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RBC CANADIAN OPEN

July 27, 2009

Nathan Green

OAKVILLE, ONTARIO

DOUG MILNE: All right. We'd like to welcome the champion of the 2009 RBC Canadian open. Nathan green, congratulations on the win. I know it's been a long time coming. With the win you pick up 500 FedExCup points and really work yourself into the race there. 4-under 68 today. Bogeyed three. Obviously kind of a wild playoff there, but you got the job done. And how about just a few opening comments.
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah. It was -- this is pretty much the last thing I was expecting to do coming off the way I played this year. It's just been a tough year. Probably wasn't working as hard as I should have been earlier in the year but sort of knuckled down the last few months and didn't feel like I was getting any reward for it. Played really well at Washington and come unstuck there in the last round. Came in this week not too bad. My Achilles heel has always been my driving, and I drove the ball pretty well all week, and probably the last nine holes today I was starting to get a bit tired, that's where the trouble started. I started to squeeze a few shots to the right, and that's where the shot on the last came from, the bull draw wasn't going right. And did manage to get into a playoff and dodged a bullet on the first hole. I didn't really want to hit a 9-iron into 18. I probably could have. I tried to hit a cut 5-wood and didn't really cut. It went the wrong way. But made a good follow up. Once I hit there, I knew Retief had a tough trim shot, but hit a great shot and didn't hit the best putt, unfortunately for him, but then 17 I had two good shots and a really good tee shot and I was a little bit closer to the green than I was in regulation. And was able to hit a 4-iron in there and be a good shot and thought I hit a great putt down the hill and just died on me, but luckily it was enough.
But just been a bizarre week, a long week, and the first win in Canada where I spent a lot of years playing Canadian tours is a great way to have a first one.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. We'll open it up for some questions.

Q. Can you maybe walk us through what you were thinking when you came up to your ball at 18 after the first playoff? It just seemed that things were moving further and further to the left there.
NATHAN GREEN: As soon as I heard it hit the path and I actually thought the reaction from the crowd I knew it had hit the path and I actually thought it had gone a lot further than it had. I didn't know where they were going to make me drop.
Yeah, the greens have I don't know how they've done but they've gotten harder and faster as the weeks have gone on. I hit a reasonably good chip in in regulation. I couldn't stop it coming down the hill there, and really I didn't think I had much to lose by the shot I hit. I was starting the idea trying to land it one up in the rough which never really worked, so hit a pretty good shot, and ended up drawing slightly better lie than what I had in regulation. Just in the fairway there, but the whole thing was trying to lag it up there somewhere. I wasn't too sure how it was going to come in. But Retief hit a good shot at 18 to keep it short from that sort of lie going downhill away from it towards the water was a good shot, but it just died on him, and then I was able to sort of get out of it with a par.

Q. When you made the chip from behind the green, like up from behind, you almost didn't seem to really take much time over the shot. Did you measure it when you went to look?
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah. I paced it out when I was coming back, and we knew how far we had because I'd already paced it out, so I knew it was, I don't know, 43 paces, something like that. That's how we determined where the drop area was. So I had a rough idea how far it was. I knew and then I paced it out after I'd actually carried the ball to get on the green and that was pretty much the yardage to try and land it somewhere around the edge of the green there, and I probably put it two or three yards too far, but it was -- I know. In the playoff, I probably had -- there was probably less -- if things had have gone wrong, it wasn't as bad as if things had gone wrong in regulation. If I'd have lost that, it didn't really matter at that point. I was a bit maybe further into the bunker, something like that was the one thing I didn't want to do, so I made sure I gave it a chance and luckily it stopped short of the water.

Q. Just go over again, tell us all about Toronto in Australia, as opposed to Toronto in Canada.
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah. Toronto is just a small suburb. It's part of like new calf and it's sort of got one main street. It's a beautiful part of the world, but yeah, it's just strange that I think I've had three wins my whole career and two of them have been in the greater Toronto area or somewhere. It must hold something for me, but yeah, just a really nice small lake town.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
NATHAN GREEN: It actually smells a little bit better than Toronto downtown?

Q. (Inaudible)?
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah. I stayed downtown this week, and we saw it coming on the first time out for dinner. We didn't know what was going on. In certain areas there was a little bit of funk, but -- it wasn't too bad down there actually this week. We've done the same thing the last few years, stayed downtown. You're sort of going against traffic at happy hour. It's a great town. You got great restaurants. We go to a ball game, and that's part of I think why I've played well the last few years here, or in the past, is that you have a great time when you come here. It's one of those weeks you actually look forward to for your time off course as well, so it's been a great week.

Q. How familiar were you with Toronto before this and tell us about your time on the Canadian Tour.
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah. I spent three years on the Canadian Tour from about I think it was about '98 to 2000, or '99, 2001, somewhere around there. But yeah, my first win was Timberwolf. I think was the last time I played on the Canadian Tour for that season, and yeah, in those three years we always sort of bought a car over in Vancouver Island and drove it all the way across. The first few we had some sort of Ford bus. It was like sort of little truck thing, and then the next few years we just bought a car between the two of us and trekked all the way across, and it's just a beautiful country. That was the greatest thing. We saw driving through the Rockies, which is probably the most beautiful place I've ever been, and then two places, Regina, and some places -- we've been in some great little towns all the way across Canada, and that was always the thing, we'd get to Toronto and have a good time here and head back to Australia and start to get ready for our summer Tour down there.

Q. Are you familiar with the history of Toronto?
NATHAN GREEN: No.

Q. It came from a champion (Indiscernible).
NATHAN GREEN: Okay.

Q. Can you talk about what it was like to go head to head with Retief, you know, obviously he's had a little more experience in those sort of things probably than you have.
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah. We were going into that, I knew I had a two shot advantage, and I heard a big Rory from behind the green. I knew it was either birdie or eagle. From that point on, I knew I made a birdie on the last to win and unfortunately hit a bad second. I've sort of been in that similar situation before, at Torrey Pines, my first season out I had a playoff with Tiger and another two guys you don't really want to pick to have a playoff with. But I was definitely a bit calmer today, in today's playoff than I was then. I think I learned a little bit -- I still probably rushed my second a little bit, made a poor choice but at least I sort of committed to the shots that I wanted to hit.
Yeah, the problem I made in the first playoff was I really pushed to try and make birdie and once I sort of put myself in a bad situation for my second shot, my main goal was to try and somehow make par and make Retief get up-and-down and luckily enough that worked and my second par I told myself I've driven the ball well most of the week and even though I was a bit scrappy on nine I was able to hit a good job out on the fairway and just committed to a good 4-iron on the second shot there and Retief had a tough up-and-down. He almost made it but I was pretty happy the way I settled myself down and managed to hit two good shots today?

Q. Back on the 18th fairway you were a considerable distance behind goosen's tee shot. What were you thinking at the time you took out a fairway metal there. Did you over estimate the distance?
NATHAN GREEN: Not really. That was the problem I was having on the Back 9. All my long irons I was losing right and one thing you can't do on 18 is lose it right with an iron, and normal time I was playing a good 10 yards up further and hit a 4-iron, and hit a pull hook. It was tough to gauge off that what club I needed coming in there. And I sort of felt that Martin layered in regulation time hit what I thought was a pretty good iron shot and it seemed to balloon on him. I don't know whether he caught a cross breeze or what. I got over I think about 200 meters, 220 yards to carry the water on the line to the pin, and I knew it was down wind, but it was a little off the right. My main thing was like 4-iron and blocked it it wasn't enough to carry and 3-iron I'd sort of been squeezing it a little right, and so my thinking was to try and hit a little cut 5-wood and I think my set up got a little bit out of whack on the Back 9. I think I was trying to get pretty shot off which was sort of my bad to do and makes it harder and harder to cut off. It was kind of hard because I was thinking back bunker is not that bad as long as you got the run down out of the hill but I over cocked it again and ended up in a bad spot, but considering the situation, I thought I hit a pretty good chip, and ball's hole up twice, and luckily I wasn't punished for it?

Q. Is there much or any dialogue between you and Retief in the playoff round there?
NATHAN GREEN: Not much. Actually, yeah, not much. That's normal, I think. I definitely couldn't talk to him from where we hit our tee shots. He has a good 40, 50 yards ahead of me there. But it was just one of those things you're just doing your own thing. I had a quick chat with him before he went out. I played him in Memphis not long before he went over to the British. He's showing signs he's starting to play well again, starting to control his tee ball better than he had. I said to his caddie he's pretty close to playing well, and he went across the British last week and finished fifth or sixth there. And to come here this week and I spoke to him, and he thought he'd sort of lost it once he bogeyed 14, 15 and parred 16, which 16 is one of those holes you're sort of planning around having a good look at birdie there if you hit your driver. He thought he lost it there but came back with 8 on the left and hit a great drive in the playoff and pulled a second. But I don't know, it's one of those things, once you get in the playoff you feel like you pretty much got nothing to lose, and luckily I've come out on the right side of this playoff.

Q. Nathan, we kept reading all day that your biggest thrill at this point was a half million dollar case I guess on the par-3 somewhere. Does this top that?
NATHAN GREEN: Oh, definitely. That was a little fairway. Pretty much my main thing at this time in my career has been second place in the Buick at Torrey Pines my first year out. But yeah, the hole-in-one in Australia around 200, 2001, and that pretty much helped fund me become a player on the Canadian Tour and Nationwide Tour the next few years. Without that I probably wouldn't be here today. But this is the biggest week, plus I've never been really good at closing out events. I've had a lot of good chances, and lost in the last round, but for me, this event was pretty much -- sort of a little bit make or break. I've had some good chances this year and really folded badly in the last one or two rounds, and that was my thing today, just don't -- I sort of thought 20 under might be a winning mark and went out this morning and I have no idea actually what I shot the third round.

Q. 69.
NATHAN GREEN: 69 third round, and then this afternoon I was pretty much just trying to -- I think people were starting to get a little tired. We played a lot of golf this week and I've been up at 5:00 every morning. So people were getting tired and a few mistakes made out there, and my main goal was to not have any big numbers pretty much, to not have that blow-out hole which I've been having lately.
But the biggest putt for me all day was the 14th. I had a pretty good 20-foot par putt with about two feet of break, and probably the best putt I've ever hit and went straight in the middle there, perfect speed and that gave me a little bit of confidence for the next few holes, and I was able to sort of -- even though the ball striking wasn't great at the end of the day, I was able to sort of -- I think my thought process, even though I hit some bad shots, my thought process was pretty good the last three holes of the playoff?

Q. When you hit it in the fringe at 18 in regulation, you need to get up-and-down to get in the playoff. You know this. Now they throw a 10-minute wait at you while layered goes back. What happens in that 10 minutes?
NATHAN GREEN: I just tried to go over to the side and just relax and have some deep breaths, and yeah, it's probably the -- in that situation it's the worst thing that can happen is you sort of want to get on with things and get some sort of roll, but we had so much faster for me to get cleared out to hit my shot and hit a chip down and for mine to have to go around and identify his ball and have to go back and grab. You just want to be able to get on with something to keep the roll going, and I pulled a really funny sort of lie. I didn't think I could chip it across the ball. It seemed definitely plant the bottom of the ball. So I was pretty much how it came out trying to play the sand on it. Actually came out pretty good and mazed I carried it up there to about two feet and that was probably the heaviest my hands have felt all day. I couldn't really take it away that well, but hit a good putt, and I was just -- there was a point there where I thought I might have missed the playoff. So I think that sort of gave me a little momentum. I was able to make a par and went into the par thinking I sort of just -- I had a lot of positive energy going from making the par on 18?

Q. Nathan, you mentioned that you've had trouble finishing tournaments in the past, so in the playoff when you hit your second shot and you see it go over the scoring tent and as you're walking up to your ball how much is your mind trying to tell you, you've done it again. Here's another mistake and you're not going to beat Retief goosen here, who's a proven winner at this point.
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah. It was definitely like that. I was in a pretty ordinary spot on the downhill slope there. If anything it was a bonus. I was trying to get it to the top of the hill where it was maybe a fraction slighter. I think if I'd have had a bad lie I would have had to chunk it but the bunker and try to get up-and-down. It was just one of those things I probably just didn't trust myself with the irons. But I hit the irons on the Back 9, I didn't really have a good reason to have a lot of confidence in them. I think I hit a couple of good shots, but as I said, I lost it probably 20 yards right of the pin on 12, and lost it right on 14. 15, I hit the something grass, I think I lost it right. And 17 in regulation I felt like I hit a pretty bad shot and came out of it. And probably 15 yards right in a reasonable lie and I was sort of carrying those demons into the playoff and just didn't trust myself to be able to hit the high fading iron which was what the shot called for. But I sort of committed pretty well to the shot that I tried to hit. I didn't quite come off it, but once I saw where Retief's ball was, I thought there was an outside chance if he was on the outside of the bunker he was over. But sort of substance on the downhill slope with the feet above the ball which is always a fairly tough shot. But I was definitely fortunate that he didn't get up-and-down.

Q. The PGA TOUR doesn't necessarily -- the players don't necessarily move along that quickly. I found it quite fascinating on both the shot you had on 18 when it ended up in the crowd and the drop you took essentially practice swing and went. Is that standard for you? Didn't look like you gave it a ton of consideration, kind of knew what you wanted to do and went forward with it.
NATHAN GREEN: That's usually the way I play. I generally play pretty fast. I try and take my time a little bit more on the greens, but tee-to-green I try not to let any bad thoughts get in there, and I generally sort of pick a shot. I can a lot of the time -- probably a bad thing to do, but once you play 5 or 6 times, you always your tee shot you pretty much know what club you're going to hit and I might even pull the club before I've even got the yardage. We pretty much had the same wind all week, so that's just the way I've played. I try and sort of see the shot as I'm walking up there and we've pretty much had the same wind all week, so you know roughly from where uh hit it what club it's going to be, and I don't know, I've always sort of pulled the club and hit it pretty quickly. The more time I spend over it, the worse I think, and the more bad things creep in. So yeah, I just try and sort of pick the shot and commit to it. And whether it's sort of fast or not, I'm not sure, but that's generally the way I play?

Q. Nathan, at the beginning of the news conference you mentioned this has been a tough year for you. Can you elaborate on that for us?
NATHAN GREEN: I just came into the year, I played a lot of golf last year and that's what you play 30 events or a little more, and I went out and played the Australian Tour over our summer, and then pretty much had two weeks off, three weeks off and then went straight back into it in Hawaii and played well there, and that was sort of first, funny how I played terrible the last day when I was leading or coming second the last day there, and didn't play great, but and since then it's just been little things I've sort of been first two months I was working well, and I sort of wasn't having great results, but then just starting getting more and more frustrated with it and just seems like you know you've got another eight months ahead of you and I probably kept sort of thinking next week I'll be better and I wasn't really knuckling down hard enough and working on my game or my fitness like I used to and probably the last two months I've really got back into it.
I sort of realized the position I was in on the Money List I knew I had to sort of get something going quickly, and the last three weeks or frustrating. I think I played Washington I played well without putting well, and then the last round I sort of rounded out the top 10 somewhere and hit about 10 yards right of the green on the tenth hole there and plugged the chip in, went straight under the ball on two chips. Chipped it under made search and I was 40th or 50th again. And that's sort of the way it's been. I've made a lot of cuts, and at one point I've made about 10 out of 13 cuts and I think I had one top 40 or one top 50 finish and it's such a top-heavy purse the way they separate the purse. I was sort of slipping further and further down. That was the thing today. I went out there and I couldn't afford another slip up. I had to do something quickly just to make sure I've kept my card for this year, and went out there, and the one benefit for me was I think being able to go straight from the third round into the fourth round. I didn't have to sleep on it. I think I was coming in second or third maybe after the third round here, and I didn't have to sleep on that position and I was able to go back out. I was hitting the ball well and able to take that straight into the final round.

Q. I see you've got the flag there with you. Will you maybe keep your umbrella as another souvenir as well?
NATHAN GREEN: I think my umbrella is worn out for this week. But I don't know. I think the last three weeks I came out thinking it was summer, and for some reason I put in two pairs of rain pants instead of rain pants and a jacket, so I have no rain jacket at John Deere, hosed down and then Milwaukee last week, did it rain there as well? I can't remember. And had this sort of weather this week.
I'm not sure. It's just been -- it's just a strange week, and with all the delays and that sort of thing, it was just tough to sort of keep you in momentum. Guys are losing track of what day it was when you're playing. I had an 8:40 tee time on Thursday and hit one tee shot and came back the next day and I think I played 30 or 27 holes. Then played another five that Saturday morning. And then looked like we were going to hit off maybe 8:00. It was just a really strange week. I know I was surprised I was able to stay pretty patient and as I said, I think one of the big things was the fact I was able to take my mind off it staying downtown, did a lot of fun things and a lot of good restaurants and just enjoyed that time?

Q. Have you had a chance to think about all the stuff that goes with this win, the money, the exemptions, the name on the trophy?
NATHAN GREEN: Not really. The one thing I sort of realized once I made the Playoffs was I was going to keep my card which is huge. As I said, my game's been pretty poor, and my golf has sort of shifted from winning to just trying to keep my card, trying to play well through the next three events and I thought I was going to have four or five weeks off into the FedExCup and I was going to try and focus on playing really well in the fall schedule, so I'm not sure what it actually does. I think I may get the two-year exemption, so that's huge for me, and then that allows me to play a little more time this year over the summer.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I haven't really thought about it yet, but I think I'll go and drive down to Flint tonight. Otherwise I'm going to lose my price line booking down there. So it's going to be a long night, but it's just such a buzz for me to be able to turn the year around so dramatically. That's more than I thought I could have done.

Q. (Indiscernible).
NATHAN GREEN: Yeah. The first hole -- oh, this afternoon, that was -- it was just good to get off to a good start. I sort of struggled early on in events in last rounds. I made few bogeys, that sort of thing and blew the first -- my putt was going four or five feet past and hit the middle and went in.
Parred 2 and 3. The 4th, hit a pretty good shot in there to about 20 feet and the putt honestly broke a bit more than I thought earlier. I thought I missed and it actually broke back on the right. I'm not sure how long that putt was.
Five, 6, made a really good par putt on 6. Then 7 made a nice little up-and-down from just right of the green. Then 8, the hole was a little down wind today. I was able to hit about 6 feet, made that one. And 9 was another big one, hit a bad drive. Sort of I thought made it front of the green and ended up in the rough between the two fairways, and hit a good sand iron to about probably eight feet and made that. And that sort of made the difference. I was able to keep things going this week as compared to what I have been doing this year, and then parred through till 14 was probably the biggest putt I had for par there, and then 16, made a good up-and-down from short of that green, made about a 5-footer down the hill.
Then the four on the five to finish, no bogeys, which was nice?

Q. How many holes did you play today?
NATHAN GREEN: We started on the 8th tee this morning, I think it was, so -- whatever that is.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
NATHAN GREEN: Definitely. I've had a lot of good things. I've loved playing here. I love the Hamilton course, but from what I've heard, St. George's is a pretty special place as well, and to go up there and be defending champion is going to be pretty special for me up there.
DOUG MILNE: Well, congratulations. Thanks for your time.
NATHAN GREEN: Thanks.

End of FastScripts

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