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84 LUMBER CLASSIC

September 15, 2006

Ryan Moore

FARMINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Ryan Moore for stopping in after a 5 under 67 in round 2 of the 84 Lumber Classic. Bogey free round for you today. Looks like a pretty good round of golf.

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, it was solid all the way around. I had definitely some good par savers throughout the day, but gave myself a lot of really good chances for birdie.

TODD BUDNICK: Talk a little bit about the course. We had a little bit more rain last night. Conditions pretty much the same?

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, it was pretty much the same. The fairways might have been a little softer. My ball plugged a lot today in the fairways. All in all, it was very similar.

TODD BUDNICK: Your season has been a good one to date. You're 98th on the Money List. You fought through some injuries early on, had a good nice runner up at the Buick Championship. Assess where you've been this year.

RYAN MOORE: It's been a pretty up and down year to start the year, and then to go through the injuries and now recovery, and I've had some good tournaments since, like you said, at the Buick, finished 2nd, and then 9th at the PGA Championship and 12th a couple weeks ago, so I'm starting to move in the right direction. I feel like things are getting a little bit more consistent.

I think that's what was the hard part of being hurt and rehabbing. Everything was just I lost a lot of consistency in my game. Now I'm playing a lot more and it seems to be coming around.

Q. Are you still using the unusual takeaway?

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I am.

Q. Did that leave you do you still have trouble with your hand? Does that lead you to believe there's something besides the hand that was going on there?

RYAN MOORE: From everybody I've talked to, and I've talked to the doctor who did the surgery, I've talked to my therapist and a couple other people besides, and they seem to believe that there was nothing else going on besides that. I just kind of reirritated the area. They say for a hand surgery, it takes a full year to get back to 100 percent, so anything from the day of to a year, you can still have some pain and some irritation just because everything still isn't quite right in there. I think what I did is I hit a shot at The International that kind of replicated how I probably broke it in the first place, which probably bruised the bone again, the main part of the bone where they hadn't moved the hook, and they think that would cause pretty much the same pain as what I was having before.

It hasn't been so bad that it really concerns me, and lifting up just takes away any bit of pain that I do have, so I'm sticking with that for now.

Q. At some point will you go back to your normal takeaway, and if so, are you going to take time off to let it heal on its own? I mean, how exactly are you going to approach it?

RYAN MOORE: You know, I don't know. I'm really just kind of taking it a day at a time. I'll take a few normal swings every now and then when I'm out practicing just to see, and right now after two or three swings it'll start bothering me. It's not necessarily the swing, it's more the address position and having to lift it from that position somehow was what's really irritating it.

So doing what I'm doing is taking that away, and it's making actually probably the best golf swing I've made in a while right now. I'm still hitting some stray shots, but overall I'm much more consistent. That's what you've got to do out here; you've just got to put it on the fairway and on the green. I'm making putts this week, and that's what matters.

Q. Did the pain or discomfort or whatever, did you kind of just start doing that just to try to ease the pain or accidentally did somebody suggest you should do that?

RYAN MOORE: It's a practice drill actually that I've been doing for a really long time. Mainly I started using it a lot when I was struggling my sophomore year, actually hitting the ball very similarly to how I have been over the last year or so. I started using that drill a bunch. It kind of takes your hands out of it, makes you just turn your shoulders back and just drop it under. It's a really good drill that eliminates all the flaws that I have in my golf swing, which I don't know why I haven't done it before.

It was just one of those things that I was comfortable with it and I had played a few rounds, never in a tournament, but I had played a few nines or a few rounds out practicing with it and always hit the ball pretty well.

Then at the PGA it was hurting so bad, and the deep rough, that's really what hurts, and I just knew I wasn't hitting the ball very straight to begin with and if I was in pain and having to hack it out of the rough all the time, I was going to shoot in the 80s.

There was really no way around it just because of how much discomfort I was feeling, and something just made me do it when I was on the range. I just kind of picked it up and hit a shot, and I was like, wow, that didn't hurt, all right. And I hit a couple more, hit a couple more, and it didn't hurt. I just kept hitting it perfect actually. So I went ahead and played a couple practice rounds like that.

And I'll tell you what, the first tee shot was tough, though. I was like, I could top this, pop it up on any tee, I don't know what could happen. Somehow it went straight and close to the fairway.

Q. Does weather like this annoy it a little bit more?

RYAN MOORE: Annoy it?

Q. Damp and cold?

RYAN MOORE: It's not quite cool enough that it would start bothering me, but if it does get real cool, yeah, it would start irritating it a little bit. The hardest thing for me right now is kind of stop and go play. Like if I have to sit on a tee box for 10 or 15 minutes and wait if they stack up a couple groups or something like that, that's when I have to keep moving and keep moving and try not to let it stiffen up. That's the hard part for me. The pace of play was really good the last couple days. It kept moving along really good.

Q. What do you do to warm up your hand, anything specific or just go through your normal stuff?

RYAN MOORE: I really haven't changed a whole lot except for this week actually I started adjusting so I'm putting first and then I chip and then I hit balls. Usually I hit balls first and then putt and then chip. I'm trying to get it so my hand doesn't have time to cool back down. That's the only thing I adjusted lately and it seems to be working so I might stick with it.

Q. Do you think you started playing again too soon?

RYAN MOORE: You know, it's kind of hard to say because from what they told me, once it's removed and there was nothing else wrong in there, I mean, I can't do further damage. It's gone, I can't break it again obviously. He kind of left it and he told me to take a good solid six weeks, and after six weeks it's kind of up to me what kind of pain I can tolerate or if it was irritating me.

I started at Colonial and I think that was the seventh week, and it was actually the first time I had played 18 holes since the surgery when I played at Colonial.

So I took it real easy throughout the whole stretch, and to me it was either I'm going to sit at home and I'm going to keep playing and try and get myself or else I might as well just go play. I'm in the tournament so I might as well go see what happens. I was able to make a couple cuts, Colonial and Memorial, real close right after the surgery. Obviously that's helping me now.

Q. Are you able to go around a whole 18 holes and not think about it? Does it ever creep into your head at all?

RYAN MOORE: You know, if I ever have to go down after something real hard, some deep rough, or if it's sitting down real bad actually it's not because it's a lot of shorter shots, kind of a deep lie, just little wedge shots right around the greens are the ones that can get me sometimes the worst.

That's what's really funny is I've noticed more than anything that my hand is bothering my short game and my putting more than my ball striking, which is kind of funny because that's what I thought would not really be affected near as much. But it's the little movements that are some of the tough ones. So when it's sitting down real deep because you have to accelerate real fast, it's stops really is what you're trying to do on those little shots. On a full shot out of the rough you can blast it and go, and it's the stop motion that will break it actually in the first place, and that's what will irritate it.

Q. Have you had many of those here, or have you not missed many fairways or greens?

RYAN MOORE: I don't know. What are my stats? I haven't hit very many of either.

TODD BUDNICK: Fairways, 11 of 14.

RYAN MOORE: That's not bad.

TODD BUDNICK: And greens, 10 of 18.

RYAN MOORE: I don't know, I'm putting pretty good. I'm making a lot.

Q. Did they move any of the tees up that you noticed because of the wetness or anything?

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, a couple, like 18, that tee, I don't know, I don't think we ever hit off the tee box last year that we've hit off the first two days, kind of over to the right more, which is a little bit it's an easier tee shot. The one from the left is a real odd angle the way you're hitting at that fairway. It's actually a little better tee shot from where we are. It's a little more fair. It is such a hard hole to begin with.

They've definitely gone forward a little bit, I'd say four or five tees are definitely more towards the forward side than long. They haven't gone real far back. 9, I don't think we've used the back tee. I think we only used that once last year anyway.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's take your birdies. Start with the par 5, 11th.

RYAN MOORE: Driver, 3 wood that barely cleared the water, had a full sand wedge from probably 100 yards, 99 or 100, and hit it right next to the hole, spun it back down the hill 35 or 40 feet and made it.

Then the next hole, blocked it right, a good 25 or 30 feet right, kind of just hit in the fringe over there. It was probably 10 or 12 feet off the green and just read it perfect, putted it, good pace and made it. It had to be about 30 or 35 feet.

4th hole, par 4, good solid driver, little lob wedge from about 82 or 83 yards, somewhere in there, had to be about 12 or 15 feet behind the hole, just poured it in there, good solid putt.

7, par 3, that was playing about 231 and I hit my 21 degree hybrid, which is a 3 iron. It was back right, and I hit it in there about nine feet. No one clapped.

Then the next hole, driver, had 247 to the pin, hit my 2 iron hybrid, flew it just left of the hole, ended up rolling out to about 25 feet and just burned the edge on the eagle putt and I tapped it in for the birdie.

Q. Some good saves, Ryan?

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, No. 2, my 11th hole of the day, actually just flagged it with a 5 iron from about 200 yards to a way top back left pin and flew right over, landed on the fringe and hopped in the deep rough. Kind of a nasty little lie and flopped it just barely on the green and made I'd say a good solid 15 or 18 footer for par there. It seemed like I was making five or six footers or eight footers for par pretty much all day.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Ryan. Good luck this weekend.

End of FastScripts.

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