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SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

April 23, 2005

Gavin Coles

HOUSTON, TEXAS

TODD BUDNICK: Well, first off we'd like to congratulate the 54-hole co-leader Gavin Coles for being this week's Crestor Charity Challenge winner. For your efforts $50,000 will be donated on behalf of Crestor and the Shell Houston Open and Houston charities and $25,000 will be donated to the health care charity of your choice, so congratulations on that.

A 1-under 71 on round 3 of the Shell Houston Open has you tied with Vijay heading into the final round tomorrow. First off, let's talk about your day. You started with two birdies, ran into a bogey followed by a birdie and then pars the rest of the way.

GAVIN COLES: It got pretty windy and pretty tough and I didn't hit it as good as I did the first couple of days. I got off to a great start with a 9-iron on the 1st and it pretty much went in on the way past. I made a nice birdie on the par 3, 5th hole, after having a good chance on 4 that slid by. I suppose I just sort of struggled a little bit on the into-the-wind holes. I didn't drive it very good on the into-the-wind holes. I missed the fairway on 7 and pitched it out and took my medicine and tried to make a par and didn't make a very good putt there.

On 8 I did a huge pull and three-putted and made a nice birdie on 9 to right the ship you could say.

I probably got a little tentative with my putter after that, so something to work on for tomorrow.

TODD BUDNICK: Talk about the change in the conditions out there from the first two rounds to today. It looked like it affected everybody out there.

GAVIN COLES: Yeah, obviously you put this course as firm and fast as it is and put a 15 mile an hour wind out there, it definitely makes the greens a little more tricky and you've got to actually not go at the flag, you've got to find a spot to land the ball to feed it to the flag. You hit it in the rough and now how are you going to make a par rather than just let's go at the flag and have it splat somewhere on the green.

TODD BUDNICK: You've won twice on the Nationwide Tour, looking for your first PGA TOUR win tomorrow. What experience do you take from those wins out there.

GAVIN COLES: Well, I mean, every time you win I think you sort of learn how to cope with winning. I think each step you make, like we've gone from the Nationwide Tour to the PGA TOUR, it's another step, and now I've got an opportunity to learn from tomorrow's round and maybe next time when I get in this situation, I'm going to learn from it and I'm going to be better. Whether I win first go or I don't, it's all about learning to cope with the emotions and the pressure of being in that situation.

Q. Did you sleep on a lead in your Nationwide wins, do you remember?

GAVIN COLES: I believe I had a couple-shot lead the first time I ever won, yeah, and I came from like four behind the second time.

Q. Do you remember what that felt like, to sleep on a lead?

GAVIN COLES: It was good fun (laughter). It's always good fun.

Q. How do you think you'll handle tonight?

GAVIN COLES: Well, I don't know. I've got a couple of kids that will keep me occupied for a while, I'm sure, and I'm pretty tired right now, so hopefully they won't make me too angry by not going to bed on time. We'll see if we can get them to bed on time and I can get to bed earlier.

Q. You sleep on a lead and being paired up with Vijay Singh tomorrow, who's been fairly good over the last couple of years, does that impact anything?

GAVIN COLES: Look, to be honest, I'm not going to see much of Vijay tomorrow. I'll see him on the tee and I'll see him on the green. Apart from that, we're probably not going to say much to each other. I suppose I'm going to take the mentality that it's me and my caddie out there and that's it. Jeff and I will go and play golf and we'll try and play golf and hit the right shots and play the right clubs and hopefully swing it a little better than I did today.

Q. What in your mind is the victory you're most proud of to this point in your career?

GAVIN COLES: I think once you win twice, your first win is something special, but to win the second time to prove to yourself it wasn't a fluke, that's pretty special. Especially in the conditions in New Zealand when it was blowing 25, 30 miles an hour and I shoot 3-under the back nine to come from four behind to win was pretty special.

Q. Do you think these kind of conditions are good for you, the difficulty and --

GAVIN COLES: I don't know, I don't like the wind blowing too much on this course. It gets a bit long and a bit daunting for me, especially the 7th hole. If we play 16 into the wind, that's a pretty long hole for me. If the wind blows the same direction as what it did today, I won't be too worried, I'll just have to tee it up on the 1st so I can actually reach the fairway, so that will be nice.

Q. Probably when the tournament started, people didn't expect you to be here the 1st round, maybe even 2nd round, 3rd round. What has your performance so far said about yourself?

GAVIN COLES: You know, I suppose all the guys I played with last year on the Nationwide Tour have seen me shoot a quick 66 at the Tour Championship the first day, and that's a 7,800-yard course, could be. It's long with huge slopes in the greens. I played great the first day there. I suppose to a few of those guys, it may not be a surprise. Again, the course is playing the way that we're used to playing in Australia, so most of the Australians, it's not a surprise to them, but a lot of the American guys, it probably is.

Q. You come from a windier atmosphere with the wind picking up around. It seems to be more adaptive if you can place the ball in the fairway, obviously hitting fairways and hitting greens. That ought to play in your favor, especially since Vijay is not running away with anything?

GAVIN COLES: Just make them firm and fast, mate, don't water the fairways, don't water the greens. Just make them hit the fairways.

Q. Do you think having to fight through a day like today as windy as it is kind of prepares you better for what you face in the final round tomorrow than if it had been kind of a smooth birdie-fest for everybody? Does that make any difference?

GAVIN COLES: I think it was never going to be a birdie-fest out there today the way the course was playing. I don't think anyone was going to go silly out there today. The pins were in some really good spots today and really tough to get at. You had to be a couple of feet left or right of the flag and you were going to be in trouble. I don't think from what I saw anyway it was going to be a run-away with anybody.

The second part of your question, I suppose anything is possible in this game. You know, I mean, tomorrow is another day. It could be perfect conditions tomorrow and they might have watered the greens a little bit and they don't tend to dry out so much tomorrow and it becomes a birdie-fest. You've just got to do the best you can.

Q. How would you describe the prospect of getting to play last group with No. 2 player in the world tomorrow? Is that exciting, intimidating, some other --

GAVIN COLES: It's awesome, mate. I can't imagine too many guys that wouldn't want to be in my shoes tomorrow standing outside the ropes, that's for sure. What better could it be, playing with the No. 2 player in the world? Maybe playing with the No. 1 player in the world, but, I mean, Vijay is here this week and it's going to be an awesome experience.

TODD BUDNICK: What was your approach shot into 5.

GAVIN COLES: I think I hit like a cut-up 6-iron.

TODD BUDNICK: And then No. 9.

GAVIN COLES: I actually hit a 3-wood through the green there because I didn't think you could hit a decent shot downwind to a downhill, down-grain, and it was just a nasty little pin there.

Q. With the wind, what was the difference in your club selection like on 18 because of the wind today compared to earlier in the week?

GAVIN COLES: Well, I whiffed it up there two days in a row downwind and I hit 5-irons in there. Today I hit my rescue that's in my bag instead of my 3-iron. I absolutely smoked both of them. Couldn't hit it any better, and I only hit it 242 yards off the tee. That's what the laser beam says. So I had 200 yards to the hole, and I hit a pretty good 3-iron that just went through the wind.

Q. Are you a leaderboard watcher?

GAVIN COLES: Yeah, I am.

Q. Were you aware that you had a significant lead on Vijay?

GAVIN COLES: No.

Q. You had a five-shot lead at one time?

GAVIN COLES: Yeah, that's all right. I can't control what he's doing. I just look and go, "oh, okay, they're making some birdies." I don't do anything different than what I'm doing. I'm just going to play the way I play. I can't get up there and go, "well, here's a par 5, these guys are knocking it on in two." I've got to play the way I play. If they're making birdies and eagles. I've just got to be patient. If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Nothing I can do with it.

Q. Have you met Vijay or had any encounters?

GAVIN COLES: He said "good playing" on Tuesday when I went to the chipping green, so he knows who I am and I definitely know who he is.

Q. How long have you known who he is?

GAVIN COLES: He used to play in Australia when I was down there 13 years ago, so quite some time.

Q. Vijay hit two drivers, driver off the deck, I believe, on 15. Can you tell us what you played?

GAVIN COLES: It was a three-shot hole. I smoked my drive about ten yards onto the fairway and then hit my Rescue, and I had about 105 yards out of a divot, so I hit my wedge as hard as I could hit it to try and keep it somewhere near the green.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Gavin, and good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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