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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 16, 2009

Nathan Green

HONOLULU, HAWAII

DOUG MILNE: Nathan Green, second round here at the Sony Open in Hawaii, 4-under par 66. Well done today, especially considering the circumstances in which you guys were battling. Just a couple comments on your game, the conditions, and kind of how you're feeling as you head into the weekend.
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah, I think a lot of the guys are surprised. I don't think the conditions were as bad as we thought they were going to be. Last night you could hear the wind whipping. Sort of a stronger version of yesterday. It didn't seem anywhere near as strong as they predicted.
It wasn't too bad. The first nine playing was probably a little windier than the back, but I controlled the ball pretty well, especially the holes into the breeze, but hit some good shots and just putted well and made a couple of decent saves.
Yeah, just hit pretty much one bad drive on about the fifth hole, I think it was. Besides that, it was pretty steady and just tried to hit a lot of greens and just made a couple of 10-footers, 15-footers.

Q. Pleasantly surprised when you showed up this morning?
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah, definitely. All the news about that maybe we wouldn't play, had a few of us pretty scared and that it was meant to blow all day. But you get patches out there where it not really blowing at all. They have the tees forward on a lot of holes. So as long as you get your tee shot in the fairway, you still have a few fair opportunities to make birdie.
And playing with Shigeki, playing well, definitely helps. The both of us sort of traded birdies for a while. Definitely helps to play with someone who is playing well.

Q. When you were probably on about 3 or 4, I guess the big rain came for a good ten, 15 minutes or so. Did you kind of at that point knuckle down, or were you surprised to see it clear up again?
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah, we were on 11 yesterday when it came down and today I was on the 5th tee and it was coming straight into us. That's where I hit the ball drive and hit the low hook that I was lucky it caught the tree and stopped it from going in the water and I was able to get out with a bogey.
That's about the only time that I thought the conditions were really severe, which was definitely sort of a good surprise that it wasn't as sort of like that all day.

Q. They told us yesterday they were going to slow the greens; did you notice a difference?
NATHAN GREEN: I thought about it, on the second hole, I left one a little bit short. I think they played pretty much the same as they did yesterday. It's pretty hard to tell much difference. They are perfect and the ball is rolling pretty well. I'm sort of hit and miss on bermuda. Sometimes I putt well and sometimes I put terrible. This week, I've sort of made a few good ones and caught a few edges, which has been nice.
DOUG MILNE: If you don't mind just running us through your birdies, the clubs and the yards.
NATHAN GREEN: Birdie on 14. I hit a good drive and hit a low 6-iron from -- sort of a punk 6-iron from 145 meters, 160 yards and went to sort of four feet and made that one.
18, played the hole pretty well and hit a good drive and tried to hit a low draw for the second shot and just caught the bunker and hit it out to probably about four feet again and made that.
2 and 3 were pretty surprised. Birdied 2 and probably holed a good 3-wood, sand iron to probably about 20 feet past the hole and thought I hit the putt too hard and it sort of went dead-center.
3, hit a good drive. The sun came out a bit and hit a 9-iron from 120 yards to about ten feet and made that.
The bogey on 5, which was a bit lucky, just short and had to lay it up and hit 8-iron from about 115 yards and still came up short and made bogey there.
9 is playing straight downbreeze. Hit a good drive and a 6-iron to probably 20 feet below the hole and 2-putted.

Q. What did you do on 1?
NATHAN GREEN: The first hole, hit a good drive and about a 5-iron.

Q. How did that compare with yesterday?
NATHAN GREEN: I hit a little snipe yesterday, so it was driver, 3-wood and a flick yesterday. I think that's the one thing, it's one of those holes you just have to hit the fairway otherwise you are most likely not going to get home.

Q. That tee was up even more than yesterday.
NATHAN GREEN: I think it was, yeah. It was well up. Even the guys that were hitting the fairway, they were still coming in with woods. I think if the wind got up to as much as they thought it was going to get, I think that was a bit of a precaution there.

Q. What do you think is the -- go off subject here, what is a bigger surprise, Colin Montgomerie not winning in the United States or Adam Scott not winning in the Australia?
NATHAN GREEN: At this stage I would say Monty not winning over here. He's such a dominant player in Europe for such a long time, and he won a lot over there. Usually guys who win seem to win wherever; yeah, for him not to win in as many events as he played.
And Adam, I think with the Australian Tour so small, Australia only plays three events at the end of the year if that, so his opportunities are pretty limited. And considering the fields there, they are probably not as deep and they are still pretty strong, and you have guys like Geoff Ogilvy and Johnson and those sort of guys playing each week. He will probably win one soon, but the opportunities are a lot less down there.

Q. Do you ever give him any stink over it?
NATHAN GREEN: No, he's got a lot more game than me. He's got a lot more of everything than me. (Laughter).

Q. He's got Kate Hudson.
NATHAN GREEN: Gee, I don't know. (Laughter) I have no idea about that. He seems to attract the females, so he can sort of pick and choose a little.

Q. When you talk about having more game, were you talking about golf?
NATHAN GREEN: Oh, he's got more game everywhere. (Laughter).
He's a great guy and I know he sort of has the life that a lot of golfers would love to have. He sort of doesn't get recognized that much off the course and makes his $10 million a year and can live a pretty sort of private life where he's not under the scrutiny like Tiger would be. He's a good-looking bloke, he's young and he hits it good, and because he plays so well, he plays a pretty limited schedule so he gets a lot of time off. That would pretty much be my dream.

Q. Making me jealous now. Talking to Ray, your old caddie, when you finished, he said he's not surprised to see you do well on this course and that it sets up beautifully for you?
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah, I've played well. My first year, I came in fifth. I just like the golf course. I think I've always hit the ball reasonably low, and it's just whether I putt well on the greens as to how I play, and I've sort of done reasonably on the greens so far.
I just like the course. I think it's one of the best courses we play all year. It's dead-flat, but it rewards guys for hitting it straight and not necessarily have to be a long hitter. I think you've sort of got to hit it to the corners a fair bit. It's got a lot to do with controlling your ball.
DOUG MILNE: Okay, we appreciate you coming in. Best of luck on the weekend.

End of FastScripts

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