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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

February 27, 2010

Scott Piercy

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

DOUG MILNE: Scott Piercy, thanks for joining us for a few minutes after a successful third round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, 6-under 65 today. I know you were probably glad to get it in when you did because the wind started kicking up towards the end. Just a few comments on the round and how you're feeling as you're heading into Sunday's final round.
SCOTT PIERCY: It was an exciting round, as the last couple days have kind of been. I cleaned up the bogies, a little unusual to make a couple eagles.
But I knew it was going to be tough at the end of the day with the wind being -- I think it's supposed to blow it's like 26 miles an hour. So it was getting tough out there, and I'm glad I got it going early and I knew I had to hold on and bring it home. I'm excited about tomorrow, and it's kind of a similar position to last year, which was fun, and I learned a lot, just looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. Talk about the tee shot on 10.
SCOTT PIERCY: I pushed it a little bit. (Laughter.)
No, I mean, I hit it exactly how I wanted to, just usually you can hit -- fly it right over that bunker and it bounces off the downslope and runs up about 15, 20 yards short of the flag and you've got a pretty easy pitch. But I guess I hit the cart path just perfect, and next thing you know tapping it in was -- hey, when you get a good break like that, it puts a smile on your face for a long time.

Q. What was it, about ten inches, a foot, something like that?
SCOTT PIERCY: (Indicating six inches) Oh, I couldn't have even putted it that close.

Q. Was the green clear? Were those guys already off?
SCOTT PIERCY: I don't know. You can't see the green from the tee. But I think they were off. I think we might have been just a tiny bit behind.

Q. You haven't gotten any nasty emails or anything since you got done?
SCOTT PIERCY: No, but I haven't turned my phone on, either.

Q. The atmosphere, we know what it's like. Today probably 100,000 people moving around. What's it like playing out there, and do you just embrace it, or does bother you?
SCOTT PIERCY: No, I really love it. It's like the one time a year you get to feel like a rock star. You're used to it being like real quiet, so you've got to really kind of concentrate. The stuff people are saying is hilarious most of the time.

Q. Do you have any examples?
SCOTT PIERCY: No.

Q. They were chanting Janet Jameson when you guys were teeing off.
SCOTT PIERCY: She went to the same high school as me.

Q. Is that where that came from?
SCOTT PIERCY: I think she's older than me.

Q. They do their research.
SCOTT PIERCY: Yeah, they do. She's not an old girlfriend. (Laughter.)
You know, they have fun. They were having fun with it, and I think as long as they understand golf and the etiquette a little bit with it, I'm all for it.

Q. You talked about being in the final group last year. What can you take this year into the final round from that?
SCOTT PIERCY: Well, I was in the lead, I think, three times last year, the first time being here, and each time I felt more and more comfortable. I had a tendency to want to speed up, quick-hit a shot or not go through every aspect of getting ready to hit the shot. That's a learning process which everybody talks about, but until you're there you can't really say, yeah, I know what you're talking about. But once you get there, it's just little things like that.
I watched Kenny win, or at least get into a playoff or give himself a chance, which I wasn't able to give myself a chance. I took a lot away from that.

Q. Wasn't one of your chances in Vegas?
SCOTT PIERCY: Vegas.

Q. And that was the baby week, too, right?
SCOTT PIERCY: Yeah.

Q. Maybe run down all three of those, how you felt you did in that new situation.
SCOTT PIERCY: The second week was Turning Stone, which was kind of bad weather anyway, and I just didn't play well on Sunday, but it was kind of the same. I felt a lot better, just relaxed and trying to slow down. You know, if you don't birdie a par-5 or something, you don't feel like you're getting behind, you just -- well, what Kenny Perry did or Sunday last year here, he made a ton of pars. He didn't make any bogeys or very few bogeys, and then when he made a birdie, that birdie was so huge, especially here at TPC. You feel like you've got to birdie almost like every hole sometimes or else you're just going to get lapped, where on Sunday he -- I was so glad I got to see it. He was hitting the green, lip out 15 feet, lip out 15 feet, and he just stayed patient, and then he made one. All of a sudden, if he makes one more, he's like running away with the tournament.
I took a lot -- rather than put on the gas pedal the whole time, maybe drive with a little bit of caution, which I like to put my foot on the gas pedal a little too much.

Q. How did Sunday of Vegas go?
SCOTT PIERCY: Sunday in Vegas was even more comfortable. I took basically the same thing going into the Vegas, where the golf tournament didn't really start for me until like 13, and I think I was either even par or right around even par going into 13. I knew I had 13, 14, 15, 16, and I made like three birdies right in that stretch and I put myself right in it, tied for the lead. I got up on 17 and probably quick-hit my 6-iron a little bit there, and obviously I hit it in the water and ended up not where I wanted.
But looking back, I probably didn't go through -- you know, was it a hard 7? Just, I call it quick-hitting it. Would I like to have one back? Yeah. I play there all the time, and I don't think I've ever hit it in the water, and I get in the tournament, I hit it in the water.
But each tournament I got farther -- I think I was through nine holes here when I was near the lead or on the lead. At Turning Stone I was about the same, and in Vegas I made it to 16, 17 -- the 16th hole still having a share of the lead. So I'm getting deeper into the tournament trying to close the deal.

Q. How was your recovery after Vegas? I mean, did you feel you wanted to beat yourself in the head or did it take you a day or two or an hour or two until you'd say, okay, go on to the next tournament?
SCOTT PIERCY: You know, having a baby that week, it was --

Q. Oh, wow.
SCOTT PIERCY: I get pretty hot-headed, and that's one of my faults, and I know that, and that's something I constantly have to work on. You know, having a baby that week, it's kind of like, all right, you've got diaper duty in an hour. There wasn't a whole lot of time to -- it stung, it definitely stung, but with three boys at home, my wife, you know, there's not a whole lot of time for being too upset.

Q. You got off to kind of a slow start this year. What's got you on track here all of a sudden?
SCOTT PIERCY: You know, there's been a lot of good really going on. You know, the scores aren't really showing it. The first two days here -- I was No. 1 in birdies and tied for eighth in bogeys, so you've got a lot of good and a lot of bad, which has been kind of the same. You know, four birdies, four bogeys, even pars. Luckily I've kind of been on the birdie train this week. Today I was able to take out some of the bogeys.
DOUG MILNE: Scott, thanks for your time, and best of luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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