Q. Working on the range, what are you basically trying to do?
STUART APPLEBY: Can't tell you the secrets. Can't tell you because then you will try it and then you will try and get out here.
Q. A little talent differential.
STUART APPLEBY: Maybe not (laughter).
Let me think. Alignment is very important, certainly it is for me. It is for every golfer because you are playing a sport where you are this way and hitting to a target sideways. Most sports are sort of in front of you. So it is very easy to lose your alignment which is critical for me. Alignment was certainly one.
Grip was my main fault. My grip had gotten too strong and I had to try and throw in a bit of occasional flick of talent to try and get the ball straight. Then that's not going to cut it -- a lot more than talent - got to be able to repeat itself under pressure and really basically pull my errant shots down to a tighter zone, but also raise the stuff I had before and I think grip change is one of the biggest changes you can make in a swing. I think you can learn how to align up clubs on the ground, tweak your shot, alignment, grip is the biggest. Your hands feel with it and sense the presence of the club so for me that was huge. The change of my grip felt ugly. It still does feel a little weird actually. I have to say, come along way from where I was. Grip, alignment were the biggest things. The coach was pretty happy with everything else. But because of the poor grip it was causing me to do other things. There's a couple -- handful of players that can play with a strong grip. They have learned to swing it a certain way to get that to work. I was running to a different program, couldn't cut it.
Q. How many hours do you figure in San Diego on the range, if you added it all up over those two, three days basically you said?
STUART APPLEBY: Hitting balls, I guess not including putting, probably about 12 hours over three days, so I guess you are talking four hours a day. That's a lot of ball hitting.
Q. Rough on the hands?
STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, I have got a blister on one -- big one on my thumb because I was doing this drill. I just kept doing the drill the thumb started getting a bit hotter and hotter. That afternoon it popped up.
Q. Left thumb?
STUART APPLEBY: Right thumb. But that was lucky anyway, as I kept hitting balls it was -- it disappeared a couple of days later.
But then I did some work back in Orlando, did -- a lot of work Saturday -- sorry, Sunday and Monday, I did a lot work again, that similar sort of routine; then came here Tuesday played nine holes. A bit worn out Tuesday, I guess that was catching up to me. It is just I used to do that sort stuff all the time. I remember I was one of the last guys off the range, me and Jesper, I remember that, I am not bragging by any means. That was because I was trying to find myself on the Tour, trying to establish my game. I was working hard. It's not that I got lazy now. It is just that I have to make sure there's times when you go hard and times where you don't. Whereas when I was younger, I went hard all the time; maybe that got me where I was, but you -- I don't think you need to did that your whole life.
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