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BARCLAYS CLASSIC

June 9, 2006

Billy Andrade

HARRISON, NEW YORK

NELSON SILVERIO: Welcome, Billy Andrade, thanks for coming in for a couple minutes, another solid round today. Why don't you just take us through your round and how the course is playing any different than yesterday.

BILLY ANDRADE: You know, we saw the sun. I think that's the first thing that was pretty neat when we got out here this morning, that it was going to be a nice day. The wind was blowing a little bit, but playing the ball up again I guess because of the wind I mean because of the weather, they didn't know what the forecast was, so playing the ball up again is an advantage. It makes it a little easier.

I got off to a really good start. I birdied 10, 11 and 13 out of the gate. I was 3 under after four. Then I bogeyed 15, 16 and 17 and was, like, okay, here we go.

Then I made a birdie and a double and a couple birdies coming in, so it was kind of an up and down yo yo day. I felt like the Yankees pitching staff. You think you've got it going pretty good and next thing you know you give up all these runs and then all of a sudden you win the game at the end (laughter).

Q. Is it safe to say that through the struggles you've had this year that you haven't had a moment where you've rebounded? Like you've had moments where you started off and then fallen off and haven't recovered like you did today?

BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah, I've had some rounds like this today where it's kind of been yo yoey, up and down. I've been playing so well from tee to green and getting nothing out of it. It's more demoralizing when you two putt, two putt, three in a three putt, you walk away shooting a 73 or 74 and when you add them up you should be shooting 65 or 66. That's the difference between winning and not winning, making cuts and missing cuts, playing well and not well is your conversion rate. If you're walking off every day with four shots, which is the way I've been playing, that's minimal. That's easy to give to say, yeah, there were four shots out there that I gave away today. Add that by four, that's the difference between having everybody tell you how great you are and having everybody tell you what's wrong with you.

It's very demoralizing when you go through times where I've always been a player where I've saved shots. I've never walked away going, geez, I could have made one here, here, here and here, and it's not a good feeling when you're doing it every day, giving away, giving away, giving away. Today was I gave a few away but then got a few back, which was nice.

I think maybe somebody this afternoon is going to go out and shoot a good score. The golf course is more the taking. It's in perfect shape to shoot low. There have been a couple low scores this morning, and I don't know if 6 under is going to be leading at the end of the day. If it is, great. If not, it's no big deal, I'm looking forward to this weekend.

Q. For your own mental toughness, was it important today to come back from those three bogeys and put yourself in position at the halfway point?

BILLY ANDRADE: Absolutely. If I continued the slide, then I'm 1 under, even, I don't know what the cut is going to be, then yeah you never want to give it all away where you're in that position where you're leading a tournament at 8 under and then you walk away missing the cut. I've done that, too. It's not a whole lot of fun not being in control.

To come back today was great. I feel really happy about that, and again, I like my position. When I usually get in these positions, I'm usually sharper with my game. I don't make those stupid mental mistakes that I've been doing lately.

Q. With the situation you've had, like say giving shots, saving shots and everything, is the experience factor coming in at all, like you've been through this so many times that you know how to react when something like this occurs or is it the fickle nature of golf?

BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah, I think that last year at the U.S. Open, Retief Goosen had all the experience, and he shot 80 whatever. I think at times, experience can help if you're playing well, but the trials and tribulations of going through your life and playing well I won this tournament 15 years ago. It didn't seem that long ago, and then at times it seems like when the hell was that; that's a long time ago. Yeah, I won this tournament and I was a champion here, but that's not going to make any difference this weekend. I've still got to go out and play solid golf, great golf and get the ball in the hole somehow, and when it's over maybe it's my week.

Q. How are you a different player from the guy that won here 15 years ago?

BILLY ANDRADE: I would say that I'm a much better ball striker. Tee to green I'm a better player. I'm a lot longer now for all the steroids I've been taking (laughter). I would say that back then I was a real good chipper and putter, and I think that on golf courses like here, you have to be a great chipper and putter to succeed. All the players that have won here have been those kind of players. But it's a different game today than it was back then.

It stinks when you say I remember we used to hit from this tee, now we're hitting from back here. That's not a lot of fun. But the guys today, they don't know that.

Q. You mentioned this yesterday about your conversation with Tim Herron about how he was sort of lamenting his statement, and he comes back and wins. Can you expound on that and what you draw from seeing something like that?

BILLY ANDRADE: I think you draw well on seeing your friends do well that haven't done well for a while, and I've done it. I didn't win for seven years and then won the Canadian Open after winning here. You ask yourself, hey, am I ever going to win again, is this going to happen, I feel I feel like I've had a couple opportunities where it slipped away and didn't convert. And then you see that, and it's inspiring to say, say, Timmy Herron did it, I can do it. Jeff Maggert did it, I can do it. Others have done it, why can't I?

I think we all do that, we all try to see how our friends are saying that's what's so fickle about this game, you can be absolutely pitiful one week and all of a sudden next week something clicks and you have a chance to win, and that's what happens.

Q. Did you have expectations when you won here? It was back to back with Kemper, wasn't it?

BILLY ANDRADE: It was.

Q. Did you have expectations when you walked off here 15 years ago, and have you met them?

BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah, I would say I never have been a person that has said, okay, by X year I hope to have X amount of money or cars or wins or success. I've just kind of gone through this life and kind of lived it and had a great time.

I have a great wife, I've got two healthy children. This game has brought me opportunity and things I never imagined, and the people I've met and this whole dream has been pretty cool. You know, I'd love to sit here and say, God, I wish I had won a couple majors and I wish I had won 20 tournaments instead of winning four. But you know what, you can't dwell on the past. You can't think about what ifs.

Like them or hate him, John McEnroe, I saw him on a talk show one night, and they were talking about his past and the outbursts and all the times he's made a total ass of himself, and he said I can't worry about the past, all I can worry about is the today and the future. I think that's a great attitude. If he does it, I don't know, maybe it's a BS line, but I thought it was pretty cool, I can't worry about what happened in the past, all I can do is try to change or get better in the future.

Yeah, I'd love to sit here and say, yeah, I've won more titles, but I've tried, I just haven't been good enough, I guess. But I have no problem with that because when it's all said and done, when I'm done, I can say I gave it my all, and that's all you want to do is be true to yourself.

Q. Is your game good enough to win the way you played today? Do you say to yourself my game is solid enough I can win this thing?

BILLY ANDRADE: Absolutely. I can win any week. It's a matter of just putting better, just get the ball in the hole. Today I threw away a few, I made a few, which was nice. But you've just got to putt, just got to get the ball in the hole.

Every week the guys that are winning, if you look at the list to see how many putts, there's always in the Top 10, six or seven of the guys in the Top 10 are guys that have great putting weeks. That's what you've got to do out here. I'm just going to have a blast this weekend, have a good time. I'm looking forward to it. If it's my week, it's my week, and if not we'll unfortunately have to take next week off, but I'll have fun next week anyway.

End of FastScripts.

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