Q. Jim was in a similar situation to you, and this was kind of his first time in the final group, with a lead going into a major. Can you talk about how you in retrospect feel he held up himself and how he handled himself?
STEPHEN LEANEY: He played great. He did what he had to do. He kept the pressure on me. He didn't make enough mistakes that really gave me a chance. He bogeyed 10, but at 12 -- I guess after 12 I thought I had a chance. But he kept hitting the ball in the fairway and on the green. And that really just kept me at arm's length. I had some chances coming in, but those were sort of outside chances, and I knew if I wasn't within two shots going into the last four holes, and he kept hitting fairways and greens, and that's what he did.
Q. We talked about this a little bit yesterday, but can you go just in a little bit more detail about what it was that was going through your mind at the start of this year, after you missed out on Q-School? What were your options? You said you didn't feel like playing golf. To what extent did you not feel like playing golf, and looking back on that now, how happy are you now?
STEPHEN LEANEY: Well, I just struggled to put the disappointment behind me, and I just struggled to really get my invite to play. I just struggled with -- I was trying to set goals for this year, but I couldn't block out what happened. I've always wanted to come here and play. It was a great disappointment. And I really felt like I hadn't had much to look forward to at the start of the year. I guess I played the first two weeks like that. I went back and played at Perth at the Johnie Walker, and I really just sat down with my sports psychologist and my wife and my parents and just finally got over it, really, because it was difficult to get over. I played great there. I finished second, and I guess I've been playing well since then.
Q. I wondered what it was like for you knowing you had to make some birdies, and Jim, all he had to do was sort of make pars. Is it frustrating in a situation like that, can you be more aggressive or what can you try to do?
STEPHEN LEANEY: It's a very difficult golf course to get aggressive on. I tried to be as aggressive as I could. I just didn't execute the iron shots on 7, 8 and 9 particularly. I didn't hit a great shot to 10. I didn't put the ball in the fairway on 11. But it was great, then I hit a very good shot into 12. I didn't stay as close to the flag as I wanted. I tried to go at all the flags I could, but unfortunately I didn't hit them as close as what I would have liked.
But I certainly felt like I had a chance, I guess, until 17. Once I didn't hit the green on 17, I thought I was going to struggle. I tried to keep in my mind that I had to keep going at flagsticks. And I guess I was pleased with that -- I kept forcing myself to go with it, not to sort of play away from flags. But it's been hard all week. When you're not looking at flags for the first 63 holes, you have to change your mindset. It's not difficult, but just one of those situations where you haven't been doing it all week, it's certainly difficult to start doing it.
Q. I wonder if you could take us back to '93 briefly. What was the condition that led to the removal of your two ribs, and talk about looking back from there, could you have seen back then the progress you could make?
STEPHEN LEANEY: Well, I had an infection that I caught in Asia and it caused my blood to thicken up. And my first rib, which runs by your collarbone, is very close to my collarbone, and once I lift my arm up, it cuts the circulation off, and that caused a blood clot. And the doctor said the only way really to alleviate the problem was to cut the rib out. You just cut one rib out which is below my right collarbone. But I have the same problem in my left side, that hasn't been cut out, that one may clot up in the future. But I haven't really had any side effects from it. It just took a long time to get over it.
I didn't play for nearly 6 to 8 months, and it took maybe a year to two years to get my game back and my confidence back. But the doctor also said when I first was diagnosed with it, they said you probably won't play golf again, because of the way it's going to affect your shoulder. And it wasn't the best news you wanted to hear, but I certainly wanted to prove him wrong. And I think I said yesterday, that was probably a fairly good thing to happen to me for a -- at the time. I hadn't been working as hard as what I should have been, and it just showed me that I was fortunate to have the gift that I have. If I start to get lazy or things don't go your way, or you get sick of traveling, I guess it's just one of those things that I look back on and I just appreciate how lucky I am to be doing what I'm doing.
RAND JERRIS: Congratulations on your fine play this week. We look forward to seeing you here next year.
End of FastScripts....
