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TURNING STONE RESORT CHAMPIONSHIP

August 5, 2010

Rory Sabbatini

VERONA, NEW YORK

ADAM WALLACE: Great round today, Rory, 7-under par, 65 without any bogeys on the card. If you could, just talk us through the birdies and we'll take it from there.
RORY SABBATINI: Do you want me to start from 10 where I started?
ADAM WALLACE: Sure.
RORY SABBATINI: 10, hit driver off the tee, sand wedge to about six feet and made the putt for birdie. 11, hit a 3-iron to about 16 feet, made the putt for birdie.
12, hit driver in the first cut of rough on the right side by the bunker and hit a 5-wood on the green to about 30 feet, two-putted that for birdie. 14, hit driver in the first cut, hit a pitching wedge to about 15 feet, made the putt there for birdie.
15, hit driver in the fairway, hit an 8-iron to about three feet, made the putt there for birdie. 3, hit a 6-iron to about two feet, made birdie. And 6, hit a 5-iron to about 25 feet, made the putt for birdie.

Q. Rory, obviously a pretty solid ball-striking day, hit 18 greens in regulation. Is that expected? Did you come into this course thinking that that was going to happen, you can take the course and hit every green?
RORY SABBATINI: Well, obviously the course is playing significantly different than it did in the fall, and conditions are a lot better.
You know, obviously when I was here last year, I thought it was a really good design. You know, I think they did excellent placements on fairway bunkers and just overall design of the course, and I like the layout.
And they give us quite a bit of room out there to work with. And obviously that little bit of rain we had early on this morning kind of softened the conditions up, so it made it pretty easy to be aggressive, especially to some of those pins out there.

Q. Where were you when the rain delay?
RORY SABBATINI: Just finished my third hole.

Q. Rory, would you consider overall you played -- you scored well obviously today. Would you consider you played well?
RORY SABBATINI: I would say I played well. I didn't score anywhere near what my potential was out there. I had a really good ball-striking day, had a lot of short birdie putts that I missed, a lot of good opportunities that I squandered out there, but overall, you know, going out there I made it a pretty stress-free day. And any time you can do that, it obviously makes it a lot more enjoyable out there.

Q. You birdied three of the four par-3s and birdied one of the four par-5s, which is kind of like a reverse of what you might think. So there obviously were some more numbers out there you could have gone lower on?
RORY SABBATINI: Definitely, considering that all except one I had an opportunity to hit my second shot on the green. And all but one I was, you know, within short distance of the flag for my third shot.
So you know, just didn't quite capitalize on the opportunities on the par-5s, but you know, played the par-3s well. And it's not often you can come off the golf course and jokingly say you should have birdied them all. But I did.
It was one of those days. It was one of those rare opportunities where I really was -- I was getting my lines and my distances, you know, correct. And you know, makes it -- makes it a lot easier on you.

Q. Did the rain delay affect you at all or were you pretty much relaxed during that two-and-a-half-hour wait?
RORY SABBATINI: Actually I didn't even realize it was two-and-a-half hours. I was relaxed. So it didn't bother me.

Q. Rory, three holes before the rain. How much -- it made a difference. How much can you tell us -- the three greens before rain and then the rest of the way?
RORY SABBATINI: I would say for about the first half hour that we went back out there it was making a little bit of a difference, especially with the speed of the greens, and you know, the softness, but you know, the greens actually were in excellent condition. You know, they held up fine.
So you know, after I'd say that 30-minute window after we went back out there, we were back to kind of what we were prepared for when we first went out.

Q. Rory, on 8 you scrambled for a real good par. A little difficulty in the bunker, you and Andres both hit the lip coming out. I kind of wanted to know what the lies were that you both had that you wound up hitting the lip. And then your third shot, which was just completely buried, did you hit a hybrid out of there?
RORY SABBATINI: No. It was actually a 5-wood.

Q. It was a 5-wood?
RORY SABBATINI: Yeah.

Q. Can you just talk about both of those lies then?
RORY SABBATINI: That was one of those instances where actually there was no difficulty in the bunker. I just messed the shot up.
You know, I was -- I actually was tempted to hit 3-wood and go for the green out of the bunker, I was hitting that good. So the lip was never a factor, and I just hit such a terrible shot that it hit the lip.
But no, actually I got very lucky. Actually even from where the spectators were standing, they couldn't tell, but I actually drew an exceptionally good lie in the rough. You know, you gotta have a little bit of luck out there, and obviously it is one of those games. You have to have luck if you want to win out here. And you know, it was definitely being kind to me right there.

Q. What do you expect -- the guys that are still out there. Are there more or lower rounds out there right now, do you think, given the conditions?
RORY SABBATINI: I would say obviously the conditions of the golf course is definitely suitable to low scoring. You know, the fairways are in good condition. You know, the rough's at a good height that, you know, you can get some bad lies out there. Obviously I've seen that.
But you know, it's playing very fair out there, and the greens are in excellent condition. So if you put the ball in the right spots off the tee, you can definitely be aggressive to the flags out there.
ADAM WALLACE: All right. Thanks for coming in, Rory. Best of luck the next three days.
RORY SABBATINI: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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