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STANFORD ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP

June 4, 2008

Woody Austin

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome our defending champion, Woody Austin, here at the Stanford St. Jude Championship. Looking back on this win in 2007, obviously a fantastic final 9. More than that kind of spurred on a great summer, runner-up finish at Buick Open and PGA Championship, victorious U.S. President's Cup team. Aqua-man. Must have some pretty good memories coming into this week.
WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah. Well, I mean, this is the start of a good stretch. Hopefully it will start another good stretch this year, you know. My golf game is not all that great, but you never know what tomorrow might bring, and hopefully I can find a little magic this afternoon and get it ready for the morning.
STEWART MOORE: You struggled so far in 2008.
WOODY AUSTIN: It's really a combination of everything, really. Not playing really bad, but when I play well, I feel bad, when I play bad, score worse. It's a matter of scoring.
I think the best way to describe it, every bad swing is magnified and every good swing is unrewarded. It's been a combination of a lot -- my caddy puts it, I'm 1 foot on the wrong side of the lob wedge right now. Everything is 1 foot off, one leg the wrong way.

Q. Turn to the golf course. Over the past couple of years, this course has definitely played a lot harder. Sixty-two the final round last year. What did you see out there today? Playing the same?
WOODY AUSTIN: You know, playing tough because, you know, it's real windy. So if the wind stays up like this, obviously the course is going to stay firm and fast.
I didn't see any rain in the forecast last night. So if that's the case, 93, 94 every day through the rest of the week, it should be firm and fast by the weekend. So it's just going to get tougher, which is good.
I mean, it's not -- the rough isn't like stupid crazy. So you're not going to be severely penalized for hitting the rough. You can at least be able to hit it at the greens. The greens won't take it unless you bounce it in, there which is the way it should be.
You play well, you score well. You don't, it's going to get you.
STEWART MOORE: Questions?

Q. How much did that round you had -- you start last season and you mentioned trying to get some of that magic back. Anything that made it work for you that got things clicking?
WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I mean, I was working on my game just like I am now, trying to find, you know, find little problems that were in it. I felt like at Memorial last year, I felt like what I was working on was starting to click. I felt like I was making progress coming into this week.
I felt like I had played pretty good the first three days and again, just wasn't scoring as well as I was playing. And then I played just -- I played about as good a round as you can play for one hole on Sunday and still really wasn't having anything except for holing it out on 3 for eagle. Front-9 went pretty much the way the week had gone, lot of good shots, didn't make anything. Made the eagle hole-out. That was it.
All of a sudden I made a putt on 10. After I started making that, the hole started getting in the way. I was 6-under on the back, I think. It was a matter of the balance finally finding the hole.

Q. Anything relating to the course set up with this to the Open next week?
WOODY AUSTIN: Not really. It's such a different golf course. It's a different grass. The greens are beautiful here. I've never seen poanna be so nice.
They're fast, but they're rolling, you know, they're rolling true here. The grain -- it's not a heavy grain here. The fact they've only changed the grass a few years. It hasn't destroyed anything. The ball rolls really good on the greens here. The rough isn't up, so you don't have to worry about that like next week.
So, the only thing I would say in relation to an Open is if the Open is the way they want it, it's firm and fast that would be it. The rest of it, the greens are entirely different, the golf course is entirely different, the rough is entirely different. The only thing is the ball is bouncing and rolling up. I think they want that at Torrey.

Q. What are you working on trying to find? You said you were working on something this afternoon.
WOODY AUSTIN: I need to get the ball in the hole. Like I said, if I play well -- if I play well I'm shooting 70. You feel like you should shoot 65, you shoot 70, you feel like you shoot 72, you shoot seven. That's basically what it is.
Like I said, if I hit 16 greens and two greens I miss and don't get it up and down, I shoot 1 or 2-under, and make four birdies, I make six bogies.
There's just no scoring.
If I make a mistake the day I hit only 12 greens, when I make those mistakes, they're magnified. It will be the holes you can't hit it left, hit the hole I hit it left. There's just no -- like I said, I'm not getting away with nothing. There's no in between. There's absolutely no in between. I either have to hit it just flawless right now or make everything I look at even. I'm not doing either one.
STEWART MOORE: Any more questions for Woody? All right.
Woody, thanks so much. Good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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