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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 4, 2006

Adam Scott

ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Third Round

TODD BUDNICK: First off, we'd like to congratulate the 54 hole leader Adam Scott for being this week's AstraZeneca Charity Challenge winner. For his efforts $100,000 will be donated on behalf of AstraZeneca and the TOUR Championship to the American Diabetes Association. Congratulations on that, Adam.

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, that's great. It's great to have a charitable donation like that every week.

TODD BUDNICK: All right. We'll get to today's round, a 3 under 67, the real swing there on 14 and 15. Talk a little bit about that.

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, that was important for me. It really changed the whole tournament from my end of things. Birdieing 14 was great, but making a 3 at 15 really pulled me back out in front in a position I like to be in.

Making par at the last three holes was important. I mean, those last five holes were really a big swing in the tournament for me.

Q. How do you look at it with a three stroke lead heading into the final round?

ADAM SCOTT: It's a great position to be in. You know, I'm going to need to play another really great round of golf tomorrow. I think you can see all the great players making a bit of a move today and creeping up the leaderboard, so I've got a lot of world class players right behind me.

I'm sure one of them will get out there and make some birdies and try and chase. I've got to keep moving in the right direction.

Q. It didn't look like you hit a single bad shot all day really, except for the one you made an eagle on. What was the club and the yardage? Did you hit that fat?

ADAM SCOTT: I hit it thin actually.

Q. A little skidder?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, just trying to help it up the up slope, and I caught it right off the bottom groove. I hit a lot of really good shots that didn't turn out that good today, and that one made up for them. Yeah, it was a 3 iron from 216.

Q. What was your thought when you hit it? You didn't look all that thrilled when you hit it. Then take us from there as it kept rolling and rolling.

ADAM SCOTT: Well, I couldn't see it. Just when I hit it, I just thinned it and I thought it would be short, but it was right on line. It was going right where I was aiming, and I guess it took some good bounces. You know, just one of those things, golf.

On 11 I hit probably the best shot of the day I could hit with a 6 iron, and I thought it was going in the hole. It comes up short in the bunker face. It's unexplainable.

Q. Are you allowing yourself to envisage that beautiful view across the Strait of Molokai yet?

ADAM SCOTT: No, I really need to knock one down tomorrow. I don't think it'll be very easy even though I'm three out in front. It'll be a good chance for me to try and really get out there and put the tournament away with some good play through the first parts of the round.

You know, I think it's going to be a tough round of golf for me tomorrow. This course is not easy at all, and I've worked really hard for three days. I think I need to do it for one more day.

Q. You mentioned that Tiger like mentality in contention yesterday. Do you think you had it today? You kind of alluded to what it would take tomorrow from the same line.

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, a little. I think tomorrow I really need to get focused. It's hard to say you're going to go out and birdie four of the first five holes. It's easier said than done.

I just need to go out there and hit good shots and stay focused like I have been, and I think the important thing for me to do is not give up shots that easily. That's what I've done well this week.

I've really worked hard when I've been in trouble and I've pitched well and made some good putts to save par and keep the rounds going, and that's what I need to do tomorrow if I get in trouble.

Q. Was it a grinding sort of day until you got to 14?

ADAM SCOTT: No, not really, I played great. I hit it close on the 1st and really didn't make anything. I hit a bad drive on 13, which cost me a bogey. But I really played very well today, I thought.

Q. Were some of the pins a little more accessible than the first two days? I'm thinking like 12, for example, where some of them looked like if you hit it on the right spot of the green they would funnel down.

ADAM SCOTT: They were tucked, but there was some slope feeding into them. If you hit good shots you could feed them in a little bit.

Q. Given the number of low scores, I know the wind wasn't quite as up, but 66s and 65s and whatnot, if it lulled some people into a false sense of security that this course could be had, given what you're going to have tomorrow?

ADAM SCOTT: I don't know, it depends how they set the pins up tomorrow. I think Retief had shot a 64 here on a Sunday once before.

Q. He got lucky.

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, sure (laughter).

There is a good score out there, yeah, I'd say that, absolutely. Someone can go out and shoot mid to low 60s, I'm sure.

Q. You mentioned that you were obviously glad to be comfortably ahead, or at least ahead. In your mind you play so much around the world so it's hard to track this. Have you been a good front runner? Are you happy with how you've been as the marked man playing the final round?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I've got a really good record. I think overall out of everywhere I've played, I think I'm like 11 and 3 or 12 11 and 3 or something.

I lost obviously the Byron Nelson. I was the co leader this year. I remember a tournament in Australia I was leading by one and I lost.

Q. What attribute is it that you have that makes you a good front runner? Or is that a quantifiable trait?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it is. Generally when I'm in front, I'm playing pretty well, so I'm not being defensive and I'm just playing my style of golf.

I like being out in front, and I like going further in front. I've had a few wins where I've run away with it a little bit.

You know, tomorrow it would be nice to get in a rhythm early on and get busy.

Q. As well as you're driving the ball, you didn't hit driver on 12. Why?

ADAM SCOTT: Well, the pin was only 12 on and it was all downslope, so I thought if I drive it down there close to the green, it was a if I had a little pitch shot.

I felt like if I was back I could get more pin on the ball, but I didn't have a good number to hit a full shot in. I had to hit a half shot in. That was my theory.

Q. Was 13 the only drive that really got away from you?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah.

Q. Obviously it's a big turnaround from last week. What specifically have you worked on, and was there a specific moment when it clicked, or has it been a gradual thing?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, Butch got here Tuesday and had a look at me, and the first thing he saw was I was kind of shifting into my right hip on the backswing rather than turning into my right side.

I had kind of a bit of a lateral shift over and it got my right hip way too high and the club just was not in a good position to come down from the top there. The only way I could get it down was to slide down the other way and drop the club behind me, obviously creating all kinds of bad shots last week.

So we worked on that straight away. I felt it straight away once he pointed it out to me, and I was back to hitting it how I was before I arrived in Tampa.

Q. Club face get a little shut?

ADAM SCOTT: Club face got shut, yeah. When I slide that way I kind of pull the club, drag it a little bit off the ball and the club face gets shut, and it's hard to correct it coming down.

Q. The up and down on 18, can you just talk about how key the putt was? Looked like you hit a good chip but hit the bank and kept skipping by.

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, absolutely, it was a great putt. I thought I hit a good chip. And like you said, it kind of skidded when it hit the green. I hit it quite well but it skidded through. The putt was tough, probably eight feet downhill left to right, and one of those putts that you probably don't want to get outside the hole.

The putt was so quick that I had to dolly it down there and fortunately got the right read. Those are the ones you've got to grind on, and I think I've done that pretty well this week so far.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's just do the birdie on 1.

ADAM SCOTT: That was a driver, sand wedge to two feet.

13, I hit a driver in the trees and had to chip out short of the green, pitched on and two putted.

14 was driver, pitching wedge to four feet.

15 was driver, 3 iron to a foot.

Q. 18, what club?

ADAM SCOTT: I hit a 4 iron.

Q. It's got to be kind of a surprise to be sitting here with a three shot lead considering where you were in the middle of the 14th fairway, the way this round was shaping up, with Joe right there, Vijay having done what he's done, et cetera. Is it at least a bit surprising to you to have that margin?

ADAM SCOTT: It is a little bit, but that's how quick everything can turn around out there, and I know that. That's why I was really as impressed with the three pars to finish as I was with the birdie and eagle out there because they're tough holes, the last three holes. Three pars goes a long way out there on those holes.

You know, it can all turn around very quickly, and that shows you three shots is not much; it's a couple holes.

Q. Vijay is capable of putting on a big run. Did you play with him before in a tournament?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I've played heaps with him, yeah. I'm going to remind him about Thursday at Akron this year when he shot 74 and I shot 63 (laughter).

Q. Is that the last time you guys played together in a tournament?

ADAM SCOTT: I think so, yeah (laughter). I don't want to give him too much motivation, though.

End of FastScripts.

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