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KIWI CHALLENGE

November 11, 2009

Camilo Villegas

CAPE KIDNAPPERS, NEW ZEALAND

CAMILO VILLEGAS: I would say with the weather being what it was, four birdies, two bogeys, 2-under par, not a bad day. Yeah, it got crazy out there. It was so beautiful, so calm at the beginning. And I gave myself a lot of chances in the front nine.
Then when we got to the 10, it started blowing. And I think 10 and 11 we're just trying to hit the greens. It was so tough. The wind coming across, helping. The green sloped a little bit away, it got pretty tricky.
Then when we got to that 15 hole -- how long is the 15 hole? Par 5, 650 yards or something. I hit mine in the right rough. Actually in the hazard. I was able to play it. But Sean O'Hair hit driver 5-iron. 650-yard hole, that explains how hard it was blowing.
When we got the 16th tee, Sean loses his hat. It goes all the way into the ocean. And we got a really cold breeze, very hard. And I didn't want to wear a T-shirt, because I thought it was getting to the point where it was unplayable.
I think my driver must have flown 160 yards. I was definitely not getting it up in the air because it could have gone anywhere. And then for my second shot I was definitely not going to ground my 5-wood because the ball wanted to move in the fairway. That's in the fairway.
And I think it was the right call to just call it for the day. We'll come back tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have good weather, we can get this thing in.
But the golf course is in great shape. We're having fun out there; and, again, I gave myself a lot of chances in the front. I missed a couple. But I'm hanging in there and doing just fine.

Q. Have you ever had to play or tried to play in gusts of this magnitude?
CAMILO VILLEGAS: I've played in a lot of wind. I've been to Australia a couple times. It can get going there. There's a couple of golf courses in Colombia, as a kid I always enjoyed playing in the wind. I like it. When it gets to the point where it's unfair, then it's unfair. When it gets unplayable, it's unfair, I guess.
And it got crazy out there. Again, hopefully we get good weather for tomorrow and we can keep it going, play good golf and put on a good show.

Q. Before the wind picked up and conditions got a little tricky, were you having some problems, or were you guys finding the pin placement and things a little tricky as well?
CAMILO VILLEGAS: I think the holes out there are fine. 9 was a little tricky. The hole played downwind, and you definitely had to balance your second shot off the green like I did. I hit a great shot there. I just ended up missing the putt. But other than that, I think the setup has been magnificent. They haven't been easy, but they've been good, they've been fair. So I think we're happy with that.

Q. The difference hitting yardages with the wind and against the wind, how difficult is it for you and your caddie to pick?
CAMILO VILLEGAS: It's crazy. Sometimes you just have to trust your number, make a call and go. And another thing is that we played a practice round yesterday with a totally different wind.
So, again, we stood on that first tee and we're playing a different golf course than we did yesterday. It's only our second time looking at the track and trying to get lines. It was for me, I can tell you.
But, again, you've just gotta trust your instincts, trust the numbers you have and go from there.

Q. You certainly didn't want to keep playing, did you, at the point when they called it after you all had hit your second shots on 16?
CAMILO VILLEGAS: Let me tell you, it would have been fun to keep playing. But it was pretty serious. We were trying to put on a good show. We're trying to make it fair. We're trying to -- I mean, we're competing. Everybody wants to win this tournament.
So with that being said, it was definitely the right call to stop it. If this was back in college and we're just playing 18 holes, a lot of fun, trust me, we would have kept going. We would have laughed. We would have been joking around. It's a big event. It's a big event for us. It's a big event for New Zealand. Julian Robertson, he puts on such a great show, we gotta respect what they're doing.

Q. I'm thinking along the same lines, you're all friends, you're all competitors. You want to put on your best show. The shots you hit on the front nine were completely different than what you were hitting on the back nine, keeping the ball low. You don't want to come out here and make double bogeys, you want to come out here and play golf?
CAMILO VILLEGAS: You got it.

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