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CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP


October 27, 2006


Gil Morgan


SONOMA, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Gil, thanks for joining us. 6 under today. That's now 21 straight par or better rounds for you.

GIL MORGAN: Really?

THE MODERATOR: Going back to Portland.

GIL MORGAN: Really? Shocking.

THE MODERATOR: If you could, talk about your day.

GIL MORGAN: Well, with TK making that eagle, it was kind of didn't seem to be helping a lot. I started pretty fast. I birdied the first couple holes. May have been may have bogeyed the third hole.

I had a really bad lie and then I birdied 4 to get back. And then ended up making, I think, 5 birdies on the a front, which set me up pretty good.

And then on the back, it just didn't I played all right, I just didn't make as many putts. I had one chance to make a bogey looked like, and I got that one up and down.

And then I missed a short putt on the 11th hole, three and a half feet for birdie. But other than that, I just birdied both the Par 5s on the back; didn't make any on the other holes.

THE MODERATOR: Do you remember your shot sequence on 1 and 2?

GIL MORGAN: Yeah. I hit a driver and then second shot let's see, first hole I hit driver, pitching wedge, just out of the right rough a little bit in there probably about four or five feet and made that.

On 2, I hit driver 3 wood and hit it to the green and 2 putted for a birdie there; made that.

My only bogey on 3, hit it in the right rough and couldn't get to the green at all. Didn't make a great pitch.

And then at 4, hit 4 iron just off the back fringe with probably about twenty feet away, I guess. And I made that one.

On 6, I hit driver pitching wedge about, oh, maybe four feet, three or four feet. Made that one.

Knocked it through the green at 8 and couldn't get it up and down.

Hit driver 3 wood through the green my last hole. I hit 3 wood sand wedge about maybe fifteen feet and made that.

Let's see, 13, I had

THE MODERATOR: 2 putt from about 30 feet?

GIL MORGAN: Yeah, I hit just off the rough side of the fairway in the rough and I hit a 5 wood just about hole high, about two feet, and made that. And then got it up and down on the next hole from just off the left side of the green for par at the Par 3.

And then at 16, I hit driver 5 iron just left of the green and chipped it about two feet. Made that one for my last birdie.

And then I had a great opportunity at the last hole. Had it maybe ten feet or so and missed it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Gil, you turned 60 not long ago. Do you feel different as a person or a golfer since then?

GIL MORGAN: Well, I definitely have a few more aches and pains than I did at 50. Overall, my game I'm still hitting pretty long for a 60 year old guy, I guess. But not a whole lot of change. A little inconsistent at the end of this year is all.

All year I played pretty well, really. Seemed like the last three or four weeks haven't played as well as I'd like. Was really tentative yesterday on the greens. Couldn't get the speed factor and everything was tough. So I didn't I didn't putt very well yesterday and I hit a few bad shots, but today I played pretty solid and drove the ball pretty well most of the time.

Going back your question, no, I don't seem feel a whole lot different at this point in time.

Q. What differences are there in someone's game from 50 to 60 (inaudible.)

GIL MORGAN: Well, I think it gets harder and harder. We've got more and more good players coming the last couple years. In the last few years, we didn't seem to have the influx with Loren and Freddy and Jay that are coming. And I think in the next two or three years it's even going to be more of a factor.

Of course, I'm going to be getting older at the same time, so it's kind of a double hit probably. But as far as consistency of winning, at this point in time of my career, I don't feel a whole lot different.

But my win situation or sequence has slowed down somewhat over the last few years. I was fortunate to win this year. Got Loren to hit one in the water at the wrong time. So that helped a lot. But I've had a couple good tournaments.

I still think I have a potential to win like that. But at the same time, it's going get more difficult as we go forward.

Q. You and Hale are two of the most dominate players over the last ten years. You are sort of in the same boat of trying to maintain over 60.

GIL MORGAN: It's hard to do. Hale has slowed down this year more than he has this is the first big change that I've seen in Hale. I think he hurt his back two, three years ago, and that's something he hasn't faced in most of his career.

It's a tough injury to get where you can't practice when you're off. It takes little while. I've gone through that most of my career, so I think I can deal with it. I've dealt with it more than he has, so maybe I know how to do that a little bit. But it's about time for us to change the guard here a little bit, you know. Raymond and Hale came in and I played well for a little bit there. We got a lot of good, strong players today at a later date on the Tour. So all that significance, you know, that the guys are just playing better and better and staying in better shape.

Q. (Inaudible.)

GIL MORGAN: This year was my tenth year. I was like, I'm going to see if I can play most of the events and see what happens. I've kind of pushed myself. Back when we had 40 events, I played 22 to 26 events usually. So I didn't play much more, but they were more concentrated, so I didn't have as much time off to rest as I did when there were more events on our Tour.

So like this last segment here was five in a row, and I can really feel a difference the last couple weeks. It was hard to get acclimated, and I was still just didn't feel as well. I think next year I may not play as much and slow down a little bit.

Q. Do you still get as psyched up to play as you did five or ten years ago?

GIL MORGAN: Obviously I think there's a factor there of not having quite the desire that you had. I think all the guys, like, you know, Freddy and Jay Haas and Loren, when you first come out here you're excited about coming out here and having the opportunity, and it seems a little bit easier than what you were doing at the time. You don't have any cuts to make. The courses are new and everything's kind of exciting for you.

So I think you're level of excitement and what you want to do to during that time frame to play is enhanced when you first come here. And as you play, then you get where it's more of a grind, more like it was playing the regular Tour at the end of your career.

So it's obviously a factor. But, if you get in contention, I think this Tour is still very, very competitive. Most people don't understand that. The guys are trying extremely hard to win out there. So when you get to that position, you're putting a lot more effort into it. Seeing some guys really concentrating out there.

I don't think there's any change in that aspect. Now, if you're not playing well and you're down the list, you may not be quite as fired up, obviously.

Q. You're on the money list 4th or 5th?

GIL MORGAN: I was 4th coming in here.

Q. To that the year you turn 60, how do you rate that accomplishment?

GIL MORGAN: You know, I think overall it's just it goes back to my swing type. You know, I think I've got good fundamentals. That's helped me. I try to work out in the off season and stay in good enough shape and strengthen the areas that help me in golf. So I think those aspects. And most of the players that are still here are here for a reason. They were good at something, or probably good at a lot of things, some of them. That doesn't diminish very readily when you first come out here. But I think the better your fundamentals are the better your chance of having enhanced longevity there.

End of FastScripts.

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