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AT&T CLASSIC

May 18, 2007

Ryuji Imada

DULUTH, GEORGIA

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Ryuji, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the AT & T Classic, another round of 67 and looks like you're playing pretty solid over the last two days.
RYUJI IMADA: Yeah, I have. Except for Nos. 4 and 5, I played really well. I made seven birdies and a double today.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: You had a little string there from 18 and then 9 through 11.
RYUJI IMADA: Yeah, 10, I hit a tee shot down the middle, hit my driver just short of the green, chipped up to about ten feet.
13, hit it in the fairway, hit it to about a foot from about 45 yards.
18, I had about 220 to the front off the tee, but my club selection was either a hard 3-iron or a 2-iron, and sort of -- if I hit a 2-iron it was going to end up in the bunker, and I figured it was a tough up-and-down, so I just decided to lay up with a 9-iron and made birdie that way. I hit it to about six feet.
Then 1, hit it to the first cut on the left side, hit a 6-iron to about maybe 12 feet.
2, I hit a 9-iron to three feet.
3, hit a 3-wood off the tee and hit my wedge to about seven feet.
4, I hit 3-wood off the tee. I decided before the week that it was going to be a three-shot hole anyways, so I hit a 3-wood off the tee, hit my 4-iron, and I thought I had 76 yards to the front, but I actually had about 97 or 98 to the front. I walked it off from the wrong head, sprinkler head, and my caddie was actually raking the bunker behind me and he was lagging behind so I got the yardage, and sure enough, I hit a sand wedge and it went straight in the water. It wasn't a bad shot, so it wasn't overly disappointing, I guess. It was disappointing that I made a wrong miscalculation with the yardage, but it wasn't too bad.
And 6, I hit driver and a 3-wood to the left bunker just short of the green and I hit it to about three feet.

Q. For the last two days you seem to have overcome the doubles real well.
RYUJI IMADA: Well, there was a little bit of difference between yesterday and today. Today I got off to a pretty good start. I was already 6-under when I made that mistake. Yesterday I was 2-over starting off when I made that double. So it was a little bit different from yesterday.
I'm obviously playing well, so I hate to make mistakes, but I know that I can recover from it, so it's all right.

Q. My limited viewing of seeing you here the last couple days, you seem to be not very temperamental.
RYUJI IMADA: You don't know what was going through my head (laughter). I try to keep it even keel. You know, I've been through times where I've slammed clubs, broken stuff, but it really doesn't do any good. You know, I guess eight years of playing professional golf, I guess I've learned to tone it down a little bit. It still comes out once in a while, though.

Q. Your caddie, when you actually pulled the club, was he a fair ways back?
RYUJI IMADA: Well, he was obviously there, but I was -- the thing is we were a little bit behind at the time, and I saw the guys behind us walk up to the tee, and I was trying to hurry up a little bit. It was unfortunate that it happened, but I'll try not to do it again.

Q. Do you give yourself a good talking-to when you give yourself a bad yardage?
RYUJI IMADA: Yeah, I mean, the bad thing -- it was the wrong yardage but I hit it good, so it wasn't that hard to forget.

Q. Over the last two days what's been working for you?
RYUJI IMADA: Yesterday was more the irons. Today I made a lot of five- to ten-foot putts, and that was the key today.

Q. Did you see what Troy Matteson is doing?
RYUJI IMADA: Well, I saw he was doing something, but I don't know how he's doing right now. He's another local boy, so....

Q. (Inaudible.)
RYUJI IMADA: Well, the course is in such great condition, and if you get your putts on-line, they're going to fall. It's in fantastic shape. The greens are going to get firmer this afternoon and I guess on the weekend, but right now it's very scorable.

Q. How many times have you played this course over the last few years?
RYUJI IMADA: I've been here once before I was in college, but I think this is my fourth year playing here in this event. The first event I played in was I believe 2002, and that was the first cut I've ever made on the PGA TOUR, and I've played well the last two years, also.

Q. Did you get a lot of support in 2002, as well, from the gallery?
RYUJI IMADA: Yeah, the last couple days they get pretty rowdy.

Q. (Inaudible.)
RYUJI IMADA: Yeah, kickoff, second quarter, you know (laughter).

Q. How serious of a Bulldog are you? How much do you follow what goes on?
RYUJI IMADA: I don't follow too much, but I keep in touch with Coach Haack, and I know how they're doing. They're at regionals this week, so hopefully they're playing well, also.

Q. Do you follow the football team at all?
RYUJI IMADA: I do when they're playing well.

Q. Do you get into it with DiMarco at all, the Florida-Georgia thing?
RYUJI IMADA: Not really, no.

Q. It's been a pretty long, hard struggle for you to get to this stage. What was the key to getting here for you? What did you have to overcome and what did you have to learn along the way to make it?
RYUJI IMADA: Well, coming out of college, I thought this was going to be easy because I was always playing well at junior level, college, and once I turned pro, I won my first event on the Nationwide Tour within about two months, and I was thinking it was going to be easy; I was just going to walk through Nationwide Tour and be on the PGA TOUR. But it wasn't as easy as I thought.
Golf is funny because when you're feeling well, feeling strong, it's a lot easier. But once you struggle a little bit, it's so hard to come back, you know? And it took me a while to get through Nationwide Tour. There's so many great players on Nationwide Tour, it's just very hard to finish in the top 20.

Q. Was there something back at Q-school one year where in the last round you shot at 76 or something like that?
RYUJI IMADA: Yeah, well, first year I missed it by one shot, and then the next year I shot 76 and missed it by a couple. So that took a little bit of toll on me. Obviously I was close on the Nationwide Tour the first two years, and I had a real bad year the third year, and injuries came along, too.

Q. This must mean a lot to you then.
RYUJI IMADA: Yes, it does.

Q. Do you think you have a greater appreciation for it now than you would have if you would have been an overnight sensation?
RYUJI IMADA: Oh, I don't know about that, but -- yeah, I think I would appreciate it a little more than say if I came straight onto the TOUR and won many events. But, I mean, anytime you win a golf tournament, it's a great feeling, and I'd like to get that feeling back again.

Q. You don't take many weeks off, do you?
RYUJI IMADA: I didn't this stretch. This is my sixth week in a row. But I wasn't going to skip this event.
This is my last, then I'm going to skip next week, and if I'm in Memorial, I'll play that, and I'm qualified for the Open this year already, so that's going to be my next stretch.

Q. Given how you're playing right now and how well you're doing leading up to the Open, how do you feel going into Oakmont? Is it too early to start thinking about that?
RYUJI IMADA: Yeah, it's way too early. You never know until you tee off on Thursday. Of course, I don't even know the golf course, and I hear a lot of great things about it. Obviously it's a pretty long golf course, so we'll see what happens.

Q. How is your confidence level right now?
RYUJI IMADA: It's obviously high.

Q. You're not surprising yourself right now that you're playing well?
RYUJI IMADA: Yeah, I mean, I've played well here, and if I just play like I can, I knew that I was going to be up there. I've been playing well. I finished 9th at Byron Nelson, and I've made cuts the last four or five weeks, so I've been doing okay. I've been putting well.

Q. Was the course different this morning than it was yesterday late?
RYUJI IMADA: Very similar. Greens might have been a little softer. The pins were in an easier position, though, today. So it was easier.

Q. How is the wind compared to yesterday?
RYUJI IMADA: There wasn't too much wind out there today.

Q. In your professional career did you play much overseas?
RYUJI IMADA: I played in Japan maybe ten events or so, that's about it. I qualified for the Japanese Tour the first year out of college, but I decided to play on the Nationwide Tour, so I only played twice that year. I played twice last year.

Q. How did you make that decision?
RYUJI IMADA: Because my dream has always been to play on the PGA TOUR, so it wasn't that hard of a decision for me because if I stayed in Japan, I mean, finishing in the top 20 isn't going to do me any good to get here.

Q. When did your family come to the U.S.?
RYUJI IMADA: They didn't. My family is in Japan.

Q. You moved here?
RYUJI IMADA: Yeah, there was a golf academy in Tampa that I attended. There was about 15 Japanese kids about my age.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you.

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