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BUICK INVITATIONAL

January 19, 2005

Brad Faxon

LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

BRAD FAXON: So you've got to have a great short game and to be able to get up-and-down, you have to be able to hit 18 greens in regulation on the South Course. I read something about this being one of the lowest greens in regulation courses. You need to hit a lot of greens out here.

So short game is huge. You hit the shot on each green, you have to hit the shape perfectly and you have to have the right yardage. Holes that were easy before, like 14, if you drive it in the fairway, you have the pin placement in the back right or front left -- inaudible.

Q. Where do you stand in terms of what you need to do?

BRAD FAXON: I need to get back to where I was a couple of years ago and start playing some good golf. Last year I started off the first two or three months and really kind of never got any momentum going at all last year, and I'm so excited to start playing good again. I'm 64th right now in the World Rankings, so the next few weeks are pretty important.

Q. (Inaudible)?

BRAD FAXON: Just the non-Americans, Vijay, he's rooted here in the U.S. He's living in Jacksonville, he's been here for a long time. I would be -- I'm impressed by that, no matter who does it. I think if it was a guy who lived overseas -- (Inaudible.)

But you just, you haven't seen too many years like Vijay has had last year and now Tiger had it a couple of years ago, but seven or eight years ago, you would never see a guy win three tournaments a year and now you've had two guys in, what, a few years.

Q. (Inaudible)?

BRAD FAXON: Do I think we're at a competitive disadvantage? It probably would be easier for them if they just stayed here full-time and committed themselves to this tour. Vijay plays a little bit overseas. He won the European Tour Player of the Year -- inaudible -- strange, though. I think it's very hard to do what Ernie does and do what Retief does and play basically three tours. They are playing the South African as well as the European, and the European Tour is certainly more of a worldwide tour than we are.

If it makes it easy, the money has gotten big, you can travel privately and get to places that you could not do. It was very hard to do that a few years ago, especially with family. Vijay has a daughter in school in London and it will be harder to -- Ernie, I'm sorry -- to get around.

Q. What do you think of Tom Kite being back out here full-time? What do you make of him?

BRAD FAXON: I had a big influence on that decision. We played last year. He can certainly hit the ball as well as most guys out here now. Distance is not going to be a limiting factor. He's going to play in 15 events. I asked him, if he played his best golf and played this tour, you know, versus playing exclusively on the Champions Tour, where would you make more money. And he thinks if he played his best golf, he would make more money over here, even though he wouldn't win as much.

I think he's going to have to get his putting together to be competitive out here. He knows that. I also think he's a pretty competitive person, and you know, like Jay Haas, thinks they can still win out here and play well.

Q. What do you think about Paul Casey withdrawing from the FBR in Phoenix?

BRAD FAXON: That's the real reason I got asked to come in here. (Laughter.)

I tell you, I don't know Paul Casey well. I like him. I was away -- I think I was on vacation in Italy when the sparks flew from the World Cup in Spain. They don't have any golf section in Italian sports papers, but I got a bunch of e-mails and I was curious to know really what was said and why it was said, and I don't think even Paul knows why he said what he did.

But what would I have said to Paul -- I saw him in Hawaii last week but I didn't get to talk to him; he was on the phone. I would have told him, look, what you've said is done. You can't change that now. I would not withdraw from tournaments. I would not hide from what you said. I would just apologize to people and play more. Every time you withdraw, you are going to create more publicity for yourself, and I know he withdrew from Phoenix.

I think he's a nice guy, and I think he could do a lot for himself by being here. He may not want to come to the press room to talk about this is what I want to say and kind of get out of here and go on with it instead of hiding from it.

Q. Is it more likely to come from players or fans -- inaudible?

BRAD FAXON: What I heard last week was that he was already getting the cold shoulder from some of the players. I don't know if that's true or not. That came through my wife who talked to another one of the wives. I don't know, I think there's going to be some places where it will be really hard on him, kind of like Colin Montgomerie created for himself. I think the way to defy that would be to kind of laugh about it or smile or apologize and just go on. I just think the more you hide, the harder it is to come back from that stuff.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Brad, for joining us.

End of FastScripts.

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