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VALERO TEXAS OPEN

May 14, 2009

Justin Leonard

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

DOUG MILNE: All right. Justin, thanks for joining us for a few minutes after round one at the Valero Texas Open. It was a remarkable round that ended well. Bogeyed three, 7-under, 63 today, tied for the lead with Paul Goydos. Just a couple comments. You mentioned yesterday things are really starting to come around. We know your history with Texas. Just some comments on the round today.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Just a great start. I was able to hit the first green in two and had a 20-foot two-putt for birdie. And had a good shot at two, made a 10-footer and got off to a great start. And then I had a very nice finish today. So I played pretty solid in between.

Q. Justin, this is, I think, your best round here. You go back through your history here, all the success you've had and now you put your best round out here. How about that after everything else you've done here? Is there any excuse for that or are you just happy about it today?
JUSTIN LEONARD: I wasn't aware of that. I was just really happy with today, to get off to a great start, and you know, when somebody goes out and shoots 7-under in the morning, in the afternoon you know you need to play a good round because you don't want to have to play catchup too much. And getting off to a start like that I was able to stay patient and then mix in a couple birdies on the Back 9. But just pleased with the day overall.

Q. Could you go through that tee? Obviously you probably weren't real happy with your approach.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah. I hit a good drive and then the wind was kind of into me and right-to-left, and I was right in between clubs. And I thought if I tried to hold the 5-iron, if I didn't hold it, it would go long, which was okay, but I was hoping to stay more pin high.
And so tried to hit a six and just tried to really play it a little right of the flag and let the wind take it in the middle of the green, and just overturned it a little bit trying to hit it too hard. And got over there and had a fairly clean lie, just had to get on it a little quick, and you know, I read it correctly and came off with a birdie.

Q. You showed some emotion. Obviously you want to finish strong like that. Is there a familiarity for you with this? I mean you know pretty much every foot of this course.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah. A lot of reading putts and playing shots on some of the greens. Because I've played here so much, I don't have a whole lot of conscious thoughts. I mean I just kind of know.
And the same thing with putts. I've got a really good idea of what they do, and you know, because of that I'm very comfortable here.

Q. You know, in the morning rounds a lot of guys really assaulted the flag. Scores were low, not only the 63 that Paul put up, but some other ones. The afternoon round seemed to be a little more sluggish in comparison. Could you tell, was the course playing differently this afternoon or was there any reason for that?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah. I think the breeze picked up a little bit this afternoon, and the greens dried out a little bit. They didn't really get any firmer, but they got a little faster.
So you know, and that's pretty standard for morning versus afternoon.

Q. You said that you were aware of Paul's score in the morning, but you were trying to be patient. Can you elaborate a little more on that?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, when you tee off and you're seven shots back, you feel like there's -- sometimes I have felt a need to, okay, I've gotta make birdies. I've gotta -- because I don't want to have this huge deficit after one round.
And I was able to get off to a great start, and so just from then, being able to stay patient and just to give myself opportunities, and I did a good job of that today.
DOUG MILNE: All right. Justin, we always appreciate your time. Best of luck tomorrow.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Thanks.

End of FastScripts

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