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BUICK OPEN

July 30, 2009

Steve Lowery

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

MARK WILLIAMS: Steve Lowery, thanks for joining us in the interview room at the Buick Open. 9-under par 63 first round, you gotta be happy with that. This year you've had a couple of Top 25s.
STEVE LOWERY: It's been slow. I don't know. I tend to -- last year I won, and just hadn't been a great year for me so far, but hopefully I can get it turned around here at the end.
MARK WILLIAMS: 7-under on the Back 9, your Back 9, the Front 9. Just talk us through some of the highlights of your round, if you would.
STEVE LOWERY: You know, I putted obviously really well to shoot 9-under, but the last nine holes I made all the putts, made seven birdies there on the last nine holes. And some of them were tap-ins, but some of them were pretty good. The one on 8 was probably about 20 feet or something like that. So good combination.
MARK WILLIAMS: We'll go through that at the end of the interview, but we'll open it for questions.

Q. The man in here before you we got him engaged in a conversation about traditional golf courses. This golf course, are you one of those guys who is a fan of this type of golf course and what it yields?
STEVE LOWERY: I think, you know, I like both types of golf courses. I think this golf course with the four par-5s and the drivable par-4 makes it more exciting to play and to watch.
I'm not a big fan of the 500-yard par-4s, so they've maintained the four par-5s out here. I think that makes it a little more exciting. Then obviously the scoring is lower, but it makes it more exciting to watch, more exciting to play. I think it's better.

Q. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think your team had 17-under yesterday at the Pro-Am. I don't know from your experience that that ever correlates to playing well the next day, but did that sort of help today or is it just a case that hey, I happened to play good the day after playing good in the Pro-Am?
STEVE LOWERY: I'll tell you what they're saying right now, we shot 17-under and he didn't help us a shot. (Laughs).
That was an incredible Pro-Am. They only had 19 strokes between the four of them and they shot 17-under. One guy holed for an eagle and made an eagle for double eagle on the 13th. So that was an incredible day.
It was a positive day out there. I don't think I contributed much, but it was a positive day just to be in that group.

Q. Were the greens pretty soft this morning, and do you think they'll harden up for the afternoon, make it a little tougher?
STEVE LOWERY: I don't think they're going to harden up. They're pretty receptive and they have that texture that they're not going to dry out. They might in a few days, but they're still not going to get firm. They're just really receptive. The ball hits and stays around the pin, and when you putt it, they're at good speed. They're not out-of-control fast today. They may get faster, but today, you felt like you could putt it, if it didn't go in, it wasn't going to go very far by. So it was kind of attack pretty much with the irons, and it was rolling really good on the greens.

Q. When you have the Buick Open on your schedule, do you think going in, you know, you gotta get out there and go low and go low right away?
STEVE LOWERY: Absolutely. I was looking at -- pulling it up on the computer to see what's been winning the last few years, and seems like when the weather is good, 20 to 24-under is kind of the number that wins.
Looks like the weather is going to be pretty mild this week, so my number was maybe 24-under. And obviously 9-under is a good start, but I was telling some guys down there that there was some guys last week that shot 9-under the first day, but if you didn't follow it up the rest of the week, it ain't gonna hang around. You gotta get it going for the rest of the three days.

Q. A big topic of this week is this might be the last tournament here. Do you have some feelings on that?
STEVE LOWERY: Yeah. It's disappointing. I think a lot of the players look forward to coming here. The people are really nice. The golf course is enjoyable. It's always in great shape. Greens are always rolling good.
I think guys look forward to it. I've been doing this out here for 20 years, and it's a place that I look forward to coming.
It's been consistent, at the same golf course for all these years, and enjoyable.
Like I said, they have the four par-5s and the drivable par-4, and it creates a little more excitement to play.
You know, and it's just enjoyable. It'll definitely be missed. It's a great community, great place to play golf.

Q. Low golf scores by a couple shots. Did you see anything?
STEVE LOWERY: I've been hitting the ball well. Hit the ball well in Canada up there. We had the whole rain issue.
I think last week I started off four birdies in a row and shot 5-under with no bogeys the first day. So that was good.
I think Milwaukee I had a day without bogeys, maybe 4 or 5-under one day there. Been playing okay, just not really getting it all done.

Q. 17's got that reputation of being a little ruckus sometimes and they've added some bleachers this year. Might be more so this year. Be fun to be going through that when you're at the top of the leaderboard on the weekend?
STEVE LOWERY: Absolutely. I think golf needs more of that in these events. I think it should be more of creating that type of atmosphere. I think it's a good thing. Obviously it can get out of control, but I think it's exciting, it's fun. It's fun for players, and yeah, that's an exciting hole to play.
MARK WILLIAMS: Let's just run through your birdies real quick and we'll let you go. Started off 10, birdied there.
STEVE LOWERY: Yeah. I hit a wedge in there, maybe about 12 feet.

Q. 14? That's a drivable hole there.
STEVE LOWERY: Yeah. Hit a driver, down just front of the greens, stopped right, pitched up maybe about 6 feet.
MARK WILLIAMS: Okay. 16?
STEVE LOWERY: 16, I hit a 3-wood right of the green, kind of short-sided myself, hit a pretty good pitch shot, made a curling putt there from about 12 feet.
MARK WILLIAMS: Then four in a row, 1 through 4.
STEVE LOWERY: Went to the green on 1, knocked it up by the green, pretty good pitch. I think that was, I don't know, maybe 15 feet, I guess.
2, I hit a 9-iron, maybe about 8 feet, pretty straight putt there.
Par-3, I hit a 5-iron to about, I don't know, 16, 18 feet, something like that. And the short hole, hit a pitching wedge about a foot there.
MARK WILLIAMS: And three to finish, 7, 8 and 9.
STEVE LOWERY: Yeah. I hit a second shot right on 7 just short of the green, pitched up maybe about 8 feet, made that.
Hit a nice putt on 8 from about 20 feet.
Then 9, I hit a pitching wedge and spun it back to maybe about, I don't know, 7 or 8 feet.
MARK WILLIAMS: Appreciate you coming in. Good luck the rest of the week.
STEVE LOWERY: All right. Thanks.

End of FastScripts

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