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AT&T CLASSIC

May 14, 2008

Paul Goydos

DULUTH, GEORGIA

DOUG MILNE: Thanks for joining us for a few minutes here at the AT & T Classic. Obviously life has changed a good bit for you in the past few days, but on the way over here it obviously hadn't impacted you. You're still as upbeat and positive and lighthearted as ever. A couple comments on more or less what you've been going through for the past few days.
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, it's been a whirlwind. You know, outpouring, first of all, from my friends in the community where I live in Dove Canyon and Coto de Caza, but also my hometown of Long Beach.
The hardest thing probably to deal with is figuring out a way to thank everybody for their support. That's the thing that I'm struggling with the most. How do you thank -- it seemed like -- I don't know how many people were out there on Sunday in Jacksonville, but tens of thousands, and how do you thank 10,000 people? I really haven't quite figured that out, but we're going to work on that.
It's been an amazing week for a guy who finished second, a guy who lost. I have to tip my hat to Sergio Garcia. The guy shot under par on a day that was treacherous, a day where a bad swing meant double bogey or worse, a day where I don't know how many people broke par in the last ten groups, but I think it was probably two, Quinney and Garcia, and I'd be shocked if it was anybody else.
If you'd have told me when I was standing on the 4th tee when I was 5-under that if I shot even par the last 15 holes I wasn't going to win, I would have said you're insane, absolutely insane.
DOUG MILNE: I thought it was interesting on the way over, you made your Google comment that you were the fifth most --
PAUL GOYDOS: I don't know how they do this. I looked up some search on Google and I was the fifth most searched name on Google on Saturday and I guess ninth on Sunday. Now, I don't know what that means. A lot of it was like Survivor, who won Survivor, and me. So I could make the argument that I lost Survivor. But that's just insanity. I'm shocked that that many people could spell my name right, let alone care enough to go to Google and find out where I live or whatever you find on Google, hopefully good things.

Q. On 17 during regulation play, they switched the microphone on and you were talking to your caddie, and he said something, then you said, 51st hole (inaudible). Any recollection what he said?
PAUL GOYDOS: He was very adamant about -- Scott and I have been together since '03, and that was probably the most adamant I had seen him about how the hole was playing. He liked -- the wind wasn't hurting, and it was a pitching wedge. He usually says, "I like pitching wedge," not "It's a pitching wedge." There's a big difference there. And I caught onto it a little, but I was in my own little world, too.
But we took our time on that hole. I don't know what TV commentators were saying about the fact that we took our time, more time than I normally would on a par-3. But he absolutely nailed it. I hit a good shot, but it was his adamancy that -- is that a word, adamancy? -- obviously helped.
I'm playing good, so let's say I'm 95 percent committed. It's hard to be 100 percent committed on that hole, I'll be honest with you. Him adding his two cents probably had something to do with the fact that I made such a good, positive shot and hit a good, positive shot, and I'm two feet from the ball rolling down two feet from the hole. We had a good week.
I can't say this enough times, Scott had a great week. We were kind of on the same page on every single shot. It was definitely -- he definitely helped me enough shots to where it would have been a different outcome if he wouldn't have had a good week.

Q. What did you think of 17 as a playoff hole?
PAUL GOYDOS: I think 17 as the playoff hole did exactly what they needed it to do. We do live in a world where time is of the essence. We don't need a 12-hole playoff. That costs money, and TV doesn't want that.
Having said that, 16 or 18 would have probably -- same thing, probably the stroke average on those holes was probably four and a half or something near there, so you are getting lots of different scores. But we are also in the entertainment business, and I think that's the most exciting hole on the golf course. You have Live@17, I'm sure that did very well on the Internet. If I had a choice of the three holes to pick for the playoff, I would have picked 17 for me. I didn't have a real big desire to play long ball with Sergio on 16.
To me, for me personally, I think it was the right hole. The decision to play the hole, again, we're in the entertainment business. We're trying to get good ratings. We're trying to help out UBS who's the sponsor that week; this week AT & T is sponsoring it and we're going to do what's in the best interest of them, too. We're in that business. The hole did exactly what it's supposed to do. Unfortunately, it did it to me.

Q. How much confidence does that -- coming so close last week, how much does that help your game do you think going forward?
PAUL GOYDOS: I was feeling good. I thought the game was getting better, though the results might not say that. I had nine bad holes at Wachovia or I would have had a very high finish there. I wasn't going to catch Anthony Kim, but I would have contended for first runner-up.
You know, I think my game is getting better. It's just the matter with me is getting it to be good for long periods of time. That has been a problem throughout my 16-year career. I have moments of good play. I haven't had stretches of good play or weeks or months of good play. That hasn't happened yet. Hopefully this may be the start of it. I do feel like I'm playing better, but we'll see.
I think sometimes we do get caught up -- I thought Wachovia was a good week. It may not show that in the record book, but right now, I feel like I've had two good weeks in a row, and hopefully I'm going to play this week and next week and hopefully it'll be four good weeks in a row.

Q. How much have people commented on your personality sort of came out, people maybe got to see you for the first time? Golf writers sort of knew you were a pretty good quote but maybe the rest of the world got the feel for that.
PAUL GOYDOS: Again, one of the things is that me and Scott were inside the ropes doing our job, so I don't have a good feel for what everybody was saying, though, again, playing today in the Pro-Am, I mean, every marshal, seems like every hole, it was just, "Great playing, we're pulling for you, you're a class act," all these things.
It's who I am. I don't know how to -- I don't have an answer. I don't even understand it to be perfectly honest with you.
I think golf is a sport that brings that out in people. The second rule of the game is etiquette. It's not, you're out at first. It's etiquette, how you treat the course, how you treat your fellow competitors, how you treat the game, the importance of having -- for lack of a better word, good manners. Those are the things that are so important in this game that they put it second in the rule book after the object is to get the ball in the hole. I think that says a lot about the sport that we play.
I think if you were to get every player on this TOUR, given the opportunity that I was given, the scrutiny and the watch, you'd be surprised how many of them acted the same way I did.

Q. I just want to ask you about a player who was in here earlier, David Duval. We all know the struggles he's been through and he's still out there kind of trying to get it back and still confident maybe at some point he can get back some semblance of the game he once had. How much do fellow players empathize when they see a guy like that who was on top of the world and is now really kind of struggling to get it back?
PAUL GOYDOS: I don't think David wants my empathy, to be honest with you. I think he's working hard, he's doing the best he can, he's doing his job. He's a tremendously talented player. How many times did he win, 13 times?
David is a good guy. Again, if you take golf away and you got to know David Duval, you'd realize that he's a lot more than a guy who won 13 events and a major. He's a good man, he's well-read, he's smart. I think he's as happy as he's ever been in his life with his family situation. Sometimes I think we overrate the importance of hitting a little white ball around a big grass field. I think, again, if you were to ask David -- I shouldn't say this because it's not my place, but if you asked David if he was happier when he was No. 1 in the world or today, I think you'd be surprised by the answer.

Q. Have you had reactions from the Long Beach State baseball team?
PAUL GOYDOS: Long Beach State, they won two out of three that weekend, from UC Santa Barbara, the Gauchos, our hated rival. They've been great. They're excited. I think the 49ers are excited. It's been great.
I mean, it's a great school. It's not as much about the baseball team or the sports as it is about my dad worked there for 25 years, I lived across the street. Long Beach State was a part of my life since I can remember being alive. My dad was proud of it, proud of working there. He had season basketball tickets. I went to basketball games when I was five or six years old. Jerry Tarkanian was the coach.
It's more of a community/my father issue as much as it's an I'm loyal to my alma mater.
I got an email from the coach, and it was, congratulations, we appreciate all the support.

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