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CANADIAN OPEN

September 8, 2006

Jonathan Byrd

ANCASTER, ONTARIO

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Jonathan Byrd for stopping in after a 68 today, following a 65 yesterday. Looks like both days you finished with a flourish. Three birdies down the stretch today to get yourself tied for the lead heading into the weekend.

JONATHAN BYRD: Yeah, I mean, yesterday I was playing extremely well, not getting much out of it. Was 2 under most of the day. Got hot, made four birdies, then bogeyed the last.

Today was kind of a struggle all day. I wasn't hitting it real good. It was windy. I was just kind of scraping it, making good pars. I had some chances. Didn't take advantage of them. Just didn't make any putts.

The urge was to get real aggressive at the end. I just tried to be conservative, give myself some chances. I made a couple putts, made some birdies.

Feels good.

TODD BUDNICK: You've won a couple times out here. You're back in the hunt for the weekend. Talk about your thoughts heading into it.

JONATHAN BYRD: You know, I've been in contention this year somewhat. You know, Atlanta I was in the last group on Sunday, but not really in contention because Phil was killing everybody.

But, you know, I've gotten kind of in the mix a little bit this year. I'm excited to be in this position. I feel like my game's tenfold better than it was last year. I feel really comfortable this week. I feel really comfortable on this course, feel really good about my game.

TODD BUDNICK: Talk about this course. It came back to bite a lot of people today. The winds picked up. Talk about the difference in days, yesterday and today.

JONATHAN BYRD: We've had a couple of these. Like last week, it was pretty passive the first couple days. Not a whole lot of wind. Guys really took advantage of the golf course, although it played long. Yesterday it played easy being that soft. Guys shot low scores.

Just like last week, the wind came up, the course played tough. It was hard to get a real good feel out there. Some of the greens have gotten really firm and some of them were still soft. You just had to keep plugging away and keep it out of trouble.

TODD BUDNICK: Questions.

Q. What is your experience telling you to do when you see a leaderboard with four guys at 7 and eight guys at 6?

JONATHAN BYRD: I didn't know that until now. I hadn't really examined it. It's Friday. We got two days left. This is a good field.

TODD BUDNICK: A good chance there will be seven strokes between the cut and the top.

JONATHAN BYRD: It was like that last week, wasn't it? It was pretty tight. Through two rounds it seemed like the scores were pretty tight.

You know, that's the ongoing trend the last two or three years since I've been on TOUR, everybody's getting better. I remember playing courses where this course three years ago, the cut would have been probably two shots higher. Just everybody's getting better. It's a good field. You kind of expect guys to play well.

Q. When you see it so jammed up like this, is your experience telling you you better get out there tomorrow and put your foot on the gas or just bide your time because you know some will fall away?

JONATHAN BYRD: Well, when I get out there tomorrow, I'm not going to be in the lead probably when I start out. Somebody ahead of me is going to go out and make some birdies starting out.

I've been in this position before, and I've won. I remember being on the golf course. I kept telling myself, I got more holes than them if I'm behind on the leaderboard, towards the end of the last group or second to last group.

I think it depends on the weather tomorrow. I think the birdies are still out there. There's plenty of wedges, if you drive it in the fairway. You're going to have to play well to win this golf tournament. You can't just hit it in the fairway and make pars and think you're going to have a chance.

I'm going to stay pretty aggressive. No more aggressive than I have been the last two days, though.

Q. You say you feel tenfold better about your game. What did you do to get that feeling? Physical, mental, swing technique?

JONATHAN BYRD: Well, I work with a guy named Morris Pickens at home who is a golf psychologist. He's helped me a lot this past off season and this year just to think about the right things on the golf course, just kind of cut out some of the poor thoughts, replace them with the right thoughts. I've got a lot more confidence this year. You've seen that. I've gone through an injury this year. I haven't played much. But when I have played, I've played well. I think the work I've done with Morris Pickens has really helped me probably the most with my game.

Had a baby almost six weeks ago. Maybe that adds a little bit of perspective, having your first child, our son Jackson. Maybe that's added some perspective and taken a little pressure off.

Q. (No microphone.)

JONATHAN BYRD: I'm sleeping great on the road. When I've been home, the sleep is two hours at a time, three hours at a time. My wife is just an amazing woman right now. She's doing a great job, letting me stay out and play an extra week.

Q. (No microphone.)

JONATHAN BYRD: I think the sleep deprivation is shocking. It's shocking just how awesome it is. It's made me just be in awe of our creator, that we can have kids, because it's a miracle that we can do that. Then he's so little, it's just awesome. Looking at him, we just stare at him. That's all we do.

But there's a lot of stuff that people don't tell you. It's hard. Changing diapers, he's crying, the sleep. It's a lot of work.

Q. (No microphone.)

JONATHAN BYRD: I had a rib injury. I separated cartilage in one of my ribs. I was out for 10 weeks, then two more weeks, so a total of 12.

Q. (No microphone.)

JONATHAN BYRD: Working out.

Q. (No microphone.)

JONATHAN BYRD: Ping pong? Not totally sure how it happened. It happened Sunday at BellSouth. Got some poor advice. It made it worse.

Q. (No microphone.)

JONATHAN BYRD: It's fine. Rib is fine. Game is good.

TODD BUDNICK: Jonathan, start with your bogey on No. 10.

JONATHAN BYRD: Good shot into 10. Just kind of tried to skip it back to the back hole location. Hit it about 15 feet by. Just rammed it really fast. I 3 putted. I came back, chipped in on the next hole, on 11.

Didn't have any birdies for a while.

TODD BUDNICK: Bogeyed 1.

JONATHAN BYRD: 1 was just man, I was lucky to get out of there with a bogey. I bogeyed 1.

2 I made about a 35 footer for birdie. Felt pretty fortunate to make birdie there.

Then I played really good for the next stretch of holes and didn't take advantage of the fourth hole or the fifth hole. I made two pars there, then bogeyed six. Missed the green left. Had a tough chip, made bogey.

Then the last three holes, just I wasn't hitting it real crisp, but I gave myself two chances about 15 feet and made those on 7 and 8. 7 was out of the right rough.

Then 9 I hit two pure shots, a 3 wood wedge, made a good putt from about 10 feet.

Strong finish.

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

JONATHAN BYRD: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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