WACHOVIA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 4, 2006

Jim Furyk

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: We'd like to thank Jim Furyk for joining us here in the media center for a few minutes. Good start to the week, and you're the first player in this afternoon. Just talk about, it was real calm this morning and it seemed calm out there this afternoon.

JIM FURYK: It was pretty calm, considering the way it's been windy the last couple days I was here. It kicked up a little bit, but I'll just call it breezy. It pretty much went from the same direction all day, so it wasn't a guessing game out there. It was pretty much coming from the southwest the whole time we were playing. That made it a little less difficult.

But it's a good golf course. It's a very good, difficult golf course. It's demanding, and you really have to pretty much have all aspects of your game in good shape to play well here.

Q. Based on your score, it looked like just a good solid round where you did a lot of good things?

JIM FURYK: It was. I think I could improve in a couple areas. I wasn't happy with I hit a couple good drives today that didn't end up in the fairway, and I also hit a few poor drives that I was able to escape from. Where I tended to do a very good job today was when I got the ball in trouble off the tee. I didn't hit any wild shots or hit it way off, but I definitely was a few yards off the fairway more often than I'd like today. I did a good job putting the ball up around or up in front of the green and put myself in a place where I left myself with a pretty good percentage up and down I'll say, and I was able to pitch and chip the ball well today and putt the ball well today, and that helped.

But my fairway stats probably aren't really good today and my green stats probably weren't all that good today. I think I hit the ball better than they'll show. I was just off the edge of a few greens and just off the edge of a few fairways.

Overall I was pretty pleased with my round. I'll definitely want to hit some more fairways, though. Usually that's my strength, not my weakness, but I want to hit some more fairways to keep playing well.

Q. What's your attitude coming back to a place that you lost in a playoff the year before? What's the mindset?

JIM FURYK: Well, I think that I definitely don't have a mindset that the course owes me one or anything like that. I think that had I finished second here or third here, it's kind of the same feeling. I played well here last year. I gave it a good effort. I was disappointed at that time, but now I have fond memories of it, and it's good to come back knowing if my game is in good shape, I have a chance to compete.

I'm almost in the same spot I was last year at this time in that I finished second at Hilton Head, I took two weeks off, coming in here feeling a touch rusty not having played in a couple weeks, but I worked on my game four or five days really hard before coming in here. I'm still kind of feeling things out a little bit in my game because I haven't played, but it feels good and hopefully it'll build and get better as the week goes on.

Q. Most of the guys earlier were talking about how much more difficult it would be this afternoon. Do you feel like your score is deceivingly not as good because you did play in the afternoon?

JIM FURYK: You know, I don't know how the golf course played this morning. I know you talked about there not being wind this morning. It really didn't get that windy this afternoon. Usually in the afternoon the greens might get a little firmer, might get a little slicker or tougher to putt because of traffic and such, but the greens were in pretty good shape. Obviously that was the best part of my game today was putting. I think they might have got a little crustier or firmer, but it seemed like still Davis finished at 3 under behind me; still seemed like there were some good scores this afternoon.

At the end of the day you kind of take the average score from the morning, average from the afternoon, you can kind of figure out how to play, but it wasn't a drastic difference like it can be some days.

Q. Can you comment a little bit about the condition of the golf course and the job that's done here at Wachovia, the job that the superintendent has done this week?

JIM FURYK: Both the last couple of years, as a Tour we're always trying to we want the course to play difficult and fair, and we've always asked our staff and the courses to try to get the golf courses playing firm. When the fairways are firm, the golf course may play a little bit shorter but it also makes it that much harder to get the ball in the fairway because it wants to run into the rough. When the greens get a little firmer and faster you have to be a little more precise with your iron shots.

I think they've done a great job. We've also been blessed with some great weather the last couple years, so hopefully the rain stays away and we can keep up with the firm, fast conditions.

It's a good solid golf course, and this tournament does a pretty darn good job in all aspects. It would be a good model for most tournaments to follow. They do everything pretty darn good here.

Q. You went 34 34. How important is consistency going to be on each side? Two of the other leaders went 38 30.

JIM FURYK: I'll take it either way. It's 68. I think that's pretty interesting. The 30 sure is good, I know that.

But just add it up at the end, and if you make all your birdies on one side and a couple bogeys on the other, it really doesn't matter how it works. Just hopefully you get a string going and you make some birdies in there somewhere and it adds up to a good score. I don't think it matters either way.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.