ADVIL WESTERN OPEN

July 5, 2002

Stuart Appleby

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Please welcome Stuart Appleby, 2nd round 65 today, the best of your career. There's a lot of golfers on the golf course obviously and yet to play today, but you've got to be happy with how things went out there.

STUART APPLEBY: Yes. There's going to be some low scores out there today. The greens are pretty soft and pretty slow. The course has lost a bit of its bounce and sting from that storm. It was pretty firm in the beginning, typical Chicago Cog Hill type conditions, but I got off to a good start when I had 6 birdies the first 6, which was the back 9 starting at 10. Basically, that really set the round up to be something like a 65. It could have been lower, but I missed a few very good opportunities the last two days, but I made a couple of nice ones too but probably missed more than I made.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: When you went to 16, what happened there, did you have any opportunity for birdie there?

STUART APPLEBY: 16, yeah. Actually, an inch or 2 short from about 20 feet, so I thought I had that putt but, you know, you're not going to make them all. It's just a simple fact.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Okay. We'll take some questions now.

Q. Have you ever had 6 in a row?

STUART APPLEBY: 6 is my record. I had 6 in a row at the Kemper Open last year, I believe, and I had 6 in a year at my home course back in about, oh, gosh, 10 or 12 years ago now, maybe even more.

Q. (Inaudible?)

STUART APPLEBY: I was 17, 18, when I had that at my home course so as a professional, Kemper was my 6 in a row there. I'm not sure where it started there, but yeah, I had 6 in a row there.

Q. (Inaudible?)

STUART APPLEBY: You know, today I made maybe a 5-footer on 10 and I guess 11 is a birdieable hole. I hit it in the trap and knocked it out to 4 or 5 feet.

Then rolling into the par-3 12th and had about 12 to 15, 15 feet there probably. The greens aren't quick, so nothing is getting away from you.

Next hole, 13, particularly with the front pin placement, you hit good irons -- you have to hit good irons to make six in a row, no doubt about it. I had a 15-footer there for birdie.

And then the par-3 14 I hit in to about 5 feet from the hole and made a slick putt there.

And then the par 5 is a birdie chance, you know. Pretty good drive on the left rough and got a good up-and-down. It was about a 6-foot putt, I suppose. You know, I guess you'd call it a bit of a roll, just like when you toss a coin or roll the dice. You know it's going to run out somewhere.

Q. (Inaudible?)

STUART APPLEBY: No, not really. Just basically in your mind you're thinking I'd like to keep this type of golf going. It doesn't mean you always make birdies but at least giving yourself opportunities. I mean, it doesn't -- it matters how you drive and putt together because if you want to be serious about shooting a good score, you want to give yourself opportunities and, two, capitalize. So it was just to go keep playing like I was. If it was going to be five birdies or whatever, great; if not, not. You're thinking you have to par the holes left or I guess either potentially screw up, because it's at the start of the day, or just keep going on and come out with a low score.

Q. (Inaudible?)

STUART APPLEBY: Par 5? Yeah. 15, I hit a 5-iron. It was pretty much the right club. I was in the rough, was going to fly it a little bit. It was a good up-and-down. I really expected to make birdie there after I saw where my drive was.

Q. (Inaudible?)

STUART APPLEBY: No. I mean, you just go out and you just enjoy it I guess or thank your lucky stars that you're making birdies that close together. It doesn't happen very much. You look at how many times on Tour guys make 6 birdies in a row. Hundreds of times they'll make 2 or 3, dozens of times they'll make 4 or 5, but not many make 6, so you just start stretching. Not many make 7, very few make 8, and I don't think anybody has made 9 in a long time.

Q. (Inaudible?)

STUART APPLEBY: Slow, slow. I certainly don't feel like I've been getting results that I've been looking for or results that I've had in previous years, you know, just not been getting -- not being in a position often enough in tournaments to compete, and that equals nothing, not high enough up on the money list, not having things go in the right direction, all of those things, so I would have to say very slow and very frustrating.

You have to decide do you push it, push it hard, or do you just let go, not waste your energy on it. And sometimes you've got to fight and sometimes you've got to let go. And then I guess in the instance of doing that, you feel like, well, I'm close, I'm close, do I keep playing or do I just step away? There's a lot of decisions. It's the old hindsight rule. He's the best caddie in the world and he's the best player in the world. So I feel like I've done everything where I wanted to, it's just been slow going.

Q. (Inaudible?)

STUART APPLEBY: I think if you're not getting the results that you're looking for, then you're either putting too much pressure on yourself or you're not caring enough, you're just very, you know, lazy. And I know I'm not lazy in that aspect, no way, so I'd have to say that I put too much pressure and don't focus on what do I do now, worry about I can do this, I know I've done it. I guess you get -- that just eats away and you start to try and you're close, you try a little harder. You get further away and you try. I think that's the competitive nature of sports that separates the real champions from the has-beens because if I'm close, what do I need to do to get over the line? A lot of people think it's a red line. You bounce off the red line and if you don't bounce over to the other side, you're stuck there.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Any more questions?

Q. (Inaudible?)

STUART APPLEBY: I'm not really concerned whether I finish 10th -- I mean, if I finish 10th, that means 10 goes in front of me. I mean, I shot my score and that's what made the cut and this is certainly a fresh start to get into the weekend, and I'm not really too concerned from then on. You know, I guess it's the end-of-the-week run after the last hole, after the last green, that you assess how did this week go, how did I do, did I stick with my game plan or what.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you very much.

STUART APPLEBY: Thanks.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Good luck the rest of the week.

STUART APPLEBY: Thank you.

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