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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP


August 11, 2005


Rory Sabbatini


SPRINGFIELD, NEW JERSEY

JULIUS MASON: Rory Sabbatini, ladies and gentlemen, joining us at 3 under. Rory, if you wouldn't mind just quickly going through your birdies, bogeys and we'll go to Q & A real quick.

RORY SABBATINI: I've got to remember this golf course now.

No. 2, hit a 2 iron off the tee, hit a 9 iron or a wedge, I can't remember which one it was, up there about eight feet below the hole or just left of the hole and made a good putt for birdie.

No. 6, drove it in the left rough, hit it in the green side bunker underneath the lip, left it in the bunker, hit it out to about eight feet and made that for bogey.

No. 7, drove it in the right rough, hit my second shot over the green, chipped it up to about eight feet, missed it.

No. 11, drove it right center of the fairway, hit an 8 iron to about eight feet, ten feet, made that.

No. 12, hit a 5 iron just into the back fringe and used a 9 iron out of the fringe and chipped it up in the hole.

Then 17, drove it on the cart path, hit a 2 iron up into the right first cut of rough and hit a wedge to about ten feet, made that.

18, drove it in the fairway, hit a 3 iron into the right green side bunker, advanced that up to about probably 12, 15 feet and made that.

Q. If I was connecting the dots on that play by play correctly, you birdied the last two holes. I'm wondering what you think that's going to be like down the stretch here on Sunday. That could be some pretty wild turns of events there.

RORY SABBATINI: Well, you know, it's definitely crucial on this golf course that if you do get opportunities to have a 15 footer, 20 footer in for birdie to make some of them because if you're not making birdies on this golf course, you're going to shoot a high number. It's just inevitable. The pressure is going to mount on you. You're going to make bogeys out there.

It's a course that really can give a lot but it can take it away in a blink. If you do have a birdie putt, really try to make some out there and capitalize on the situations because it kind of alleviates that stress on you.

My thinking was coming into 16 when I was 1 under, I was going, okay, even if I bogey 16, I've still got an opportunity to finish under par. That's always a nice feeling to have, in that position, have a few shots so you know if you make a mistake you're okay because you're not putting pressure on yourself to make up and downs all over the place, and if you do hit a poor chip, the frustration is not building.

It kind of alleviates that and makes it a little easier to kind of focus on what you're doing out there, not get caught up in your own emotions.

Q. Until you and Phil and Davis got on the board this afternoon, there were no sluggers on that board. You had a bunch of Justin Leonards and Luke Donalds but the talk was about length all week. Are you surprised the sluggers haven't really come to the fore?

RORY SABBATINI: You know, this is a course that apparently seems to set up for long hitters. It's a course that I think the premium is putting the ball in the fairway off the tee. It doesn't matter how far you have it. If you can advance your approach shots around the greens, you've still got an opportunity to save par. If you drive it in the rough, you're not going to have that. It doesn't matter how far you hit it up there; this course is just too long to give you that benefit.

Yes, there are the odd occasions out there where there are some shorter par 4 that if you do hit it in the rough that you give yourself an opportunity. But the course is just the premium is put the drive in the fairway. From there, if you get it around the greens or on the green, you're going to have an opportunity.

That's kind of the approach I had. You know, some of the shorter par 4s I was hitting 5 and 6 irons into the green. The premium for me of being able to do that was far more beneficial than taking out a driver and trying to hit it all the way up there by the green.

JULIUS MASON: Rory, thank you very much for coming down and joining us today.

RORY SABBATINI: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.
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