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STANFORD ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP

June 7, 2008

Tim Clark

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Tim Clark, thank you for joining us here after your third round at the Stanford St. Jude Championship. 6-under, 64 today, 5-under in your last five holes. Go over the comments about a great day for you.
TIM CLARK: Yes. Certainly don't expect to finish like that on this course. Tough finishing holes but, you know, I thought like maybe I was going to do something. After my Thursday round, I played a great round. You know, just -- it's probably as good as I could have scored out there.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Obviously playing well having finished second, tied for second in your last event if the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. Some comments about your overall play?
TIM CLARK: Obviously I started to hit the ball better the last probably four, five weeks actually, and with that, I think I've gotten a little bit of confidence back in the game even. I'm making putts that I need to make, and it's crucial for scoring.
So, just feel very comfortable out on the golf course, and I'm not worrying about whether I'm in the lead or close to the lead. I'm just going out and playing and just happens that I'm staying in there.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You played with Justin Leonard today, who I believe shot 3-under. You guys had some good rhythm working out there. Make some comments about his game today.
TIM CLARK: He played really well. Just a couple bogies and, you know, the start of the back-9, but it was nice to play with Justin. Very similar game in how far we hit the ball. It was good to be out there with him and certainly easy to gauge off what he's hitting on some of the par 3s and stuff and, you know, I think we helped each other probably a lot in scoring.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Questions?

Q. Tim, can you go through some of the reasons why maybe the start of the year wasn't as good for you as you had hoped?
TIM CLARK: Yeah. I think in the end it was probably as simple as just my stance up to the golf ball. I had gotten off a little bit and didn't really know what I was doing wrong. I knew I wasn't hitting the ball well. I certainly wasn't playing well, and, you know, just took me a long time to kind of figure out what was going wrong, and certainly healthwise I've felt great all year. I certainly expected to come out and play better, and that could also be part of the problem, expecting to go play well and not. Just minor changes in my setup.

Q. Tim, can you talk about your playing par golf all the way through until you hit this stretch late on the back-9. Anything change during that?
TIM CLARK: No. Just I hit a lot of good shots at the start of the round, had a lot of birdie opportunities, didn't make anything, and all of a sudden I make a big putt on the par 3, 14th, which is certainly a hole you try make 3 on. Hit a great shot into 15 and made about 12-footer, which is nothing great there. But I think the big swing came on 16.
I had 248 to the hole, took a chance and tried to hook one up the green. I pulled the shot off and, you know, that ran up to about 3, 4 feet for eagle. So that was the a big swing there.
And, you know, lucky it was for me, I took the shot on and it worked out.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 3-wood?
TIM CLARK: 5-wood.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 18, what did you hit in there?
TIM CLARK: 3-wood off the tee. Left a perfect yardage for that flag. No matter where the pin is on that hole, you're going to be aiming where the flag was today. I hit a 9-iron in there, and it was just perfect yardage.

Q. How were the conditions out there? People have been talking about how bad the gusts were yesterday, making it tough knocking shots around. It seems a little lighter than it was.
TIM CLARK: It started to blow again towards the end. Nothing like Thursday and Friday. It made it seem a little bit easier than what it has been playing. In terms of the course conditions, the greens are pretty much the same, firm and everything. Yeah, the wind today has really made it tough for us.

Q. Tim, how hungry are you now for a first win to be so close last week and to be in a similar position this week?
TIM CLARK: Obviously I would like for it to happen, but it's not something I think about a lot. You know, it's easy to get over it when you've played well and just lost to a great shot or someone has come out and beat you. You don't really worry about those second places. I think it's the ones that you throw away and, you know, I haven't really done that a whole lot. I feel like I've given myself chances to win, you know. Just going to take the position that it's going to happen at some stage. I just need to go out and play and see what happens come the end of the week.

Q. With the way the field has been bunched particularly at the top of the leaderboard, is it just kind of sit back wait and see where you end up at the end of the day and go into tomorrow?
TIM CLARK: Yeah, absolutely. I really -- going into tomorrow it really doesn't matter where you are. I think you could be anywhere from 2-under through, you know, whoever is going to be leading is going to have a chance. I think whoever plays the best golf tomorrow is going to win the tournament.

Q. Just one quick thing to ask you about. Trevor is making a charge right now, too. Surprising at all to you that he's come from kind of way back?
TIM CLARK: Not really. He did win the Masters this year. He knows how to play golf, but (Mark), you know, obviously he's had a lot going on since winning, and it's probably been tough for him to concentrate on his golf. I think this is the kind of -- where he grew up in South Africa, he likes the wind (Mark) and probably the way this course plays. So certainly it's no surprise to see him up there and nice to see him playing well.

Q. You draw as much if not more inspiration personally from seeing Trevor win the Masters as opposed to Ernie or Gary Player. Do you feel you're more like likely to win a Major?
TIM CLARK: I've had good results myself. I came in second a few years ago. That gave me I guess the confidence and realization I could win there. I think Trevor seen me come in second gave him belief that he could do it. I think it kind of worked the other way around.
Again, those aren't tournaments you can go out to and say I'm going to win this week. I think something you just have to let happen, and I'm certainly looking forward to the U.S. Open next week. And playing the way I am, I'm definitely looking forward to it again.

Q. How big is performing this well this week going into a Major Championship?
TIM CLARK: Well, it's not everything, you know. I think -- you don't want to result in expectations for next week, but certainly having played well at Colonial a few weeks ago, it was really the first tournament I got myself in the hunt all year and I was able to play well and make birdies coming down the stretch. And I think that's given me the boost. Really no matter what happens tomorrow, I'm still going the feel good about going into next week.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Anything else? Okay.
Tim Clark, thank you.
TIM CLARK: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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