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VERIZON HERITAGE

April 18, 2009

Brian Gay

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome in the third round leader of the Verizon Heritage, Brian Gay. Brian, your second bogey-free round of the week. Just get your comments on another flawless round of golf out there.
BRIAN GAY: Thank you. Yes, another good day. I continued to drive it well and hit the ball well and pretty same the last few days.
JOHN BUSH: Increased your lead from one stroke to three. Just look ahead to tomorrow and what it's going to take.
BRIAN GAY: I think if I can go out and continue to do the same things, I'll be in pretty good shape. Anybody can go low at any time, but I feel like the way I'm swinging and playing, I can go out there and shoot another score.
JOHN BUSH: Let's go through your four birdies. No. 5.
BRIAN GAY: No. 5 I hit a driver and 3-wood just on the back fringe, probably had a 30-footer for eagle. Had a tap-in birdie there.
6, hit a driver and pitching wedge to about 12 feet.
11, driver and 6-iron about 12, 15 feet underneath the hole.
15, I laid it up there kind of behind the tree on the left side, and hit a big hook and lob wedge got it back behind the pin, made about a 20-footer, coming down the hill left to right.

Q. Brian, not to take anything away at all from the win you had last year, but considering the field at this tournament, if you were to hang on and win this thing tomorrow, would it have maybe a sweeter feeling? Or how would it be different from the win you had last year?
BRIAN GAY: I don't know if it would be sweeter. The first one was pretty nice. I said yesterday I don't think that -- it doesn't matter who else is out there playing. I've got to go out and play good golf and shoot lower than everybody else. Who else is playing doesn't really matter. I think it will be validation of winning last year. I did it once and I'll do it again.
I love this place and I would be really happy to win here for sure.

Q. I think you made one bogey in 54 holes. Is that something you could have imagined doing at a place like this?
BRIAN GAY: No. I've struck the ball really well. I don't think I've hit it in the trees for three days and I haven't had any -- just stayed out of trouble and put the ball in the right position. Even from the fairway it's all about where you're going to place it after that, too. And even if you're playing away from the flag to the safe side, you just don't want to short-side yourself and just really good course management. But you've really got to hit great shots even if you're doing that.

Q. How does it feel to play so clean with basically no mistakes or hardly any mistakes? Is golf easy for you the last three days? Has it been an easy game?
BRIAN GAY: It doesn't feel that easy when you're doing it. You just take one shot at a time and stay focused. You're never too far away from scrambling a lot out there, because the greens are small. So it's nice not to have to scramble too much.

Q. Brian, at Mayakoba did you have the lead entering the final round? How did that final round end for you?
BRIAN GAY: Yeah, I had a 5-shot lead which, believe it or not, I was pretty uncomfortable with it. I shot really low on Saturday there, birdied like five of the last six to take a big lead. So going out Sunday there I was just really, really conservative and I found it hard to -- it was tough just trying to make par, you know, because I wasn't shooting at the flags and I was like a bunch of 30-footers trying to two-putt. It's not that easy when you just try to two-putt from 30 feet all the time. It was tough.
But I played well that day and had a big lead most of the day, never got closer than three or four.

Q. You maintained that lead most of the day and what do you take from that experience and what can you bring tomorrow?
BRIAN GAY: I think it's got to help tomorrow. I think it helped me today going out, even though it was Saturday, going out with the lead and playing with the lead there last year. I didn't want to be too aggressive today. I knew some guys might come from behind, but I just stuck to what I was doing the first couple of days.

Q. It looked like there were a bunch of 66s and 65s being put up even before you teed off. Did you have an idea that there might be some opportunities out there for you and others to really go low?
BRIAN GAY: Yeah, I figured, I looked at the weather and the wind wasn't supposed to blow today. I figured guys going out early the greens are softer with no winds, somebody would post a low number. And then when it warmed up, and it was fairly breezy, breezier than what the forecast was. So I felt maybe in the afternoon wouldn't give up too many low scores.

Q. Do you feel more comfortable going into the final round than you did, I guess, during the last time you won? Do you think with how unpredictable the course can be that you might still not be too aggressive tomorrow?
BRIAN GAY: Well, I don't know how I'll feel tomorrow yet, but I think from being in this position last year, I think it can only help going out and playing solid today and coming out tomorrow and see if I can go out and do the same thing again.

Q. You say you had the lead five strokes going into last year, have you ever led a tournament, any other tournaments going into the final round, have you had the lead?
BRIAN GAY: No, I don't think I have had a 54-hole lead other than that one. I tied once before somewhere.

Q. How do you play going into tomorrow? In other words like in any sport you say some people try to protect the lead and that sort of thing. Well, how would you go into tomorrow like if you're three down tomorrow going in as compared to being three up, how does your game go as far as in that situation? Let's say you were three down? You play the same way?
BRIAN GAY: Well, your mindset is probably a little different. But it's the type of golf course where you can't -- the greens are small and there's only so much attacking you can do. I don't think that -- I think here you can't be too cautious and make cautious swings, and pick smart targets and make aggressive swings.

Q. Two-day leader now, have you ever been a two-day leader in a tournament?
BRIAN GAY: Mexico, I think I was in second going to Saturday.

Q. This is probably the first time you've done that, then?
BRIAN GAY: I couldn't remember if I was leading after Friday in Mexico or not. I know I was right there. I was in the last group. I think maybe John Merrick was leading.

Q. What's the routine at night? Do you kind of try to stick to the same things you've done the last few nights? Are you superstitious like that?
BRIAN GAY: Not really superstitious, but I kind of laid low all week. Last night I had dinner, chilled out in the room and watched TV. I'll probably do the same thing, relax.
JOHN BUSH: Brian, play well tomorrow.
BRIAN GAY: Thanks.

End of FastScripts

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