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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 9, 2005

Jeff Brehaut

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay, Jeff, making your fifth appearance at the John Deere Classic. Last year you tied for 11th in this event, and you've put yourself in good position here through three rounds with a nice 66 today. Just a couple general thoughts about play today.

JEFF BREHAUT: It's playing tougher today. The pins are set up a lot more difficult than they were the last two days. I think that's probably reflected in the scoring. I played really solid. You know, I think I missed one fairway, and that was the short par 4 that I was trying to drive it down there by the green, and I missed two greens, but they were both wedges that spun back off to the fringe. I never was really in jeopardy of making a bogey, so it was a comfortable day and I got a couple birdies at the end of the day that got me in good position for tomorrow.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: The good finish here last year, you're comfortable on this course.

JEFF BREHAUT: Yeah, I don't know, it's one of those courses where it seems to fit your game, and I've done well here in the past, so I'm looking forward to a good one tomorrow.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: You had five birdies today. Can you just go through them and tell me what you hit into the greens and the length of the putts and any good saves you may have had.

JEFF BREHAUT: Well, I knocked it on the 2nd hole in two and three putted so I was a little disappointed about that. Then I hit a 6 iron about 25 feet on 3 and maybe 30 feet and made that. I kind of felt like I got the one I gave away back.

8, I hit a pitching wedge in there about maybe nine, ten feet and made it.

14, the reachable par 4, I hit a driver left of the bunker, chipped it on, almost just barely missed going in. It was only a one inch putt.

16, I hit a 7 iron about eight feet and made it.

And 17, I hit driver, 6 iron, pin high left of the green and putted it down there and just missed making eagle and tapped in for a birdie there. So it was pretty easy, I guess, as golf gets.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: I notice here on your player record, you did tie for 12th at the end of June at the Barclays Classic. Anything about that? Are you starting to play better here.

JEFF BREHAUT: Starting to make a few more putts, not so much this week, but I've been working on my putting pretty hard, and I played well in Memphis, finished 17th, and Barclays I finished 12th. I haven't gotten in many tournaments this year. We're in July and this is my tenth event, so it's been a lean year for trying to get in, so I'm trying to take advantage of this stretch.

Q. You did not have your card for this year but are relying on sponsors' exemptions?

JEFF BREHAUT: I had to go back to the qualifying tournament last year, which I successfully did. I finished 13th. There's a lot of guys in my position that share everybody from the qualifying tournament, it's just been crazy. There's been I think there's 22 or 23 guys that are taking medical exemptions from last year, and of those guys, I believe there's about 12 that are ahead of me. And then there's four or five guys that are taking the lifetime career money exemption.

You know, if you have 15 or 17 guys and that amount that are ahead of you that normally wouldn't be, it starts bumping guys out. So there's five or six tournaments that my number should have probably gotten in or close that I wasn't even close to getting in. It's just the way it worked out this year.

I think maybe the Tour is a little bit too lenient on the medical policy, which I feel both ways about because I had to take a medical in 2000 when I had shoulder surgery. So it's a tough one because guys get hurt and they need to have access to come back. But having that many guys ahead of you in qualifying school category makes it pretty tough. I was looking at my schedule and could play in every tournament that I get into, and it may only be 21 or 22 tournaments. So it makes it pretty tough to play in all the lowest purse tournaments and compete against guys that are playing 30 to 34 events.

Q. A lot of 11s out there today seems like on the board, and then there's J.L. What

JEFF BREHAUT: What is J.L. at?

Q. 14. What does that do mindset wise tomorrow?

JEFF BREHAUT: Well, I feel a lot better that's it's only J.L. that's running away. If there was three or four guys that were up there in that 14 range, then it would pretty much be up to any one of those guys would play well, it would be theirs. But if it's one guy and somebody from the 9 to 11 or 12 range has a good round, J.L. could be passed. I mean, he's going to have to play a good round tomorrow. If I do another one of these 66s tomorrow, then I've got to believe I'll be close.

Really all you can do is take care of yourself. I can't really think about what he's doing until maybe the last few holes and then you kind of see where your position is and see how much gambling you want to be doing out there. If I take care of myself, then hopefully I'll be in a position where maybe a strong finish, a couple birdies at the end last year I played with John Morgan, and we were all going about it the same; Scott McCarron, John Morgan and myself, one or 2 under with 12, 13 or 14 holes, and he went boom, boom, boom, boom, dropped four bombs in a row, and whammo, he was right in the playoff. It was kind of crazy and so exciting and funny. He was hysterical. Scott and I were laughing the whole time.

That's how some tournaments get won. You just kind of hang around, hang around, hang around, and whammo, you get a little bit of a run at the end, and you didn't win but you got pretty close.

Q. You were laughing the whole time?

JEFF BREHAUT: Oh, yeah, it was hysterical, it really was. We loved it. We were wishing it was us. Did you watch it?

Q. Oh, yeah.

JEFF BREHAUT: He was going nuts. We were kind of I was trying to feed off that because I had a putt on the 18th hole, had just made a bogey on the par 5 17th, so I was disappointed with that. So I got to 18 and I had like a 60 footer, the pin is all the way in the back and I'm kind of on the front right. I was looking at my caddie, and there was a lot of people, and I'm saying, "Man, they'll go crazy if I make this one," because Morgan had been drumming them up. I made the putt, and it was hilarious, and then Morgan made his to get in the playoff from 30 or 40 feet. That was a fun day. I have a lot of good memories from that day.

Q. Is that something you can carry into tomorrow?

JEFF BREHAUT: Sure. You always try to remember the good ones. You've got to have a very selective memory in this game, especially trying to do what we're doing. I'll even go to the point where I'll write down good shots or good putts, just so I look at them from time to time.

So if you get in that situation, say hey, this is just like last year or this is just like yesterday, you know, you want to use as much positive enforcement as you possibly can.

Q. Did you do anything like turn the cap backwards and do the fist pump?

JEFF BREHAUT: That's not my style. Some of these guys wearing the pink pants, too, that's not me. I'm flying under the radar.

Q. When was the last time you were in a final group?

JEFF BREHAUT: I think last year at the Greensboro tournament I was in the I wasn't in the final group on Saturday. I can't remember the last time on Sunday. I don't know if I ever have been on the PGA TOUR.

Q. Does that change anything, and then also with your status, trying to make as much hay as you can in your limited opportunities? Does that change the mindset or add any more pressure to tomorrow?

JEFF BREHAUT: Sure. Tomorrow is obviously very important for not only am I trying to win the tournament, but to finish as high as possible is going to help me to keep my job for next year, and at this point, you know, that's kind of my number one goal is to take advantage of the next few weeks as well as I can.

See, part of the problem is I need to play well in the next four weeks in order to get my number improved so that when the fall comes around, when the tournament sizes go back down because of daylight, here we're at 156, by the time fall gets around we're down to 132, so then more of the guys in the Q school category aren't going to get in, and there will be a lot of guys that are going to be between 120 and 150 on the Money List that are going to be grinding trying to get their card and they're not going to get in tournaments. It's pretty frustrating when you're right on the edge and you're not getting to play.

So it's important for me to get my number better, and heck, if I finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd I might be able to take care of most of it or all of it.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay, thanks a lot, Jeff.

End of FastScripts.

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