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THE INTERNATIONAL

August 3, 2005

Jose Maria Olazabal

CASTLE ROCK, COLORADO

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I managed to find a gap between a couple of trees there and I hit a 7 iron on the front part of the green and made 4. That sealed the tournament.

And then when I come here, I've been coming here since late 80s. I missed a couple of years because I had problems with my feet.

But the reason is mainly two reasons. Obviously the golf course, you have to hit a lot of good shots onto these greens, and the second one is the way we are treated at this event. I don't see many other events where the players are treated the same way as this week. We have a wonderful locker room and the boys do a wonderful job in there. Jack himself takes good care of everything. I think he's on top of things. You know, those two reasons are the main reasons why you'll see me here pretty much every year.

Q. I just want to follow that up with a question about talk about maybe making this a World Golf Championship event. Would you think it would fit well with the Stableford format here?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, you know, I'm not so sure about that. But I think that Jack and all the people that are involved with the event will if this were the case where this would turn to be one of the World events, I'm pretty sure that they would sit down and think about it and make the right decision. I think to make it a World event I think most probably you won't see the Stableford format. I think you would see more like a stroke play event.

Q. Do you like the format?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, just for one event, I think it's great. In a way it forces you to attack, and you know that if you play solid but keep on making pars, you're getting nowhere. It's better to make a bunch of birdies even if you make a few mistakes, and I think that's the thing that defines this event. I think you really have to attack most of the holes.

Q. (Inaudible).

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: It's different, yeah. You've seen the last few finishes we've had at this event, especially having that 17th hole there where you can reach the green in two and a bunch of things can happen. You can turn the tournament around in just that hole. We've seen players that are just like three or four or five points behind and that hole changes everything and they're in the lead just playing that hole.

So I think it has been very exciting all through these years especially because of that finish. That 17th hole I think is crucial in this format.

As I said, tournaments where there is like two or three or four players that are close to each other, and that hole defines pretty much the tournament.

Q. (Inaudible).

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: No, it's a tough par 4 obviously. You need a good tee shot. If you hit a driver you get to the narrow part of the fairway so you have to hit a really good tee shot, and that is not easy. If you don't put it on the right tier, it'll be difficult to make two putts.

So the finishing holes are good. 16 is a tough par 3 if they put the pin short or even back left. It's what I said before, you don't see any weak holes on this golf course.

Q. Since you're playing most of your golf, almost all of your golf in this country now, does that mean you've given up on Ryder Cup or do you have to do another thing to kind of back door yourself into that situation?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: No, I'm not giving up Ryder Cup. (Inaudible).

Q. Given the way you've played this year, is your mindset now different than what you've struggled? Are you thinking every week, "I can win"?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I wouldn't put it that way, but obviously the approach to the events are different. When I was struggling, every week was what's going to happen. It was what's going to happen this week, am I going to struggle to make the cut, am I going to make the cut, have a chance to finish in the Top 10.

This year has been the opposite. I've been more relaxed, gotten off to a better start, and if there is not if there is a couple of weeks where I don't play well, like for instance, I had a stretch where I didn't play well from the Irish Open up to Congressional, I played four events when I struggled with my game, you know, it's not the end of the world. You can be more relaxed about what you're doing and don't rush things or push things in that sense. I think that's the ideal situation.

Q. What was your particular struggle?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I started hitting the ball bad again. I was missing a lot of fairways, but mainly the iron play was really bad again. That was the key scenario for two years, and I managed to hit more greens and more fairways this year, but except for those four weeks where I really struggled, the rest of the season has been pretty good.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: We appreciate your time. Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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