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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 12, 2009

Brandt Snedeker

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Brandt Snedeker into the interview room after a 5-under par 66. Brandt, it was a great finish, four consecutive birdies to wrap up the day. Let's just get your comments.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, slow start but I stayed patient, played very good on the back nine, and today I didn't hamstring myself with some dumb mistakes. I thought very clearly and just kind of topped it off with the last four birdies. Played great. So it was a fun way to play the day, gave me a lot of confidence going into tomorrow.
JOHN BUSH: Played 13 of 14 weeks without showing any fatigue. Just comment on that stretch.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It's been great. I went from not having a job about six months ago to at least being safe for next year and hopefully have a good day tomorrow and am getting into the TOUR Championship.
This is what we do for a living. I was out of it for eight weeks, and it makes you realize how much you miss it and how much you love playing golf. Luckily I don't have anything at home keeping me at home, so it's been fun. I've had a great time. I've rediscovered how much I love the game, and been playing a lot, and it's fun.

Q. Have you played much with Tiger?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Not at all. If I've played with him at all, this will be my first time.

Q. How do you deal with a guy like him when he's got a six-, maybe seven-shot lead going into Sunday?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I'm not worried about him whatsoever. I'm worried about doing what I can do. It's going to be interesting, it's going to be a learning experience. But that being said, he's a great guy. He'll make it as easy on me as possible tomorrow.
He's going to play great golf. I've got to do something spectacular and he's got to maybe have a heart attack out there for me to have a chance.
But that being said, if you go out there and play a solid front nine like I did, I had four or five birdies on the front nine, put some pressure on him, you don't know what's going to happen. So that's my goal for tomorrow, go out there and start fast and more importantly have some fun.

Q. Is it getting, I don't want to say easier every day, but as you play this course every day and get a little more familiar with it, is it starting to be a little easier to make some putts and do some things out there?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: You know, I've actually had a really good grasp of the greens this week somehow. I don't know how. I've been putting them very well. Just definitely knowing where the slopes are on the greens and that kind of stuff. It's kind of getting more and more comfortable each day. I think the biggest thing that everybody will tell you is the greens are so firm you can't really shoot at a lot of pins, so when you do have a chance at pins you need to go after them.
That was the biggest key, I think, to the way I finished off the day; I actually had a lot of pins that were go-after-able from 15 on. But that being said, the par-3s are playing so long and tough, you kind of steer your way through those and use the few birdie chances you do have out there and take advantage of them.

Q. A lot of guys this week have talked about what a grind this stretch has been here lately playing all these tournaments. You know, you're basically doubling what they've done. When did it begin? Which tournament did you skip, and how have you managed to cope with it?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I started the week before the U.S. Open, so Memphis. The week I skipped I wasn't in; it was Bridgestone. So I guess I could have played Reno, but it would have been East Coast, West Coast, East Coast again, so it didn't make much sense.
It's one of those things where I did it on the Nationwide Tour a bunch. I do get tired and I do get fatigued, but I do a great job of sleeping in until 1:00 or 2:00 on Mondays and Tuesdays. I don't play a lot of early practice rounds. By the time Thursday comes around, I get the juices flowing again. Especially when you're playing good, fatigue doesn't really set in. It's more like I said mentally where you start feeling it.
Today I did a great job. I've got to keep a close finger on it because I'm quick to temper. I do stuff I normally don't do, and today I did a great job of really slowing down and thinking through everything. I've got to make sure I do that tomorrow.

Q. Tiger is 8-under through 15 with a bogey. He's missed three putts inside of 12 feet. This could have been really one of those Saturday specials. Did you see that kind of shooting out there?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: No, I did not. I thought I played fantastic to shoot 5-under par. I did make a couple bogeys, but to be 8-under or whatever he is with a bogey, I just don't see that out there. Hopefully he's wasting them all today and won't have one tomorrow. But that's why he's No. 1 in the world. I think Paul Goydos said it best, that he is the most underrated player in the world. We just don't give him enough credit.

Q. You mentioned a little while ago about a few months ago having to fight for your job, I guess. Mostly, though, it was due to injury, correct?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, correct. I think I played 12 tournaments at the beginning of the year and I made $30,000, so it wasn't good play, either.

Q. What was wrong with your game, and how have you gotten back?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I was putting terrible, and that's one of my strengths. It's tough, anybody tells you that they go from one of the strongest putters in the game to being one of the weakest putters in the game, it's tough. It makes you reevaluate everything.
So it just kind of took me some time away from the game to figure out what I used to do so well. I asked a lot of people, did a lot of old video and me and my caddie figured some things out and literally it was like a lit switch turned in D.C. I was hitting the ball great and I was just making cuts barely and missing cuts. That's not like me. I'm streaky; when I hit the ball good I normally play good, and when I hit the ball bad I don't play great. This light switch went off, started putting good at D.C., and literally I think I'm first on TOUR now overall putting.
So when you do that, it's pretty hard to play bad, and if you keep it in the fairway. I don't hit it long, so I've got to keep it in the fairway and make some putts, and that's what I've been doing the past ten weeks.

Q. Never even a practice round with Tiger Woods that you can remember?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Never. We've talked a couple times but never a practice round, never anything. It'll be a fun day. I've played with everybody else. It's weird, there's probably five guys I've never played with out here in three years, and I see them every day, we're friends, but I've never played with them on the golf course. Tiger is one of them.

Q. How will you embrace that experience?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It'll be fun. Are you kidding me? Playing with the best guy in the world hopefully in the last group? It'll be fantastic. That's what you want. You want to play with the best when they're playing their best and see what you've got and see what you need to work on.
If you told me at the beginning of the week I was playing with Tiger Woods on Sunday, I think I would have liked my position, put it that way.
JOHN BUSH: Brandt, thank you for coming by. Play well tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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