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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 14, 2010

Dustin Johnson

KOHLER, WISCONSIN

KELLY ELBIN: Dustin Johnson, ladies and gentlemen, in with a 67 in the third round of the 92nd PGA Championship at Whistling Straits along with Rory McIlroy. He is in second place at the moment four strokes behind the leader, Nick Watney. Dustin, congratulations on your play today, five birdies, no bogeys, sounds like very solid positive round today.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I had a very solid round, I swung at the ball very well all day, never really got in trouble. My short game again helped me out. I had just a couple chips and that I needed to get up-and-down. I think I only missed three greens, so, and one of them maybe was on a fringe. But so that always helps.
KELLY ELBIN: 15 of 1 greens in regulation and if you would please go through the five birdies starting on No. 2, please.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No. 2, my drive, I hit it just, I hit a really good drive, just barely went through the fairway down the right and I had to chip down. I think I laid up to about 136. And hit just a little chip 9-iron to about eight feet, made it.
Then 5, I hit it good drive down the fairway and hit 3-wood just long in the rough. And the ball came out a little soft and it, I think it came up about 15 feet short. Made a good putt there.
Then 6, birdied 6. It was a 3-iron and then sand wedge to about four feet.
10, hit a really good drive up there just short right of the green, chipped it up to three feet and made that one.
16, I hit a good drive down the fairway, hit a 6-iron just on the right fringe, kind of had a really tough putt up and over a hill and putted it about 10 feet by and made it coming back.
KELLY ELBIN: For the record, Dustin's played No.5 and No. 16 in a combined 7-under par over the three rounds of the championship.

Q. Conventional wisdom is always that young guys are going to have trouble winning Majors because they're overly aggressive, eventually they would make too many mistakes or their nerves would get to them. You've been in this position before. After what happened in the last two Majors with the first-time winners and the leaderboard just filled with 20-something guy, is the game changing a little bit because the aggressive necessary that we see out there seems to be paying off and maybe there's a youth movement going on.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, the younger guys we have been playing well all year, so it's not a shock to anyone. We have been, we have contended in a lot of tournaments. We have won a lot of tournaments. So being a major, yes, a little bit different, but it's not too much different than a Regular Tour event.
But tomorrow's going to be a good show to see. You're going to have to go out and be somewhat aggressive, especially being a few shots back of the lead. But if you hit some good golf shots make some putts early, then you never know what's going to happen.

Q. To look at the positioning compared to Pebble Beach where you were the guy three shots up sleeping on the lead, and obviously you remember what happened there, it's the reverse now, you're the guy just behind, four shots back, you know what can happen. What did you learn from there that you can take into to tomorrow to take advantage of the position Nick is in?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, it's going to be a long day. You got, just got to stay patient. I think maybe at Pebble Beach I got maybe a little impatient, started moving a little too fast and tomorrow I'm really just going to focus on being patient and hitting quality golf shots.

Q. Two questions. Are you better off because of Pebble Beach?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean any time you can be in that situation and know kind of know what to expect you definitely got a leg up on the other people, because not everyone's been in the situation of being in the lead in a major. So I'm pretty confident and I've been playing really well this week, so I'm looking forward to going into tomorrow.

Q. If you spent much time with Nick during the few months you've been with Butch, have you played against him except for that practice round at St. Andrews?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, me and Nick are good buddies, so we're going to have a lot of fun out there tomorrow, no matter what happens. I'm looking forward to it. I always enjoy playing with Nick. He's playing some great golf right now. Obviously he's playing really well today.

Q. Even though the golf courses are dramatically different, can you compare the first 54 holes at Pebble Beach to the first 54 holes here as to how well you drove the ball each place, how well you played from the fairway each place, and how well you played around the greens at each place?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, because I think I hit the ball a lot better at Pebble Beach. Especially the first three days. I hit, I've really hit it very well all three days at Pebble Beach. I drove it straight, I hit really good iron shots every day.
Today I played the best of the three days. So it wasn't, I didn't play well all three day, I just played well the last two. Yesterday I kind of still kind of scraped it around yesterday and shot 4-under, but I chipped and putted really well. So I can't really compare it.
KELLY ELBIN: Dustin has hit 22 of 42 fairways in regulation this week.

Q. Is it any advantage to you to be chasing the leader tomorrow as opposed to having people chasing your lead?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, I would like to be four shots ahead. That's four shots I don't have to make up tomorrow. So I can't say that I'm in a better position than Nick is, because it's not the case. And depending upon the weather conditions tomorrow, it's going to be, from what I hear, it's going to play very tough. So that definitely plays into being four shots behind and because it's going to be a hard day, anything can happen.

Q. Kind of a warm and fuzzy question for you here, but are you proud of yourself the way you handled this summer after Sunday at Pebble Beach?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah. I'm definitely proud of myself. I played some good golf this summer and even after Pebble Beach, kind of instead of dwelling on it and letting it affect me, it's pushed me to work harder, go to the gym a little more, practice some more, to get better.

Q. You and Rory spent a lot of holes walking shoulder to shoulder together you seemed to really enjoy the day and the company. Had you played since the Walker Cup and what do you make of roar real estate and his game?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, we and Rory are pretty good friends. We have played a few times. We have known each other pretty well since the Walker Cup. He's a great player. We both had good rounds today, really solid, and we had a lot of fun. Any time you're having fun out on the golf course it's a lot easier than if you're not having a good time.

Q. For those of us who don't know your reputation, you said you and Nick are pretty good buddies. Can you elaborate a little bit how long you guys have known each other, what have you ever done to hang out and how that dynamic will affect you Sunday?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I don't think it's going to affect anything. We have known I've known Nick since I got out here and I know 2007 or 2008, I guess, and we just, I don't know, we just, we get along pretty well. We played some practice rounds together, we're always hanging out in the locker room or wherever we're at. Go to dinner every once in a while.

Q. The top six guys depending upon what Furyk does, the top six have not won a major yet, what does that say about just the state of golf right now?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, I guess you would say the younger guys are starting to, we're starting to play a lot better, we're starting to contend more, and even in Majors we're starting to contend in Majors and even I think what, I don't know, I'm in the real sure how old Louis is but I'm pretty sure he's in his 20s and he just won the British, so it's definitely, we're definitely moving forward, that's for sure.

Q. That Walker Cup match, with you and Rory, did you actually drive the ball 400 yards off the tee?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, on the first hole I did. I was a little nervous, so I was a little jacked up and I swung really hard and caught it in the middle. And I hit a big drive on No. 1 at Royal County Down. The wind I think I think they said in the pro shop it went like 407.
KELLY ELBIN: I think we can all relate to those 407 yard drives.
(Laughter.)

Q. You know yourself best and you obviously we all know what happened at Pebble Beach. But what is it going to take for you to win tomorrow? What do you think you need to do?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I will have to do everything well, drive it well, hit good quality iron shots, and I'm going to have to roll the putter well. To win any golf tournament you're going to have to do that on Sunday and that's what it's going to be like tomorrow.

Q. Given how tough the setup was at Pebble Beach that Sunday, and no matter how hard it plays here tomorrow, weather wise or the conditions, do you think Nick is going to have it a little easier trying to defend the lead tomorrow than you did at the U.S. Open or would you have preferred to have defended the lead here or the U.S. Open, if you know what I'm trying to say.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, well, at Pebble Beach, the golf course is playing extremely firm and fast. And so it was playing very difficult. A yard off here or a yard off there and you're in big trouble. With here you can get, you got a little more room for error, the greens are soft, so the ball's holding, and so it's a little bit easier when you get your self in tough situation toss get up-and-down. So and in that respect it's definitely a little bit -- the course is playing a lot easier. Whether it's going to play that easy tomorrow, I don't know. But I would say that if you were going to ask me, I would rather have the lead here.
KELLY ELBIN: `Dustin Johnson tied for second at the PGA. Thanks.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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