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VALERO TEXAS OPEN

October 12, 2008

Mark Wilson

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Mark Wilson. Mark tied for 2nd, 7-under par 63 today.
Lots of drama out there as far as leaderboard and watching and things like that. Were you paying attention to that?
MARK WILSON: I was not, no. I just kind of -- 18 was the number I went into the day thinking if I could get to that, probably I had a good chance and I told myself I wouldn't look at the board until I got to the 18th hole.
So I looked at it at the 18th hole when I was at 17.

Q. Mark, it seems like just yesterday almost you were in here and finished, I guess, 3rd.
MARK WILSON: '05, I think it was.

Q. You had a lost friends and family around the country rooting for you at that time. How much has occurred in those three years for you since you were --
MARK WILSON: Couple more trips to Q-School and getting through that and winning the Honda and trying to put myself different parings playing with all the top players, you know, just based on the new parings on Thursdays and Fridays, I feel like I belong more than I did, say, three years ago and I guess this week is sort of an example.
I didn't win but I didn't come in feeling great about my game but I figured out a way just to play the game and try to get the ball in the hole and not care so much about mechanics and results and stuff like that, just go with it and not get so down on myself for missing a shot which is kind of the old player.
I did that well today or this week because I came in with a game that felt very rusty after a month off and to shoot 17-under, especially 7-under on Sunday when I was a little nervous, I'm thrilled.

Q. This course in particular, obviously in 2005 was a great course for you and had a couple years where it wasn't quite as good. How does that happen where courses are great and then is it just symptomatic of your game?
MARK WILSON: I think it might be expectations. You come in a week after -- the year after a good week, you know, like 3rd in '05, I come out here in '06, I have another great week and things are going to go just so smoothly and then you get out there and maybe you make some early bogies, like what's going on, instead of just going out there, you know, playing hole by hole and I think that's kind of what I did in '06, I played okay but had a really bad final round.
Kind of a turning point where I went to see Dr. Rotella after that. It was that week after shooting 80 in the final round, going from 29th to dead last or something that I needed to make a change.
I was really down on myself and that's kind of when he gave me this different mentality of just playing the game instead of grinding on your mechanics all the time.

Q. Can you talk about your relationship with Zach? Obviously you seem happy for him.
MARK WILSON: Yeah. Yeah. Very similar parallel careers I guess in the sense we both started -- I knew exactly where he started out in college and I started on the Hooters Tour.
I had one year on the Nationwide and on the Hooters Tour. He dominated out there. I went to the Nationwide. Then I got my card on the Tour that he dominated that one year on the Nationwide Tour.
I saw him come out her and played some practice rounds together and got paired a few times, three, four times I think in the last 12 months on Tour, which has been fun and, you know, we're in the same stage of life just like them. They have a young son almost two, we have a son that's just over one. Our wives get along. A Midwest boy, too. Got a lot of the same stuff.

Q. Is that, you know, both of you are coming off of long periods of time off, you know, just self-imposed or whatever.
Did you talk to him at all this week about just, you know, how he was feeling, how you were feeling? Did y'all just sit down and --
MARK WILSON: No. I don't really do that with too many other golfers.

Q. I didn't know if you were that close of friends.
MARK WILSON: Yeah. It was only one guy David Roach, that I know back from Wisconsin about the only guy I feel comfortable doing that with.
We played a practice round together on Tuesday with Jeff Gove and Doug Labelle. Anybody saw us playing that day they never thought we would finish 1st and 2nd.
Tuesday is about getting a feel for the course and sort of a feel for your game and hopefully you're ready come Thursday.

Q. This tournament over the years has been kind of a vaulting point for a lot of players, Bart Bryant, what Justin did last year, resuscitate his career.
What is it about this tournament, just the fact victory late in the year kind of carry or good performance or is there anything in particular to that?
MARK WILSON: I don't know. Maybe it's a coincidence. It's a good golf course where there's a few shots you really got to just focus on or you make a big number.
You hit in it some of that brush on some of those holes when the wind is whipping -- I got a great bounce today for instance on 14, just blocked a tee shot way right and figured I will have to re-tee and hit a tree and came back. Let me chip out and make a par where I was probably staring at double if I had to re-tee it. Little bounces like that help.
So I think, yeah, it's a course where mentally you have to hit some tough shots coming in.

Q. Mark, excuse my ignorance, who is staying with whom?
MARK WILSON: We were planning on going together tonight, Zach and I were with our families and caddies to Vegas on a private plane and our house wasn't open until Monday so we're going to stay with them tonight in Vegas and then we'll move to our Houston on Monday. So they were nice enough to do that. Who knows what the plans are now.

Q. Darn it.
MARK WILSON: Exactly.

Q. You said you weren't really watching the leaderboard but coming out this morning did you notice that Elkington ton was throwing out a pretty low round?
MARK WILSON: I heard he shot 9-under and I just happened to glance at the board, there's a board by the putting green. I saw a 63 and 64 up there posted.
I'm like -- even Bob, I saw him in the locker room, "Boy, there are some low scores out there." I knew there were some low ones and have to get probably 18 to win.

Q. When you see Elkington ton shoot 61 early, you see I guess a couple guys shot 28 on the back-9, do you go into -- do you hear that think, okay it's there for the taking if I'm on my game, obviously?
MARK WILSON: Yeah, you do. You see everybody else do it, I guess it's not that tough out there. I think it makes you -- continue to make birdies even when he got to 16-under I didn't think I would be in the lead.
Maybe I was at that point but I didn't think I was in the lead just because of whatever else was doing. Chris Stroud was playing good, that I was playing with. I figured just keep going. I didn't quite -- I made a couple birdies coming in but didn't quite get the job done. I'm happy with my play overall.
JOE CHEMYCZ: Okay. Alright. Thank you. Appreciate it.

End of FastScripts

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