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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

February 27, 2010

Brandt Snedeker

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

MARK WILLIAMS: Brandt Snedeker, thanks for joining us, a 5-under 66 to be 14-under and leading the tournament. You just said on your interview withe the Golf Channel it was a tale of two nines. Tell us about your round today.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, the front nine was playing relatively calm and gettable I guess is the best way to put it, and the back nine the wind kicked up and it was playing really tough. But I played really good. I'm swinging it really good right now. Made one mistake on 14 and was able to make a long putt to save bogey. Besides that, I'm rolling it great. I've been hitting a lot of really quality shots, so it was a lot of fun out there.

Q. This has been a pretty good start after struggling last year. Could you talk a little bit about what's changed?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, just kind of confidence. It's amazing what happens when you have confidence in what you're doing and how to prepare for golf tournaments, how to be out there and know that you have a chance every week that you tee it up.
This year has been kind of a continuation of end of last year. I feel like even though I had a chance to win San Diego, but the other three tournaments I was right there going into the last round and just didn't have a great last round. Today was kind of a culmination of that. I feel like I'm comfortable with where I am on the golf course and feel real comfortable being in the position that I'm in going into tomorrow, so it should be a lot of fun.

Q. What do you make the atmosphere out here?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It was crazy. I played here a couple years ago with Phil on Saturday, Super Bowl Saturday, and it was loud and insane. And 16 today was about as insane as I've seen it. It was just craziness out there. I don't know how else to put it. It was a lot of fun to be a part of. I'm glad I made par and got out of there before I got booed too bad. It was nice to get out of there with a par.

Q. How do you like that?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I love it. You've got to take it with a grain of salt and realize that golf needs that. We need people out here having fun, being excited about being at a golf tournament. If you can't take it for one hole, good God, get over yourself and have some fun.

Q. Could you imagine if you had to deal with that every hole of every tournament?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It would be a little different. About one hole is all I can handle.

Q. Once you're away from 16, there's still -- there seems to be a din on the golf course like a baseball park. Is that in a way -- where you don't hear an individual shout, does that bother you, just the solid noise?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: No, not at all. Like I said, it's almost better if they just let the crowd go on 16 and not try to quiet them down at all because it's better off if they're just all going crazy. You get used to it. You know what you're getting in for that hole. I don't care what anybody says. I've been reading about it all week how people don't think about it until they get to the hole. Everybody thinks about it. The minute you hear the first roar on the golf course, you're thinking about that shot.

Q. Scott Piercy was saying they yelled something that they knew about who his high school --
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Jenna Jameson, yeah.

Q. Did they know any personal things about you?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: They pulled out my high school motto, which was "gentleman, scholar, athlete." You can't help but laugh. They do their research. You've got to give them credit for doing the extra work.

Q. You talked about how great it is to play with confidence. How did you get your confidence back to where it had been?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: You know, like everybody, I think a lot of guys have always said the secret is in the dirt, and the only way to get your confidence is to go out there and practice and really beat a lot of balls and get it to where you know you're playing good, whether the results are there or not, knowing that they're going to come.
I feel like I finally got to that point where I knew I was playing good. I talked myself into finally playing good, and I don't care -- I've always been a great putter. I lost my putting for a little bit. When you start making a lot of putts and start putting good again, it's amazing how much easier this golf game gets. I was kind of reevaluating who I was as a golfer and realizing that I was not going to overpower any golf courses; I needed to be a Steve Stricker or a David Toms kind of player where I hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens and have a good short game, and when I realized that and got over my ego, left my ego at the door, I've started playing a lot better.

Q. You had a great Masters two years ago. You come out of there and look like you're going to be one of the next great players. What happens between then and the time you -- how do you lose your confidence?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It's called being a golfer. I mean, that's why -- I don't care what anybody says, it comes and goes just like anything else, and it makes it such a difficult sport. The minute you feel like you've got it licked, like I feel like I'm playing great right now, I guarantee you next week it could go south and I could have no clue what's going on.
You've really got to relish and appreciate what you're doing and have fun doing it because you don't know how long it's going to last. I wish I could tell you what happened in the last year and a half. I really don't know. I just kind of got thinking the wrong stuff.

Q. Did it come back suddenly?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It was like an overnight switch, completely overnight.

Q. From a round of a tournament?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I remember it was last year at Washington, D.C., at Tiger's tournament. Literally went from where I couldn't make a cut to finished 5th that week, and just an overnight -- literally like a flip switch, and I said, I'm sick and tired of this. I don't care if I have to quit playing golf. I'm not going to keep playing the way I've been playing. And ever since then I've been playing good.

Q. You had so much success out of the chute, too. Was that kind of a false --
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I think it was the best thing that ever could have happened to me because it got me exposed to a lot of stuff I would have never been exposed to, and obviously didn't handle it well. It took me year and a half to get back to player than I was -- right now than I was two years ago. Now I think I'm ready to handle a lot of stuff, like I'm ready to be up there and play and compete every week, compete in majors, and now it's just a matter of time of doing it. Quit talking and go out there and do it.

Q. What was some of that stuff you're referring to that you got exposed to?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Just you listen to your hype. You hear people talking about how good you are and how much you could be the next big thing, you should be winning each week, and the minute you think that you should be winning the golf tournament each week, you're thinking completely out of bounds. You need to be thinking, yes, I'd like to think I have a chance to win this week, but I've got to do a lot of stuff between now and then to have a chance. Then all of a sudden if you're not winning, you start getting negative thoughts, start getting down on yourself, your confidence starts going; before you know it, it snowballs and all of a sudden you're struggling to make cuts and you're thinking what happened.
It's amazing how quick it can happen. I didn't play bad the rest of '08, but the beginning of '09 I didn't play great, and then last year -- beginning of '09 I played terrible, and then the end of last year I got back on path and have been playing great ever since.
MARK WILLIAMS: You made six birdies today, but you mentioned the 14th hole where you made bogey. That might have been the turning point for you today.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Definitely. I was kind of cruising along and really hadn't had any issues at all. I hit a bad second shot; I pulled it in the left bunker, which is the one place you can't hit it. And instead of being semi-smart and realizing that ten foot for par would be okay, I tried to get cute with my bunker shot and left it in the bunker, and then I had a bad lie, hit it 30 feet.
That says a lot about where my head is right now. I was able to forget about it, get up there and still know if I put a good putt on it I had a good chance to make it, and I made it. It completely changed the way I walked onto 15 tee, feeling excited, confident, everything still going good. Of course if I had have made a double bogey, it would have been a completely different walk up to that tee box.
MARK WILLIAMS: Do you just want to go through those birdies real quick?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Sure. 1st hole I hit a lob wedge to about six feet and made birdie.
7th hole hit a great 5-iron from 2 -- I think we had 205 to the hole today, to about 15 feet, made a good putt there for birdie.
11, I hit a great 9-iron to a tough pin position right on the front to about eight feet and made it.
On 13 I hit driver, 4-iron just over the green, had a great pitch shot to about five feet, made a good tough putt there.
15, I hit a sand wedge from 87 yards into the wind to about 15 feet left of the pin and made a great putt there.
And 17, I hit a little pitch shot from just short of the green to about eight feet, right in the center. Obviously I've been putting it pretty good.
MARK WILLIAMS: We appreciate you coming in. Good luck.

End of FastScripts

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