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HP BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2009

Scott McCarron

IRVING, TEXAS

DOUG MILNE: Scott McCarron, thanks for joining us for a few minutes after a very successful round 1 of the HP Byron Nelson Championship, five birdies, one bogey. Just some comments. You have more or less a history of playing well here. I think you had a top 15 here last year so obviously the course suits your game. A couple comments about the round today and kind of what you're looking to build on as you move forward into the week.
SCOTT McCARRON: I played real solid today. I hit a lot of fairways today. I think I only missed one fairway today on No. 8. I think I hit 15 greens, so I put myself in position quite a few times. When I got wedge in my hand I was kind of able to go and attack the pin positions.
Other than that, with 7- or 8-iron I was kind of just kind of hitting to a certain quadrant of the green and having a 15- or 20-footer. Played real solid. Been working real hard with my teacher Jim Hardy over the last two weeks, and then I had my sports psychologist Dr. Glenn Albaugh out last week. So just kind of putting things together and feel very solid.

Q. Which one has had more impact, your teacher or your psychologist?
SCOTT McCARRON: Well, you know, they both have had a big impact. Jim and I worked on a few things and then when Glenn came in we worked on how to incorporate it into my swing and being able to trust it. That's really the most important thing. I play best when I'm really not thinking too much about my golf swing.
The last couple weeks I've been thinking a little about certain moves, and really today was the first time I was able to not think about it at all and really had it engrained. It was really a combination of both of them.

Q. Last year after your first round here you talked about how much fun you were having. Talk about how the feelings has changed a little bit. In the last year how is your feeling different?
SCOTT McCARRON: I'll tell you what, my feeling is still about the same. I'm still having a lot of fun playing, I'm having a lot of fun practicing and working out and doing the things I need to do to play well. I'm still really enjoying playing golf. The elbow feels very good now, really don't think about it at all. Still ice it down after I play and get work done now and then, but it feels good. This is my fifth week in a row, so I've got to thank the guys in the Orthofit van for taking care of me. They've done an unbelievable job of taking care of us, and if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't an able to play.

Q. Why are you playing five in a row?
SCOTT McCARRON: Yeah, that's a great question. Some great tournaments. I started off in New Orleans where I had won, and then came up with Wachovia and then THE PLAYERS Championship and San Antonio last week, Texas, and then Dallas. So this is a stretch I really enjoy.
As of right now I'm not in Colonial, very disappointed in that, and I'm not in Memorial. So I wanted to play as much as I could, and if I got in Colonial and Memorial I'd keep going.

Q. 17th last week?
SCOTT McCARRON: Yeah.

Q. Things are getting better. You had a great start to the season.
SCOTT McCARRON: Yeah, I had a good start to the season. I haven't played well in New Orleans at the new golf course. It doesn't set up real well for me. I've never made the cut at Wachovia, and Wachovia I got sick anyways, and THE PLAYERS Championship I've never played good in, either. So those are three golf courses I really don't play well at, but I play them anyways because I want to support the tournaments and the sponsors, so even though I missed the cut in two of them, I really wasn't worried about it. I almost made the cut in New Orleans, missed by one, and PLAYERS I only missed by two.
Even though I missed those cuts, I still came away with a lot of confidence and went on over to last week.

Q. You're 11th in driving accuracy. Is that an indication that you've found your game?
SCOTT McCARRON: Well, I'll tell you, I've got that new Taylor Made R9 driver with the shaft, they can tweak it. It's just amazing what they can do with that driver, and they dialed it in in about five or six swings for me earlier this year. I'm in probably top 10 or 11 in driving accuracy. I've never been in the top 100.
I've lost a little distance with age and probably with the elbow surgery, but I'm hitting it a lot straighter now. I think with the new grooves that are coming out next year, I think it's going to be an advantage, so maybe my best golf is ahead of me because of that.

Q. I find it very interesting that you made your own putter way back when.
SCOTT McCARRON: Yeah. That was 1991, actually, after a senior event, a Champions Tour event, at my home course at the time, Rancho Murieta, the Senior Gold Rush. I saw about ten of the older gentlemen wielding this long putter. I had never really seen one before, and I went home that night and chopped off the head of a 3-wood and took the top of the grip off a Ping Answer 2 and shoved it down in the shaft with some sand and gum and glue. And I actually putted with that thing for about a year and a half in the amateur circuit.
That's what got me really back into golf because I wasn't putting well, wasn't having fun. I had quit for about three and a half, four years, and after I started putting with the long putter it got me back in the game.

Q. That's truly homemade.
SCOTT McCARRON: Oh, yeah. It had sand in it and gum and Elmer's Glue. It was an eyesore, but it worked.

Q. Last year I think 7-under won, and today no one is going real low this morning. What is it about the course that there are no real low scores?
SCOTT McCARRON: As you can see, the weather is absolutely perfect. We had perfect temperature, no wind, and as of right now 4-under is leading. I mean, that just shows you how difficult this golf course is. It's very difficult to hit a lot of the fairways here. A lot of the fairways are all built up with a lot of steep slopes down in, and once you get down in the rough, it's some flier rough. Now you get up to the greens, and every single green has huge dropoffs. There's hardly any greens where you can bounce it up, run it up. You miss it left or right, you're faced with a very difficult chip. So that makes the golf course tough. Any miss, and sometimes you can't even make par where you miss it. I think that's what makes the golf course very difficult.

Q. Do you think the winning score will be lower than last year?
SCOTT McCARRON: Yeah, I'm planning on shooting lower than that, so I hope so.

Q. The areas around the green, is that the biggest difference from last year?
SCOTT McCARRON: Well, I think that's going to be the biggest difference every year here just because we don't see anything this severe on TOUR for 18 greens in a row. We might see four or five of them severe, but this one, every single green has some dropoff that you just cannot hit it in.
DOUG MILNE: If you wouldn't mind real quick running us through your birdies and just giving us some clubs and a little description.
SCOTT McCARRON: Sure. No. 1, hit a beautiful drive down there, had pitching wedge into the -- had about 130 to the flag and hit a nice pitching wedge just short left of the hole and was able to pour that in from about seven feet or so.
Bogeyed No. 2, hit a good 3-iron there, just a little thin, landed over the bunker then came back in the bunker and kind of had a heavy, thick lie there up against the face and didn't get up-and-down.
7, par-5, hit a beautiful drive and a 3-iron just to the right, and like I was saying, huge dropoff. Had to hit a big old lob about 10 feet up in the air and landed it on the fringe and rolled in there about six feet, and I was able to make that for birdie.
Then on 14, I hit a nice 3-wood right down the middle of the fairway, had 133 to the hole, pitching wedge again. I was able to attack it and knocked it in there about five feet for birdie.
15, tough hole today, I hit a really good drive and had 4-iron into the green, had about 42 feet there, and it was one of those puts that as I was looking at it, I said, well, let's just get this close, and as I was walking back, I said, no, let's make this. Sure enough, rolled it in.
16, hit a beautiful drive and had 256 front and just smoked a 3-wood up on the front of the green and was able to two-putt for birdie there.

Q. How long was the putt on 15?
SCOTT McCARRON: About 42 feet, I think.
DOUG MILNE: 39 feet, two inches.
SCOTT McCARRON: It's funny, I step off all my putts, so I think their ShotLink is wrong. I think it was 42.
DOUG MILNE: You're not the first person in history to challenge it.
SCOTT McCARRON: I've stepped off all my putts since I was a little kid. I took a chipping lesson from Phil Rodgers when I was about 12 years old, and he always stepped off his chips and putts, and I've been doing it ever since. So when somebody asks me how long it was, I always know. So it was 42, not 39.
DOUG MILNE: Scott, thanks for joining us, and great playing.

End of FastScripts

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