it long and straight. I ripped it on the driving range before the round.
I hit my driver great today. I hit it on holes like 9 that guys don't hit driver. I just drove it great. I just went up doing what I had done for almost three days, 2 1/2 days. I was just trying to hit the shot that I hit all week, and that's right at that bunker and cut it.
DAVE SENKO: Thank you, Mark.

End of FastScripts

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