U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 15, 2002

Robert Allenby

RAND JERRIS: Could you run through your birdies and bogeys on your card, please.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I hit a little 8-iron at the first to about six feet, made birdie there.

The 4th hole, the par-5, I hit a driver, 3-wood just off the right-hand side of the green, pin-high, chipped up to about eight or nine feet, and holed the putt there.

And then a birdie at 10. I hit a great drive down there, hit a 5-iron into about six feet, made 3 there.

I hit 3-wood off the next, off 11 and hit 8-iron in there to about six feet, and made that.

I hit a great 4-iron, hit a great drive and then a great 4-iron into 12 and that was probably about 25 feet just past on the left-hand side, probably one of the toughest putts that you could possibly imagine, slippery downhill, left-to-right. And I was so conscious of keeping it on the green, because if I missed it on the low side it could have rolled off the front edge of the green. And then I would have another 25-footer coming back up the hill. I kind of misread it a little bit, left it about six or seven feet out to the left, pin-high with the flag and hit a great putt but the flag was on a Volkswagen, so it made it very tough to stay on-line.

Then I hit a great 3-wood, hit a great drive off 13 on the par-5, hit a 3-wood just short of the front edge, just missed it a little bit. And I elected to putt it and came up about seven or eight feet short of the flag on the right and I just poured the putt too hard, just hit it straight through the break. So that was a bit disappointing there, because I was so close to the hole for two, and walked away with par.

I made a great birdie, hit a great 6-iron, good drive off the tee at 15. And then I hit a great 6-iron in there to about 20 feet, pin-high. And hit probably the best putt I hit all day, all week, even. It never looked like it was going to miss. And a bogey at 16. I think I was coming down from the noise on 15 that it created when I holed that putt. I think I was still trying to find my balance and my hearing. But I blocked my tee shot out to the right. It wasn't too bad a lie, really, considering, but I hit 6-iron out and got a big fly, went over the green. And it just finished up against the third cut of rough, right up against the four inches of rough, or however long it is. And probably one of the toughest shots to play around here. And I elected to take the lob wedge and play it way back in my stance and didn't get enough ball under the club, a bit too much grass, and came up 10 to 15 feet short. Hit a good putt, but it just lipped out.

Hit 5-iron into 17. And I thought the breeze was coming a little bit from the right and I had to back off the first time, because there's so much noise -- we had to back off so many times out there because the noise level out there was unbelievable. I've got Mickelson behind me and he's making a bit of a charge behind me, and you've got to always -- you've got to think about when their ball is in flight, because the crowd behind are just going to make such a riot. But I backed off on 17 and I thought I hit a pretty good shot. I thought I was going to catch a part of the green, and it bounced up again like 16, right up into the third cut, just short of it, virtually impossible shot again. And this time I tried to blade the lob wedge. I just hit it a little too hard. And then hit a great putt and lipped out again from about six, seven feet.

So I hit a 3-wood off the last, hit a 9-iron to about 7 feet and holed it. It was a good way to finish, after 16 and 17.

RAND JERRIS: This is your fifth appearance in the U.S. Open, and by far you're in the best position you've found yourself in, what's been the difference for you this year.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Just a little bit more relaxed. I came in here with no pressure at all on me, because I'd been playing terrible prior to this. I thought what have I got to lose? Obviously I played pretty well the first day and I shot 4 over. But I was playing a little bit defensive. And the last two days I've played very aggressive. And I shot over par yesterday in all that rain and all that. I thought it was a pretty good achievement for me to do that, because I was struggling with my swing, and found my swing yesterday and it continued on today. I holed some great putts today and hit a lot of great shots. So I'm not expecting high things. And sometimes when you think like that you go out there and play really well. And I guess that's just what's happening at the moment.

Q. As you sort of alluded to, of all the guys, the ten Australians that were here, your expectations were the lowest of any of them. But on the first day you had five -- your first five or six holes you had birdie looks at everything, and you didn't make any of them. And you shot 4 over and played generally pretty well. And then yesterday even par was great. So where do you think you should be?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Where should I be on the leaderboard?

Q. Yes, where do you think -- this tournament could have been anything for you?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, I could have been home by now, laying in the sun, catching a sailfish, yeah. But I go into all the Majors that I ever played thinking I had a chance to win and play really well. So I thought I'd do the opposite here and talk myself out of it. So far so good. Sometimes you've got to think like that. You can't be too confident because a major tournament is a major tournament. And I try to go into this tournament this year thinking, just sort of like playing it really low key and not trying too hard and not expecting too much. I'm still not expecting too much tomorrow, either. But the closer I get to Tiger, the more revved up I'll be, that's for sure.

Q. You were talking about the noise on 15. What is the feeling like being in second place late in the third round of a major, compared to being on the leaderboard in a regular tournament?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Obviously they're a little bit louder. The old New York people have definitely brought their voices out this time. On 15 was by far the loudest I've ever heard in golf. I mean you can still hear them from here, and we're enclosed here. It was just awesome. I mean you get a few little tingles, it was great. I lost a little bit of focus on the next hole. For tomorrow I can take that in and think about what I did there on the next tee, because I've played a lot of British Opens and this is by far the loudest crowd I've ever heard. The hardest thing is, is the next tee is always behind the last green. And you've got to virtually wait for the group behind to have a hit or keep an eye on what's going on, because otherwise you could be put off quite easily.

Q. You had six birdies today, you said you're going to be firing at the pins tomorrow. Do you feel like you showed today that you can make tons of birdies?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I think I can. I think I've got plenty of birdies in me. The greens right now are set up perfect for myself. I can be very aggressive, and I'm sure Mickelson is going to say the same thing as well. You can fire at the flags if you have a mid iron or down, you can fire on them and stop it really close, and I think that was the difference today where you saw a lot of low scores. Plus at the same time everyone is getting familiar with the course.

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