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JOHNNIE WALKER CLASSIC


February 11, 2006


Nick O'Hern


PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: We have Nick O'Hern with us, great round of 64, you must be pleased to be right back in the hunt.

NICK O'HERN: Yeah, that was the objective of today was to shoot a low one. I putted pretty ordinary yesterday and left quite a few out there, and today I managed to roll a few in.

At the end had three in a row, good birdie chances, so to get two back on 18 (with the eagle), that was a nice way to finish. Otherwise might have been a bit annoyed at myself.

CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: How were the conditions? There were a lot of low scores this morning.

NICK O'HERN: I imagine so, it's pretty soft. They have obviously watered the course overnight and with such an early start, I'm surprised how soft the course was. If it was an afternoon start, it would have been firmer. Obviously they have done it for other reasons and it's very playable. The greens are running smooth and if you're hitting the ball well, you can make a lot of birdies out there.

Q. What did you hit into 18?

NICK O'HERN: 3 wood, actually. I was surprised how far back I was. But I got all of it to get over the water. Hit it to seven feet.

The back nine, the wind was kind of it kept switching around, trying come in and pushed it back. The second shot, it came back in and I was almost into the wind a little bit. I knew I had to get over it to get over the water. So it was nice.

Q. Is it premature to ask if this is the week for you?

NICK O'HERN: You know, I'm playing really well. I haven't hit the ball this well sorry, I have hit the ball this well before, but it's nice to have the game under control. It's just a matter of getting the putts to drop. You know, I made some really nice putts today but I missed a few as well.

You know, the putting hasn't been great, but I'm just trying to today I just tried to concentrate on less mechanical and more just feel and trying to see the ball going in the hole a bit more and that seemed to do the trick. I'll just keep doing that, and as long as I've got a chance on the back nine tomorrow, I've learned a lot over last few years, and hopefully we can put that into effect.

Q. Did you practice on the greens last night?

NICK O'HERN: Yeah, each day I've been doing just a little bit on the greens, trying to figure out what's going on. Sometimes in this game you think a bit too much about it rather than just let it happen, and maybe that's been the problem in the past. So tomorrow, we'll just try and be aggressive on the greens and try and roll a few in.

Q. For such an early finish, what are you going to do for the rest of the day?

NICK O'HERN: A little bit of practice again and go on and play with my wife and daughter at home, it will be nice. It will be nice to have an afternoon off at home, that's pretty rare.

Q. Must be nice to have an afternoon off?

NICK O'HERN: I assume the times are going to be the same tomorrow. It's good to get that rest in the afternoon. Usually you finish pretty late and it turns out to be a late night but I can get some sleep tonight. It will be nice.

Q. You're not going to the dinner tonight?

NICK O'HERN: That's right. Am I going to the dinner? I'm going to the dinner, by the way. Yeah, forgot about that. I'll have an afternoon off and an evening with all the lovely people there.

Q. Do you know Brett Rumford reasonably well? You seemed really relaxed out there.

NICK O'HERN: Yeah, I know him really well from The European Tour, and obviously a local boy and his caddie, Mitch, his brother, we had some nice banter going on out there, it was fun.

Q. Your knowledge on the course, do you think that's a bit of an advantage tomorrow for your or will it be a level playing field?

NICK O'HERN: You know, I think a lot of the guys have good knowledge of the back nine, anyway. The front nine they probably wouldn't know as well as I do but the greens are incredibly tricky on the front nine. Even the pins, I don't know where to hit it, if you want to miss certain spots. But with the local support and the way I'm playing, you know, it's going to set up for a really good day for me tomorrow.

Q. So are you excited?

NICK O'HERN: Absolutely. If I wasn't playing well, I'd be a bit worried about it, but I'm playing well and I'm looking forward to it. Any time you get into that situation, that's why we play the game to have a chance on Sunday, so we're going to have another chance, that's nice.

Q. You could say this is a fairly strategic golf course, probably suits your style of game; is that the way you felt?

NICK O'HERN: Yeah, it is, length isn't a big factor, but it's a nice change from the courses we play. The par 5s, even I can reach it in two which is quite rare. Usually I'm hitting wedges and some guys are knocking it on in two. So in that sense, you really do have to think your way around, and that's right up my alley. As I've probably shown over the years I'm a pretty strategic sort of player and you don't have to bomb it around here, which is nice. You can use the slopes and all that sort of thing. Any course where you have to think your a warn, I'm pretty happy playing.

CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Thank you and good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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