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TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 25, 2009

Paul Goydos

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

DOUG MILNE: Okay, Paul, thank you for joining us after a very successful round one of the Travelers Championship. Earlier in the week, you and I were chatting and I had asked you about kind of the history of how you've done here. And you've said you had some good rounds but not some good tournaments. Today, 7 under 63, obviously qualifies as good rounds. So just kind of take us through how you're feeling and as you're setting yourself up for the rest of the week.
PAUL GOYDOS: I'm feeling quite fortunate. I kind of made, the first hole I kind of made a mess of it, and kind of funky line on the fairway and laid the sod over the 7-iron. And laid it 50 yards short of the green, and pitched the ten pin and made it for par.
2, I drove it last, and hit a squirrely line in the rough. And hit a poor wedge shot that went through the 3, and got in the front bunker in a bad spot, and kind of chunked it out 15 feet and made that for par.
You know, we were talking to Hunter's caddie, John Wood, you know, basically from this point I'm playing with house money, you know. It was his line, John Wood's line, not my line. Write that down.
Then, after, in a sense, those things tend to calm you down. Hey, you hit two by two the worst holes of the year, and you're at even par. Just calm down and make good swings. I had birdied 3 and 4, which historically are two holes I don't play very well. It's a very difficult ball.
Actually missed the 8-footer for birdie on on 5, and birdied 6, too. So I'm going through the stretch, feeling better, and okay, calm down. We've our two battles out of the way with pars and that's a good thing. It just kind of kept rolling along, making birdie here, and I birdied 15, 16, 17.
And 18 I hit the most solid tee shot I hit all day. Just kind of pulled it a few yards and it got between the rough between the bunker and the fairway. If I was left-handed, I probably would have made birdie.
But I had to chip it 50 yards forward, and it got on the cart path, and actually played my third shot standing on the cart path because the drop wasn't going to be any good on the side of the hill. And wedged it in two feet and made par.
So it was, you know, I shot 7 under. It's probably as low as that round possibly could have been. And if it gets off to a bad start, I could have easily shot over par today. You hit two holes on a golf course that's really gettable today. This was a really good, solid golf course, and mother nature has decided to lay down today, and the golf course is soft. You know, but it's just those first two pars set the tone for the whole day.

Q. Given some of the tragedies that have happened out here this past week on on the tour, and I know that you went through some things. Could you talk about the coping mechanism that goes on within a golfer and this year?
PAUL GOYDOS: I think coping mechanisms go on with everybody. I don't think golfers necessarily cope differently than anybody else, you know. You know, these are tragedies. It's been a rough year in a sense on the PGA TOUR.
I'm sure there have been some things that the media doesn't know about, too. But I think we're very lucky. With my particular situation, you've got 200 players out here. It's really an extended family. You travel together in a sense. We're all showing up at the same places.
I've been out here 17 years. I know most of the people who run the event along with the players and the caddies and they're all a supportive group. Instead of having a few family and friends supporting you, out here you've got 200.
It's a great group of people who come together in tough times. And you I can't speak enough for my fellow competitors and how supportive they were of me for that, and they still are, through this tough patch for me and my family. But I can't tell you how Chris Smith is coping. Mine was a totally different situation. And our thoughts and prayers go with him.
I really don't know what to say. I'm not good with dealing with those types of things. I think he knows, though, from being out here, he's been out here almost as long. I played with Chris, I think, on the Hogan Tour. He knows that everyone out here will do whatever they can to make sure his life is as good as we can make it.

Q. Is it tougher to play a course where you have to really struggle to make pars such as the Open or a course where you have to make birdies to contend to win?
PAUL GOYDOS: Generally this isn't a golf course where you need to make a lot of birdies. It's so soft. I've played here, I think on a calm day it blows 10 miles an hour because you've got the river. It's just an absence of wind this morning. And with the soft conditions, you know, it makes for good scoring.
If we don't get anymore weather, and they can firm the golf course up a little bit, I don't think you'll see the scores you have right now.
I think if you're playing well, they both are the same. Again, it goes back to that start. If I bogey the first two holes, and you know when you're starting out, the scores are going to be good. You can tell. There's no wind and the golf course is soft. I played yesterday in the Pro-Am and it was the same thing.
You know, if I'm 2 over after 2, which was not out of the question by any stretch of the imagination, then, maybe, that's the mental difficulty, and the patience that comes in with how well you deal with that. Fortunately, I didn't have to deal with that. Where you see the leaderboard is already 5 under and you're 4 over after two holes. That is the difficult situation for and luckily for me I didn't have to deal with that.

Q. That third and fourth, talk about how your game's rolled around during that time that you like about it?
PAUL GOYDOS: I like these par 70 courses, let's start with that. It's easier to shoot in the 60's, at least. It's just I started hitting it better. I looked at some of the stats. I'm not a big stat watcher, but I do watch them. My greens in regulation stats have gone from 59% to 65 to 60%. I'm hitting a lot of greens and giving myself opportunities.
So far the last month, I've kind of made that putt to kind of keep the round going. Maybe a 5-footer for par, like I said, how I started the round today. I made a 5- or 6-footer for par on 14. The little things you need to do to keep the round moving in the right direction has been there.
The other thing is that you're playing good, you're making birdies. You know, today I made 7. You go, five, six, seven, eight holes without birdie. It's easier to stay patient when you're playing well. It's easier on a difficult hole location to aim away from the hole in a sense when you're playing well.
It's easier to take advantage. You're much better at taking advantage of the holes that are birdie holes and making sure you get your pars in the holes that aren't. Those are the things that I'm doing better in the last month and a half than I did in the previous, basically, a year.
DOUG MILNE: Paul, congratulations on a great round. And keep it up.
PAUL GOYDOS: Thanks, appreciate it.

End of FastScripts

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