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CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK CLASSIC

November 12, 2010

Roland Thatcher

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

ROLAND THATCHER: Instead I made a 2. That was major. So we teed up at 16, 17, so I had a sand wedge in a couple of those holes, and picked up one on 17. That was it.
Honestly, with the exception of a longer par putt on 9 and a longer par putt on 6, there really wasn't many opportunities for me to make much more than what I did as far as the round went. It was as low as it could go.

Q. I understand this morning that in the introduction at the first tee you basically told your partner, I'm expecting to go to Second Stage, and I'm okay with that. Is that kind of a step, does that bring you less pressure to go ahead and accept it?
ROLAND THATCHER: Yeah. Maybe it does in a way. I don't think that that had anything to do with anything. Honestly the goal coming into the week, obviously the goal has changed after these first two rounds that I'd like to skip Second Stage finals if I can.
I don't think it's unreasonable for me to walk into the week and say I just want to catch something better for next week. I think that was a realistic goal was getting four rounds in and getting some things working in the right direction to where when I tee it up next week at Second Stage, I was going to be as prepared as I was going to be.
Obviously after 65, 63, my goals have changed quite a bit. I'm hoping to have a nice long off season and start the year early next year.

Q. It just doesn't seem right the guys two (indiscernible) at the end of his name should be worried about the Money List. Shouldn't you be running a family business?
ROLAND THATCHER: No. We come from a long line of auto workers and Navy families. I don't think it's a family business. My father was a retired airline pilot. I might have an in as a baggage handler at Southwest if I had to.
But no, the name as pretentious as it is, my wife and I decided to stop that right there. We didn't pass that one on to my son.

Q. Where did the 63 come from?
ROLAND THATCHER: Well, I mean I played very solid yesterday. Obviously I shot 65 yesterday and really didn't make a whole lot of putts. I hit it very close to the hole a lot during that round. I tried to keep pace with Chris Stroud, who shot 10-under. We were playing together.
So yesterday didn't feel like it was that great of a round. I just watched somebody beat me by three.
Today, today I just really made a lot more putts than is usual for me. I didn't hit it inside of five feet all day. I actually made a good number of 15 to 20-footers, and that's how you turn a ball-striking round of 67 into 63, and that's what I did today; and if I can do that two more days, it's going to be a really special week.

Q. Is it easier to do that when the guy you're playing with is also playing well?
ROLAND THATCHER: Yeah. Both he and I talked about that when we walked off the green today. We got a fair chance to be paired again tomorrow, and we couldn't ask for anything better because for whatever reason, this week it seems that we're playing well off each other.
I don't know what our best ball would have been yesterday, somewhere in the 50s, and I imagine it probably would have been somewhere in the 50s again today. But when you see guys going out and playing well and making putts, you know, it gives you a little bit better feeling that you can do the same.

Q. What's in your mind (indiscernible) end of the year sort of put out an official fire. You obviously know your status now. You gotta skip all the other stuff and a win would be Cinderella, no pun intended.
ROLAND THATCHER: Just fine, pun intended. I wouldn't mind being referred to as Cinderella for the week.
But Nationwide I guess in '06 I played pretty poorly all year and was on the bubble going into one of the last two events and finished fourth, which locked up my Nationwide card. So it wasn't quite as dramatic as locking up the PGA card, but no less important to me at the time.
Unfortunately I actually had the Nationwide Tour money title in my hand going into the last event in '07 and got backed up the last week. Richard Johnson won the event and passed me by a fairly small amount in Nationwide money. That was frustrating. So I had maybe the worst possible outcome that week.
You know, hopefully I'll be able to draw on some of that and just try to go out and play well, and it's still two more days to go. And who knows who else is going to go out there and light it up, too. It may be completely out of my control, but if I go out and play solid the next two rounds on a good golf course, I've got a pretty good chance to avoid all that.

Q. You mentioned yesterday that putting four rounds together...
ROLAND THATCHER: I'm going to try to get away from the golf course and don't even worry about it. It's still two rounds of golf.
I've been fortunate that when I've had good weeks in the past, and not necessarily this year because I haven't had very many good weeks, but over my career when I've been playing well, I've continued to play well during the week.
So that's one thing at least I can say from my career that if I've been in contention and I've been close, I've been okay and I've managed to play very solid. The unfortunate thing about this year is I was never in that kind of rhythm this year. I was never in a situation where I could put myself toward the top tier of the event.
I had one Top 10 finish, and it was really kind of finishing before the leaders even teed off kind of thing. So I really didn't have an opportunity to get things going, but building on what I've done in the past, either Nationwide or even out here on the PGA TOUR, when I've had good weeks, I've managed to keep them going. So that should give me a lot of confidence heading into the weekend.
MARK STEVENS: Anything else? Okay. Thanks.

End of FastScripts

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