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JOHNNIE WALKER CLASSIC

February 12, 2006

Nick O'Hern

PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: I'm sure you're a little disappointed but great effort again.

NICK O'HERN: Yeah, I got off to a good start, 3 under through five, I played beautifully and then ran into a brick wall as far as the scoring went. Hit some good shots, and some ordinary ones, as well. And I kept getting up and down and that hung me in there even though I wasn't playing that well. With three holes to go, figured I would look at the board and I saw Kevin, I think he birdied the last three or threw in an eagle or something and had some really good chances. It's pleasing coming down the stretch finishing 17 and 18 with the shots that I did. Just couldn't play any better than that, and hit the putts I wanted. I thought that last one might make a bit of difference, but as it turned out, it didn't. It was a pleasing day.

Q. Did you play the last three holes more aggressively than you normally would?

NICK O'HERN: Not really. The shots were there. All week I've been hitting the ball pretty well. 16, I pulled it a little bit, thought it was going to clear the water anyway. I was trying to use the slope on my left. I had a great chance for birdie there and hit a good putt.

17, you know, I've been sort of aiming at the flags most of the week. I had a good shot and 18 setup perfect for a nice 5 wood for me, I hit a beautiful shot there.

Q. What did you hit on 17?

NICK O'HERN: 7 iron, I had 160. It's normally a 6 iron but I thought, no, let's hit a hard 7 and just go straight at it. It worked out pretty well.

Q. Did you have help on the last putt?

NICK O'HERN: I had not really been asking my caddie much all week as far as lines and that, but I wasn't quite sure on the last couple of holes. I thought, well, get him in there and have a look. Hit it right where we wanted, I think it was just outside left and felt it was going to straighten for the last six feet but it was going to keep on turning. Six feet to go, I thought it was right in the middle, was very surprised to see it.

Q. The par fives probably cost you a bit as the only birdie was on 18.

NICK O'HERN: The first one was the third hole where I thought I hit a great shot in there and just got what's the word for it, shafted. Just went over the back of the green in a horrible lie and could easily have been a birdie there.

The other par 5, I short sided myself on the front and just couldn't get it close. 10, I hit five good shots. I hit a good tee shot. Second shot, hit it right where I wanted, went over the back, bad lie again. But that's golf. You've just got to keep firing away and keep hitting the shots you want and sure enough it's going to happen sometime. Kevin just played too well. Thought I might have had a chance when he needed to birdie the last, and he hit a great shot in there, so all credit to him.

Q. Three bogeys throughout the week for you must be pleasing?

NICK O'HERN: Normally 18 under wins a golf tournament. It's pretty rare that it doesn't. You know, I figured probably at the start of the day, at least 20 under would be the mark. With so many guys around, probably won three or four shots of the lead I figured someone was going to go real low. As it turned out nobody did, I don't think. Although Rob Allenby, shot a great round.

But when we turned the corner on the back nine, we were straight into the wind and those were pretty tough holes and par was a good score because it was quite tricky out there. You've got to take opportunities on the last, on that last hole especially. It's really almost a par 4 today.

Q. Was club selection any harder today because of the wind?

NICK O'HERN: Not really. It's about the same. I think we had a lot of crosswinds and into the wind. It's more so when you turn on holes, it's not so bad going into the wind or downwind because you know where it is, it's more on the downwind holes, that's where it gets really difficult. The course was a little bit firmer today than yesterday. So trying to control your ball on the greens is a bit more difficult.

Q. I know you're disappointed, and this is a completely different feeling from Huntingdale?

NICK O'HERN: It is, yeah, it's still a hollow feeling obviously. It would be nice to take away the win. But I played my heart out today and I was really proud of the last four or five holes. When I needed to get up and down, I did. And especially the last two holes, to stand up there, you know, I was feeling it, and I was actually able to hit all the shots I wanted. That's what it's all about, coming down the stretch with a shot. I'm going to take a lot away from this week again, and it's going to happen soon, I know it.

Q. You said yesterday that you were not as concerned about how you were going to perform today because you played so well earlier in the week, is that also important?

NICK O'HERN: I played pretty solid, got to a good start. And through the middle, I didn't have as good of shots as I had done all week, but, you know, you can't be perfect all the time. It's a hard game. But I just thought, well, you know, just keep plugging away here, we're not out of it yet, and I didn't really look at the boards.

I saw after nine holes, I think we're about level going into the back nine, and then I had to look on about 15 or 16 or something like that and figured it was going to be pretty tight. You've just got to maintain your score which I did; I made one bogey out there, on 12, I think it was. It's a hard game, and to shoot 68 on Sunday, I'm pretty pleased.

Q. Where do you go from here?

NICK O'HERN: I've got a week off next week and then I'm heading to the Match Play in America.

Q. You've changed your plans, you were originally going to go early?

NICK O'HERN: Yeah, we were all going to go across next week, but as I mentioned before, what's happening with my wife, I'm just going to go back and forth to the States all year, basically.

CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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