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CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK CLASSIC

November 14, 2009

Nick O'Hern

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

NICK O'HERN: If you can get on the par-5s, I think I was 4-under through the par-5s, so there was plenty of opportunity.

Q. Yeah. They did back up 16, 17 and 18. They played short the first time through, and they really ran them out today, didn't they?
NICK O'HERN: Absolutely. I think 17 was playing about 488 with the breeze off the right. So you're going to pick up shots.

Q. You did play well from right around the greens, but that's your game.
NICK O'HERN: Yeah. I'm pretty steady. I'm not long off the tee. Jeff Ogilvie went at a lot of pins out here. So seemed to be steady behind him most of today.
That's what's so good about this game is you don't necessarily need to be long off the tee.

Q. Exactly.
NICK O'HERN: It's a home game for me. I live here in Orlando. I'm going down for the last two. To be away for five weeks from your family is too long, so two weeks is enough.

Q. Good luck to you tomorrow. Let's take care of that first.
NICK O'HERN: Well, hopefully it'll be worth staying.

Q. When was the last time you were leading on a Saturday going into a final round?
NICK O'HERN: Probably a few weeks back in Phoenix. I played in the second to the last group, with Rickie Fowler actually. I was very impressed with how he played that final Sunday.
So it had been a while. I think Houston was the last time I had a Top 10 finish. And the last few months it's all been coming together. I've really been started to play well. I just haven't seen the results from the hard work I've been putting in, but it's finally starting to show. And I always seem to play well the last few events of the year, so hopefully tomorrow we can go a little bit lower and maybe pull one off.

Q. Do you sleep well when you have the lead or do you --
NICK O'HERN: I sleep well this week because I'm in my own bed, which is nice. But I've been near the lead so many times in my career that I know what has to be done. And if you can just go out there and play good golf, play your own game and we'll see what happens. Hopefully I'll have a chance on those last two holes.

Q. What would it mean to cap off this season with a win?
NICK O'HERN: Oh, it would be huge. It's been a real struggle for me this year. I had some injuries the end of last year, which took a while to get over. And I thought I'd just jump back on the horse, but it's just not that easy, unless you're Tiger Woods. He seems to recover from his injuries a bit better than I do.
But for myself, it did take a long time to get over those, and I didn't realize it. And probably halfway through the year things started clicking again. So the last half of the season has been solid, but I made a lot of cuts. Just haven't had any good finishes.

Q. What are you coming back from as far as injuries?
NICK O'HERN: I had knee surgery and thumb surgery. Two pretty good ones. I went in for the package deal. I thought I might as well get two while I'm at it.
I had it done in Australia. I'd never had that long off in my whole career, and I thought it would just be a matter of, yeah, I'd get back on the range and things would be right again, but it's not that simple.

Q. Did it help you mentally to be off that time?
NICK O'HERN: Well, it did because I had a nice break away from the game, but it also made me -- when I came back and I wasn't playing as well as I had, I think I lost a bit of confidence. So it's taken a little while to get that confidence back, and now I can really feel things starting to click again.

Q. You're playing so well that (indiscernible).
NICK O'HERN: A little bit, yeah. But it's been a long year, and I'll pick up a few more down in Australia. I still have plenty more golf to go, and in two weeks I'm going to go to the Australian Open. I'd love to win that. I've been runner-up there like three times, so I'll definitely be there, but first of all (indiscernible).

Q. It never ends because you can always go find someplace that they're playing golf the next week.
NICK O'HERN: Exactly. That's the one thing about being an Australian. We can go all over the world. The Americans tend to stay here and play their own Tour, which is understanding, and the Europeans do the same. When you're from Australia, you have to travel, so we're kind of used to it.

Q. In retrospect, did you come back too early from the injuries or was it just difficult to come back?
NICK O'HERN: No. I think I came back at the right time. But these guys are good, and you know, you have to be on top of your game week in, week out.
And I didn't allow the fact that it was probably going to take me two months to get back to where I was. I just thought I'd get back there straightaway. And I think if you don't get off to that start you're hoping for, your confidence can take a bit of a beating, and things just don't get going. So it's taken a while.

Q. Guys that have knee surgery can at least chip or putt while they're waiting for rehab, and you couldn't do that because you had the thumb.
NICK O'HERN: I had the thumb surgery, yeah.

Q. So you were totally knocked out, then?
NICK O'HERN: Pretty much for three months. The last week of that three months I could chip and putt. The good thing was it was my left hand, so being a left-hander, I could just sit there and prop up and do my shifting. If it was my right hand, I would have had a lot more problems.

Q. Yeah, the other thumb would have been a lot worse.
NICK O'HERN: Yeah. Exactly.

Q. You can't play.
NICK O'HERN: Well, you can't, because that's your hinging thumb, and it controls the whole thing.

Q. Yeah, the pressure goes right under that club.
NICK O'HERN: Exactly. So it was good to have a break from the game, but at the same time it was bad to be watching.

Q. We always think guys staying at home have an advantage, but historically, from what I've seen, guys staying at home don't typically do as well as you would think.
NICK O'HERN: Yeah.

End of FastScripts

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