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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

September 3, 2005

Billy Andrade

NORTON, MASSACHUSETTS

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Billy, thank you for joining us for a few minutes in the media center at the Deutsche Bank Championship. You're in great position going into the weekend, and it probably feels good after a couple weeks of struggling out there.

BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah, absolutely. Playing great, especially at home, is an added bonus. And you never want to play lousy but I really haven't played well all summer, so it's nice to have a nice, solid round yesterday. And then to back it up again today is real important to not only my confidence but real important to the state of my game right now.

I made three birdies; I didn't make a bogey. I was talking with Jim McCabe last week, thinking about guys that don't make a lot of bogeys are usually going to hang around. It was a good, solid day. I had a lot of good chances today, putts that didn't go in, but real happy with where I stand so far. Because the horse race, as you know, it's 72 holes, not 36, so I'm happy with where I'm at now, and now it's just fun. Now you just go here this weekend and try to let it all happen and play the best you can and add it up when it's over. And usually when I get myself in these situations, I do fairly well. So I'm looking forward. I can't wait until tomorrow to tee it up.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: I know Brad is a good friend of yours, did his win last week inspire you?

BILLY ANDRADE: Absolutely. I was talking about that yesterday, if you're not inspired by not, just because he's a really close friend and we're connected in a lot of ways up here, but just as a golf fan, if you're not inspired by what he accomplished and we had a great talk when he was driving back from Hartford. I went to his house and he was going to be late, so I knew I had to be up here early Monday morning for the Red Sox Pro Am. So I was going home and I got him.

We had a great talk. It was so good that I pulled off I pulled off in front of my house and I didn't go down into my driveway because I knew I would lose him because the cell service in my driveway is not very good. I had my car from Atlanta that I drove to Hartford to leave up here, and my next door neighbor, who I guess she was a little bit nervous, was looking at my car and I'm in this deep conversation about letting it go and all of the things that he was doing the last couple of days, and his putting and then I pulled in the driveway and said, "Have a great time, I'll see you tomorrow," and all of a sudden it was like a SWAT team showed up. (Laughter) Bristol police just, whew, three of them on me.

I was putting clubs into the trunk and I went up the hill and the police know me well so, they were like, "Hey, Billy, what are doing back in town?" The lady, she gave the wrong license plate, so it came up as no license plate. So then they thought it was a stolen car and all that. (Laughter).

But it was a great, great conversation that we had and it was talking about the mental side and letting go with the putter and he was struggling with it and I'm listening to him like, this is exactly where I have been pretty much this summer.

So going in here, I thought a lot about what we talked about, and, you know, when you play free golf, you can play. We all can. The problem is letting it go and freeing it up and not thinking about all of the things that can go wrong, and when we do that, is when we screw up and you know, Brad is an unbelievable golfer, and I think I am, too, at times when I let just my talent take over, and I think that's why this game is so frustrating and so great because you have times when you're awesome and then there's times when you're not. It's trying to fight back and get it back.

So I'm a quick study, and you know, it's like all of us, all of a sudden you've been doing this your whole life, you know it takes one little something to get you going, and I think I've got something going, so I'm looking forward to this weekend.

Q. Inaudible?

BILLY ANDRADE: No, I haven't, not. Usually he's a delay guy; I usually get him a week later. I have to do better than just shoot a couple of good scores the first to days, especially pitching tonight.

Q. Inaudible?

BILLY ANDRADE: It's clear right now. So I like what I'm doing. I felt great out there today. I didn't make a few that I could have made, but it didn't affect my outlook and I'm not going to let it affect it. I know that if I just let things happen, I'm pretty good, so I'm going to continue to do that.

Q. You said when you're in this position, you usually fair pretty well, why do you think that is?

BILLY ANDRADE: I like it. I enjoy it. I don't back down from it. I don't get I thrive on it, I don't know why, but I've always been that way. Every time I've had a chance to win tournaments, I've won or I've come close to winning. Some guys don't like being in that position and back off. And you know what, I don't know what's going to happen this weekend but it's not because I'm afraid to be in the position I'm in. I've been that way since I was a little kid. I love it. My problem is just getting there and being able to get myself in position. But once I'm in position, I usually do fairly well.

So I just enjoy the feeling. I enjoy everything that comes with it. I seem to focus better. I'm not as sloppy. And my problem has always been trying to get myself in this position on Thursday and Friday. I think tournaments are won on Thursday and Friday more than they are on Saturday, until you get yourself in that position, because all it takes is one sloppy nine. Out here, all it takes is a couple sloppy holes and you're gone for the weekend. So I enjoy that position when I get in it and I'm going to enjoy it this weekend immensely.

Q. Some of us have spoken for two years about this being a bomber's course with Vijay and Tiger; the leaders are now you and Jeff Brehaut and Olin Browne, is the course changing?

BILLY ANDRADE: You just mentioned three pretty good bombers. (Laughter). Olin Browne hits the heck out of it, let me tell you. (Laughter.) I think guys are learning the golf course a little more. It does favor guys, if you can hit it far, but the guys you mentioned, Jeff Brehaut is playing great golf right now. If you've noticed, he finished I think second or third at The INTERNATIONAL. He played well again somewhere else, so he's on a bit of a roll. And he's a good putter. Olin Browne is a streaky player as we all know and he's won tournaments. When he gets his putter going, he can contend with anyone, as well. So I think it's nice to play a course that doesn't favor the guys that bomb it, but I think that over the course of three years now, guys are learning the golf course a little better and figuring it out.

Q. Is it a distraction playing at home?

BILLY ANDRADE: There's really not many distractions at home. When you get inside the ropes, to be honest with you, it's the same as any other tournament. I think the distractions are overrated. It's all what you perceive with yourself, if you want to say they are. A lot of friends are out there supporting you. They are not out here laughing you at you if you hit bad shots.

So I don't really see anything playing at home or playing around home as a distraction. So you've just got to go out there and execute. You know, I'll be honest with you, the first two years here, I didn't play that bad. I just putted, I didn't make anything. If you don't make anything out here, you're going to pack it up after two days and go home.

Q. How long does it take you to get home?

BILLY ANDRADE: You know, it's about 50 minutes, give myself 45 to 50 minutes. There's two ways I can go. I can go through Providence, I can go 24 South, so I usually go home 24 South. It's usually not too bad, I don't have to go through Providence, all of the construction there. It's not too bad.

Q. The confidence, how much pressure does that take off your game overall?

BILLY ANDRADE: It gives you freedom. It gives you you know I've always putted pretty and chipped pretty well and always drove it terrible. If I could just keep it in play, I that would be freedom for me, and now I'm driving it pretty solid and letting that go and I haven't been putting well. You don't finish tired would be a good way of putting it. You know, when you're struggling with one part of your game or a couple parts of your game and you're just holding on for dear life, whatever it is, you finish the round and you want to go take a nap, you're so fatigued and so tired.

You know, right now I can go out there play 18 more, I'm ready to go. I think that's what happens when you're flowing and you're not the pressure is not as, I guess, it's there but it's not as tiring when you get done. I think that's one key when you finish and you're not like, man, I've just been through the ringer, and we all have been there.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Let's go over your birdies.

BILLY ANDRADE: I birdied 15, I hit a good drive and a 9 iron to about five feet and I made that.

2, I had a lay up. I was just in the left rough and laid up and hit a sand wedge about ten feet and made that.

5, I was on the right fringe, I hid driver and 7 iron on the right fringe and made about a 30 footer. That was nice.

And I will see you guys tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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