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BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 20, 2004

Stuart Appleby

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thanks for joining us, our 54-hole leader, as the 54-hole leader this week you are the winner of this week's CRESTOR Charity Challenge. You have earned $50,000 for the health care charity of your choice, and also as part of the CRESTOR Charity Challenge, the Bay Hill Invitational presented by MasterCard has been awarded $50,000 and will give that money to the Arnold Palmer Hospital for children and women. Congratulations, and thank you for your great play this week.

STUART APPLEBY: That was nice. I didn't know that.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could start with some opening comments about your day, obviously a good one.

STUART APPLEBY: I'll run through the holes. First hole I hit 3-wood in the fairway, knocked a 7-iron on the green about probably 45 feet, 40 feet, 3-putted that. Hit a good second putt, missed it.

Second hole, left it short made the putt. That was about 20 feet, I guess.

Third hole, I hit a great drive down there, spun it left off the green, had a 2-putt from about 25 feet.

4, the par 5, driver, 3-wood, 3-putt from about 50, 60 feet.

5, I hit 8-iron short right and I had a good 30-foot putt easy.

The par 5 I got up-and-down out of the bunker from eight feet. I hit 4-iron into the trap there.

The par 3, I made about a 25, 30-footer there.

8, I hit a great drive around the corner and hit probably too hard a club in there. Hit it long to about -- over the green, actually just off the green, probably around a good 30 feet and I made that one. So I'm struggling with my putting at this stage. (Laughter.)

Hit a great drive down 9. Missed an opportunity there from about 20 feet, 20 and change.

10, drove it through the fairway, ended up in a divot but actually it was a good divot, better than playing out of the rough. Pulled it left. Got up-and-down.

11 was a good drive, pretty ordinary iron, good up-and-down on the left side.

12, par 5, I hit driver and a 2-iron, I guess you call it a rescue club, from over the green 2-putt there for birdie.

Next, hit 3-wood sand wedge, misread the putt from about 12 feet, missed it.

The par 3 knocked it on. Almost made it from about 30 feet. 2-putted there.

Next, hit around the corner, perfect drive, middle of the fairway, hit a good wedge to about 15 feet, misread it.

16, knocked it on and 2-putted. Hit a really good drive, hit it on and 2-putted about 45 feet.

Long left on 17 with 4-iron. Took a drop off of the bleachers, hit it to about 20 feet and made that for par.

18, I hit driver, wedge 2-putted 25 feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Four-shot lead going into tomorrow. Talk about your cushion and you have some stiff competition behind you.

STUART APPLEBY: Stiff competition, definitely have a lot of good players behind me. That's a good position to be in, I guess, being ahead.

I will just be concentrating on what I did today, or what I did the last three days to be honest. Much like I spoke to you guys in Hawaii, very similar. I'm just be doing my thing and concentrating on what my game, because that's the only person that can affect me will be myself and the only person that can play well will be myself.

So, you know, I guess I'm in control of whatever I do out there. So that's the good part of golf.

Chad played really good today. He shot 2-under, but at the same time he could have shot a lot lower. Those are the types of days if I had a round like I did today, so can anybody else. It's there to be had with good playing.

Q. I'd rather that talk about that new rig you have out in the parking lot.

STUART APPLEBY: That's my new, yeah put it -- can't fit through the doors in the bedroom. (Laughter.) Otherwise, I still go out and check it every morning.

Q. You're having a great year so far, and last year wasn't too shabby, either, what has come together for you so well in the last 15, 16 months?

STUART APPLEBY: My swing I think has really started to get better, really improved. You know I'm getting a better feeling of what we've been working on, my coach and I, for now the last two or three years. A lot of physical issues that I've had, my body was not being able to repeat itself, the good self when I actually did play, it was struggling to repeat its feel every day.

I'm just getting older and I guess a little bit wilier as I get older, a bit more mature and enjoying myself a bit more, like my new toy I bought and just relaxing a bit. Life is good.

You know, being very appreciative, I think if you're very appreciative of the things you have in your life, friends, family, health, you know, you things tend to happen much smoother and more fluid in your life. And just knowing that I have the potential to play top-quality, word-class golf. And I guess the secret to anybody doing that is finding that little key, the right one that fits and then just keep working the lock.

Q. Do you think you're one of the best players -- did you think of yourself as one of best players in the world?

STUART APPLEBY: No, I don't think like that. What does that do? It doesn't really do anything.

Q. But evidence would suggest you are.

STUART APPLEBY: Then that's your opinion. I don't ever look and tell anyone, "Hey, do you realize I'm this or I'm that?" No, I don't. I know what I do. And again, it reverts back to, if you're in a team sport, you have a successful team, it is about the team. With golf, knowing 90 percent of the time it's about you, you make mistakes and a few other people help obviously caddie and coaches, trainers, those people indirectly.

No, I don't ever look at it like that. I'm the same person I was ten years ago. I'm really just playing better golf now than I did ten years ago. That's about it.

Q. Before this week and except for maybe one year, your record here wasn't too good. Do you have can you put your finger on anything?

STUART APPLEBY: It's a great quality golf course. It really demands quality shots. It really makes you think out there. This course plays its best when it's firm. There's no reason. This course is built for my game; it requires fades, draws, highs and lows and technical thinking.

Q. If you were to go out in the win tomorrow that would mean 10 of the last 59 events in Florida were won by Australian golfers. That's a high percentage. What makes you guys --

STUART APPLEBY: We grew up in Australia, very much windy conditions, very much maybe play-away-from-the-flag or work-the-ball-into-the-flag conditions. I think when I first came over here, I struggled to take that on. I would take on normal American golf which was going more at the flag, be more aggressive, less risks involved. 72 is not a bad score in Australia. Well, 72 here didn't cut the cheese at all. It wasn't doing anything.

It's windy. I think wind is the main thing. We really enjoy playing in the wind and we really -- it's something we grew up with, generally firm. Florida is generally firm but I think that's predominantly the main reason.

Q. Any advantage to playing at home, essentially around the corner from where you live, anything different in your routine?

STUART APPLEBY: Well, it's handy to know that you can just get in your car and drive home, car, and just drive home. You've got your fringe full of food, drinks. You go to your closet in the morning and get a fresh shirt and there's just a pile of shirts, pile of pants. Basically you're not living in a suitcase. This will be our third week here in Orlando now in a row, which we haven't been here since I think four months prior to that start of that first week. So it was a really long break.

So, yes, it's nice to be home, nice to be close. You're not fighting traffic. Yeah, nice.

Q. When you're doing 140 down Apopka-Vineland Road or whatever it is --

STUART APPLEBY: Kilometers an hour or miles an hour?

Q. Do you ever find yourself thinking: "This is not bad for a dairy farmer kid who slept in a hammock"?

STUART APPLEBY: No, I think that constantly -- yeah, I really do think that quite a lot. I don't have feel like I've got away from where I know -- sorry.

I don't think I've ever felt like I got away from how lucky I am because I just know that, yeah, I know my parents still milk cows on a farm. And I go home there all the time with Ashley and we go and have a good time, fishing, camping, hunting and do the things I did when I first turned pro and did the things when I was a kid.

At the same time, though, we go the other end, we go and stay in a nice hotel occasionally, if we ever have a holiday. That's what we'll do. So we get to see both ends. I have no problem not having to shower for a week -- trust me, you wouldn't want to smell me ; when you go camping, that's just the standard thing to do.

No, I haven't gotten too far away from my roots.

Q. What's been the difference for you the last six months or so? You tried to answer this in Hawaii and we weren't satisfied with the answer.

STUART APPLEBY: I think at the level of a Top-50 player, it's incremental, very small, and sometimes like I've said before, it's not quite tangible to say this was it. It's not always as simple as this was a swing tip: Now I open my stance .3 of a millimeter and that made all of the difference. It's not as simple as that.

I think when you get to a Top-50 player you've got to address all issues: How is my game, where are my weaknesses, mental, physical, every area. I had some physical areas like I mentioned before, I was not able to get my body to feel the same on the range every day; my swing to get in the right positions.

So it was a little bit of sort of -- you can call it the stars aligning a little better; I don't read the astrology stuff in the morning, but that's the type of analogy. Just eventually through very hard work, it comes together and I think that's the thing I'm very proud of; that knowing that there's times when I've played and I've sat out in the fairway and I'm playing so bad, I just wonder, how could I feel this way, how could I play this way after how much work I've put in. To be so debilitated and lack of energy, and somehow you've got to muster all that back up and know, come on, you can do this; you've done it before and wind it all up again. And then when you do, you think, isn't that worthwhile.

So I guess to fight to hang in there, those things mixed with my swing feeling well, repetitious, confidence grows from there, being relaxed on the course. There's no definitive thing that's made a massive difference. It's all-around.

Q. How long can it last?

STUART APPLEBY: It can last the rest of my career. That's, again, the body -- if the body, brain is good and the swing stays, then absolutely, absolutely no reason why.

Now, I think the brunt -- I think if you would have one thing that was consistent every day, you'd want your brain to be consistent every day. The thing that you want the fittest, if that's fit, you can play if you're not swinging it good, you can putt if you're not putting well; but if your brain is stale, you're gone. You don't see that in Tiger. That's what Tiger does very well. He's always very into his game, very focused, and even if he struggles; you saw him struggling in the Match Play, he was fighting it out. Mentally he was doing 100% and that's what wins tournaments, even if you're struggling, but it caps it off when you are playing well.

Q. Everybody out here hits the ball very well, but your ball flight in the wind seems particularly piercing, the aerodynamics are different than most guys. My question: Do you adjust your ball flight in the wind? You're obviously a great ball-striker, is there any change to keep the ball flight?

STUART APPLEBY: Just Precept here, man. (Pointing to Precept visor). That's what does it, the Precept. (Laughter.)

Look, I spent growing up all the time in the wind and my swing is certainly a lot better certainly than when I was slapping it around in Australia.

But, yeah, I really try and make sure when I'm practicing that I do make sure I can move the ball the ways I need to move it. I think you, you know if you don't play in a lot of wind, we don't play in a lot of wind in this country in the States much. You can get very one-dimensional and with the greens being firm, very one-dimensional with your play. I think that I can do what I want with the ball and that's what the best players do. That's what I need to do and that's what I can do. I think that's what Australians get a good feel for, what's needed. Certainly when you go to the British Open it blows a gale; even the program what we do there, has to totally change.

Q. You talked about three long bombs on 5,7 and 8. When was last time you made 3-putts of that length so quickly?

STUART APPLEBY: I don't really remember, Bothy. I don't remember. It's a highlight of the day, but it's not a highlight of my career; I can't remember.

Q. What's going through your mind?

STUART APPLEBY: As soon as I hit the putt, I look up and I get to the stage where you're assessing. You assess: Yeah that feels good; oh, that's rolling nice; and you get to the stage, where, boy this looks good. When I got to those stages today, just about all of those ones went in, when, really, you're looking to try to get it very close to the hole.

It's like the ten percent factor. If the putt is 40 foot long, you hit it to four feet, that's reasonable. Anything inside that, the five percent rule is exceptional. Well, I got it into the .00.

So, I don't think that's happened too often. I've had tournaments where I've hit it inside ten feet constantly and missed plenty. But to make the long bombs, they are the things that really gave me the lead to where I am today.

Q. So what did you have to work on after?

STUART APPLEBY: Just trying to solidify what I was doing out there was right. It's a bit like, you know, start eating a bowl of ice cream in the tub. You eat most of it and you think, well, I can't stop here, better keep going. That's the same way it was today. Couldn't hit enough good shots, even on the practice range.

Q. You have a chance to make it five in a row for Isleworth guys tomorrow. Any sense of neighborhood pride?

STUART APPLEBY: (Laughter.) Playing well, I think we are all worried about the Tavistock Cup in a week; that's more of our focus, dominating Isleworth there.

Q. You've never seemed like the most excited player out on the course, but you are playing on a more even keel mentally than you have in the past?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, probably a bit more calm and a bit more relaxed and a bit more c'est la vie sort of thing.

Q. How does that help your game when you get like that?

STUART APPLEBY: I think if you can be more consistent -- like, I 3-putt the first. Well, you wouldn't think that's too good of a thing to do on the first hole. But I hit a good second putt. I missed it. I totally misread the putt. I did what I wanted, I hit the first putt pretty good, hit the second putt pretty good; and sometimes that doesn't equal going into the hole.

Same hitting a great shot, could be that was a club out, either a club long or a club short. You can only control so much. If you do what you thought was right, then there's probably only one thing wrong, either selection of the club or you misread it. That's okay. I can deal with that.

It's when you totally don't hit the ball near where you want it, to that's what drives you crazy.

I walked off the green: "Well, that's not great, but long day see what happens." I birdie the next, Bingo, off you go. Try to keep an even keel about it.

Q. You start the day two behind with what seemed like a ton of guys within range, are you at all surprised to be this far ahead going into tomorrow?

STUART APPLEBY: No. I never thought about it, never. Just playing my game, doing my own thing and wasn't trying to think: Oh, I'm on a roll here, this could put me three ahead four ahead. Make a birdie here, I'll go five. It's three quarters of the way.

Watching motor racing today at Sebring, you can go around a race for 11 of the 12 hours and be ahead and all of a sudden, wheel falls off and you're stuck on the side of the track and everyone is passing you buy by.

Q. Wheels didn't fall off today, is what you're saying?

STUART APPLEBY: Wheels were stuck on and pulling it straight.

Q. How many times have you been down to Sebring?

STUART APPLEBY: I've driven that track quite a few times. Probably spent three to six hours racing on that track.

Q. How many times have you been to the event?

STUART APPLEBY: I think I went there the week before Bay Hill, it fell in last year, it was a different week. I went over on a Wednesday, got to meet Boris Said, a friend of Mark O'Meara's who races for BMW. BMW fan, and Boris is just absolute nicest guy and he plays golf and all he wants to do -- all I want to do is drive cars and all he want to do is play golf.

But, yeah, the Sebring has got a lot of history for motor racing. It's an hour and a half from here -- and it's an hour and a half in my car, too.

Q. Lamborghini made it a little bit easier to be here all four rounds?

STUART APPLEBY: Well, really, I thought very first flash across my mind -- I thought, well, if I miss the cut, I know where I'm heading this weekend; I'm headed for Sebring. And I thought, well, I haven't missed the cut and I'm playing good. That's good, I'm happy with that. I'll do my thing here and I'll be happy to suck it up and miss watching Sebring. I'm going to watch the last four or five hours tonight. Yeah, the box is pretty good. You get a better view anyway.

Q. What's the fastest you've ever taken it, your little toy?

STUART APPLEBY: Still running the motor in it -- well it doesn't have a speed, so you can't rev it up to whatever, it has to be incrementally. It does 60-mile-an-hour in first, so I know that much.

Q. So you haven't gotten out of first, is that what you're saying?

STUART APPLEBY: I've had it in sixth. Because if you're going to cruise on the freeway, it's expensive to fuel now. You've got to keep it just at the best economy. It's two bucks a gallon.

Q. Everybody has been talking about Tiger getting married, and wondered whether with Ashley, she's helped settle your squirrely rear down over the last year, if that's contributed to this streak?

STUART APPLEBY: She's been an absolute amazing person full-stop. So very fortunate to have her in my life.

She's just an absolute ball of energy that is just so -- we can wake up at four o'clock in the morning to catch a flight and she's just so awake and so ready to go. Extremely generous. She's writing cards to everybody all the time, I can't really -- is a great communicator, opposite to me. I don't send any cards, I don't call anybody, I don't do anything and she does all of that for me. But she's fantastic. There's no doubt that having a quality relationship with your partner is very enhancing in your life.

Q. Was there a time, maybe three or four years ago, that if you would have been sitting in this position you would have been more excited about it?

STUART APPLEBY: Excited about?

Q. I was going to ask you if you knew coming into this week that you had a feeling you would be here, I'm getting the sense listening to that you didn't really pay attention to that, you're just playing golf and if you're here, you're here, go on to the next one?

STUART APPLEBY: I'm better at that position now than I would have been years ago. You make mistakes, and there's nothing wrong with making mistakes that's the cool thing about, I guess, getting to another level. You know, if you use the bounceback stat as a guidance, the best players make mistakes and then bounceback. Well, that's mental. That's totally making a focus changes. That's, again, something Tiger does very well, the bounceback stat. That's literally what life is about, a bit of a bounceback stat.

I am more intently, intense in the sense of working with what is running really well now. The way I felt in Hawaii the way I felt in Vegas and the way I feel this week are very similar but it does not ever -- one and one doesn't always equal two in this game. Someone else can throw a little quandary in there, shoot a lights-out round. Most rounds, most tournaments come down to a shot, at the most, a shot or two.

But so I'll just be -- what I didn't do really well years ago was stay in the present. Stay in the present is the secret to playing really good golf. Once you've got a couple other things right in tow, staying present is very critical.

Q. How did you figure that out, how to stay in the present?

STUART APPLEBY: Through just getting older, making mistakes . I haven't read the book and I have to think of the book. He just gave me a summary. I don't read books, but he basically said, basically this book says the only reason you have an emotion is because of something that's already happened. Only reason you feel excited or saddened or nervous is because of something that's happened before. Not because of something that's not happened.

So it's a question, the thing is -- Jesper has read it. He's read every book in the world, a bit of a fruit loop at times, but it's basically staying in the present. If you stay here right now, emotionally, and you don't have an opinion on anything that's just happened or anything that may happen; that's the thing, something that might happen that never has, that's what can really throw you, jump from the past, or you can jump to where you believe the future is. And you if say right there in the present, very Dalai Lama-ish, you can stay there and try what's going on and everything else just flows.

Q. When did you get this Cliff Notes version?

STUART APPLEBY: Probably mid last year. It doesn't really -- I don't sit there and try and meditate or anything out on the course or think about what my coach said, but it makes a lot of sense. Your mind is a very tumultuous place.

Q. We spent a half on hour trying to tie you down to when you thought you made the change to playing better; can we lock it into that time period?

STUART APPLEBY: I won Vegas and the weeks before Vegas, I had really tried to look at mentally where I thought that -- you know, what did I do when I played well, how did I think and the example, the first day was a great example. I would make a mistake, or whatever you want to call it and I wouldn't have an attachment to it. I wouldn't say, "Oh, you so and so, you so and so, you didn't miss one of those all last year, you did that." I didn't have an attachment. So I could really stayed on a level keel.

My coach says, "You know, what Stuart you're playing great. If you're not playing good on the golf course, you're putting more pressure"; I'm playing good and you force it. So I really tried to just step back.

So mentally it was really being trustful, being confident in what I'm doing. And maybe sometimes it takes a step back, step back and have a look. And I got on the range and said, I hope developed confidence. I can hit a hook, cut, draw, slice, high, low at any time; if I can do it on the range, I can do it on the course.

Just grabbing a deeper belief in my belief in my talents than just getting out there, slapping it around and saying, hey, it's time for a 72. Be more intent, be more intent in my game.

Q. And you felt this happen a couple weeks before Vegas?

STUART APPLEBY: Really, that's where I started really working on that and addressing that, looking at -- talking to my coach more and he would be saying: You know when you play well, you told me on the range that you thought this. And I'm going, geez, I always felt good. Getting more into getting the creative juice of where I used to play, mixing with where my swing was going, and that really does work.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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