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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 2, 2009

Chris Wilson

DUBLIN, OHIO

MARK STEVENS: I'd like to welcome Chris Wilson to the interview room. Chris is a native of this area and playing in his first PGA Tour event.
Chris, if you'd just kind of give your thoughts about this week and what this tournament means to you. And then we'll take some questions.
CHRIS WILSON: I'm looking forward to this week. It's going to be a lot of fun. Growing up here, coming to the golf tournament as a kid with all my friends. Skipping school maybe sometimes to do that. It's going to be a lot of fun and a great opportunity.
MARK STEVENS: Go ahead, Rusty.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about how the exemption took place and how you first approached -- they approached you. You approached them? Everything all the way through until you got it.
CHRIS WILSON: Yeah, a played for one last year with no expectations of getting it. I did the same thing this year.
I thought it would be good to get my name in the back of their heads. They see it a few times, maybe down the road it would help.
Actually, it was my dad's idea to do it again this year. So we sent a letter in along with the golf resume and my letter, I just kind of talked about how I grew up here, been to the tournament a lot, would love to obviously play.
I played on the junior golf level, college golf level, and it would be nice to play on the professional golf level as well.
Then I got a phone call from my agent a couple weeks ago, and he had told me that they'd given me a spot. I was -- I didn't really expect it, like I said. It was pretty thrilling.

Q. Has anybody here said anything to you about on what basis they judged you to be worthy of the exemption?
CHRIS WILSON: No one's really directly said anything. I think every year they like to try to get somebody with local ties, Ohio ties, Ohio state ties. I had the nice local ties along with a decent golf resume.

Q. Chris, since you were out here on media day, how much have you played, and what have you been doing to get your game ready?
CHRIS WILSON: I've played -- let's see. I was in Indiana for a week and came back. Played maybe three or four times last week. And then played, obviously, yesterday, some today, play tomorrow.
As far as getting prepared for the week, I've been working a lot on driving the golf ball, working in both directions. I think that's going to be important. As fast as it's going to get playing.
Staying in the fairways is going to be important with the run-out, with the rough the way it is, firm greens. You're going to have to be hitting from shorter grass.
I've been working on driving the ball. My instructor Jason, who's here, we've been working on the short game quite a bit and some putting quite a bit.

Q. Who have you played with the last?
CHRIS WILSON: Yesterday I played nine holes with Erik Compton. This morning I played nine holes with Kenny Perry, Kevin Streelman, and Chris Stroud.

Q. Pick Kenny's brain about this?
CHRIS WILSON: A little bit. He's a great guy. All of us are younger in the group. This is Kevin Streelman's first time too. What to do if the wind hits. He was really helpful.

Q. Chris, what aspects of the course do you think brings out the best part in your game?
CHRIS WILSON: I think the fairways are generous. They're wide enough, but off the tee they don't look super wide. We've got the bunkering and the doglegs and some of the big trees. I think, if you can get it in your mind that the fairways are really wider than they look in spots, it will be a little easier to hit them.
I think that fits my eye well.

Q. So being in this thing now, what's your mindset come Thursday? In terms of competing, you know.
CHRIS WILSON: Well, I mean the mindset you take into it is just like any other golf tournament. It may sound crazy or more difficult to do because it's not any other golf tournament. But if you go into it with any other mindset, I think you're going to ruin yourself.

Q. Since getting your exemption, have you spoken to the tournament founder and host?
CHRIS WILSON: Yeah. Let's see, what day was it? I met Mr. Nicklaus last Saturday. There was an event out here, and he was here in town with his son Jack. Met him down on the range, talked with him a little bit. Then on Sunday, my caddie drove in, and we came out here just to putt and hang out.
As we were eating lunch, Jack was on the first tee. We went down, walked the first few holes with him and talked with him.

Q. Did he say anything at all about, you know, what the tournament's thinking is in terms of exemptions and letting people in?
CHRIS WILSON: I didn't ask him anything like that. I thanked him for giving me the opportunity, and I was thrilled to be here and honored for the chance to represent the state of Ohio, Muirfield, Dublin.

Q. For a local, is this a little nerve-racking to kind of have extra people around? This is not a typical stop?
CHRIS WILSON: I don't think so. You're going to have nerved on the first tee of any golf tournament, or you should at least. Or else you're probably in the wrong sport.
But it's not going to be any more nerve-racking than any other places I've played.

Q. Chris, when you said you were in Indiana, was that for a tournament?
CHRIS WILSON: Yeah, that was for the Hooters Tournament?

Q. And that's the only tournament you've played leading up to this one?
CHRIS WILSON: Yeah.
MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Chris, for coming in. Good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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