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THE BARCLAYS

August 28, 2009

Paul Goydos

JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY

MARK WILLIAMS: Thanks for joining us, even par today, stilling 6-under and pretty good shape, that was a difficult finish for you. Could you just talk about your round today and give us an impression of what it was like.
PAUL GOYDOS: We started out, it looked like it was going to be a long day weather-wise. I think after the fifth hole, it stopped raining and got nice out. I think we were going to end up getting, by far, the better end of the tee times. I don't know how it's going to work out, which is a nice surprise. I played good. It's not an easy golf course. I think even par is a reasonably good score here. Obviously the finish wasn't what I had hoped for but the reality is three early bogeys, three birdies coming in, being second place, it stings until I sign my card and go hit balls and my dinner tonight. But tomorrow is another day and just go play.

Q. Was this sort of the course that you envisioned when you came into the week, tough, long?
PAUL GOYDOS: I don't know if we were envisioning rain. I thought it was summer. I haven't seen the golf course until Tuesday. Really didn't have any idea what it was -- I obviously knew nothing about it other than I looked online.
But the golf course is long. It's tough. They are still moving some tees up again to hope to finish before dark. But it's challenging. It's playing -- it's very soft. I would hate to think how hard it would be if the greens were firm or it would be really tough to keep bouncing all over the place off those little knobs and whatnot. I think the fact that it's soft is tempering the golf course a little bit. Is that the right word?

Q. Yes.
PAUL GOYDOS: Okay.

Q. After seeing the morning scores with only one player under par of the 59 or however many finished, does that sort of give you confidence that it's going to be easier in the afternoon or do you think it's going to be a tough day?
PAUL GOYDOS: I was watching it a little bit this morning and it didn't look like anybody was having a whole lot of fun. And quite frankly, I went downstairs about nine o'clock and looked down and didn't look like the guy parking the cars was having a whole lot of fun, either.
No, I think it's just -- it's going to rain, you've got to prepare. Got your rain gear on. It really wasn't -- we got a lot better deal than the guys who played this morning. I think the leaderboard is showing that right now but there's a long ways to go on this golf course. I think one of the things this golf course has shown is that three guys shot 6-under yesterday, and if the weather is reasonable, you can shoot a score here, 6- or 7-under, and if you play badly, you're going to shoot over par. Maybe that stretching is a good thing. What we don't want is a course where you play good, you shoot 6-under and you play bad, you shoot 2-under. This golf course is definitely rewarding good play and penalizing the poor play.

Q. Weather conditions aside, what is it about this golf course that makes it play so difficult?
PAUL GOYDOS: Well, the fact that it's like 7,500 and a par-71 is a good start. I'm a firm believer that if the 18th hole here, we've played it up 50 yards but from the back tee it's 508 yards uphill, par 4. The reality is, if you had a 508-yard hole with 508 yards of fairway, a flat green with no bunkers, it would be a hard hole. Just length is just hard. Instead of hitting 8-iron, you're hitting wood. It's just by definition, it's hard and the length just makes it difficult.
Throw in, the fact that they have got if you do have to hit a little crooked, you've got three or four inch of wet rough. You've got greens that look like my shirts after I've packed them. It just makes it for a challenge. The golf course is in great shape. You get it, the putts, if you get it online, they go in. But getting it to the point where you can make something, you can hit some pretty good shots. And I think the thing the course has done so far is reward good shots and penalize bad shots and spread the field out a little bit.

Q. There's a lot of comedic sniping at the golf course over the first couple of days, obviously you probably read the tabloids and seen some of the comments --
PAUL GOYDOS: Well, I haven't read the tabloids.

Q. You read whatever Dorman wrote. Has the course grown on you or have you started to appreciate its quirkiness and nuances?
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, I think that if we didn't have anything to complain about, we wouldn't be able to talk. I just think that the course is fine. I think obviously it's easy to say that when I'm 6-under par. I'm sure the guys I played with on Tuesday are going, "Listen to him now."
But I still think that one of the things that overcomes a lot of things is good conditioning. You can put a mediocre golf course in great shape and then it becomes a great golf course but you put a bad golf course in bad shape it becomes a mediocre golf course. They have done a great job of setting the course -- this is the second hurricane I guess, a hurricane and tropical storm comes here, we have to give credit the golf course is in as good of shape holding up as well as it is, and I think they are going to at some time later in the week, they are going to give the guy a trophy that plays the best. The golf course is fine. They did a good job.
There's 125 guys here with 125 different opinions, and it's easy to find the negative ones, and I've heard a lot of positive things, too.

Q. You just said that the course seems to be holding up pretty well with the weather. Is that kind of your impression; did you have any issues with the water? Obviously it's playing longer.
PAUL GOYDOS: No, I think they moved some pins to just in case they got bad in some higher spots on the greens. The golf course is holding up just fine.
The four or five inches on Saturday, and they have had a couple inches today, it's hanging in there. I think our field staff is doing a good job of setting the golf course up. Again, if they wanted to be mean, I wouldn't be talking to you yet because I would be on 12. But they haven't. They have given us a chance to play.
And then the architects have built numerous different tees. We are in an era of golf courses where the theory behind architecture is we'll play these holes from the back, but you really shouldn't play all of them from the back, I think Kiawah Island is like that, from the back tees, 7,800 yards. This golf course has a little bit of that, too. They have given our field staff and superintendent flexibility to set the golf course up and I think they are doing a good job of that.
MARK WILLIAMS: Thank you for your time.

End of FastScripts

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