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BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 10, 2005

Craig Barlow

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Craig Barlow. Craig, cruising along at even par through 13 and win on an eagle, birdie, par, ace finish for a 5 under par 65, and your eagle on the par 4 and an ace on the par 3, maybe just talk about the day and the finish and what it all meant.

CRAIG BARLOW: It was obviously a good day. I started off terrible. Ironically, bogeyed the first hole, which is a tough hole. Bogeyed the second hole which is an easy hole. Was hitting it everywhere. Settled down a little bit and made a couple solid pars. Made a couple birdies I think on 7 and 9, which was a good birdie. So good, positive feeling going into the back nine.

Played the first three holes fine on the back nine and bogeyed 13 to go to even par. So, you know, still not upset, even par is good. I still feel fine with the even par, and they moved the tees up for us on 14, and, you know, it was a perfect driver. I just needed to trust it because I had not really been hitting my driver that good today and just laced it right at the pin and I think it went in there about five feet. Had an easy putt, just had to commit to it and made it.

Drove it in the right rough on 15 again. I hit it right a lot today, so I had to wedge it out and had a longer third shot than I would want. I had 165 for my third shot, hit it about 20 feet and made it.

16, I played beautiful. Missed about an 8 footer for birdie.

17, obviously I hit a perfect shot. I'm thrilled to death it went in. When it left the club I knew it was going to be a good shot. That's all I was really thinking and landed on the green, there was some shadows and stuff up there, so I actually didn't get to see it fall in, but I saw everybody else did, so I knew it had went in. I hit an 8 iron. It was just a perfect stock 8 iron. It was 142 and 19, so 161 to the hole. I fly my 8 iron about 167. The greens have been releasing a little bit, so could not have been a better yardage.

Had to settle myself down for the tee shot on 18. Not an easy hole, took a couple deep breaths, got back in the moment, and then just left the birdie putt a little short.

To shoot 65 on this golf course, there's no way in the world you can try. It's too hard of a golf course to think that you can put your foot on the gas and go. You have to be patient, and I have to say best thing I was at today was patience. I didn't force the issue. I took what the golf course gave me and it gave me back, fortunately.

Q. I hear you talk about even par being a good score around here, at what point do you realize or did it ever cross your mind like, hey, "I'm in this golf tournament now"?

CRAIG BARLOW: When I walked off the 18th green. That's really the first time I thought about it. I wasn't watching the leaderboard today. I saw Calc was 2 over today, and I said at the end of yesterday, I still thought 8 under par would win. So he was at 8 under par through two days, you know, I could have been wrong, he could have went nuts today like he has been, but when I first walked on this property at the beginning of the week, I thought 1 under par a day, and I like my chances. Obviously it's probably going to be a little lower than that, but I think 8 under par will win.

I'm very happy but by all means, I can't take anything for granted tomorrow. The golf course is way too hard. So I'm just going to go out and I'm going to try to play as stress free golf as I can, try to hit the ball in the fairways, get it on the green and see if I can build some momentum. There are a few birdies holes out there, and if you're playing well, you have to take advantage of those.

Q. Was there any kind of gallery out there on 17?

CRAIG BARLOW: Yeah, it was pretty big actually. I was probably blushing walking to the green. It was pretty neat. I had never got an ovation like that before. It was definitely something I'll never forget.

Q. Eagle, birdie, par, ace, you did that last week, didn't you?

CRAIG BARLOW: I didn't play last week.

Q. Just teasing. Do you remember a stretch of four holes where you've gone through that?

CRAIG BARLOW: No, I probably haven't had two eagles in four holes. Definitely in a tournament on a tough caliber on golf course that it is, that's what makes it special.

JOE CHEMYCZ: You mentioned you remembered seeing Steve Lowery do that at THE International.

CRAIG BARLOW: Yeah, I did. He birdied 14, he eagled 15 from the fairway, bogeyed 16, the par 3 and double eagled 17 from the fairway. I watched him hole out two shots in three holes. So even as spectacular as my finish was, it wasn't as spectacular as that.

Q. What can that do to you heading to the final round? Can we expect some fireworks down the stretch there tomorrow?

CRAIG BARLOW: It depends on if they move the tee up on 14 again. I thought that was a great setup by the staff. They had it 20 yards back the last two days and I didn't think about hitting driver. I just hit 4 iron down there and pitching wedge on the green. Hopefully tomorrow they will move it up and give us a little opportunity.

15, you know, I won't say 15 is an eagle hole, but if you hit two really good shots you can knock it on in two. And then, you know, really, 16, 17, I don't know that those are birdie holes, and 18 is definitely not a birdie hole.

Q. Apparently 17 wasn't a birdie hole today, either?

CRAIG BARLOW: Anything can happen, I guess.

Q. How many aces in tournament play; do you know?

CRAIG BARLOW: That's my fourth ace. It's my third in tournaments, but my first on TOUR. So that was nice.

End of FastScripts.

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