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TRANSITIONS CHAMPIONSHIP


March 20, 2009


Stuart Appleby


PALM HARBOR, FLORIDA

Q. I know it's tough to finish with a bogey, but you played so well today, and really a pretty good effort.
STUART APPLEBY: The course is pretty tough. Definitely got tougher going into the back nine. It is a fantastic golf course, I've got to say. You're hitting irons off the tee, multiple times 3-woods and drivers, especially driver, you don't ever seem to get your rhythm because it seems a long time between tee shots when you need one.
You have a lot of movement on the course and the greens are getting harder and faster. Happy; even though the finish was not as intended, I would have to say my play was something where it has not been this year.

Q. There is, glory, of course, in the birdies, but you had a par save at the par 5, 14, that seemed like a really great way to propel the round, too.
STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, very much. With conditions like today, we had wind, not blowing hard all the time, but tough to get the right angles and the right clubs, because the greens are firm and fast. That was very critical in getting a chance for birdie.
You make a few mistakes, you've got to really get lucky or hit some brilliant recoveries. I had some luck today, but making pars when you look like a bogey on the card is a good one to sneak in.

Q. It's almost like, if I may, a major setup; it comes down to keeping it in the fairway.
STUART APPLEBY: It is. Not many courses do we jump from 1 from an iron to a wood to a big driver.
Most of the time you might get a couple of holes to hit driver, and get your rhythm, but here it's very broken up off the tee, and you've got a lot of holes that are elevated and certainly some that are uphill.
So you've got to think, and I would have to say, it is a tough test. The rough is very, very thick, and hitting the fairways is pretty important. If not, your 100-yard and in game, which I had was okay today, is going to have to be good.

Q. Rusty start to the year, but had you been working on something for this to come around?
STUART APPLEBY: My game physically has been okay. I think mentally I sort of struggled to get my game to move on forward. And I'm really trying to improve the mental side of my game a lot, and trying to not let the game muscle me into becoming a worse player.
You know, I think if I can manage to move in the direction of the player I want to be from that point of view, how a championship player thinks and acts, in all situations, I think my game will come forward versus grinding and hitting balls and hitting balls and hitting balls just happy hitting balls, because I think that doesn't work, certainly at my particular stage in my career. Might work for a young kid, but certainly not for me.

Q. It's a good time to be coming, a couple weeks before the first major of the year.
STUART APPLEBY: There's a lot of golf to go, and I'm trying to take every shot as it comes and just as it comes and get right into it and commit to the shot and move on. You know, whatever happens, happens. But if I can get in the right frame of mind more, and be more committed to shot selection, I've found that I tend not to get worried about the results as much.

End of FastScripts




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