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SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

April 22, 2005

Bo Van Pelt

Redstone Golf Club, Houston, Texas

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Bo, thanks for joining us, off to a great start this week, 69-68. Maybe talk about your week so far and then we'll talk about your season so far.

BO VAN PELT: Yeah, it's been pretty consistent. I've only had one bogey. I bogeyed No. 1 yesterday, which didn't get me off to the best start, par 5 playing downwind. Since then I've hit a bunch of fairways and greens and just played the par 5s a little better today and took advantage of those. I had a bunch of close birdie putts on the par 4s, just didn't quite take advantage. I'm happy with how I'm hitting it and hopefully I'll keep it going.

Q. You really broke through last year, finished Top 40 on the Money List, had the opportunity to play The Masters. This season I know you're still looking for that big first win as well as a really good finish. Maybe just talk about your year so far.

BO VAN PELT: Yeah, I got in a couple bad habits in the off season and struggled with my ball-striking the first couple of weeks, and since about LA, Pebble Beach, I've been hitting the ball well tee to green and haven't really scored as well as I would have liked, just haven't taken advantage of my opportunities. I felt like things have been coming around the last four or five tournaments I played, and so I'm just trying to get out of my way and just not make as many mistakes and just -- I'm happy about only making one bogey these first two days and just trying to get the ball up-and-down when I miss a green and make some birdie putts. They just haven't been falling, but I've been playing better than what my results have been. I'm trying not to get too discouraged.

Q. How does this course set up for your game?

BO VAN PELT: I like it. I think a lot of guys like this golf course. It's fun to play a course you can hit driver a lot. If you get in a rhythm where you can hit it basically on every hole -- the greens, they're much more inviting than what I played two weeks ago at Augusta, so you definitely feel pretty comfortable around the greens. They're a little bit flatter. But I think it's a really fair test, and I think the rough is high so if you hit it in the rough you get penalized, and the greens are fair. Whoever is rolling it well this week is going to do well.

Q. Talk about your experience at Augusta. Whether you played well or not, it had to be a great first experience for you.

BO VAN PELT: It was a lot of fun. I had never been there to watch or anything and neither had my dad, so it was fun. My whole family came down. He caddied for me on the par 3. It was fun to see the place and get to play. I felt really comfortable. I played really well tee to green, I just had a tough time getting it up on the right shelf. I hit a lot of iron shots that were kind of on the edge of the shelf and looked like they'd stay, and instead of being 12 feet I was 60 feet. I learned a lot for next time I'm there, and it was a real privilege to get to play there.

Q. Today you had to post a number to keep up with Vijay?

BO VAN PELT: Yeah, he obviously played great yesterday, under par, and it seems like he plays well every week, and him winning here last year, you know, I didn't want to feel -- I wanted to try to get off to a good start and to not look back. I wanted to keep going forward because I knew the scores, the wind wasn't blowing early and I felt like the scores were going to be pretty low. I was just trying to make as many birdies as I could out there.

Q. Do you enjoy playing that kind of golf where you have to make a lot of birdies?

BO VAN PELT: Yeah, I do. I kind of enjoy every type. I enjoy when 5-under is a good score, and if you've got to shoot 20-under, that's fine, too. This course is hard to get a handle on because I couldn't remember what won last year and I saw Vijay shot like 11-under. I remember the rain and stuff like that, but I guess it was interesting to see how low the scores were yesterday because I was thinking, 11-under won here. I played decent, I probably finished 25th or 30th or something, so it'll be interesting to see as the week goes on what ends up being a good score.

Q. Do you go into a week with a number in mind?

BO VAN PELT: No, I try not to. I try not to think I'm going to have to shoot 12-under to win. I think most weeks guys can figure out when they play on Tuesday or Wednesday what's going to be a pretty good score, depending on the weather. All of a sudden it starts blowing 30, that changes things, but the way the course was playing before the week started, I thought probably -- even though he only shot 11-under last year, I thought probably 15, somewhere in that general vicinity. We'll see what happens. I don't think the greens were as fast as they wanted them yesterday because I know they were cutting them last night before we got done playing and I'm sure they cut them again this morning. I've got a feeling the last two days -- they were already firming up a little bit the last nine holes I played, so depending on whether we get any rain they'll speed up and the scores will kind of bunch up a little bit.

Q. Are you in the Open?

BO VAN PELT: I am not.

Q. Are you going to qualify?

BO VAN PELT: I'm going to try to qualify the same place I did last year after The Memorial in Columbus.

Q. What about the British?

BO VAN PELT: I'm going to try to qualify for that, as well.

Q. Was there one thing you took away from The Masters, one great moment?

BO VAN PELT: Probably the coolest moment was my dad caddying for me in the par 3. He's been there kind of every step of the way for me, and for him to get to be there was just -- and get to caddie and get to be inside the ropes and put on the white jump suit, he had a big smile on his face. He's probably still got it on his face right now.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on your round. You started on the back side and had birdies on 14 and 15.

BO VAN PELT: Yeah, I knocked it on on 12 and 2 and three-putted, so I was kind of letting one go there. Then 14 I hit a pitching wedge from the first cut to about four feet, made it.

15, I hit a 3-wood into the right bunker, hit that out about three feet, made it.

Front side, 1, hit it just in front of the green on No. 1 and pitched it up there probably five feet past the hole.

Then 9, I knocked it on in two and two-putted from about 18 feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Bo, thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts.

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