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U.S. BANK CHAMPIONSHIP IN MILWAUKEE

July 18, 2008

Richard S. Johnson

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome our current leader here, Richard Johnson, to the interview room at the U.S. Bank Championship. One thing people always talk about, especially on the PGA TOUR after a really low round, you opened up with 63, is backing that thing up the next day, and you came out today, shot 67. You're now at 10-under. Do you think it's advantageous to have that 63 late in the day and then play early the next day so you don't have this big waiting period maybe right after a low round?
RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, maybe. But I mean, it's always the way where it's kind of -- it's always hard to follow up a real low round, but it was -- I played better today, actually, than I did yesterday. I just didn't get that many putts to drop today. It was really nice to go out today and feel that you can still shoot a low round when you played well yesterday.
STEWART MOORE: Talk about following up a hole-in-one on 14. That was your fifth hole of the day today. Did you get on the tee today and think, all right?
RICHARD JOHNSON: No, I rolled in a good putt on the hole before, so it was really nice. It was probably a 25-footer. So 14, I didn't hit the best shot in there today. I hit it to like 35 feet and just two-putted.

Q. You said that your putts weren't dropping today. What sort of putts did you miss?
RICHARD JOHNSON: Well, it's kind of hard. I mean, I lipped out quite a bit. I probably didn't hit it as close as I did yesterday a lot, but you know, you're always going to feel that you left some out there. I had two major lip-outs the last two holes, which kind of -- well, that's just the way it goes. I made two bombs today, which I didn't do yesterday, so it kind of just evens out.

Q. When you came in yesterday we didn't get your background story. Can you just, in 100 words or less, tell us in Stockholm how you started playing golf and how you wound up in the States and that?
RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, I started playing golf very late. I played pretty much every other sport that you could than golf, and I got into it, whereas an old girlfriend of mine, her family was playing, and I just got into it that way.
I never did go through the Swedish system with the national team and that, because it just never really was around. I tried to get in but they didn't want to give me a spot, so I turned pro early and started playing on the European Tour in 2000, played there for three years and won in Australia, which got me into the final stage in Q-school over here and got my card in '03. Q-school '02, so played here in '03, so this is my sixth season.

Q. Jesper is one of the first Swedish golfers that's really made a splash. Is he one of the reasons you took up golf?
RICHARD JOHNSON: Not really. I'm very good friends with Jesper now. We're almost neighbors now, which -- he's a great person, but no, not really when I was younger because Jesper moved out of Sweden pretty quickly. I started playing fairly late, so I never really saw Jesper much when he was around.
I don't know, I just watched a lot of golf on TV, I guess. Probably in my era I would say Nick Faldo would be the guy that we looked up to a lot. I mean, we all wished that it was Tiger Woods and we hit it a little further (laughter), but yeah, Nick was probably the guy when I came around. Him and Monte were the two guys you were looking at because they were the two guys doing the best from Europe.

Q. What other sports were you good at and how long did it take you to get good at golf?
RICHARD JOHNSON: I was -- it depends what you say by good (laughter). I did do a lot of sports for a long time. I played tennis for like eight years, but I wasn't really that good at it. I skateboarded for about eight or nine years, and I got probably decent on that I could say. I wouldn't say like everybody says that I won championships and that. Let's say I was a 4 handicap. You guys don't play it over here, you have a different name for it, we call it handball. You say handball, too, but it's not the same game. It's an Olympic sport where you have six players and a goalie. It's a different game than you have over here. I played that for six or seven years and soccer for four or five years. So I did some martial arts for a few years, so I've tried most of it.
I picked up golf quickly. I started in '93 and turned pro in '97, so yeah, I learned quick, I guess.

Q. You said you had two bomb putts. Can you tell us about those?
RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, I made -- on 13 I made about a -- it even says on this little thing here, a 34-footer. And on 6 I made about a 28-footer.

Q. Those were for birdies?
RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, I didn't miss many greens. I think I only missed two greens or something. Three it says. One was on the fringe.
STEWART MOORE: Can we go through your birdies today and one bogey at 17?
RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah. Starting on 1, it probably was the best drive of the day. I hit driver, 9-iron in there to about four feet. I might be lying here. Yeah, 4.6 feet. I just made that.
Then had some good chances coming there. And then the 6th hole there I was trying to go for it in two but I was behind that tree in the middle of the fairway and trying to hook it around but I didn't really get it around, so I was kind of stuck right and just pitched it up to 28.6 feet, I guess, and made that.
And then my starting day was on 10. I had some good chances before that, so it was nice to see the one on 13 roll in. That was a long one, which was probably 35 feet or something.
And then I hit the par-5, 15, in two, so just a routine two-putt there from 22, 23 feet maybe.
And then a bogey on 17. I just misclubbed a little bit from the fairway and spun it back to the fringe and three-putted it from like 35, 40 feet maybe.
Then 18, I hit a great drive and a 3-wood but got a pretty crappy lie in the bunker.

Q. There's a threat of rain this afternoon. Do you feel you got a big break playing in these conditions this morning?
RICHARD JOHNSON: I don't know. I think actually we got toasted, to be quite honest, because we got the bad side of the draw yesterday. It was blowing hard yesterday. If it continued being like this today, I think probably that I will be two back by the end of the day.

Q. (Inaudible.)
RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, but it doesn't -- rain is not really that deadly for this place. It's more the wind that's hard because it's a narrow golf course. The rain doesn't really hurt the golf course much.

Q. I think this might be the first time this year that you've put two rounds in the 60s back-to-back together. Does it kind of feel like a long time coming for you?
RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, like I said yesterday, I struggled a little bit with my equipment this year, and it's just -- I swapped drivers here a couple weeks ago, which makes a huge difference for me. I just got my confidence up. I played really well last week but the putter wasn't really cooperating with me. It's a really nice change to see that you can stand and put good scores together and attack the golf course.

Q. What are you hitting now?
RICHARD JOHNSON: Right now I'm hitting an Adams.

Q. Do you feel you left any shots out there today?
RICHARD JOHNSON: Well, I think as a golfer you always do that. I mean, it would have been nice to see that last six, seven feet on the last to have gone in. Oh, 9.6, okay. It would have been nice to see that drop in because it was a really nice putt. It would have been nice to get to 11 at least. But it's all right, I hit it very nice today, so I'm very pleased.
STEWART MOORE: Richard, thanks so much. Good luck this weekend.

End of FastScripts

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