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QUAIL HOLLOW CHAMPIONSHIP

May 1, 2010

Billy Mayfair

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Billy Mayfair into the interview room, our current leader of the Quail Hollow Championship, 1-under par 71 today. Billy, that's a tough golf course out there and you handled it well. Let's get your comments on the day.
BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, thank you. It was, I think, the hardest day of the three so far. The greens were -- like I said, were probably a little bit bumpier and a little bit firmer, and it'll be interesting to see if we get any rain tonight here, but it was definitely playing very fast and very difficult to get the ball close to the hole.
JOHN BUSH: And the key to your round today?
BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, I kept the ball in play except for one bad drive off of 7, but pretty much kept the ball in the fairway and hit a lot of good shots into the greens and kind of kept the ball below the hole as much as I could and made the putts that I needed to make.
I made a good birdie putt on 10 and made a good saving putt on 12 and made a good birdie on 13, so I'm making the putts that I need to make to keep the round -- just to keep the momentum going.

Q. Given your story just getting here, are you at all surprised to be in this position, or did you feel this sort of coming?
BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, I kind it kind of coming on. You know, if you would say I was leading after the third round this quickly, I don't know. But I played real well last week in New Orleans. I played real good on Saturday and shot 1-over on Sunday in the wind and all that, but I felt like I was playing good. I really felt like my chipping, my wedge game and my putting was coming along very well, and I've been working hard at that at home. And you know, I just came here, and like I said, I shot 65 on Monday in the qualifier and made some putts. You know, when you start doing that, it gives you some confidence, and I just tried to keep that confidence going.

Q. If you can close this out tomorrow, first of all, can you appreciate the story?
BILLY MAYFAIR: Oh, absolutely.

Q. And secondly, can you talk about what that would mean to you? It's been since '98 obviously since you won.
BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, I mean, I'm trying not to think about it obviously. I've still got a lot of golf left with a lot of great players behind me. Obviously it's not fun not being exempt. 21 years out here being fully exempt, and this is my first year I haven't been, and it's been a tough road of it so far. There are a lot of players out here who aren't exempt, too, and tournament directors have very tough decisions to make, and I've gotten some great invitations, and I haven't.
You know, it's nothing harder -- there's nothing harder on these tournament directors I'm finding out than trying to make these decisions for these sponsor exemptions. Like I said, the ones that give it to me, I appreciate a lot. The ones who don't, I understand, and we just go on with it.
Obviously if I can get myself in a good position and win tomorrow, I don't have to worry about that for a while. But if I would, I would definitely fulfill all my commitments, that's for sure. That's the one thing I have learned, how difficult these tournament directors do have it.

Q. Is it a sense where it's almost a sense of urgency because you're not fully exempt? Has that crept into your thoughts at all?
BILLY MAYFAIR: I've had a lot of things crept into my mind, don't worry about it. I'm trying not to think about it. But obviously you put yourself in this position and you want to take advantage of it when you get in this position.
Hopefully tomorrow I can go out and play well and take care of business.

Q. You mentioned on your post-round interview on TV that this was fun, that there was something about this that was fun. What's fun about it?
BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, it's fun getting the heart pumping. It's fun to get out there and hear the crowds roaring for you, and when you make a good putt, you make a birdie, you say to yourself, dang, I did that, and I'm back to playing the way I want to play again. When you haven't won in a long time, you start doubting yourself a little bit and maybe don't have the confidence that you should have. So when you go out there -- today was a big day for me. To go out there and have the lead and still have the lead going into the fourth round tomorrow will give me a lot of confidence and make me sleep a little bit better tonight and know that if I just go out there tomorrow and play well, I've got a great chance of winning.

Q. Can you remember what it felt like to win and how to win?
BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, I won Monday in the qualifier. Even just winning the qualifiers, you know, I won the Sunday -- the Friday game at Whisper Rock a few weeks ago. I beat my wife last Saturday, too (laughter), even though I had to give her a whole bunch of shots. Winning is winning. Yeah, it's been a long time since I've won, but little things here -- I would love to have the feeling again, there's no doubt. But no, I don't think you ever lose that feeling, even though it's been a long time.

Q. Can you put your finger on what got you back to playing Billy Mayfair golf again and when that happened? When you felt like it happened?
BILLY MAYFAIR: I definitely think it was -- I've worked real hard these last couple weeks with Howard Twitty in Phoenix. Hit a lot of wedge shots and working on my putting, and I think that's definitely been the turnaround.
I don't think -- I don't know how many putts I had today, but I had 26 the first two days, I believe, and -- 32. That's kind of how I've been playing all year. But the first two days I had 26 putts. I haven't had that for a long time. I don't know how many putts I had on Monday when I qualified. But I'm making the putts that I need to make to keep the momentum going.

Q. At what point were you tested the most today?
BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, I think a lot was when I drove the ball in the water on 7 and made a pretty good 6 there. But I knew I probably lost one or two shots to everyone. Coming back and then hitting the tree on 8, and I just tried to keep my head up and keep going, made a great up-and-down on 9 from the right side of the green, and then birdieing 10. Once I birdied 10 then I kept the momentum going.
And like I said, probably the biggest part of the whole day was making that par putt on 12. I hit on the front of the green there. We hit putts in the practice round there, and that green can make you look really stupid on TV. We hit putts on the front of the green, we hit putts over the green, and I was, what, 40, 45 feet, and I think I knocked it 15 feet by to the left of it, and I made the putt coming back for par, and that definitely kept my momentum going and then birdied the next hole.

Q. You've talked a lot just in here about how much you've got on the line tomorrow. How do you keep an even keel with all this other stuff swirling around?
BILLY MAYFAIR: I've got to put it out of my mind. Now I've got to use my 21 years of experience out here, and I've got to say, you know what, I've been out here, I'm a TOUR veteran, I've got a lot of veterans that are chasing me. I'm playing with a veteran tomorrow in the last group. But I've got to say, hey, I've been doing this for a long time and I know what I need to do tomorrow and how to handle it and try and do the best I can.

Q. You mentioned Whisper Rock. There's stories, rumors out there that you have the lowest handicap at the club. Is that true?
BILLY MAYFAIR: I think I did until about this last six months. I don't know, I had to give Phil two shots a side there for a while, and I was not happy about that one. I don't know where that one came from at all. But I think I did have the lowest handicap there for a while. I don't think I do right now, but for a while I did.

Q. What is your handicap there now, do you know?
BILLY MAYFAIR: At Whisper Rock? Do you want my account number?

Q. If you don't mind.
BILLY MAYFAIR: I think I was a plus 5. For some reason Phil was a plus 3, which I don't know how they got that one.

Q. And the account number?
BILLY MAYFAIR: They go by your face out there, so I don't have the account number, sorry.

Q. Have you played many other qualifiers this year?
BILLY MAYFAIR: I tried in Hawai'i this year and unfortunately missed it there by I think three or four.
JOHN BUSH: Let's go through the card real quick. The birdie on No. 5?
BILLY MAYFAIR: The birdie I made on 5 was -- I hit 4-wood from about 220 yards into the left bunker, and it was about -- just a little bunker shot, nice one right on the down about three feet from the hole and made that for birdie.
Bogey on 7 was a bad drive. I drove it right there, hit the tree and went back in the water and hit it -- laid up with a 6-iron and hit a wedge in from about 118 yards about maybe 12 feet from the hole and missed that and made bogey from there.
Birdie on 10, I hit two good -- I hit a 3-wood, 4-wood to about -- I think I had 118 yards and hit a nice little pitching wedge in there I'd say about eight feet just left of the hole and made that for birdie.
13, I hit a 7-iron. The tee was up there on 13 today, and I hit a 7-iron from I think it was about 180 yards, and I probably hit it in there about four feet from the hole.
Bogey on 16, I hit not a bad drive, hit it just a little bit right, which it was not a bad angle to come into that pin, and I hit a hard 6-iron from about 192 and came up just short and hit a good little chip shot about four feet by the hole and just misread the putt -- I hit a good putt, just misread the putt a little bit and missed it on the high side.
JOHN BUSH: And nothing wrong with pars on 17 and 18.
BILLY MAYFAIR: I would have loved to have made that birdie on 18, but at least I gave myself a good chance.
JOHN BUSH: Billy, play well tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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