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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 12, 2008

Eric Axley

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

DOUG MILNE: Eric Axley, thanks for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center after round three of the John Deere Classic. 65-66, and today 67. You're obviously still moving it well and find yourself heading into the final round tied for the lead. Just a few comments on how you're feeling.
ERIC AXLEY: I feel good. I got off to a really good start today and then kind of slowed up there on the front nine, made three bogeys. But then I finished off with a really good, solid back nine.

Q. What was the difference there for you on the back nine?
ERIC AXLEY: Really no difference, I just hit a few balls that over-drew on the front nine and missed a couple of easy up and ins. I made three bogeys out of four holes but never really felt like I hit a bad shot, just corrected it after that on the back nine, and everything was good.

Q. Talk about the decision for lift, clean and place and how that affected the scoring today.
ERIC AXLEY: Well, it seems like the scores were pretty similar to how they have been, except for a couple of guys went really low. But that could happen because of the soft greens, as well. It was pretty muddy and wet out there. I think it was a good decision. There was quite a few times we would have had mud all over our ball.

Q. How close were you to being out of time on No. 4 when you hit it right?
ERIC AXLEY: You know, I'm not really sure. I think my caddie said we had been about three and a half minutes, so it wasn't right on the edge of the time limit, but it was getting close. We just hit it really right up the right side and that overhanging tree, it hit, and we never saw where it went. If the ball doesn't hit the tree, it's going to be in the fairway. So it wasn't that bad of a shot but I got a bad bounce.

Q. That 20 bucks your caddie gave the guy turned out to be a good investment.
ERIC AXLEY: Yeah, I heard that (laughter).

Q. Where did he find it?
ERIC AXLEY: In the hay. It was some long grass. We just chipped it out sideways and I think we had about 154 yards for our third shot. We just went sideways. We had a little bit of a window, we could have went right at the green, but the lie was just too bad.

Q. But you did make par there?
ERIC AXLEY: No, we made bogey.

Q. Have you been pretty consistent with putters you've used in your time out here? Have you chased putters a lot?
ERIC AXLEY: I have at times, depending on greens. But when I get one I like, I'll usually stick with it for quite a while.

Q. Jay Williamson had an interesting comment about the broom he uses. He almost has a philosophical -- he wrestles with the fact that he uses that. Could you see yourself using one of those?
ERIC AXLEY: No, I've never even tried it. I've never even tried a belly putter. I don't think I would. I like the conventional putters, and I'll probably stick with that for a while.

Q. Considering how Kenny Perry has been playing of late, is he maybe the one guy on that leaderboard that everyone is going to be paying closer attention to tomorrow?
ERIC AXLEY: Boy, there's so many guys up there tomorrow, I can't imagine someone is going to look at one guy. I think that would be a mistake. There's a lot of guys, and I'm going to try to beat the golf course. I think it's going to take a lot of birdies tomorrow, and just try and make as many as I can. If somebody makes more than me, then I did the best I can do.

Q. What's the number? How low do you think you have to go?
ERIC AXLEY: There's no telling. I mean, today I would have thought the lead would have been lower than 15. I would have thought it would have been probably 17 or 18, but we kind of got some rain and some wind, and it just depends how the golf course plays.
It would be hard to guess. I think we'll know more after we make the turn tomorrow.

Q. Are you comfortable in that environment in needing to go low, given that when you won in Texas, that's a course notorious for low scores?
ERIC AXLEY: Yeah, I did. I played, I think, the second and third round there I think I shot back-to-back 63s, but then the fourth round played really tough, and I think I shot 1-over par on the final round and won. So it's hard for someone to make birdies four days in a row, so it doesn't really bother me that much if it gets tough out there and even par is a good score one day.

Q. How does it affect your approach going into tomorrow knowing how jam packed the leaderboard is?
ERIC AXLEY: Well, you can't play defense in golf, so I'll worry about the first tee shot tomorrow, just try to make as many birdies as I can and hopefully I'll play a little better than everyone else.

Q. How did losing Steve Duplantis in January affect you?
ERIC AXLEY: Well, I'm sure all of you have all had someone close to you -- it's tough to lose a good friend, especially in that situation where he's working for you and you spend that much time together. You know, it gives you a few different -- a little different outlook on some things. I mean, I still think about Stevie a lot. I know he's in the good place, so he's looking down on us.

Q. What did you take away from your time with him as far as approach on a golf course?
ERIC AXLEY: He was a really good caddie. You know, Steve had a big heart, and he only caddied for me for two events, so it wasn't like I was with him for years as a caddie. I've known him for that long and we were friends for that long, but as a caddie I didn't get to know him as well as I would have liked.

Q. You've won. What do you do the night before when you're in contention? Do you try not to think about it, or do you just try and live as normal an evening as possible?
ERIC AXLEY: Yeah, you know, my family is out, so it'll be a very normal evening chasing my daughter around and trying to keep her out of trouble. It gets pretty tire some, so I'm sure I'll do that for a while and then sleep really good.

Q. Are you comfortable in this position going into Sunday?
ERIC AXLEY: Yeah, very comfortable. I'm happy with the way I'm playing. If I felt like I had kind of scraped it around and felt lucky to be here, I may not be that comfortable. But I really like the way I'm playing and really like the way I'm swinging, so I'm very comfortable.

Q. This is setting up to be kind of a crazy finish tomorrow; you can't look at one guys. Is it sort of fun, this sort of Tiger-less month? This weekend is almost like a perfect paradigm?
ERIC AXLEY: Yeah, there's going to be a lot of guys. It's going to be pretty exciting to watch tomorrow. There's going to be a lot of birdies. The last five holes out here lend themselves to some birdies. 15 and 18 play really tough. It's going to be an exciting finish. I think there's going to be a lot of guys up there with a shot tomorrow, and it'll be good for everyone to watch.

Q. How do you react when you hear stories about people saying I don't watch on Sunday now that Tiger is not playing?
ERIC AXLEY: You know, I haven't heard many people say that. The only ones I talk to about it are my friends, and they always watch. I don't know. I don't even know how to answer that. There's still so many good golfers out here. I mean, the play is just as good. Obviously Tiger plays the select tournaments he plays, and those ratings get boosted because he's playing, and that's good for our TOUR.
But there's so many good players out here, it's going to be exciting.
DOUG MILNE: Eric, thanks for your time, and best of luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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