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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP


February 26, 2009


Justin Leonard


MARANA, ARIZONA

Q. Is it difficult to play this format against a good friend?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, today I kind of had the attitude of this was business. And it's match play, but certainly as long as we have been friends and that, it's difficult to play against him.
Not just that, but the fact that he's playing well and he's such a great player and he has a great record in this event.
So I tried to separate the two a little bit today and feel quite fortunate to come out on top.

Q. Behind you a couple of holes Anthony was playing Oliver Wilson. You know Oliver Wilson, but you've never faced him before, what do you do when you've never faced him before? What do you do in match play when you've never seen the other guy?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, I'm pretty good at playing my own game, and on this golf course you have to do that a little bit. Because it's -- you start playing safe, all of a sudden you're digging yourself out of a hole.
So I'm going to go out and play my game and get in the rhythm of the match and hopefully I'll continue to do well.

Q. You were in a pretty good dog fight today. You were playing smart golf, fairways and greens, but Davis Love looked like he was getting up-and-down from ball washers out there.
JUSTIN LEONARD: He chipped his ball really well today. I hit a lot of greens. Even the back nine, I mean I didn't make any birdies, but I hit some good shots, a couple just came up a yard here or there and that would have turned out a lot better.
But I hit a couple good shots that, here at 18, and it was enough.

Q. Is it tough to stay patient on a day like that, when you're hitting fairways and hitting greens, even though you're not making a lot of birdies, you see the other guys makes some mistakes from the fairway and missing greens, but getting up-and-down, do you ever think to yourself, he's got to miss one shot around these greens.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, that's the kind of player he is. And he's playing well, he's on his way back to where we're accustomed to seeing Davis playing. And so I'm not surprised at all he kept getting the ball up-and-down.
He hit the ball in the fairway quite a bit and with the wind blowing and the way the greens are, you kind of have to grind it out a little bit. And it's not all about hitting flags or making birdies on every hole, it's keep giving yourself some chances and hope at some point you'll have a putt that's not breaking too much.

Q. Which is difficult out here, but it's got to give you a lot of confidence going into the third day of matches.
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, it's nice to get through these first two. And I feel like I played a little better today than I did yesterday and I'm going to have to continue to improve in order to keep moving on.

Q. One step at a time. We'll see you at dinner tonight?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, okay, right.

Q. How difficult is it to play a Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup teammate and come out here in this event and play him?
JUSTIN LEONARD: Davis and I are good friends. And he took me under his wing a little bit when I first came on TOUR in 1994. So 15 years later, here we are still going at it. It's fun.
It's difficult playing against a friend, but this is business. I mean today was about playing good golf. And I wanted him to play good golf, I just wanted to play a little better. And he made a run there at the end and hats off to him, because he hit some great shots down the stretch. And fortunately I had enough of a lead that a par here at 18 made the difference.

End of FastScripts




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