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ST. JUDE CLASSIC PRESENTED BY FEDEX

June 14, 2009

Brian Gay

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Congratulations, Brian, winning the 2008 St. Jude Classic. Before we start, couple facts here about Brian's win. Five stroke victory today, second win of the 2009 season. Third of your career. You earned 500 FedExCup points to move you up to 4th in the standings. You join Dave Hill, Bob Estes, and Justin Leonard only players in tournament visit to go wire to wire. Second win in your last five starts. Qualifies you for next week's United States Open Championship. You're the fifth player with a pair of victories in 2009, joining Zach Johnson, Geoff Ogilvy, Tiger Woods, and Phil Mickelson.
Your third victory in 16 months, first victory was the 2008 Maya-Cancun Golf Classic. Congratulations. Few general thoughts about the round. Obviously we started with a big delay, so just talk about today.
BRIAN GAY: Yeah. I was happy when my alarm went off and I had the text for suspended play. Kept it in the snooze and stayed in bed all morning. It was nice to get the rest. Little disappointed to see all the rain come in. Wasn't really to my advantage but worked out okay.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Just sort of go over your round, general comments, and then we'll go your birdies and your two bogeys.
BRIAN GAY: Got off to another good start. Kind of the plan. No numbers in mind. Just want to go out and hit good shots and make birdies early and try to separate myself. I was able to do that.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Talk about the early birdies with 3 in the first six holes.
BRIAN GAY: No. 2, I hit a driver and pitching wedge to about 8 feet there. Wedged it close on 3 and missed it.
No. 4, the par 3, I hit a great 5-iron right at it, behind the hole 16 feet or so. Made that for birdie. Nice coming back after missing the short one on 3.
No. 6 I hit a driver and 6-iron in the middle of the green. The pin was over in the back left corner. Rolled in about a 30-footer there.
Of course, I let myself relax a little bit and bogeyed No. 7. Came back with a really good birdie on 9. Driver and 6-iron there to a tough pin over on the water on the left side.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Take us through the back-9.
BRIAN GAY: 10, I shanked my tee ball after the tee right of the tree over there. Hit a good second shot, right in front of the green, pitched it up, okay pitch, short 7, 8 feet and missed the putt.
11, I had a good shot in. Got a little bit lucky. Little cut 8-iron. I pushed it right at it, had a tap-in birdie, about a foot.
And then after that, I pretty much put it in the middle of the green. Didn't shoot at any flags, all pars all the way until 18. There was a driver and 7-iron, 6 feet.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: The thing that stands out on the sheet, your birdie at 18. That was your 100th putt of the week.
BRIAN GAY: The greens are perfect. I love the bermuda grass. You read them right, you make a lot of putts. Very true and grew up on it. I always enjoy putting on bermuda.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Brian, can you talk about you said that you hadn't thought about being able to qualify for the Open with a win until someone mentioned it to you. Now that you've -- when did you start thinking about qualifying for the Open today? Was it during the round at any point or when you tapped in there on 18?
BRIAN GAY: Honestly, I didn't -- I didn't think about it that much. It's there in the back of my mind, but it wasn't something that I was concerned with. I played well and won, I knew I would go, but I wasn't -- it's Bethpage.
Wasn't like -- of course I qualified for the Masters at Harbour Town. I will say that was on my mind more than going to Bethpage. As far as me growing up in Georgia, Augusta National is a little more special than Bethpage. Not to say anything bad about Bethpage but U.S. Open moves around, it's a little different. I just felt like I had to go out and play golf. If I won, obviously I would get a chance to go play.

Q. I gather you had a fairly special trip to the U.S. Open in 1996. You got engaged there. Can you tell us about that?
BRIAN GAY: Yeah, that was my first Tour event, if you want to call it a Major. Not long after college, I qualified for the Open at Oakland Hills and got engaged to my wife there and had my college roommate caddy for me, who was the best man in the wedding. That was fun.

Q. Now that you've got the berth, thoughts about now qualifying for the Open pretty much at the last possible moment, and how much do you now get ready to change of plans and look forward to next week?
BRIAN GAY: Yeah. Right now I don't know if we're going home first or what we're going to do, but probably spend tomorrow traveling or getting up there, getting home and repacking and get to work on Tuesday, I guess.

Q. You played there last time, did you not?
BRIAN GAY: I did, in '02.

Q. How was that, recount that experience a little bit and how different are you now, is your game now than it was in '02?
BRIAN GAY: Yeah. It was tough. As you all know, it was really hard, and of course on Friday it rained all day, and I think I missed the cut by a shot or two. You know, I was actually playing real well going into there that week that year. I think I just played well at Westchester the week before and was hitting it real good. It's a real long golf course and even longer now. It's not like -- certainly doesn't fit into my -- straight will be good. Drive it straight, I think I'll be okay, but it's pretty long.

Q. What was the course like at Ft. Rucker when were you playing there as a kid? Did you dream of being on the Tour? What were you thinking at the time?
BRIAN GAY: Sure, yeah, that's all I ever wanted to do since I was ten, 11 years old was to play the Tour. And Ft. Rucker was just an average golf course, but they did have a really good practice facility. They had not only a driving range, they had an area where could you shag your own balls, bunch of tees and like five different greens to hit to.
I always hit my own balls and shagged them and chipped around the greens and all that stuff. I think that really helped me develop my good wedge play and chipping and that sort of thing.

Q. Brian, all week the other players were talking about you as a great front runner and a great closer. To get to that point in your career, with the other guys talking about you in that way, A, what does it mean; and B, how do you get there when you play with a guy like Bryce Molder who is maybe where were you several years ago, trying to find himself as a pro golfer? Kind of talk about that aspect of it.
BRIAN GAY: Yeah. I think the hardest part is believing when you're out there that you can do it, and it's hard to believe that until you actually do it. So, the more you get in that position, I think it becomes easier to handle and easier to play well in those situations.
Yeah, I was rooting for Bryce. I know he was a stud coming out of college add had some struggles, but it's nice to see him play well.

Q. Brian, I guess there's a certain mental toughness that it takes to maintain a lead going into the final round. To whom do you owe that as part of your makeup?
BRIAN GAY: Shoot, probably -- my dad was a sergeant in the Army, so probably my dad. I think I've always had to be tough just because even as a kid, guys would out drive me 30, 40 yards, and I've always had to deal with, you know, not the underdog but hitting first from the fairway and talking myself into -- that I can beat them, even though they're hitting three, four clubs less into the green. I think I've always had to be tough in that respect.

Q. Has your long journey, playing the number of tours you played, has that been -- was that part of it, too? Do you think that added to your mental toughness?
BRIAN GAY: For sure. I had a nice career at Florida, and I expected to go right on the Tour, and Q-School slapped me in the face a few times. It took me five times to get through there. And played a bunch of mini tours and Golden Bear Tour and Asia for a few months. Then the Nike Tour one year and got out here and been out here since.
It definitely was tougher to get out here than I thought.

Q. On 18 you had the tournament wrapped up, but talk about winning on the birdie -- excuse me, ending on the birdie putt.
BRIAN GAY: It's always nice to finish well like that. You don't want to kind of bogey your way in, and I hadn't played that hole well. I kept hitting it to the right off the tee. It was nice to step up. I had a good yardage with the 7-iron. Aimed it in the middle of the green and busted it. Of course, Feherty thought I was nuts, but, you know, I wasn't worried about hitting it in the pond or anything. It was nice, one of my best iron shots, as good as I hit one all week. It was nice to make a birdie there.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: One final question.

Q. I gather you do quite a job of balancing family while you're out on the road. Inside tells me you had crepes last night. What's the crepe choice of a champion, and talk about having the kids around and, what that does for balance as you try to play golf.
BRIAN GAY: It's nice to have them out with me. They come out quite a bit. Probably 80 percent of the time they travel with me. So it's nice to get done with work and go back and see the girls and hang out and kind of take my mind off the golf and the stress of being out here and dealing with the Tour and the tournaments. It's fun.

Q. Is that correct, you came to Memphis and ate crepes?
BRIAN GAY: I ate a philly steak crepe, but I didn't like it. (Laughter).

Q. How was it?
BRIAN GAY: It had like Ceasar stuff on it. I was going to get tacos, and the last second I went next door to the crepe maker.

Q. Are you in Turnberry?
BRIAN GAY: Yes.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Brian, congratulations. Thank you very much.
BRIAN GAY: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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