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HP BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

May 24, 2009

Brian Davis

IRVING, TEXAS

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Brian Davis into the interview room. Brian, a flawless round of golf today, 6-under par 64, but not quite enough. Just get your comments on what was a great week for you.
BRIAN DAVIS: Yeah, you know, obviously ecstatic with the way I played. I'm disappointed I didn't win, but all you can do is put yourself in position and commit to your shots and try and shoot as low as you can. Pretty much that's what I did. Unfortunately it was not enough.
JOHN BUSH: Three straight Top 5 finishes for you dating back to THE PLAYERS Championship. Just talk a little bit about the momentum that you have right now and your confidence for the rest of the year.
BRIAN DAVIS: I was more pleased with today than the last two to three weeks because I put myself in position but I just hadn't holed the putts. You know, today I holed the putts under pressure coming down the stretch, and to me that was a good sign, and I'm looking forward to the next few weeks.

Q. What were you thinking there on the back? You were playing so well. 31, were you thinking you could catch him? And how much were you looking at the board?
BRIAN DAVIS: It was a weird feeling, really, because on the front seven, eight holes, I couldn't even find the club face. I was hitting it all over the place, and I thought, oh, dear, we can forget winning, we just got to try and hang on and finish Top 10 at this rate. Just one of them things. I hit a wedge shot on 9 and I just found it, and it clicked and off I went to the races. Obviously I had a couple of key putts on the back nine and just came up a little short.

Q. In any other tournament your score would have been good enough to win almost by double digits. Do you feel somewhat unlucky that you happened to play this well on a weekend when a guy set the tournament record?
BRIAN DAVIS: You know what, I never look at it like that. You can't control what other people do, you can only control what you do. I've learnt that. I've been at this game long enough where I should have learnt it anyway. It's just one of them things where I mentioned earlier in the week about Harrington. He finished about second 12 times in Europe, and everybody was saying, he's not winning, and then he won three majors.
It's only a positive really for me. I can't do any more than that. I played great, stuck in there, and I'm ecstatic with that. Hopefully I'll get a week where nobody else does it.

Q. You guys were kind of going at it yesterday afternoon. What did you think it would take this afternoon to win it?
BRIAN DAVIS: The wind switched a little bit, and it just made it a little bit trickier, but we had that little rain before we went out, and it just softened the greens up, and it just made it enough to you could stick iron shots in there. So I knew there was going to be lots of birdies out there. As I said, I was 1-under through eight and that was the best I could have been. I thought really my chance of winning had gone.
Then after birdieing 9 and 10 and then knocking it on 11, I really felt, okay, we can get some momentum here. I knew I'd probably have to make another four birdies coming in, but I thought at least we've got a shot at it. I knew 17 would be playing short with the wind. I thought if I can just hang in there and maybe have a shot. To be honest I didn't look at the scoreboards the last few holes because I knew I was going to have to make birdies and eagles to have a shot, so I thought, let's not get disheartened by making an eagle and a birdie, looking at the leaderboard and still seeing you're three back.
So I just decided not to look at the leaderboards the last few holes, which is somewhat unusual because I always watch leaderboards. Round 1 to round 4, it doesn't matter, I still watch leaderboards. I thought, I'm just going to have to make as many birdies as I can and just hope nobody else can do the same.
When I came off 18 I thought I was going to be close to the lead when I came off. I thought I was maybe within one shot of the lead, and you've still got to hit that tee shot on 18. But obviously I was three back, but I'm happy with my day's performance.

Q. What did you hit into 16? How did you get that?
BRIAN DAVIS: I hit a good drive down the right, and with that pin position I tried to cut a 2-iron in, a high 2-iron.
JOHN BUSH: How many yards did you have in?
BRIAN DAVIS: 237. Obviously it was playing about 215, the front, with the wind and the slope. I thought 3-iron might pitch it a little bit short and kill it, so I thought if I can hit a high cutting 2-iron it might land just on the front and kill it. A little too much, but hey, I executed my shot properly and that's all you can do under pressure.

Q. Do you think you've got three majors in your future?
BRIAN DAVIS: I hope so. That's what we all play for. I've been in the doldrums the last couple years with -- it's well documented, my health and my game, and my head has not been in the right place because of it. I'm just enjoying this moment where I'm enjoying my golf. The last couple years there hasn't been a lot of enjoyment, it's been just grind every week. So it's nice to have some game and go out and know that you can compete with the best in the world.

Q. The fact you brought up Harrington, I'm thinking you must think you've got a great future ahead of you.
BRIAN DAVIS: Yeah, well, that sticks in my head because I know what a hard worker he is, and I've played with Harrington a lot, and what he's achieved is unbelievable. I played with him at Houston, and I hadn't played with him for a couple years obviously since I've come over here, and my form hasn't been good enough to get paired with him on the weekend. It was one of them things where I got to see firsthand how much he's actually improved. It sort of lifts the bar a little bit. It's the same thing when people play with Tiger; he just lifts the bar. Major winners just tend to have that little bit more, and that's what you've got to learn to do.

Q. You're now obviously one of the hottest players in the game all of a sudden. Any reason you can't continue this?
BRIAN DAVIS: Exactly. I think I'll have to take a week off at some point, but yeah, obviously I'd like to continue it. As I said before, I'm just riding the crest at the moment. I'm enjoying myself. It's nice to be in front of big crowds and have the juices flowing. I had a chance to win in Reno last year and hit a couple bad shots coming in, but I didn't have any game then. I wasn't hitting the ball well -- I won't say I wasn't hitting it well, but I didn't have control of the golf ball and I didn't have all the shots, whereas now I can play any shot, left to right, right to left, high, low. It makes it fun, whereas in Reno it was a real grind.
I came up short in Reno, and that hit me pretty hard. Same at Turning Stone, as well. It was one of those things where I messed up on the last, and it was, again, not controlling my distances well, just wasn't controlling the ball, the spin and everything else. It was just one of them things where I knew I wasn't playing well, even when I got in contention. You know, I played through it and got through it, and obviously I'm delighted with the way I'm playing right now.

Q. What do you know of Rory, and have you played much with him? And what do you think of his game?
BRIAN DAVIS: He's a quiet, laid-back guy, doesn't say too much (laughter). I like Rory. It's the same -- anybody you play with who's got a fire in their belly. I like that. That's me. I'm not one of them people who can walk around with no expression on his face or not slam a club when he hits a bad shot. Some of us like playing like that. I like to get fired up, and I like playing with him. I played with him yesterday. I've played with him quite a few times. I knew he was playing good yesterday, and he obviously played really well today.
JOHN BUSH: Let's go through the four birdies starting at No. 7.
BRIAN DAVIS: 7, yeah, I shanked my tee shot right with a driver, hacked it out down the fairway and hit an unbelievable pitch shot to about ten feet that was in between yardages, and it was a horrible shot. It was a brilliant shot and I made 4 there. It was 93, which is totally in between my wedges.
9, I hit drive just in the left rough and hit a great wedge shot to about 10 or 12 feet there and made it, left myself an easy putt up the hill.
10, hit drive and then I hit half a wedge to about 10, 12 feet above the hole again, made that.
11, drove it on the green about 30 feet below the pin and two-putted.
JOHN BUSH: Brian, play well next week.

End of FastScripts

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