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THE HERITAGE

April 23, 2011

Tom Gainey

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

TOMMY GAINEY: I played the whole thing well. I mean, I hit a good putt, it should have went in. It fooled me a little bit. It just picked up speed. After I stroked it, I don't see it, and it lipped out, but you're going to have that out here.
I got fortunate today. Hit two bad tee shots and they didn't end up in bad places like they could have ended up, so I'm pretty fortunate there.

Q. You had a nice little stretch, talking about nine. Do you want to talk about that?
TOMMY GAINEY: Well, we had wind, probably around 10 miles an hour, no chance of hitting it short, might as well hit driver, try to get it in the front bunker and try to make a 2. So I did that, hit driver in the bunker, hit a good wedge shot out of the bunker and, you know, made me a 3. So I'm pretty happy with that.
Then we got the 200, driver to the wind coming pretty good in the face, to drive off 10, hit an 8-iron right in there to 175 to like four feet, made it. And then hit a bad tee shot on 11. But I hit it so bad that it hit a tree just short of the pond. I don't think it had any chances of getting in that water, because it was hit so poorly. I pitched out and I was able to get it up and down. I hit my little wedge about five feet, something like that and was able to make it. I think that was the round saver. I think that was the round saver, making that par, making that up-and-down on 11. That saved my round and kept the momentum going. And I was able to birdie 12.

Q. Was that about three feet, two feet?
TOMMY GAINEY: That one, maybe a foot. Yeah, everybody up at the green was saying, go in, so I was hoping it was going in. But I'm happy with it. I played a good day and the wind is starting to pick up a little harder right now. I'm glad to be in at 8-under, so everybody else, they can have at it.

Q. On 13, it looked like you had a good putt at it.
TOMMY GAINEY: 13, you know, this is funny, I was walking up to the green and one of my buddies said, that's gone afloat. Okay. So I get up there and my caddie went up, and you see this big green patch right up there, and then after that it changed up a little bit. So I said I need to hit it a little bit harder, and when I got to that green spot, it was like it wasn't even there. It just kept going probably eight, ten feet by the hole. I had the right read there. And my caddie said that was all him. I should have hit a better tee shot.

Q. Were you just a little juiced at 16 and 17 when you hit to the back of both of those greens?
TOMMY GAINEY: You know, I think we misplayed the wind on 16 and 17. I was 130 from 16th fairway, and I was just trying to choke a 52-gap wedge. I thought it stayed in there pretty good, and it flew like 35. So I'm just happy it stayed on the back edge of the green, because it could have easily rolled over the back, and then we're talking about something else.

Q. And same thing on 17?
TOMMY GAINEY: And on 17, I mean, we thought the wind was left and right and into the face. And it looked like I choked an 8-iron up there, and I had it drawing left of the pin, drawing right to the pin and all of a sudden it stays in the air. There was no wind in my face. So flew probably four feet by the hole and on to the back of the green.
So I'm lucky today. I had a lot of fortunate breaks go my way. But I hit it good for the most part with a couple of bad shots, but other than that I'm real happy to be in the position I am right now.

Q. A lot of people were shouting your name as you came off the field. Does it feel especially good to play this close to home?
TOMMY GAINEY: No question about it. Being home, and you can play good at the same time, it doesn't get any better.

Q. Is there a tournament out here on Tour that you'd rather win than this one? This would be your favorite tournament to win?
TOMMY GAINEY: No question. This is in my home state, besides Augusta. But this is the one I want to win. Home state. And that's what I want to do, I want to win this one.

Q. How do you approach tomorrow?
TOMMY GAINEY: You know, I'm in pretty good shape right now. You never know what the scores are going to be, if the wind is going to pick up, if it's going to die down, you just don't know. I'm just happy to be in my position. Those guys, they've got to play the rest of the day. And you don't know if the wind is going to pick up or lay down. At the end of the day I'm happy with where I'm at. And I've just got try to do the same thing I did the first three days tomorrow.

Q. What did you learn from the near miss earlier this year when you had a chance to win and didn't.
TOMMY GAINEY: Well, you know, I think, that's kind of a hard question. Because I was in position to win at the (indiscernible) and if I had to go back on that 17th hole, I'd have hit the same club. I'd take driver and just rip it again. I just stay in my game. My game is aggressive and backing off when I need to back off. But I'm going to do the same thing I did today.

Q. Does the course suit you?
TOMMY GAINEY: I think the course suits anybody. The longer hitters, they can just hit less club off the tee, and they can hit those straight, straighter than they can hit their driver. Your shorter hitters, if they hit their driver straight. The thing is, if you hit a straight ball here, you still might not have a shot. I mean, you've got to have it on the right side of the fairway to have the right angle to the pin. And if you don't do that, you're looking at a long day of trying to work the ball left to right and right to left a lot.

Q. It seems like the crowd kind of gets behind you, do you feed off that?
TOMMY GAINEY: No question about it. You definitely can feed off the fans. You make a couple of birdies, you get the fans pumped up. I get pumped up right along with them, just trying to keep doing the same thing.

Q. Two years ago at Charlotte, Boo came up to you and said something about, we need another redneck out here on the course?
TOMMY GAINEY: Boo Weekley, at the Wachovia, a few years ago he came up to me and said, "I'm glad to see you out here, because we need another redneck out here." And my neck is red, but I'm just a good ol' country boy, just like Boo. We're just trying to make it out here.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TOMMY GAINEY: You know, it's not, but I've got one closer to the Gamecock colors I'm going to wear tomorrow, and the black hat. I might even wear black pants with that. I'm definitely going to sport Gamecock colors tomorrow.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TOMMY GAINEY: I tell you what, I'd love to. I've been trying to work it out. I'm working on it, and hopefully sometime we can get together and have a good time.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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