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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 18, 2010

Ben Crane

MARANA, ARIZONA

MARK WILLIAMS: Ben Crane, thanks for joining us, 3 and 2 victory in the second round of the Accenture Match Play Championship over PGA champion Y.E. Yang. It's obviously a pretty good victory for you. Talk about your day, especially after just playing nine holes yesterday.
BEN CRANE: Yeah, nice extra practice round yesterday. I had some fun with the crowd and today was a little different feel.
It was nice to get into a match and just grind a little bit. And certainly I have a lot of respect for Y.E., he's a bulldog, he's done some impressive things. I knew it was going to be a tough match. And I was able to capitalize on some up-and-downs there on the back nine and make a couple of putts to pull ahead.
MARK WILLIAMS: It looked like it was a back and forth match, up-and-down, did it seem like that for you.
BEN CRANE: It did. I was just doing my best to just keep plugging away and doing what it is that I try to do, which is just kind of stay in the process and just keep plugging away, doing my thing, and let the results kind of take care of themselves. But, yeah, as far as watching the leaderboard, it was back and forth, back and forth.
MARK WILLIAMS: Did the win at Farmers Insurance give you extra confidence coming in here?
BEN CRANE: I think so, I'm pulling on some things that I learned and did there at Farmers. And, I mean, certainly it's nice to know that when you do play well and execute that it was good enough that week.

Q. Revisit yesterday. I apologize, but I didn't get a chance to ask you yesterday, did you talk to Henrik? Obviously he was very, very sick. Did you talk to him about why he even started, did he give you a reason?
BEN CRANE: I didn't kiss him, but I did talk to him. And, yeah, we talked right before the round and he just -- I knew because we had the same physio, and I knew that he didn't even get warmed up before the round. So I knew it was bad. I didn't know how bad. But it was a severe case of the flu. I knew he didn't practice on Tuesday, the day before, at all. He was just in bed.
It was surprising, but I knew he wasn't feeling well when he came over and told me he wasn't going to play.

Q. When exactly was that? When did he tell you?
BEN CRANE: He hinted at it about five minutes before our tee time. And then he said I'm going to play the first hole. And so I said, okay. And then we got to the first hole. And he said, good, good, I'm going to concede the match. Was that the quickest victory in match play history? Yes.

Q. It would hard to be faster.
BEN CRANE: Hard to be faster.

Q. That's an honor you should have.
BEN CRANE: Does it make any better sense that I should have the fastest victory? (Laughter).

Q. You said you had some fun with the crowd yesterday?
BEN CRANE: I did, because obviously it's low stress environment. So I'm out there just playing. I got to the second hole, and I had this putt for birdie. And it goes around the hole and kind of back at me. And the crowd goes, "Oh!" I go, "It's okay, I still won the hole."
Anyway, it was just kind of a fun atmosphere. We got an extra practice round out of it.

Q. You're going to be focused on work tomorrow, but will you have a curiosity level in what Tiger Woods will address to the world?
BEN CRANE: Certainly. We all do, absolutely. We all care for him. I mean, I don't think there's anyone really -- I mean, we all care for him, and we want what's best for him. Certainly I think everyone will be interested. But I know -- I don't think I'll be thinking about it after this, after just saying that.

Q. Will you watch the press conference?
BEN CRANE: No. I think I'll be playing.

Q. There's a three-hour difference.
MARK WILLIAMS: I think we start late tomorrow.
BEN CRANE: Will I watch the press conference? I don't know. I'll probably be playing with my kids, to be honest.

Q. Did today seem like a marathon after a one-holer yesterday?
BEN CRANE: I actually played nine holes in my practice. No, I was fresh, you know what I mean? Because I had the extra day off, so to speak, I felt very fresh going into those last few holes.

Q. How much match play have you played? I'm sure you played a lot in college, but since you were a pro have you played much?
BEN CRANE: Since I was a pro I think that was my sixth match. I've played a little bit, enough to love it, but obviously not a ton.

Q. Why do you love it? Is it a different mindset?
BEN CRANE: It's totally different. I just think it's a different challenge because, you know, I try not to worry about or think about results and yet when your playing partner does something that might give you an advantage if you play safe or you might have to play more aggressively. I think it's a total different dimension mentally, and I think it's a great challenge. And so it's fun to mix it up. I mean, we play a lot of stroke play tournaments, so it's pretty exciting to come here.
Perfect example, we get to the second hole today, I knock it up pin-high on the green in 2, and Y.E. lays up in the fairway and knocks it in for an eagle 3. And I'm over there going -- I would have been a two-shot swing. I had a really tough up-and-down. But it was match play, so I just gave it -- I gave my eagle chip and run, and onward we marched. It's a different animal. It's fun.
MARK WILLIAMS: Ben, we appreciate you coming in. Good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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