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July 29, 2004

Len Mattiace

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

JOE CHEMYCZ: Len Mattiace is here, 6 under par 66, four birdies in a row starting at 11 through 14. Maybe just talk a little about the golf course and how well you played today.

LEN MATTIACE: The golf course is in very good shape. The course played a little bit on the long side because of all the rain we had but the greens were very soft. So you could throw a lot of irons at the pins. About no wind, so it was very receptive, conducive to low scores.

JOE CHEMYCZ: How did you play?

LEN MATTIACE: I played very well. I hit the ball close, as close as I have all year. So it was nice to putt 6 and 8 footers instead of 30 and 40 footers. Like the first hole, I hit it five feet and made the putt for birdie. It was kind of that type of day, which is good to see.

Q. Can you talk about coming back from your injuries, the process you had to go through, when you started playing again, what your game was like at that point, what it's taken to get you to today?

LEN MATTIACE: Well, it was an unfortunate time. My injury was in December. I started back at the Honda Classic. I had double rehab every day for about three months. The rehab was about 8:00 to 5:00 every day. It was a long process. I had never had any pain with my injuries. I tore both ACLs in my knees, but it was just a long process. I had to stay off my legs for about seven weeks. I was in double lock braces, a lot of wheelchair, a lot of crutches.

But after that, it was just tough getting back I had lost a lot of strength in my knees and my legs. I lost a lot of muscle. I couldn't even walk 18 holes. I had to walk six holes, nine holes to kind of get the stamina back and the strength back.

And then, aside from the physical part, then the golf side. It was hard to get it was hard to make consistent swings. The guys playing with me in March and April could attest to that because I was hitting the ball all over and it was very tough. It was just a process I had to go through to try my best to kind of work on my swing, work on my physical to get back, and just took a while.

I've noticed in the last month, my golf side has been a lot better, the golf aspect.

Q. It seems like the mental aspect of coming back from that and regaining the confidence and the belief that you can go out and win and compete, it seems like that would be almost as hard as the physical part of getting your swing back.

LEN MATTIACE: It is. It's a whole side to it, it is. It's a whole side to the feeling of, when am I going to play well again? When am I going to be strong again? And then when you start playing well, you want to keep playing well. And you get off to a good round and you're thinking, okay, I'm back now and you mis hit a shot and you shoot 73 and it's that part is difficult. It's taken me a long time to shoot some low scores.

Q. With the course playing the way it is, do you expect you're going to have to shoot low four rounds like this to win this?

LEN MATTIACE: I would think so, yeah. I would think so. You always know coming here that you pretty much have to get to 20 under or something around there, especially when the greens are soft.

When the greens are firm, the course plays a little bit more tricky because the balls bounce on the green and the greens are pretty sloped.

Right now, the conditions, yeah, you pretty much know that you just really can't shoot low enough.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Take us through the birdies. You had a 5 footer on No. 1 and a birdie on 3?

LEN MATTIACE: 3, I made another short putt, six feet on 3.

8, I made about a 15 footer.

9, I hit it in the right rough and came up just on the front edge of the green. I had about a 90 foot putt and left that about 12 feet short and missed it.

11, I hit another iron in there about five feet.

12, I hit it five feet.

13, I hit it eight feet.

And 14, I hit it 12 feet.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Len, we appreciate it. Good to have you back.

End of FastScripts.

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