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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 18, 2005

Retief Goosen

PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA

Q. Fantastic job.

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, obviously you'll take a finish like that around this course. I had a bad hiccup in the middle of the round, 12 and 13. But I got off to a good finish, which is nice.

Q. How do you bounce back so quickly from that? You went birdie, birdie after that?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, you've just got to accept that on this course that's going to happen. Very quickly I on 13 I hit a 3 wood in the rough and really had a poor lie, expecting that the sand wedge is just going to get me to the front edge and it came out flying, went over the back. And from there I knew 5 was a good score and I ended up making 6.

The next hole I hit a good 6 iron out of the bunker and made a good putt, so at least I had a nice finish and good confidence going into tomorrow.

I drove the ball pretty well on the front nine but didn't drive it well on the back nine. I have to work on a couple of things quickly after that.

Q. Are you surprised that you're the only player after 54 under par here?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, we said at the beginning of the week we probably expect nobody to be under par. Yeah, I'll go out and play solid tomorrow, I suppose I have a good chance. It's not easy to make up ground on this course, it's easy to lose ground. I don't know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow. But if I just keep playing solid, probably shoot 1 or 2 over, I can probably win.

Q. Coming into those final few holes, was there a part of you that really was relishing the opportunity to maybe give yourself a few stroke lead, considering how difficult it will be to make up ground tomorrow?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, after I hit a good shot out of the bunker on 14, I felt like if I can finish with a couple of birdies, that will be great. And I was determined to do that and made a couple of good putts coming in. Obviously 18 was one of those you're trying to get close and just crept in. But I missed one on 17, but I'm pretty happy with the round.

Q. Tiger says his resume gives him a lot of confidence on Sunday in a major. Where you can draw back upon what you've done in the past and maybe give you that little bit of something extra? Do you feel a sense of that, also?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I think so, definitely. I actually felt pretty good out there today. I felt more relaxed today than I did yesterday, so that's good. In a way I probably felt a bit too relaxed in the middle of the round and sort of lost a bit of concentration. But coming down the stretch I played well. Like I say, I just need to hit a few more fairways.

Q. Are you at all surprised to see an unknown like Gore still hanging in there, second place?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, I don't really know his game, I don't know much about him. But obviously he knows how to play. And Olin played very well today; he kept hanging in there. There's probably ten guys that are in there with a shot. It really all depends on what I do tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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