MERCEDES CHAMPIONSHIPS

January 8, 2004

Stuart Appleby

THE MODERATOR: Stuart, thanks for coming by. 7 under par, 66. Great start to the tournament and to the year. Just get your comment on your round today.

STUART APPLEBY: The round was a bit slow. I had to take a penalty drop on the 1st hole. Hit a driver a bit left in the long grass. Took a line of sight, chipped down lower. Had to chip down to the driving area, down the bottom of the hill of the 1st. Hit a 7-iron to about five feet, made the putt for bogey. I made a good bogey on 1.

A good up and down on 2 out of the bunker. Rest of the day played solid. Back 9 was good. I really only let one shot slip. Should have made a birdie on 9. Had a pretty simple chip just short of the green. Not simple actually, wasn't that simple. It was tricky, but I should have hit a better shot and probably secured a 4.

After that bogey glitch on the first, played solid all day. Liked the way I swung it, liked the way I rolled it. A bit of trickiness trying to read the greens, a bit tough to read. But I did make a share of nice putts.

THE MODERATOR: Take us through the birdies quick starting on No. 5.

STUART APPLEBY: Tricky course. Four years since I've been here. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, long par 5. I hit driver. Wind was playing totally different. Driver 3-wood on the green, 2-putted from probably around the 30-foot mark at the most.

Next is a driver, long and right, probably only about 20 feet from the hole, but down off that little slope off the green. Chipped that to a couple feet.

Missed a good opportunity on 8. Hit it to about eight to 10 feet on 8; totally misread it. That was one of the misreads.

9, made the little slip-up there.

10, made a good birdie there from about 15 feet.

11, made it from about four feet, little 9-iron.

12, I made it from about eight to 10 feet.

Next, I misread the next. The par 4 up the hill. Drove it just about on the green, just up on the edge of the green. 2-putt from probably about 40 feet.

Next, made a good par, actually spun it off the green. Had about 13 yards back to the flag. Good 2-putt up there.

Good up and down on 17. Hit it left.

18, made about a 12-footer for birdie after hitting an indifferent chip shot.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. After you took the drop out of the grass on No. 1, what happened there?

STUART APPLEBY: I pulled it left, the tee shot. Wind was out of the left. Line of sight back. Did a little lob wedge down the cliff, plateau, hit a punch 7-iron about pin-high five to six feet. Obviously, made a good 5. Those are my birdies.

Q. Playing much different than the last time you were here?

STUART APPLEBY: This is unusual wind, very unusual. It's probably the easier wind, I think. I think the other wind is a lot harder. I'm not a hundred percent sure on that, but I'm pretty confident it is.

I remember 9, hitting driver, driver on 9 just to make sure I could get up into that hill. Today it was more like, you know, hit 3-wood, 5-iron, 3-wood, 4-iron you could hit up onto that green.

Not the usual wind. A little different to what we'd seen all week. I was pretty unfamiliar with it because I haven't been here for four years, and an unusual wind. The greens are big and spacious. You can hit them, but you don't want to be too far away based on the gradient of this property, it's pretty slopey. You're going to struggle if you're a long eight away.

Q. How much were you looking forward to coming here after a four-year absence?

STUART APPLEBY: I really wasn't thinking about this tournament at all because this tournament was really only just a few days after last year. Last year, I was just really trying to tidy up the end of last year, finish up all the tournaments we had there, which obviously for me, The Presidents Cup was a big year. Then I was back in Australia. I took two weeks off straight after that, straight into the Australian Open with really no preparation at all. I played the Australian Open, took a week off, then a week of practice, and here we are. Really there was no real chop the season in half separation.

I haven't thought about this being 2004. It was just a continuation of 2003. '03 and '04 will be pretty much blended together for me.

When they ask you what it's like to be here. You say it's nice, you had a good season, it's an honor to play here, it's a privilege to play here, you've playing with the best players of the year previous. I don't think any player can deny that.

Q. The fact that this is a continuation of '03 for you, is that a good thing?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, I think you got to look at everything as a good thing. I think that's -- physically I feel fine. Mentally I feel fine. There's a pile of tournaments ahead of me. There will be a pile after the next pile (smiling). I'm not really trying to look at this as the start of a long season, because I don't think it will be long. I think it will fly by, like they all seem to fly by as you get a bit older.

But, yeah, they are continuations, they are sort of joined. I'm not coming out of, "Oh, I'm a bit sore, stiff, I haven't hit balls for six weeks, I need to warm up, get going." My body, all that, I pretty much got a warm engine, warm swing. Just keep going.

Q. I guess the question is, what made '03 a good year for you?

STUART APPLEBY: I think winning capped off -- I had two seconds the two weeks previous. I think hypothetically if I had a second in Vegas and Scott had have got me across the line, I mean, three seconds would have had me a bit peeved off a bit to be that close.

So to get actually -- squeeze one out at the end of the year after those seconds was great. I mean, I was really pleased with that. That really capped off the year. I had a decent year, but I have yet to have a great year. I've had some good years. I guess, you know, Tiger probably, you know, I think he called last year a good year. He didn't have a great year. He used to joke on the range about how bad everybody thought he was playing. He said, "I'm playing pretty good bad golf."

Q. What was it middle to late in the year that got things turned around for you, when you started contending in Atlanta and through Vegas?

STUART APPLEBY: I guess just tried to refocus everything a little bit. Really tried to look at, okay, how is my swing looking? Is it working properly? It's working great on the range, looks like it's working properly, what else do you attack? You start thinking about, what are you thinking about on the course? How confident are you that you can do this, do that? I really tried to poke and prod everything, eventually find the weaknesses that I thought I needed to work on.

My coach was saying, "You're swinging it good. I can't see why you are having a score like this, a patch of holes where you fall asleep. What are you thinking about? How focused are you in on the round?" I did some mental work where I really tried to sharpen that part of my game. Physically, on my golf swing, I made sure I could hit all the shots, hooks, draws, fades, high, low. If you get through that, there's no shot you can't take on. Get all those skills down, you just go out and play.

There was really not a rebuild or anything. It was just retune your focus here. Where you going? What do you need to do? What do you want to do by the end of the season? What are your goals? First goal was to get in the Top 30. I was out of that. I set goals larger than that. It's not like, I want to win. It's like, if I do these things, I'm pretty sure it will add up to a good score. I really just tried to chip away at each round at a time, let them add up.

That's where it came from. Vegas was a five-day deal. Worked one day, worked the second day, worked the third day. Like I said, on Sunday, fifth day, just do it again.

Q. Had you been falling asleep a little bit?

STUART APPLEBY: Not really falling asleep. No, not really. I don't think -- more just like retuned where my focus was. I wasn't falling asleep. I wasn't playing lazy, daydream rounds. I didn't feel like that. I had to intensify it a bit, pick it up a notch. Sometimes I think the notches between playing okay and playing good are really not that far apart, they're very small, unless you have got to do a whole bunch -- your game is falling apart and actually you have really fallen down a notch in the world rankings and it's because of certain factors you have to rebuild.

I wasn't at that stage. I was very much close. I'm a big advocate of looking at what do the best players do above you consistently? What do I do? You copy the best.

Q. You mentioned you hadn't been here in four years. Have you won as much as you think you should have?

STUART APPLEBY: Don't know. That's a funny one. I mean, I'll guarantee you every player says they want to have won more. That's just simple. What would you liked to have been -- you've been out here, say, five years. I'd like to have won 10 to 20 times. Well, I don't know. I mean, this is the weirdness of this game. It's not like you're playing tennis, knocking one opponent out at a time, knocking one opponent out at a time. It's you out there battling, not even having any control over what anybody else does. They're on totally a different part of the course.

You can only control what you're doing. I would have liked to have certainly ultimately -- to win a tournament every year of your career or at least that first portion, which I'd done. I'd won three years in a row. I was very proud of that. I think only a handful of people had done that in that period of time. Then I had a drought. If I turn back and go, I would have loved to have won this. Well, can you pick your tournaments. But at least have a victory through that year, every single year. I think do that, you have to be pretty tough to beat that.

Q. '97, '8, '9?

STUART APPLEBY: Yes. I think British Open was interesting. Almost got close to winning that. When I look back, I look back and I see Ernie winning, I see all the times Ernie got close to winning that tournament too, all the stuff he's had to go through, that wasn't my tournament. That panned out for him. That will turn around for me. I'll have that same scenario where I'll get my chance.

Q. At least from an American perspective, mid '90s, everyone looked at Elkington as the best Aussie. You came on. Rob has come on, Adam, Peter when he's not stretching himself. Any kind of feeling amongst you about top Aussie?

STUART APPLEBY: Not that I -- no, I don't really see that.

Q. Is that just an American thing?

STUART APPLEBY: I think it's a good little debate, bag of nuts or something. Who do you think is this? Who do you think is going to be this? What's interesting, a question was asked to Greg Norman about that, you know, who is the next this, that, the other? Greg was honest and candid about what he thought about the current Australian players, and who was going to be a Greg Norman. As soon as I started reading, I thought no one out of this bunch right now is a Greg Norman because Greg Norman was a guy that was world No. 1 for so many weeks. Greg Norman was so much to tournaments, to World Golf, Australian golf. None of the current players, including myself, are Greg Norman. Greg was just the right player at the right time. We all know that. That's great.

So when you get compared to the current batch, this, that, the other, no one. Hardly anyone in the world compared to him. He was the Australian Seve in a way. Had a great appeal for the crowd, sponsors, won a pile of tournaments around the world, six in a row somewhere way back when I just started playing.

The current batch of players, Australian players, we have a very world class, very well-rounded games, very well-rounded players in every aspect. But, you know, someone's going to poke out there. Hopefully we all move ahead, move our way up the world rankings, get a handful of majors in the next five, 10 years.

Q. Who is the best Aussie right now?

STUART APPLEBY: Best Aussie? Sort of come out of the end of a season. I don't really know. We've got 15 on tour, full card holders? Nearly 10% of the tour.

Q. Quota?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, exactly. We've got a growing amount. I can't pinpoint anybody. I like everybody's game. Certainly the players that have been out for a few years. I life Adam Scott's game. Rob's game, great greens and regulations hitter, fairways hitter. My game works when it works. Pete Lonard's game. Pete is a guy, if he doesn't stretch, he'll be all right. I see a lot more of Australians sticking in there.

I don't know. We have not seen anybody. I think Scotty's big victory was big for Australia and big for him.

Q. When you were in Akron, a nice piece was written about your personal life, how it's all come back together after the tragedy. How much has that helped your golf? Are you much more settled now than you were?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah. I think -- I don't know how people can have -- well, I guess I did go through a lot of personal issues in my life that somehow I managed to separate from my golf. Don't know how I did that us I look back and go, "How did I do that?" I have no idea how I got out there and, to be honest, in the middle of a golf shot, that was the only thing in my mind, when everything else apart from that golf shot felt like a mess.

I think now with the stability that I have and feel with Ashley, likewise, I have much more continuity and balance and harmony in my life now than I did I guess through the periods way before then. She's been a fantastic power, energy source to my life.

Q. Valhalla when you came up and spoke to us, you were very emotional. You were saying basically, I can understand, when you were on the golf course, you were thinking of it at that time all the time.

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah.

Q. It took you a couple years where you were able to separate it.

STUART APPLEBY: It took a while. I can't really figure a period when I felt like there was a change, because I don't think anything is like that. It would like the journey across an ocean. When do you think you got to the other side? It's actually right when you hit it. When I hit it with Ashley, it's when I felt like I could commit ourselves a hundred percent to each other. That's with when that process really started. I felt like that was the corner I was going to head down. I think a lot of years previous to that were very, very difficult, a lot of hard work involved. What most people I guess at one particular time go through a degree of that, except mine I guess becomes a little bit more public, you know, since day one.

But I have to say I couldn't be happier with where I feel like my life is than where I am now. Ashley is just adored by everybody she bumps into. She's a friend to everybody. She's just a fantastic person to be around.

Q. How long have you been married?

STUART APPLEBY: Just over a year. Literally a year and a month, along those lines.

Q. You talked about consistency round to round, how that helped you in Las Vegas. Can that be a little bit difficult here if the conditions change? The wind was a little different than usual. Can this course make being consistent tough?

STUART APPLEBY: Traditionally this course is always blowing quite a lot. You get the feel and rhythm of what's happening pretty much every day. Now, if the wind does change, and it's the same sort of weight, it won't be too different. I'll know what that wind is like. It's been a while since I've been here. This was the weird wind today. Every other wind will be a bit more like what we're used to.

If it goes from really no wind to gale force, 30, 40 miles an hour, that's when you'll get guys, "What do we do here, what do we hit?"

Worst case it's mildly breezy to pretty breezy. It never gets out of control. So it is dependent on the weather. That will change our strategy a little bit. But Vegas was really no wind all week. Really had the same every day.

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