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NORTHERN TRUST OPEN

February 15, 2008

Scott McCarron

PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: We thank Scott McCarron for joining us for a few minutes here in the interview room at the Northern Trust Open. Nice solid round there, 65. I'm sure it feels great to be in this position after a year and a half of battling that injury, and also you've had a little success here at this course. So those go together, and just talk about being back in the hunt right now after 36 holes.
SCOTT McCARRON: Yeah, going to school here at UCLA right down the street, I played here quite a bit, so this is one of my favorite golf courses on the PGA TOUR. Just has such a great feeling.
I've been out for a year and a half. So I really have no business being in the hunt or near the lead, but I feel good coming in here. I put my old irons in play this week, so I have to thank a good buddy of mine, Chris Thogh (ph), for sending them from my house, and just feels good. I played good, swung real free today.
Hit the ball really well the last round at Spyglass at the AT&T, so I started getting a little confidence in my game and played Tuesday at L.A. North in the fund-raiser and hit it so bad I was almost ready to go home. I just love this place and have some good feelings coming in here and lo and behold, I played pretty good today.

Q. You had the surgery in August of '06.
SCOTT McCARRON: Correct.

Q. What happened after that? Did you play any golf at all last year? What did you, sit around Reno? Describe your life from the time of the surgery.
SCOTT McCARRON: Had the surgery in August 16th of '06. It's a long recovery. They had to reattach a tendon back on to the bone, the radialis brevis tendon, so I couldn't play any golf.

Q. Was it wear and tear?
SCOTT McCARRON: I don't know for sure. But January 4th of '06 is when it started hurting, and I thought it was tendinitis. Had a couple cortisone shots and played about seven months with it that way. So I don't know if it tore right there in January, if it tore right there during the next seven months. But I was playing with almost one hand. Should have had the MRI done right, away and in hindsight, wish I would have.
After the surgery, there wasn't much I could do. I couldn't play golf. So I was at home being dad, driving my kids to school, making them breakfast -- my kids are sitting back there. So we had a great time, doing all the things I wasn't able to do traveling on the road.
So my wife and my kids kept me pretty busy and after about. I would say after about three months being at home my wife kind of turned to me and said, "You're really happy right now," and I said this is probably the happiest I've ever been, being able to be at home, it was a nice feeling. Still, I love playing golf. I miss the competition and as soon as I could start hitting balls and playing again, I really was setting my goals oncoming back here and playing well. So I've worked real hard to come back.

Q. When did you actually pick up a club again, and was there any fear that either you would reinjure it again?
SCOTT McCARRON: Oh, yeah, I've played in fear for the last, you know, five or six months really, not sure if I could ever come back. I would say it was almost a year to the date that I was able to start hitting balls, August of '07 without too much pain.
Now when I say that, I was still kind of flinching at impact waiting for the pain. My brain still wasn't letting me hit shots and swing through and that lasted really up until, oh, I would say October, right around there. I went and played the Dunhill Links Championship end of last year to try it out and see how it felt, and it felt pretty good. I was able to swing and let shots go and not worry about it hurting.
Now it still hurts a little bit and still gets a little sore and stiff at night, so I have to ice it and keep the inflammation down. I've been working so hard to get this thing back so I can play golf again.
But there was a long time that I wasn't sure if I could ever come back.

Q. Going to go back in the rag business?
SCOTT McCARRON: Absolutely not. (Laughter).

Q. Are you worried about setting your TV career back?
SCOTT McCARRON: (Laughing) Thanks, Thomas. I had a great time working wore the GOLF CHANNEL doing the Masters. It was a lot of fun for me. And it kind of gave me a sense of, well, if I can't play golf, at least I don't have to go back in the shirt business and I might be able to do some TV.
They were great to me back there at the Masters and the GOLF CHANNEL, so it was fun.

Q. I think you made the cut on the number at the Hope. Were you frustrated at all about getting off to a little bit of a slow start, you just kind of thought that was part of the process?
SCOTT McCARRON: Well, I knew it was going to be part of the process. One of the things about being injured, almost all of us played too long with injury and come back too early. So for me to really come back and play, I needed a few more events under my belt but there was really nothing for me to play in, so I had to play on the PGA TOUR. I made the cut on the number at the Hope birdieing the last three holes. I really wanted to make that cut, which I did.
Playing San Diego, that golf course, really, it was too tough for me coming back that early. I wasn't ready to play that type of golf course yet.
Phoenix, I was disappointed missing the cut, because I usually play well there. And AT&T, I haven't done that well there. Even though it's a slow start, I haven't played particularly that well at those golf courses so I really wasn't that worried about it.

Q. Now that you're here, is it one of those things where you walk on the grounds and you thought, "I belong here, this is where I always play well," how much does that get into your head?
SCOTT McCARRON: Certainly, you get on this golf course and the trees really shape a lot of the holes which I love. I love being able to work the ball on the tee. It really sets up well for my eye. I like playing here. I've played here quite a bit.
So I've got, you know, good memories here. I've also got some real hard memories when I lost to Len Mattiace on the last hole, and then I lost the next week at the Match Play in the finals. It took me a long time to get over those two losses. I was really disappointed. I really wanted to win those tournaments and especially win here at Riviera, just means so much to me with the nostalgia and being here and going to UCLA.
I have a lot of good feelings, a lot of good feelings here.

Q. And you talk about, you're a little bit surprised, as well as you've played to this point, but has to give you a feeling of why can't I win this thing now, right?
SCOTT McCARRON: Certainly you have to get where you are receive back in position. Funny, today, making a bunch of birdies, I felt really comfortable out there making birdies and playing well. I don't feel that comfortable when I'm shooting 75, 76; it's just one of those things.
So as soon as I started getting back in that flow again, I felt like this is normal. Even though I haven't been there for a long, long time.

Q. Do you have any sense of what kind of rhythm you want to be in as far as playing? I know you played well today obviously, but do you expect this now more and more now that the injury is pretty much past you?
SCOTT McCARRON: Well, I expect to, you know, kind of get back -- I still feel my best golf is ahead of me. I'm 42 years old and I'm still in fairly decent shape. So I still feel like my best golf is ahead of me. Just because you're 42 doesn't mean that you have to play bad.
These guys out here, the young kids out there are really, really good and they hit it a long way, so I'm always looking for extra distance now, where before I was kind of one of the longer guys out here and now I'm kind of average. But I still feel like I can play some good golf.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can we go through your birdies and then that bogey on 18? You started on 1.
SCOTT McCARRON: Yeah, started on 1. Hit a good drive off the tee, hit a 4-iron just left of the green. Hit a great chip up there to about four feet and made that for birdie.
3, real good drive down there and hit a sand wedge in there about two feet.
9, hit a good drive there, Bubba only hit it about 70 yards by me, Bubba Watson. And as I hit it, I yelled, "Get by him." He's an unbelievable talent by the way. I was amazed; first time I ever played with him. Hit a great wedge shot in there about five or six feet and made that for birdie.
Then my family showed up which was nice on 10. Hit a great drive on 10 which they flew down from Reno today.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: After school, I assume.
SCOTT McCARRON: Of course they did, yes.
Hit a good drive on 10, just exactly where I wanted to. Had a perfect chip straight right at it and chipped it to about four or feet.
Good drive and 3-wood just left of the green and another good chip to about four feet and made that for birdie on 11.
12, I fanned one over on the trees, and I had 210 to the front edge and had to carve it around the trees and hit a beautiful 3-iron just short of the green and then made about -- I think it was about a 50-footer or so and rattled it right in the cage and that was nice.
Then 16, hit a beautiful 8-iron in there about a foot and made that for birdie and then bogeyed 18.
Real disappointed, I doubled 18 yesterday from the middle of the fairway and today I had a beautiful drive in there 194, and pulled my 6-iron and had just kind of a funky lie. That kikuyu is very difficult and just wasn't able to get it up-and-down.

Q. Did you become proficient when you were playing Mr. Mom, or Mr. Dad, if you will, did you get into any parent activities?
SCOTT McCARRON: Oh, yeah, went on parent field trips and volunteered at school and helped coach soccer and drove my daughter to drama and acting class all the time. So, yeah, I was getting proficient at being on schedule ask having to pick them up and drop them off at the right time.

Q. What kind of a coach were you?
SCOTT McCARRON: I was an enthusiastic coach; we'll put it that way. (Laughter) But I had a great time, great time.

Q. I wanted to ask you, also, when you're out here, do you get together with a lot of your buddies from UCLA when you come back here?
SCOTT McCARRON: I do. I have a lot of my fraternity brothers from UCLA, we had 30 guys out here. Brandt Jobe and I were fraternity brothers at UCLA at the same time. We were back-to-back; Brandt was right in front of me, and we were both playing well today and guys were going back and forth. It was a lot of fun to have some familiar faces out there hooting and hollering.

Q. Brandt is also out here with a freak injury, out on major medical.
SCOTT McCARRON: Yeah, Brandt, fraternity brothers, college roommates. He was best man at my wedding and we are very good friends and both have injuries, kind of freak injuries. Being out and come back here to a golf course we both really love and playing well; I'm very happy for both of us to be able to come back and play. I mean, when you're out for that long, you don't even know if you're going to be able to come back and play again.
So just to be back here, I enjoy practicing and I enjoy the working out, the eating right. All of the things that started to get monotonous for me after 13, 14 years of traveling are things I really love now. Unfortunately I had to take a year and a half off to find that again, but very happy.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Scott, for joining us.

End of FastScripts

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