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AT&T CLASSIC

May 17, 2008

Ryuji Imada

DULUTH, GEORGIA

THE MODERATOR: Ryuji Imada, thanks for joining us here for a few minutes. Congratulations on a third-round bogey-free 6-under par 66 here at the AT&T Classic. Out there you said you felt like you're owed one here; a little redemption after last year. Just start off with a couple comments on the round.
RYUJI IMADA: I got off to a really good start starting on 3. I didn't hit a very good second shot, left myself about 40 foot up the hill putt, and I made that, and that really got me off to a really good start.
And 4 hit it to about 5 feet from about 7 yards. 6, hit a good drive, nice second shot, but I couldn't really cut it enough to get it on the green and it went in the bunker about 20 yards away from the pin, hit it to about a foot. 7 and 8 were very crucial holes for me today; made really good par saves on those two holes. And 12, hit 5-wood, 9-iron to about 5 feet. 13, driver, and I had about, maybe, 30 yards away; hit it about 8 feet, made that. And 17, driver, 8-iron to about 4 feet.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for some questions.

Q. What do you feel like you learned last year going into the playoffs, playing as well as you did last year?
RYUJI IMADA: I learned that, you know, if I play well I can win on PGA Tour. Up to that point, I hadn't really felt that way. I knew that -- well I thought that I could do it, but I wasn't quite sure of myself. And last year I led most of the way in up until, you know, the playoffs. So it really gave me confidence to, you know, come out and think and know that I could do it. And that's the big thing I learned.

Q. In addition to the Georgia fans, are you getting the larger gallery because of your exploits last year? Are you finding people out there rooting for you?
RYUJI IMADA: I think so. There was quite a bit of people following us today. Some Asians, some Bulldogs, all mixed. But it's always fun to play in front of a lot of crowd. And it's always nice to come back here.

Q. Can you take us through Thursday. I guess you didn't have any rain gear. Kind of take us how that whole thing unfolded and here you are now after going through a frustrating and wet day on Thursday. What was that like?
RYUJI IMADA: Well I was having a really good day up until my last four holes, things started to get really bad. The rain was coming down really hard. My grip was getting wet.
I hit a shot on 7, my third shot, just came off -- my right hand came off the club, almost shanked it, made bogey. Number 7, tried to hit a tee shot and of course my right hand slipped off the club and that went about 9 yards off line into somebody's living room. (Laughing). And number 9 was crazy because we had another-- or not another but hour-wait on the tee box because of the tough condition, rain, and a lot of guys were having trouble to decide where to drop and, you know, decide whether it was OB or getting the squeegees out. It was just a crazy few holes.
But the reason why I didn't have my rain gear was my caddie got food poisoning last week on Tuesday night and couldn't make it on Thursday. So I called my agent, Jeremy Elliot, to come down to Jacksonville to caddie for me for a day or two till my caddie gets better. And so he came down.
He got to Jacksonville about midnight, and I picked him up about 7:00 in the morning. And I figured that, you know, he's never caddied before so I got to lighten the bag for him. So I took most everything out of the bag and left it at the storage.
Well, my caddie came back the second day, but I didn't care to put them all back in, and I missed the cut on Friday. So I'm going to, you know, get out of there as soon as possible. So I forgot my rain gear. And I didn't notice it until, you know, Wednesday afternoon.

Q. Did you think about running out an getting some --
RYUJI IMADA: I did. But I got there on Thursday and, you know, guys in the morning played and finished, and I didn't think it was going to get that bad. So -- and if I did -- I mean if it did get really bad I thought they were going to stop the play any ways. So I didn't think about playing in the pouring rain.

Q. Safe to say that the weather conditions were obviously the best they've been all week. What about the course conditions in comparison to the previous two days?
RYUJI IMADA: Previous two days played really soft. The first day, you know, pretty much rained the whole day for us in the afternoon tee time guys. And yesterday was -- I got off at 7:30 in the morning, I was first off, so I didn't get much of the wind and the condition was just perfect. And today was, again, it was a perfect, you know, day. It was a little breezy at times, but, you know, greens are soft, you can attack the pins, and I think conditions are really good.

Q. You had a really good stretch early in the year. You had a couple of seconds, I think, and a third or whatever. But then the last few weeks not so much. Has that been sort of a pattern for you? And how much would you attribute the success early in the year to what happened to you here last year?
RYUJI IMADA: Well I think it's got lot to do with the success I had last year, the success I'm having this year. You know, like I said before, it gave me a lot of confidence to come out and, you know, know that I can do it.
What was the first question again?

Q. Last few weeks --
RYUJI IMADA: Oh yeah, last few weeks.
I don't know what's wrong with me. I mean I go up and down really fast. You know my swing changed fast. I can make changes like, you know, nobody else. And, you know, I just go up and down really quick. Some weeks I play well and the next week I'm playing bad. So I'm really not a very consistent player per se.
But, you know, I think the main reason for me is the putting. You know, if I'm putting well, I can usually contend or, you know, have pretty good weeks. But, you know, the weeks I'm not putting well I'm usually missing the cut by 10, 8, so.

Q. Are there certain things you fall into or are there things you attempt to do on purpose?
RYUJI IMADA: You know I'll attempt to do something and I'll overcook it then I'll try to get back to that and I'll the go other way. So it's like a vicious cycle for me with the golf swing.
I've been working hard with my coach Rich Able back home in Tampa. He was here this week. You know, he and I have been working on, you know, getting a very good tempo, maybe trying to keep the spine angle a little bit better. And that's been working this week. So hopefully it keeps going.

Q. Can you discuss what you think it will be like tomorrow? Looks like a lot of guys could be right there and it could be a shootout. Is that kind of what you are anticipating?
RYUJI IMADA: That's what I am hoping. Hopefully nobody's going to run away the last four or five holes.
You know, if I'm within three, four shots of the lead, I know I've got a chance. And you know there's a bunch of guys, I'd say about 15 guys, who have got a chance to win if that's the case, you know. So I just got to go out there and make a lot of birdies.
I don't know what the weather's going to be like tomorrow. I heard it's not very good; is that right? I heard the weather is going to be pretty bad.
So it's anybody's game, you know. Whoever plays well under tough conditions is going to be the winner here, I think.

Q. This year a lot of the 20-somethings have won the tournaments. But you got Kenny Perry up there among the leaders. Do you feel like he is the kind of guy that can kind of stave off the 20-somethings maybe at least one more time?
RYUJI IMADA: Well I'm not quite 20-somethings any more.
But Kenny's been playing really well lately. He's been practicing really hard. I see him all the time out there hitting balls, putting, and he's been putting a lot of hours in. So it's -- he's going to be tough to beat.
And, you know, a lot of the guys up there are pretty tough to beat. But, I mean, my goal this week is to get a win, you know. So I came here to win. And that's what I am going to try to do tomorrow. I can't really think about, you know, what everybody else is doing.
THE MODERATOR: All right, Ryuji, congratulations on your round today and best of luck tomorrow.
RYUJI IMADA: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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