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THE INTERNATIONAL

August 5, 2005

Billy Mayfair

CASTLE ROCK, COLORADO

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thanks for joining us for a few minutes.

BILLY MAYFAIR: You're welcome.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Great start, excellent finish.

BILLY MAYFAIR: Thank you.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Got to be pretty happy with how things went out there. Talk about the day and then we'll go into questions.

BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, first of all, I got off to a good start. Birdied four of the first six holes out there, all that. Obviously, wasn't quite sure what the golf course was going to be like today after all the rain of yesterday. I thought the golf course was in great shape. The greens were rolling pretty good.

Got off to a good start. Had eight points there for a while. Played the middle holes awfully well. Just didn't get any putts to go in. I just kind of stayed patient, all that. On 17 I hit a good drive. 6 iron in from about 194 yards. Didn't hit a very good 6 iron, hit it about 40 feet from the hole. Great as this game is, 44 footer went in. Obviously gave me a great boost going into 18.

Hit a great 9 iron in on 18 from about 150 yards. Made a 12 footer there. Just kind of stayed patient in the middle holes, and it worked out good for me.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Right now you rank second in birdies and eagles. Came out here and showed you can continue to do that. We talked about that the other day. Any of that process help you out here, that you have a lot of confidence? You've been playing really well.

BILLY MAYFAIR: Yeah, obviously the last two weeks, played at the Buick, made a lot of birdies there. This week here, too. The golf course is such that you can make a lot of birdies and play aggressive. Next week, on the other hand, a lot of pars. Probably will be good next week.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. What was your putt like on 17? If you could also just comment on 17 in general, kind of an exciting hole, especially at this tournament.

BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, I think 17 is a very exciting hole. I mean, I'm glad they haven't lengthened it. I'm glad they keep it the distance they do. I think we saw a few years ago, Steve Lowery, how fast everything can change there. Even today my round today, I'm eight, all of a sudden I finish plus 15 last two holes.

I hit a real good drive off of 17. Like I said, only had about 195 yards uphill. Hit a good 6 iron. Left it out to the right a little bit. The biggest thing with the pin being back left, you just didn't want to hit it long there. I kept it short. A little bit further right and shorter than I wanted to. Get a good 2 putt here, birdie, we'll go on. One of those 40 footers. Hank told me it went right in the heart. I didn't think it was going to get there at first, but it did. That was the main thing.

I actually played really good on 18. I set up there and ate breakfast there this morning, watched guys struggle all day on 18. I said, let's just get it on the green, putt from there. Hit a good shot in there 15 feet, 12 feet, right of the hole, made that.

Q. When you had that stretch of all those pars, was it tempting of getting frustrated? How did you keep yourself from getting that way?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, it was a little frustrating. I mean, I won't lie to you. I hit a good shot in on 10 about 12 feet. Hit a good shot in on 12 and 13. Had 70 yards on 14, and didn't make birdie there. Made a great up and down out of the front bunker on 16.

Yeah, it was frustrating because I hit some good shots and could have gotten some more points there. Just tried to stay patient because I knew with 17 head of me, anything could happen. I tried to stay as patient as I could.

Q. With the way the scoring system is, is it okay to be aggressive even though it doesn't work out for you?

BILLY MAYFAIR: I think so. Like any more on this TOUR any more, it's better to be aggressive than anything else just because these guys are so good any more, and you just need to shoot such low numbers to get in there to have a chance to win.

I'm going to play the same way tomorrow. Just try to keep playing as aggressive as I can, and hit good shots. But, you know, not play stupid in any way, just try to play as smart as I can, try to make birdies on the holes you need to, see what happens.

Q. What has been the difference for you this year in your game? I noticed you are now using the longer putter.

BILLY MAYFAIR: I started with the belly putter last year at Greensboro. I shot 82 in Saturday's round at Greensboro. That was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. I've within working with Rick Smith a little bit. We kind of debated the idea of going back and forth, maybe going to the long putter. After shooting that at Greensboro last year, that was kind of the thing that convinced me to change.

I got this putter, the one I'm still using today, at Walt Disney the next week, been putting with it ever since. Took me a while to get used to it. I used to cut the putts a lot, aim a little bit right of my target, cut it back on my line. Had to retrain my eyes a little bit during the off season to get lined up well and all that. I think I did. I've been putting much, much better this year.

But I think that's the biggest key. I've been driving the ball, hitting the ball a lot better this year, but I'm putting a whole lot better this year than I did last year.

Q. How surprised were you that it didn't rain today, given what happened yesterday?

BILLY MAYFAIR: I was glad to see it not rain. Obviously, after the good start I got off to, I didn't want to stop and come back in or anything like that. I think with all the rain we had yesterday and the temperature, I didn't think we were going to get any thunderstorms today. Hopefully it's out of here and we can play the next days where we need to and get this thing done.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Talk about the course conditions. The guys that played in the morning said the fairways were fairly wet. How about this afternoon?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, I thought the golf course was a lot surprisingly a lot dryer than I thought it was going to be this afternoon. It would have been real hard to play the ball down, but it was real close. I mean, driving down 10, right in the middle of the fairway there, the ball was fine there.

Tomorrow is the big question. Tomorrow is when we start picking up mud and all that. The greens were great. They got a little bit soft and bumpy towards the end of today. But I think the golf course, as far as as much rain fell yesterday and the night before, I think the golf course is in great shape.

Q. What did you hit into 10 today?

BILLY MAYFAIR: I hit a 6 iron in.

Q. Did you hear some of the guys this morning were hitting 5 woods and 3 woods?

BILLY MAYFAIR: I could see it. I'm at 7:20 tomorrow morning off of 10. I know that hole could be playing long. If the wind starts blowing in the morning, that hole could play real long.

Q. You're in pretty good position to make The Presidents Cup here with a couple of good finishes these next two weeks. Has that been something on your radar screen? Have you played in team events before?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, to answer your first question, no, I haven't really thought that much about The Presidents Cup. Obviously, my biggest thought going into the year was to obviously secure my card for next year, which I've done. Now I'm just wanting to play, get in the World Golf Championships coming up, hopefully THE TOUR Championship at the end of the year and have a chance to win. I haven't really thought that much about The Presidents Cup. It would be an honor to do it. It would be an honor to play in it.

I got to play in that Four Tours a long, long time ago. That's the only international type of team competition I've played in.

Q. Walker Cup?

BILLY MAYFAIR: I played the Walker Cup, yes. My partner is right here next to me (laughter).

Q. Big day tomorrow for you. Is this an early present?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Big 39 tomorrow. I'd be more concerned if I was turning 40 tomorrow.

You know, it's always nice to play on your birthday. I got to get up early and get to work early tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have a good day tomorrow, have a party tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night. I have a five year old. His birthdays are more port to me than mine, so...

Q. On the eagle putt, how much break was there?

BILLY MAYFAIR: It was an uphill putt. It probably broke a good six feet left. That pin was all the way back in the left hand corner of the green. I was coming from the front right. It swung to the left pretty good. I'd say I played about six feet. Like I said, all I was trying to do was get the right speed and keep it below the hole for my next putt. Fortunately, it went in.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: I was looking at shot length. Looks like you had it down for 70 feet as opposed to 40.

BILLY MAYFAIR: Let's go with 70 feet then (laughter). That sounds good to me. I won't argue with you on that one. It was a long way. Like I said, I was disappointed with my iron shot into the green, 6 iron. I hit driver off the tee to be aggressive to have a short iron into that pin. Didn't hit a good shot. Thinking up there, if I'm 70 feet, a 2 putt would have been great, get out of there. Luckily it went in.

Q. (No microphone.)

BILLY MAYFAIR: No, not quite that bad, no (laughter).

Q. Can we get your birdies?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Starting on No. 1, I had about 60 yards from the green. Hit a little sand wedge about 60 yards from the green, hit it in there about 15 feet from the hole, made that for birdie.

On 3, I hit 3 wood off the tee about 150 yards to the hole. Hit a pitching wedge about 12 feet below the hole.

On the par 3, about 185 yards. Hit a 6 iron just left of the hole about 10 feet, left of the hole, made that for birdie.

On 6, I hit a 3 wood off the tee. About 130 yards up the hill. Hit pitching wedge about four feet from the hole, made that for birdie.

Then just kind of kept it going all afternoon until I got to 17. I hit a 6 iron in there from about 195 yards, 70 feet from the hole, and made that.

Then on 18, I hit a good drive down the right hand side of the fairway, 154 yards. Hit a 9 iron about 12 feet, made that.

Q. What year did you win at Bear Creek?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Oh, boy. I want to say about '84.

Q. Do you remember anything about it?

BILLY MAYFAIR: I remember I think I still hold the course record or am tied with the course record. I remember how undulating the greens were. One of the those weeks where every time I hit the ball on the green, the ball just funneled right next to the hole. It was a great week for me. I think I won by 10 or 12 shots, Pacific Coast Amateur. Whenever somebody talks to me about that golf course, it puts a big smile on my face because I played really well there.

Q. (No microphone.)

BILLY MAYFAIR: I shot 63 one day. I think I was like 12 under or 13 under par.

Q. You have a lot of top tens this year. Is it time to get that victory?

BILLY MAYFAIR: It would be nice. That's one of the things I'm obviously thinking about, trying to win and all that. But you just got to go out here and play hard every day, try not to think about winning. When you start thinking about winning, usually not good things happen. I'm just going out tomorrow and going to try to play good and keep myself right there and just go from there.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you. Happy birthday.

BILLY MAYFAIR: Thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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