STUART APPLEBY: I've been asked this question a lot, and I reckon I've been in my game. I was trying to be more precise with my shot-making, making sure I could hit any shot at any time. I could hit any highs, lows, fades, draws, whatever. I really had to test it. I had to get my body to respond to what I was asking, and I did some -- that always seemed -- mental work, you need to mix physical and mental together a lot of times to get the results you know you can have, and the difference between a Top 10 and a win sometimes is a couple of chips, might be a couple putts.
Last week for me I just needed to make more putts and then I had the tournament. That's the way it goes. If I didn't do that, move on to the next week. So that was really -- shooting my game to a more intense level of commitment there and obviously in doing some mental work about where I am, what I want to do, and intensifying that a bit.
Q. One of your first years at Augusta I recall Johnny Miller being impressed with your game and he picked you as a guy who had the talent to win Augusta one of these years. Do you feel your game is now at that level?
STUART APPLEBY: I haven't played Augusta -- I haven't played well there. My first year was my best year. I had a top 20. I think top 24 gets you back in next year, and I shot something like that. So I would like to have a record -- I have a record there. I'm trying to remember what the record was. I have the most pars or better in a row there of breaking -- I had 50-some holes with par or better, so I know I can sustain good quality golf, but that wasn't enough. So I've got to mix my game, my feeling about my game there, mixed with what I've done there to get that going for 72 holes. I feel like my career is not -- it would be nice being the first Australian to win that.
Q. Looking at how you won, 4 and 3, was there a turning point in the match when you said you felt it going your way?
STUART APPLEBY: Just when I birdied the long putt on 10, made a 30-footer on 10. I was in the right first cut rough and knocked it out, had about 110 yards to the hole, probably hit it 10 yards low and had a tricky downhill -- both of us had birdie chances. He definitely had a better chance, and I made mine and he missed his. So I went to two there.
And then I knocked it on the green in two on the par 5 for a birdie there. Really that little round of -- I won 9, 10 -- yeah, he holed out on me on 8, on the par 5. He went and made a bonger and then I missed mine. Then I birdied -- then I won 9, 10, 11.
Q. Stuart, I think at Mercedes after your win you talked about trying to be more consistent during the year. You have events under your belt now. It's almost been two months. Do you feel like you're gaining or have achieved that, or if you have, where do you feel you are in that process?
STUART APPLEBY: You're constantly improving and you look at where Tiger is. No matter how great he plays, he will look for more, and I was talking to a track and field athlete the other day, and he was saying ultimately in the 100-meter sprint, I can't think of his name -- he's run under 10 seconds, and this guy has said his goal is to run 0.00. That's as quick as you can possibly run, nothing. So there's no concept of what's fast because ask the question, what's real quick. He said, look, you could be running nine seconds in the next 20 or 30 years. Who knows? So don't set a goal. So don't look at beating Tiger who's No. 1 in the world where he can't go any higher but he can make the gap bigger.
For me, I've got a lot of gap closing to make on where I feel I can take my game because constantly you are the driver of your -- what you feel is right and wrong, what you feel needs improvement, what I feel -- if you can say every shot today I gave it ten out of ten and got ten out of ten results, that's a perfect round of golf. That doesn't happen. You might have some tens, some eights, sevens, sixes. You're constantly chasing your tail, and as you chase it you get smarter and smarter and this is where you get to the level where you're moving up and up and up and decreasing areas that really show weakness.
Q. How do victories or wins move you up that ladder in your own mind?
STUART APPLEBY: It shows you that what you're doing is right. It's as simple as that. Know that if I'm beating 100 plus guys, 50 guys in the wins that you're doing, you're doing everything added up together better than everybody else. So it proves -- that doesn't mean -- last week I hit a lot of greens. I'm traditionally not a top green hitter. I'm always a good chipper and putter and my putting wasn't what I needed. Mechanically it doesn't feel quite right and you're not quite comfortable, then you'll lip out instead of lipping in. Those are the things you work on. That's the difference. It comes down to half a shot, half a lip in, 260 or 280 shots every tournament. It doesn't look like it was going to come down to 1 and 2 last week and it did. You get across that line in a tenth of a second, and a thousandth of a second makes a difference at this level.
Q. Your philosophy then seems to be: Play the game and victories will take care of themselves?
STUART APPLEBY: Certainly in stroke play if you control what you're doing and approach your game and demand that you feel your game is letting you have it at that particular time and play smart and put your nose down into it and get going and that finishes you tenth that week, that's it. Go out and work on that. If it gets you in front by ten shots and you win, that's great.
There's portions of stroke play that come down to match play. The last handful of holes last week would have made a neat match play between Shigeki and Weirsie. You're the controller of your own destiny and everybody else mixes their patch into it and it fits where it fits. At Mercedes from Day 1 to Day 4 that's all I focused on and I was going to run my own race and see where I finished from there.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stuart Appleby, thank you.
End of FastScripts.
