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EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

April 24, 2008

Mathew Goggin

IRVING, TEXAS

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Matthew Goggin into the interview room here at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, 3-under par 67, Matthew, and some pretty tough conditions out there. If we could just get some opening comments from you.
MATTHEW GOGGIN: Yeah, it's pretty brutal. I think it's supposed to be a brand new golf course, and whenever the guys come to a new venue, I guess, there's always a bit of a feeling-out period. I think you'll see the scores improve over the weekend.
But they didn't give us much of a break with the tee placements or the pin placements. The course was playing long, difficult to get the ball close, and obviously not really knowing the golf course that well, you didn't really know -- you were never 100 percent sure on all your shots. You're just sort of playing on face value, I guess. I was really happy with 3-under.
JOHN BUSH: Nice stretch there on 5, 6 and 7 coming in with those three birdies. If you could take us through those holes.
MATTHEW GOGGIN: Yeah, it was going a little bit slow. It was a really brutal stretch from 14 through to 2. A lot of those holes are into the wind and playing quite tricky, and I made a great up-and-down from the back of 4, and I sort of steadied the ship and holed a nice about 15-footer on 5, three-putted from about the same length on 6 and then knocked it on in two the par-5 and two-putted, so it was a very nice round.

Q. Jesper was saying it seemed like they broke out all the Sunday pins today. Did you feel like they just wanted to challenge you to the max?
MATTHEW GOGGIN: The greens are quite severe. They're very severe. There's probably half a dozen spots that could be considered Sunday pins. They're kind of firm but slow, so they're a tricky combination where if you try and chase the ball up on the green it won't roll off, but if you pitch it up on top it'll skip over because it's such a firm bounce. That's even with quite a lot of rain, so I could imagine if they didn't have a lot of rain, it would have been difficult. It was difficult enough as it was.
Yeah, it seemed to feel like coming in they definitely had some Sunday pins, like the pin on 17, the pin on 18, 16 right in the front there. I mean, there's a ton of them that were just difficult.

Q. How good is 67 given what you just described?
MATTHEW GOGGIN: I don't know. It seemed to feel pretty good out there when I was playing. Yeah, it's just tricky, I mean, the wind is so strong it's hard to really get the ball pin high, as I said, with the greens firm and slow. It's not like it was target golf. You had to be careful. There was a lot of sort of run-offs and a lot of spots where if you short-side yourself it's difficult to get the ball up-and-down.
So there was a little bit of, I guess, patience involved where you've got to hit a lot of shots to 10 or 15 feet, and that's hard to do with a 20 mile-an-hour breeze, straight down breeze, where it's very difficult to control the ball within a few yards. I hit a lot of shots that didn't get close, but you just have to sort of take it and move on.

Q. When you see tough conditions like this before you go out, are you licking your chops as opposed to say a Bob Hope Classic type round?
MATTHEW GOGGIN: Yeah, definitely suits my game a lot better to have tougher conditions. That's where I've done well in the past and given myself some good chances in tough conditions this year. I definitely don't -- I prefer it to be windy than I would to be dead still and have a putting competition because statistically putting is not the strongest part of my game but ball-striking is, so any time you get a day like today where it takes a lot of that out of it, it goes to my advantage I feel.

Q. How challenging are the greens?
MATTHEW GOGGIN: They're a little bit slow. Some of them are a little bit -- I mean, they're rolling quite nicely, but it's almost like some of them haven't quite settled so you've got almost more undulation than what you'll have in a couple years. There's almost subtle rolling bumps. Like the par-3 greens, there doesn't seem to be a flat spot on any of them. It looks like it could be really tricky. I'm sure they'll settle, but considering the course has only just been opened, they're about as good as you could get them I would imagine.

Q. I'm wondering what kind of impression you guys are getting of this course, given what's gone on?
MATTHEW GOGGIN: I haven't had too many conversations with guys but I can give you my impression. I think some holes they probably didn't need to change that they changed. I think when you're told to come in and redo the whole golf course, I guess you feel like you have to do something when you don't necessarily have to.
But on the whole, across the board, most of the holes are better. A lot of the tee shot angles are a lot better, a lot of the approach shot angles are a lot better. There was a couple of funky greens here that were quite awkward, and they seem to have sort of replaced that. But it's not like they've replaced it with really simple shots, either. There's lots of tees and lots of run-offs. I could imagine if the course got really hard and fast, it could be really tricky.

Q. A lot of the guys were saying even before the opening round, even if it rained, because the greens were new, they didn't think the greens would soften up. You didn't find that?
MATTHEW GOGGIN: No, they were softish. They weren't like -- with the amount of rain we had, they should be just sticking, but there was none of that, especially down breeze. The ball just took off. Obviously they're brand new, the drainage is awesome and the water is sucking straight out of them.
It's always that tricky combination when they're hard and slow. It makes it very difficult.
JOHN BUSH: Take us through the birdie on No. 10.
MATTHEW GOGGIN: 10, I hit a sand wedge to about 15 feet and holed it.
12, I hit a 7-iron to about six feet.
Bogey on 14, I hit a bad tee shot right, was able to punch it out right of the green and didn't get the ball up-and-down.
And 2, I hit it in the left trap. The bunkers out here are a one-shot penalty. The sand is horrible.

Q. When you say it's a one-shot penalty, meaning they're --
MATTHEW GOGGIN: The sand in them is just horrible, some of the worst sand I've ever tried to hit a bunker shot out of. It's like mud. I guess it's because it's wet. If it dries out it'll be okay, but because it's wet and there's no base, no natural base, it's just a foot of not-very-well compacted sand because they're brand new.
Any time you get brand-new bunkers they never play very well. It's literally like playing out of mud. Ryan had a simple bunker shot, didn't get it out. I had a bunker shot with 50 feet of green and barely got out of the bunker. You don't generally see TOUR players not get out of bunkers.

Q. Hard to judge?
MATTHEW GOGGIN: Yeah, because the sand was so wet and so heavy, but you're never 100 percent sure because it doesn't necessarily look that wet and heavy, but it's like hitting out of water. I think they're definitely something to avoid.

Q. How did you play 11?
MATTHEW GOGGIN: 11, I hit a 3-iron and pitched it to about eight feet and left it short.

Q. So you don't want to hit in the bunkers, shots aren't necessarily holding on the green, and there's severe pin placements. Would you say it's a mentally taxing situation for you?
MATTHEW GOGGIN: No, no, you just know. They're just not -- like Hilton Head and a few other weeks, the bunkers have been so pure that for us it's no penalty at all. When you come here, because they're so new, it's very difficult to control and hit a quality bunker shot. It's sort of a fat run and you can't put any spin on the ball.
It becomes sort of a lottery. You could get a nice lie and it might not be wet underneath, but with all the rain it obviously made it very difficult. But considering the course is so new, it's amazing how well it's playing, really, because it's really only a month old, two months old.
JOHN BUSH: Matthew, great start. Keep it going.

End of FastScripts

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