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TRANSITIONS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 20, 2009

Nick Watney

PALM HARBOR, FLORIDA

MARK WILLIAMS: Welcome back, Nick Watney, to the interview room at the Transitions Championship. Another great day, looks like you hit a lot of greens. Just talk about your rounds a little bit.
NICK WATNEY: Yeah, today was pretty steady. I didn't get in trouble too often, and made a few putts. Hopefully I can keep it going.
MARK WILLIAMS: Bogey-free. That's always good. Just let's open up to questions.

Q. What's going on with the hat there?
NICK WATNEY: A friend of mine back in Fresno had open heart surgery, triple bypass yesterday morning, so just that he knows I'm thinking about him.

Q. Name?
NICK WATNEY: Lee, Markarian.

Q. How different is it a course playing in the afternoon and then playing in the morning like you did today?
NICK WATNEY: Yesterday the wind was much trickier. It was up a little bit, and blowing kind of from all different directions all day.
And today, it was calm this morning and fairly consistent in the afternoon. So also, the greens are a bit firmer, obviously, later in the day.

Q. Are you on a hot streak, and how do you classify a hot streak?
NICK WATNEY: I don't feel like I'm -- I guess I'm playing very well, but it really seems like this is just what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm keeping the game pretty simple, and putting well.
So hopefully that will continue. It doesn't really seem like I'm unconscious or anything. It's just kind of the way I'm supposed to be playing.

Q. How do you keep the game simple?
NICK WATNEY: I'm driving it pretty well, and that always makes it easier hitting the ball, approaching from the fairway makes it much easier. And once I do get in trouble, I'm putting very well.
So I'm making a lot of -- the 5- and 6-footers that I do have, I'm making them.

Q. What's the name of that putting thing you do, inside-out track?
NICK WATNEY: It's Inside Down the Line Putting Track by Momentus.

Q. How long have you had it?
NICK WATNEY: I think since last October Butch gave it to me. I mean, it's great. It's been a big help for me.

Q. Where did Butch find it? Does he have an informercial on it?
NICK WATNEY: He's going to. (Laughter) I think he and Momentus helped develop it.
Last year I struggled a bit with my putting and he came out one day and told me he thought it would help, and it has.

Q. Would you mind going over your card real quick?
NICK WATNEY: Not at all. The first hole, I had about a 40 yard shot and hit a really good shot to three and a half, four feet.
All pars till No. 5, the par 5. Hit a lob-wedge maybe 15 feet away and made that.
Then 11, the par 5, I had to lay up and hit a sand wedge probably ten feet short and made that.
I made a really good par save on 13. I missed the green to the left. Had a tough chip, or hit a poor chip, and made about a 20-footer for par.
And then 17, I hit a 4-iron about a foot away.

Q. Okay. Back to my regularly-scheduled question I was going to ask you. You're somewhat of a late-comer to the game Fresno State, the walk-on, has to earn his way, and you had a tough road to get to where you are. How much do you think that motivates you when there's so many other guys who had stardom from the time they were AJGA studs and what-have-you, if that question makes any sense, good luck to you.
NICK WATNEY: I think it's just been my path since I started. Started at muni kind of late. Definitely not a junior star. Went to college kind of unherald or under the radar or however you want to say it. I mean, I think that's part of the reason why -- I don't know. I just like to improve and I mean, it's the way that I've taken. It's just the way that it's happened.

Q. Even when you got to Fresno, did you ever at all feel intimidated or less than the other college stars; if you played someone from UCLA or whatever?
NICK WATNEY: I mean, I think yeah at the start, for sure. In college I did that, and then on the Nationwide Tour, playing with guys that had had their cards. And once I got out here, I think I was -- I've gotten over that, or I've gotten over that at every level I've played.

Q. Is there a point where you look back and can see that you got over that?
NICK WATNEY: I don't think so. I think I'm still learning. Like last weekend was a new experience for me, just to play in the last group with Phil under that kind of -- in that kind of atmosphere. That was the first time I've done that.
So I think I'm still learning. You know, I think that I have a ways to go because, I mean, I finished second last week.
But I enjoy that. I enjoy trying to get better and learning from different situations. I don't think for me, there's not one time when I said, you know, that was when I made a leap or that was when I got it. It just kind of a process.

Q. Is there much of a reaction from the Hooters Owl's Nest on 17?
NICK WATNEY: A little bit. I couldn't tell because we were obviously 200 yards back. But yeah, there was a little bit of a reaction.

Q. And it's early.
NICK WATNEY: Yeah, they haven't had time to fully get into the day I guess.

Q. What was the best shot you hit today?
NICK WATNEY: Probably that 4-iron, because it was into the wind and wind off the left, I struggle with just a little bit. I would rather have wind off the right. It was into us off the left, and I hit it really good, it was exactly how I wanted it to come off.

Q. Why do you struggle with wind off the left or why do you not prefer it as much?
NICK WATNEY: I just prefer it off the right. I hook the ball, and I'm worried if I start it out to the right and if the wind takes it and I miss a green; or if I over-hook it and it doesn't make it -- I just prefer it off the right.

Q. But one of the most satisfying shots you hit this year was kind of the high cut with the hybrid, 18 at Torrey?
NICK WATNEY: Yeah, definitely. But I think that's not my go-to shot, a cut shot.

Q. Under pressure like that.
NICK WATNEY: Yeah, I feel like the situation called for it, but nine times out of ten, if there's no wind on that hole, I would hit a draw.
But that was the most rewarding shot of the year so far.
MARK WILLIAMS: We appreciate you coming in, Nick. Thanks for your time and all the best for the weekend.

End of FastScripts

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