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HYUNDAI TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 5, 2011

Stuart Appleby

KAPALUA, HAWAII

JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome Stuart Appleby into the interview room at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, a three-time winner of this tournament, and a place that you know well, Stuart. Welcome back, first time since 2007.
STUART APPLEBY: It is. I can't believe it's that long. It feels like yesterday I was here. But again, I had a child that was turning two at that time and now she's six; so I can do the math.
Yeah, it's just great to be back. It's an absolute honor to win any time, and probably my only real late-season win, the win last year that I've had since the end of '03 which was Vegas to get me into the first of my three victories in '04, '05 and '06.
So I take a win any time of the year, my wins here have started me off with good starts and I've not always managed to kick them all on. You love to get off to a good start and I've got a lot of MoJo here and I just hope I can create something resembling my previous form, because it will be a good week.
JOHN BUSH: Looking back at 2010, a year that you won't forget, particularly the win at the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia.
STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, '10, it was tough. It was slow. Persistence I think was the key. I guess it was stupidity thinking, you know, I will turn it around, I will turn it around. I had done a lot of hard work. The victory didn't come from nowhere but I was certainly finding it -- struggling a bit. My swing was good but I was struggling mentally.
I just got a bit of a sniff Sunday and things seemed to fall into place for me and little did I think at the start of the week that being a little bit on my last legs that it would turn into a victory and then I had a victory in Australia and I was definitely the middle of the week thinking that I don't even know if I'm deserving to be in the event. Seriously I was just out of form and I was struggling. Amazing how, you know, persistence was my victory at the Greenbrier how but things can turn around quickly at the JBWere Masters in Australia.

Q. Speaking of MoJo, obviously you and Geoff, the Australians have fared very well here. A lot of theories about why that is?
STUART APPLEBY: Probably we are the most informed players because we have been playing a lot through November, December. We have had proper competitions to play, and we are practicing in climates conducive where maybe I don't know how many of the people in this field have had compromised practice, but I think that we are in form and we like blustery weather conditions. And I don't think most of the areas anyone is practicing it's as warm and temperate and windy is in anybody's repertoire, except maybe you have a chance in Florida.
So I think those two things: We are playing a fair bit through December, the weather is somewhat similar, and we are still running. We are still warm.

Q. You mentioned wind and of course that's always a factor here, but this week I guess the forecast is for not a lot of wind.
STUART APPLEBY: Look, I would rather see the wind. I think the one thing I do really well in the previous winds here is I club myself really well in the conditions. Clubbing just took a lot of the stress out of the game. I hit shots today and I'm like -- I've never really played the course like this.
So the course feels a bit foreign to me. The greens are a lot softer I remember than my last times. I think we just had the new grass put in and they were new and they were still firm but now they are quite soft. So I'm trying in my mind to be more aggressive, and it's just a very different course today and you're right that, it is going to play very different. I don't know if it's going to play any harder or easier, I don't know.

Q. What would you prefer?
STUART APPLEBY: I think I prefer the wind because it seems like that's a bit more familiar to me, here.

Q. With the year you had last year, being the PGA TOUR Comeback Players of the Year --
STUART APPLEBY: I voted for myself. I voted lots of times, but I don't know if it made a difference. (Laughter)

Q. Can you talk about your confidence level and then returning here?
STUART APPLEBY: A little large, even though it's only three hours' difference from Australia I'm flying with four kids and that felt like a long flight. So I'm looking to pick myself up and get going. I had played a little bit through November, December, so I'm not totally foreign to the fact of, you know, pulling my clubs out of the frozen tundra to play, but there are a lot of good things going here.
The only thing missing it sounds like is going to be the wind. If I can just get out and hit the ball half decent and start get something putts going, I really had a good relationship reading the greens here so hopefully that can come with me. But there's no reason why I can't play well this week. I've just got to get into it and get playing and literally, people asked me after I won my third won they go, what is it and I go, I don't know. I've been comfortable here. Although when I played here in '07, I didn't have a very good event so each time you're looking, if, I'm here ten years' time from now we'll be talking about how great I was in '04, '05, '06 and how I can turn that on as a 50-year-old. So, you know, I'll do anything.

Q. Do you replay the 59 much in your mind?
STUART APPLEBY: No.

Q. Don't even think about it really?
STUART APPLEBY: No, haven't thought about it. Really haven't thought about it at all for probably since August.

Q. Where is the ball?
STUART APPLEBY: I think it's in Florida. I think it's in are Orlando. I think -- yeah, I'm pretty sure it is, somewhere. (Laughter) Somewhere. Yeah, somewhere.

Q. On a totally different topic, have you spoken to Geoff since he injured --
STUART APPLEBY: I saw Geoff but I have not spoken to Geoff.

Q. He injured his finger. He had to have 12 stitches.
STUART APPLEBY: Did he? That's a pretty good injury. I haven't spoken to him. He probably wouldn't have told me anyway. No, I didn't know.

Q. Can you just talk kind of about the field here and all of the other players, you have a couple of past champions here; kind of wide open?
STUART APPLEBY: We have obviously a pretty large field this year. Tiger has left a few on the table. Yeah, someone like Jim Furyk, a local, really, has had some great play here and coming off his best year ever. Someone like him is just going to know this place with his eyes closed. And you've got a lot of form and talent, too. Anthony Kim is back on the saddle now. Is Rory playing this week? No?
It's sort of a unique week. You've got guys -- obviously my Victor's was late in the season and you have guys almost coming on with form and what have you but you have this Sir Mix-a-Lot of everybody from the start of the year, Geoff being a winner here, right through to -- who won Disney? Garrigus.
So you have this whole sort of concoction of players, some looking to extend their form and others looking to get it back, someone like Geoff or like I was and 12 months later you try and fire up something. It's very unique and you sort of -- as a player, you're watching these other players and you go, which week did he win. But then you look up and you go, he won here, and here, you can pick them off.
So it's a unique week. You've got this freshness to the year, but you've also got the oldness of these players victories being upwards of a year ago. So it's interesting to see how everyone is going to jump out of the gates.
JOHN BUSH: Stuart, thank you for coming in.

End of FastScripts

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