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BOOZ ALLEN CLASSIC

June 24, 2004

Olin Browne

POTOMAC, MARYLAND

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Olin, thank you for joining us for a few minutes here at the Booz Allen Classic. Great round today, no bogeys, a few birdies out there, and you were informing me that not a player in your group had a bogey today.

OLIN BROWNE: It was great stuff out there. We all hung together really well, kind of fed off one another and had a good day.

Q. What makes the conditions so good today? A lot of low scores out there.

OLIN BROWNE: Well, the course is in the best shape I've ever seen it and I've been coming here since 19 well, Congressional when did it come here? So a couple before I got on TOUR in 1992 and every year since then. So I don't remember the greens being this pure since they were rebuilt and they are in immaculate condition. There's lots of coverage on the fairways, and, you know, with the rains that were here last week, the course is playing softly. If you hit a shot, you're not going to get a funny bounce. All of those things combine themselves to good conditions, good scoring conditions.

Q. Do you know the changes they made in the course?

OLIN BROWNE: 6, I understand I think they added a tee there a few years ago. Maybe they did some drainage things because that fairway can be a little soft, but that fairway is more consistent with the other ones, so perhaps but I didn't really notice.

Q. Birdies and bogeys?

OLIN BROWNE: 2, I made a birdie, driver off the tee and laid up with a 4 iron, 3 or 4 iron, I can't remember. I hit a lob wedge to about 12 feet and made a nice putt that had a little curl to it, so it was a nice putt to go in and give me a good picture of reading greens for the day.

Then I birdied No. 4. Hit a 7 iron in there about ten or 11 feet and Aaron Baddeley was right behind me and he had the first putt, so I got a good read off of his and made it.

And I had a couple of good opportunities coming off that side. I hit it two and a half feet or three feet on 9 and lipped it out.

Then I birdied 10 and 11 I hit a wedge on 10 and a 9 iron into 11.

Got it up and down on 13. Drove it halfway down the hill, had kind of an awkward stance, but chipped it up in front of the green and knocked it up there about five feet and made it.

16, I hit a little 8 iron in there about three feet and made it.

And on 17, I hit the ridge and caught the slope it and it rolled down there about eight feet. Got a couple of nice iron shots that hit the right place on the green so I could take advantage and made a couple putts.

Q. You mentioned earlier the first holes, you had a nice save and then things seemed to come together. Talk about some trouble spots; you had no bogeys today but some trouble spots?

OLIN BROWNE: I missed the first fairway and the last fairway, and I missed that green and I missed the green on 6. I hit it too far over the green and made a really good up and down there. I did a flop shot to about nine or ten feet and made that putt. It's the kind of thing that keeps your round going. I was only 2 under at the time but I was hitting good shots.

I wasn't making I had really good birdie opportunity at 5 and didn't make it. Had a really good birdie opportunity at 9 and didn't make it. When you mess up, you want to chip it up there and hit as good of a putt as you can and keep it inside the hole.

The pars on 6 and 7 really helped me together on the front nine and I made one, also, an up and down on 8 but I hit a good bunker shot about two feet, so it wasn't too hard. On the back nine, I got things rolling and hit some good shots in there pretty close, so managed to make some putts.

Q. Is there an advantage at all

OLIN BROWNE: Well, it all depends on the weather. If you get a front that comes through, you can have a rotten time if you're out there while it's happening.

It was a beautiful afternoon and the ball was carrying well. The greens are in the best shape that I've seen in all my years here, so I don't think it was much of a disadvantage particularly being first off in the afternoon wave. The guys that were last off, I think 16 green is getting a little spooky. It has some trampled spots and getting a little bumpy, but the rest of the greens on the course are just perfect.

It's nice to have a good round in the afternoon on Thursday and then come right back in the morning on Friday and keep the momentum going. The four o'clock wake up is going to be a bummer tomorrow, but I'll deal with that once I get out there.

Q. Inaudible?

OLIN BROWNE: Didn't fair very well. Missed like by two I think. I've been struggling with my game the last couple of years, but this is encouraging and I just hope that I can keep playing like this and take advantage of the opportunities.

Q. You had elbow problems?

OLIN BROWNE: I had surgery on my elbow. Tore the tendon and had that repaired. I have problems that start until the middle of my left side good and go right down my arm. It's a constant maintenance issue. We have a great crew out here with the physiotherapy and they really help out a lot, so I'm on top of that right now and over the last six or seven years, I know when to stop and back off and do some work on it. It's just a maintenance issue, really.

Q. When was the surgery?

OLIN BROWNE: '98.

Q. Has that contributed to the play?

OLIN BROWNE: Not one bit. Let's see, I stopped driving the ball straight; that's one that gets you in trouble. Stopped hitting good putts; that's another one that gets you in trouble. My sand saves have been poor; that gets you in trouble. Just a good smattering and variety of issues in my game.

Sometimes you need that to get back to the drawing board. I've consulted with a couple of people this year about my game. I've been working hard on it. The unfortunate part of golf is that it takes a long time to go sour, but once we go sour, it takes a long time to go back. I've had a lot of help from some very good people and I'm looking forward to pulling myself out of this because I feel like I have a lot of good golf yet.

Q. Swing or sports psychologist?

OLIN BROWNE: Swing. But you lose your swing, you lose your confidence. And you lose your confidence, that makes your swing worse. It's kind of like a never ending cycle. I think that most of the guys who go bad out here just really lose a little bit of an edge. Hey, I'm 45 years old now, I'm not as young as I used to be. There are a lot of great young players coming up, a lot of guys really hit the ball a long way and who play a brand of golf that's fearless and aggressive and lends itself to some pretty spectacular scoring.

So, you know, the game is evolving. You've got to make an effort to keep up with that. So, we'll see.

Thanks very much. Hope to see you all week.

End of FastScripts.

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