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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

August 27, 2008

Martin Laird

NORTON, MASSACHUSETTS

DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome Martin Laird to the interview room here at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Thanks for joining us for a few minutes. Obviously you're on a stretch of great weeks. You were, I guess, 164 in the FedExCup points heading into the Wyndham Championship, and you've just made dramatic strides. You're heading into the week 67th here at the Deutsche Bank Championship this week. Just a couple of comments on the state of your game.
MARTIN LAIRD: You know, obviously my game is as good as it's been, if not ever, definitely in a couple years. A couple top fours and a seventh place finish the last three events has given me a lot of confidence, and that's really what I put it all down to. Two months ago I had no confidence, and now I've got more confidence than I thought I could have out here in terms of, you know, now I think I do belong out here and think I can win out here and things like that.
DOUG MILNE: What has it been as far as the actual part of your game that you think has come around the most since I sat with you at the Wyndham Championship there?
MARTIN LAIRD: You know, my putting really the last month is what's been the biggest difference. I changed to the new Spider putter, the last two rounds of Reno, and ever since then I've just been putting great. I lost confidence, and putting, that's pretty much what it's all about.
I've always kind of regarded myself as kind of a bad putter, a good ball-striker and less than average putter. Right now I'm kind of an a streak where I think I saw the other day I'm 24th in putting on TOUR. If someone had told me that at the start of the year, I never would have thought I could have gotten there. That's really what it has been.
I started hitting the ball a lot better at the John Deere, and my ball-striking has kind of stayed the same, but my putting has really been the big difference.

Q. In the last week or so, especially at the Barclays, the common theme has been the FedExCup standings are too volatile, there's too much movement. Obviously you probably don't think there is. Did you know going in that you did have the chance to move up that quick, that dramatically?
MARTIN LAIRD: You know, I read the releases and things saying there were changes to make it more volatile and you could move. But in terms of the actual points and how big a move I could make, I didn't know. I didn't really study it that much.
But you know, I didn't expect to be in the playoffs and I didn't expect a Top 10 last week when all those releases were coming out, so it wasn't like I was in the playoffs and thinking about them. I kind of was like, if I'm there, great. I'm way out right now; I'm not going to study up on them.
But obviously I love it, and I'm sure there's a few guys that don't love it. But you know, it's the playoffs. It's like any sport; you play to get there, and when you get there, you know, it's whoever is playing best at that time that comes out on top.

Q. Didn't you have like one of the early two rounds at Greensboro? Didn't you call a penalty on yourself?
MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, on Friday at the Wyndham. I called a penalty on 18, which was my ninth hole of the day. I forgot to move my mark back after moving it for my playing partner, so two-shot penalty.

Q. How close were you to making the cut there?
MARTIN LAIRD: I made it on the number. I went from leading the first round to making it on the number. I hit two balls out of bounds that day, too, so that's six penalty shots that day, and that was something that -- having the lead, that's something you're not thinking about.

Q. Do you kind of pinch yourself now, like here I am at the playoffs and I could very easily have not been there?
MARTIN LAIRD: Oh, yeah. I mean -- yeah. When the second ball went out of bounds on my like 13th hole on Friday, my thought went from get in good position on the weekend to I've got to play good these last five holes to even be around on the weekend.
If you had said to me then I'd be sitting here now 67th in the FedExCup points, I wouldn't have believed it, but I'll say I'm happy to be here.

Q. Where were you a year ago at this time?
MARTIN LAIRD: I was playing the Nationwide Tour.

Q. I mean, you look at some other guys, another guy on there, Kevin Streelman. Do you know much about Kevin?
MARTIN LAIRD: I know Kevin. I played some Gateway Tour golf maybe in 2004 with him, some mini-Tour stuff. I've known him just from kind of bouncing around the mini-Tours. I did that for a couple years, and I don't know how many years he did it for. But I knew him before this year. He's had a great year, rookie, never even been Nationwide I don't think, rookie on any Tour, really, and it's pretty impressive what he's done this year.

Q. I guess my point is a lot of people think this is what's good about the playoffs, stories like Martin Laird and Kevin Streelman coming out of literally nowhere.
MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah. I mean, obviously we're going to think it's good (laughter). But I think it adds to the excitement. It's not predictable. You don't know from week to week who's going to be there and who's going to be in what position. As you said, there's a lot of movement.
You know, you get rewarded for good play. And at the same time, if you don't play well, you do get punished. You do move down a little bit.
DOUG MILNE: You've had a chance to get out and see the course. How about just a couple comments on how you found the course today.
MARTIN LAIRD: I could tell coming in this week that I'd really like this golf course, and I really like it. The greens are perfect. Pretty much everything is perfect out there condition-wise. It's a long golf course. You know, I guess it was a north wind today, and I don't know if that's too common around here, and it probably won't blow like that every day. There's a few holes that played really long. I like it. The greens are really firm. You've got to really hit your irons good this week.

Q. Do you have a rooting interest in what goes on with the European Ryder Cup team this week and any feeling what will happen?
MARTIN LAIRD: You know, I'm interested to watch and see who makes the team and who gets the picks. You know, I wouldn't say -- it's not too big a worry. Obviously I love watching the Ryder Cup just because it's such an exciting week of golf. But honestly, we were kind of talking about that out on the course, joking about Ryder Cup. I don't know who's going to make it. I couldn't even tell you who the guys right on the bubble are right now, so I don't follow it too closely.

Q. Did you have the same college coach only at different colleges as Zach Johnson?
MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah.

Q. What has he done for you as compared to say Zach? How much a factor is that?
MARTIN LAIRD: I still talk to him a lot. I still talk to him probably once a week. You know, we're good friends now. You know, he just -- you know, I was in college, he would just give support, actually even more so when I left college probably more so than when I was in college. And when I turned pro, he was one of my original sponsors, helped give me some advice, tried to get me with some people that would point me in the right direction. He's helped me a lot coming out, as I said, when I was just starting as a pro and really had no idea what was going on.

Q. Has the confidence thing been a gradual process, or has there been one moment?
MARTIN LAIRD: No, it's been gradual. You know, I think John Deere -- I think my best finish all year was about 50th before the John Deere, and I had missed four or five cuts in a row, six cuts in a row going in there. My coach came out that week. I played good that week. I had a bad first round, finished like 26th or something, but it was a week I felt like I played better than my finish. And that gave me finally -- I had a bad first round, I played good, I kind of finished high up the leaderboard, and then the next week I think I made the cut but I finished like 70th but I still played good. It was another week where I was playing good.
Then it was just week to week. Then I played good at Canada, 24th, I think. Just every week, just a little bit more confidence.
The last round in Canada I played with Retief, and I had never played with anyone of his status before. I wasn't really nervous; I was more excited to see how I played. I played pretty good, and I had fun. That gave me a little confidence going into Reno, and actually I kind of back-doored a Top 5 at Reno, played really well the last round of that. Since then, that was really the turning point, I guess, that I can compete and can have a chance to win.

Q. Going into Wyndham then, if you weren't in the playoffs, what were you going to do if you didn't make the playoffs? Could you go home?
MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, I was thinking of going home to Scotland probably for ten days or so over those first two tournaments and kind of seeing the family, taking a break, recharging and coming back because I had had sort of a really strong finish. Then my focus goes from FedExCup to Top 125. That was really go home, recharge and get ready for those last seven events and try and focus on getting in the Top 125. But those plans changed.
DOUG MILNE: Speaking of Canada, Chez, is he a buddy of yours, fellow Arizona guy?
MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah.
DOUG MILNE: What did that do, seeing him win? I'm not going to say an underdog, but certainly it's great to see guys like that. What does that do for you?
MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, you know, it was great. I played a practice round with him today. We play practice rounds a fair bit, are friends. You know, definitely seeing someone like him, my friend that I play a lot with, our games are comparable, I think. It's not like I play with him and I see that he can win. That gave me confidence.
It was good timing, as well. I was gradually getting confidence on my own, just playing better. Then rooming with him in Canada and seeing him win wire to wire the way he did it, playing good on Sunday, that definitely gave me a little bit -- not so much confidence, more like belief that I can do the same, that I can win if I have my "A" game all week.
DOUG MILNE: Martin, thanks for your time, and best of luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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