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AT&T CLASSIC

May 15, 2008

Parker McLachlin

DULUTH, GEORGIA

THE MODERATOR: Parker McLachlin, thanks for joining us here for a few minutes in the AT&T Classic. Off to a great start. 6 under Par 66 for the day. Just a couple comments. Obviously rather wet conditions.
PARKER MCLACHLIN: Yeah, the conditions were pretty good the first, I guess it was maybe 13 holes or 14 holes. You know, real prime for scoring. I think we all saw that out there. And I think the green speeds are going to change now that it's wet. You're watching balls skid on the greens once it started raining so makes it pretty imperative to hit the greens regulation.

THE MODERATOR: I'm sure you heard about the weather conditions looming. How important was it for to you get the full round in.
PARKER MCLACHLIN: Wake up this morning you look outside and you are thinking it's going to be, you know, down pouring, and it's pretty nice and you get pretty excited, you know, to maybe get some good weather. So, you know, I think that was the attitude I took, was, you know, great we got some good weather, good scoring weather, and let's go take advantage of it.

Q. Was it putting out there for you? I mean what was it that kind of made the difference for you out there?
PARKER MCLACHLIN: I putted pretty well on the first nine and then just kind of -- I wasn't hitting it great. And then on the back nine I figured out something in my swing. And then I kept putting real good. So it was -- that's always a good combination when you can sort of mesh the two together.
But the last few weeks I've been hitting it pretty well and haven't been making very many putts, and then started making some great putts out there today. And then my swing came around on the back nine and put together, you know, 4 under on the back.

Q. What was it that you figured out?
PARKER MCLACHLIN: Actually, my caddie was holding the top of my hat when I was putting on the practice green, and just to make sure that I wasn't going this way. He was just holding it steady. And that was something that simple that I had gotten into the habit of going that way. So he would just hold it while I would make my stroke.
And, you know, just something small like that can just click. And it was just -- it's so much fun to see the ball start on your line when you are putting. And I got to do that today. It was pretty cool.

Q. (No microphone.)
PARKER MCLACHLIN: It was kind of a combination of both of us figuring it out. He said looks to me like your head's going back a little bit. I said yeah that's kind of what it's feeling like. He said why don't I just hold your hat here. So kind of a joint effort to come to that conclusion.

Q. You're putting well. Are these greens good to be rolling it on?
PARKER MCLACHLIN: Yeah. I mean, these are some of the best on tour as well as some of the most ungulating. So if you got your speed dialed in, you can make a lot of putts. But, if not, these greens will make you look silly, you know.

Q. How close did you knock it on 13?
PARKER MCLACHLIN: I hit a poor drive out to the right. I had like -- ways in the bunker, I think I had like, what, like, 60 yards or something. It was a real awkward shot. And I hit -- just tried to chip a shot on to the green and ended up hitting it like 100 feet away.

Q. 98.
PARKER MCLACHLIN: 98 feet. And I ended up 3-putting.

Q. Do you like that hole?
PARKER MCLACHLIN: I think it's great risk/reward hole. I think it's, you know, I think it challenges you to hit driver, get it up past the front edge of the green. Because if you can get it past the front edge of the green everything's coming back up hill, you know. But if you keep it short of the green now everything's running away from you. So it's tough to control it. So it puts precision -- it puts emphasis on precision length driving there.

Q. You can hear the rain sort of falling harder and harder. How good does it feel to be done with your round knowing almost half the field has to be out there dealing with the weather you got to sort of avoid this morning?
PARKER MCLACHLIN: Obviously, it feels great. Anytime you get the good end of the draw -- I think we've all been on the bad end quite a few times. When you get the good end you get pretty excited, especially when you go out the first 12, 13 holes there's no wind and it's just perfect conditions and it's a nice temperature.
Now I'm just hoping that, you know, I mean, everybody that's played this morning is sort of like, well, you can rain a little harder, it could blow a little bit more you know.
But, you know, it's always nice to catch a good end of the draw because it doesn't always happen that way. I've caught the bad end plenty of times when you have played in the morning and you are expecting it to be calm and it's really windy and then right when you finish the wind just dies down and you're like that's no fun, that's no fair.

Q. Stewart said that last night everybody kind of went to bed thinking that-- went to bed with the angel of death resting on their chest. Then you get up this morning and you realize it's not that bad. Does that kind of put you into the frame of mind where you can go out and take advantage of things? Or what goes through your mind when you see it's not that bad?
PARKER MCLACHLIN: First of all, I think we're so use to the weather changing so much that I don't think you pay much -- I've tried not to pay too much attention to it until maybe 12 hours before, or even when you wake up. And you just deal with it then. I mean you can get so wrapped up in it's going to be flooding, it rained nine inches in Louisiana, it's going to come our way, there's going to be tornados. It's like what's the point in getting all wrapped up in all that? So I just took it as it was. I said it's probably going to be raining this morning. And when it wasn't, you know, I was pretty excited. I mean, and no wind and, I mean, what a great morning to play golf.

Q. When you got to your 18 hole-- the 9th hole today, you experienced upwards of an hour hold up. What did that do for your momentum knowing or at least having an idea you were tied for the lead? How do you kill an hour's time when you are on the tee box?
PARKER MCLACHLIN: You know, sitting there it's probably one of the toughest tee shots on the golf course. What's, it 470 into the wind, 472. I mean, it's beast of a hole. So sitting there on the tee box for an hour, you know, knowing that I have been playing a good round of golf, you know, and you're obviously watching the guys in front of you having to take drops or having to come back to the tee, and you are just sitting there like all right let's just stay focused on making a good swing.
And, you know, I actually kind of got cold out there. You get your heart rate going then you sit for 45 minutes or an hour and you get cold. And I just tried to stay loose and not think about the shot until it was actually time to tee my ball up and then start thinking about it. Because it's not one you want to sit there thinking about for an hour. (Laughing). It's tough tee shot.

Q. Did you take advantage of getting to play the ball off today much?
PARKER MCLACHLIN: Yeah, I hit a lot of fairways. It was kind of my -- you know, I was -- I'm not a long hitter and sometimes I try to swing outside of myself. And I think today knowing that, you know, we had lift clean in place that to swing within myself and just put it in the fairway, you know, you really get a big advantage. So I think I took advantage of it, yeah.

Q. If you wouldn't mind real quickly running us through your birdies and giving us some clubs and a little description?
PARKER MCLACHLIN: All right. I started on 10. 10 I laid up really nicely on the fairway bunker about 90 yards out, hit a great bunker shot to about 20 feet, made that putt. Then I 3-putted on 13 there from about 100 feet. 16, hit a 9-iron there, ended up just short of, right on the front edge of the green there and made about a 25-footer. 17 was in the fairway bunker right, hit a 6-iron to about maybe 15 feet, made another great putt there. Number 1, hit a gap wedge to probably about 15, 18 feet, made another beautiful putt there. 3, hit a pitching wedge from about 135 yards to about maybe 8 or 10 feet. 4, I hit it pin high in two, chipped it up to about 5 feet, made that. Then, 6, laid up to about 106 yards, hit a wedge to about 10 feet and made that.
THE MODERATOR: Okay. Parker, thanks for coming in. Appreciate your time. Best of luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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