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MERCEDES CHAMPIONSHIPS

January 5, 2005

Stuart Appleby

KAPALUA, HAWAII

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Welcome back to the Mercedes Championship. I'm sure you have some great memories of 2004 winning here over Vijay. Maybe we could just start with some opening comments about Kapalua and Mercedes Championships.

STUART APPLEBY: I think the biggest thing is I can't believe a year has gone by. To think that it's a year ago that I won, it feels like six months at the most. I don't know where the last part of last year went. Maybe I guess I've got a child on the way so it's getting quicker they say. It's got quicker once I got into my 30s, so I think it's going to fly with the kids.

Very good memories here, very good memories here and I think when you get to play at place that has given you those feelings, it's very comfortable ask relaxing in a type of way.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Maybe talk about your off-season a little bit, not a long off-season anymore.

STUART APPLEBY: Not much for us, for the Australians. Not many weeks off, I took a lot of September off and that was the reason I took a lot of September off and spent the next October, November, December and spent that finishing off the U.S. Tour and playing in Australia. So that was really my quiet season was September, and here we are.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: This year you've got Presidents Cup coming up, maybe just talk about some of your goals and expectations.

STUART APPLEBY: That's amazing, this year is Presidents Cup. To look for a year that I had much like last year, I think a better year would be nice but I really think if I had a year much like I had this year, that would be a good year, another good year. That would be a good goal of mine.

I think I'd like to play better in the latter part of the season than I did manage to this year -- last year, sorry. So I think if I put in a good season, a good 20-odd events and play well 10 or 15 of those, then I'll have a great season.

Q. Just curious from your perspective as an Australian with respect to the Ryder Cup, U.S. versus Europe format it excludes a lot of countries that are not European, and talking to Ernie a little earlier he mentioned maybe the winner could play South Africa or another country.

STUART APPLEBY: I'm not quite sure what your question --

Q. How do you view the fact that countries other than those in Europe versus the United States format, cannot play in the Ryder Cup? As an Australian, obviously you can play in the Presidents Cup. I'm curious, do you feel that is exclusionary or is there any issue there for you at all?

STUART APPLEBY: Well, if you had the world versus the States, that wouldn't be right. That wouldn't be quite fair, although I guess sometimes the Americans feel like it's that way sometimes, too.

I think our format's fine. I think as an International Team, as an international player, we need to win some events, we need to win some Cups. We need to do it on home soil or American soil, either way. Obviously the Europeans have got the number right now on the U.S., so there's a really great tussle there. Last year was obviously close in the Presidents. I think ultimately we want to get back and win one in the States. That would basically I feel put the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup neck and neck in compatibility and matching of neck and neck type of thing.

Q. Is there any difficulty winning the first tournament of the year and how the rest of the year goes from that? Is it a positive to get off to a really good start? How does that work exactly?

STUART APPLEBY: Well, it shouldn't really matter, because when you look at it over a career it shouldn't matter. You're not going to look at where you won your tournaments in the sense of timing. But if you wanted to be sort of narrowly focused, yeah, starting well to a season is much better in a feeling sense of finishing well at the end of the year. So what do you want to do? Do you play well early and then maybe fall down the list and finish wherever, or do you find yourself making a run later in the year and climbing up? I don't know. Maybe it's six of one-half a dozen of another.

Well, I'm not quite sure, you just maybe look at where you finish at the end of the year, you run hard from the start right to the end and you add it all up, you say I finished here on the list and say that's it. But at the start of the season, it does feel good.

Q. If you go off the World Rankings, you're one of those bunch of players that's just below the real top guns.

STUART APPLEBY: What is the top guns?

Q. That's what I'm asking --

STUART APPLEBY: I'm asking you a question.

Q. What do you think you need to do to get to the level?

STUART APPLEBY: Where am I, anyways, on this list?

Q. On the World Rankings?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah.

Q. 13.

STUART APPLEBY: So 10, is that the number?

Q. No, what do you think you need to do to got to the Top-5, what do you need to improve?

STUART APPLEBY: Just play more like I did last year, keep playing like I did last year. Yeah, that's where I'll get to, yeah. More years like last year, you know, you keep finishing sort of around Top-10 on the Money List every year, I think you're going to be pretty hard to be outside of the Top-10 in the World Rankings. Just more consistency like that.

Q. As a follow-up, do you expect Tiger to be the man to beat this year or do you think it's more --

STUART APPLEBY: I think every year you are. I think you can never rule him out. He had an average year by his standards and he finished third on the Money List, so, I mean, the guy has got power to burn, he's got talent to burn and he burned a bit last year and still finished third, and he knows he had an average season. So it doesn't -- when he's playing near his best golf, it doesn't look good for the rest of the season. If he can do that every other time he plays, he's going to go and win six times plus a year. I think Tiger will be in -- I think he'll have a good year this year. I think he's a great learner and that's what makes him the champion, he's a great learner. He works hard and I think he'll be very focused on proving that last year was only a hiccup.

Q. Could you pick one reason why you won here last year?

STUART APPLEBY: I played better than the rest. I wish I knew, because I would be doing it every week.

One reason, I putted well. I don't think anyone wins a tournament without putting well. I mean, if you have a look at a high percentage of tournament winners, they putt well. Only do the tournament winners that win put average, but they absolutely then cover that with multiple greens, they hit piles of greens. They just basically hit it purely from tee-to-green and they putt well. But to really excel out here and cover up any little mistakes you've made, you've got to putt, and I did putt great.

Q. Did you make a lot of mistakes?

STUART APPLEBY: No, I didn't make many mistakes, no. I didn't. I played really solid, really solid and just made a lot of putts.

Q. How are the greens?

STUART APPLEBY: The greens are much slower this year, I don't know why. Maybe they are greener than normal. I remember them a bit drier in color, but they are really slow.

Q. As you play this course, is there one thing in particular you like most about it?

STUART APPLEBY: Not one thing in particular, no. I like the way you've got to observe the wind, you've got to observe the way the grain is running on the greens and you have to watch your elevation levels whether they are uphill or downhill with the irons you're hitting. You have to be pretty attentive and make sure you play smart and miss the ball on the fat sides of the green or under the hole. There's a lot of little things and not one certain thing. But certainly on the greens is getting the grains right and being comfortable with your reads is very true.

Q. Do you play another course like this all year?

STUART APPLEBY: I hope not. I could not walk 30 courses like this in a year. I'd have to go to the gym more, wouldn't I.

Q. Anything new in the bag?

STUART APPLEBY: I got a new bag. Brand new bag. It's a different one than before.

New in the bag? I got some new J33 irons and Bridgestone irons, so they are new tools. And Bridgestone driver, J33 driver. Same everything else.

Q. What did those replace, the irons and the driver?

STUART APPLEBY: What did they replace? Some old Bridgestone irons I had last season.

Q. Different model?

STUART APPLEBY: Different model. A different model, yeah. Similar shape but different model. This one is probably the best-looking, the cleanest -- the best iron I think I've ever seen in all of the sets I've been using in the last sort of 15 -- over the years.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stuart Appleby, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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