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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 1, 2008

Stuart Appleby

AKRON, OHIO

STUART APPLEBY: I wasn't always inside three or four feet. But I basically carried it to the second round and played good today, good shots, good putting, really solid round, I can't complain.

Q. A lot to be said for staying calm, isn't there?
STUART APPLEBY: There is a lot to be said. The course wasn't like I was tearing it apart, but to find five birdies in yesterday's round the last 11 holes, it's nearly a 50 percent ratio, and that was a big ask considering I was making nearly 50 percent bogeys. So I made the change at the turn, and I feel very comfortable with my game. I'm thinking I'll go one direction, so I'll keep moving in the reds.

Q. Quite a turnaround from yesterday.
STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, very much. A bit degrading playing the first nine holes the way I did. I was obviously a bit frustrated. I felt like I had momentum, I was going to be playing well, and when you're 5-over it's pretty ugly, and I sort of dreamt of getting back to par. Realistically I thought maybe I can get close back to par, but close to par would be good. So to get back and make some good putts in the end to see even par, I knew that that wasn't leaving me a long way from the lead. I thought, well, the best thing about that is I've got momentum from that nine holes going straight into the second round, being an early tee time, and off I went and played really -- played proper golf.

Q. You continued on from yesterday.
STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, very much. I had similar thoughts, and it's just a pity that I, I guess, stumbled out of the gates.

Q. Your scores since the second round of the U.S. Open, I'm sure they haven't been what you were --
STUART APPLEBY: I haven't a fucking clue what my scores have been.

Q. Or your results haven't been what you were hoping for, I'm sure. Did that hurt you confidence-wise?
STUART APPLEBY: Where have you been lately? It's like old news. I am soldiering on and doing what I'm doing and putting a lot better than all of the rounds, any of the rounds I did there. My putting feels very free and very confident, and that's a beautiful place to be. You can make putts from there.

Q. What clicked midway through that first round?
STUART APPLEBY: I didn't have the ball position right and I wasn't making a very good down swing, and I really started to knuckle down on that second nine. Putting was good, felt really good. I wasn't making anything that was important because every time I was putting it was for long-distance pars and stuff like that. So I knew if I could get on the green, it would be good, and I just had to knuckle down, kept my ball position into a comfortable -- upward, and hit it, and just pulled that nine together. So I've made 10 or 12 birdies in, I guess, the last 27 holes, so it's been a real good run of birdies for me. That's good stuff.
You've got to make birdies, you just have to. Even though it's not low out here, birdies are important. It means you're getting it in the hole, and that's a good feeling. It creates rhythm more than just making a bunch of nice pars.

Q. When exactly did you change ball position?
STUART APPLEBY: I've been changing it for years. It's just been a fight. It's been really difficult. I just knuckled down on it even more. Some things as you get old -- when I say old, I got rid of some things that used to be always problems, I don't have them any more at all, no matter how I'm playing. And other times, like getting my ball position correct, it's just been a battle for me. And when I play well, I really cover the ball really nice.
I have to fight my instincts a bit, and that's sometimes not that easy. When I get it up, I can hit it good, and when I feel relaxed and comfortable putting, I can go out and make five or six birdies a round, and today sort of felt like that.

Q. What are your instincts?
STUART APPLEBY: Instinct is to get the ball back, and it feels comfortable until I actually have to hit it in the down swing. I don't know why that's a bit of my pacifier, but if I can get the ball up, I can build more and more confidence. It's just a niggling twitch that I have that I never -- I don't like the ball forward, so it's always kept -- my weakness is to get too far back and then I get stuck out of room to hit it. When I get it forward, I can hit it, I find length, I find accuracy, and yeah, good things happen.

Q. Too far back in your stance, you mean?
STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, I mean, for my action it doesn't work. I think other guys can hit it, but for me I've got to get the ball way up forward, way up left, and turn through it. Once I start hitting greens, I obviously start creating opportunities and confidence builds and then you make a couple. I feel confident. I feel like this weekend is going to be more like what I've just played the last 27 holes.

Q. That's a good way to be heading into next week, as well?
STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, for sure. Next week I'd love to keep my mental -- my physical body or physical game is in good shape. Now I think my mental capabilities are getting a little bit closer there. Yeah, so we've got the Cup playoffs coming up, so it's time to really start playing good the next -- you're talking six, seven weeks or something.

Q. Just with this course, too, Geoff sort of said -- you've obviously played it a long time, but --
STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, basically. I've played them all, yeah. It's ten years, you're right.

Q. How have you found it? Geoff actually said yesterday he thought it was more playable than it sort of has been in the past.
STUART APPLEBY: Most of the time it is very soft, so you generally can drive the ball pretty good and keep it in the fairway. The greens were lightning -- the greens were the most -- purest and quickest greens you're likely to putt on on Monday and Tuesday, then we had the rain. I don't think we're getting the sting back in this course like it possibly was. It was going to be tough. Par would have been a good score. And that's being that we don't even have long rough. It's a good golf course, it's just a little bit more vulnerable for accuracy when it's soft, but then it also adds a lot of length to the course when it's soft. So it's for and against.

Q. There's been a couple high scores on 16 today. How tough is the 16th hole?
STUART APPLEBY: It's just long today. I hit a really good drive today and actually hit 3-wood for my layup which wasn't probably the best move, but I think if you hit the fairway, 50 percent of the difficulty is gone. If you miss it, it's 75 percent difficulty making a par. If you miss it, your chances of making a 6 are very high because you're going to have to lay up or hack it out for your second shot, and then you're not going to have enough club to get to your third, so you're laying up again, so you're almost forced to make a 6. It is the hardest par-5 on TOUR. I don't consider the majors TOUR events. Regularly it's real tough. You never get on in two. And when it plays firm, it's even harder.

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