GENUITY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 28, 2002

Stuart Appleby

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Welcome, Stuart Appleby, shot a 4-under par, 68 today. Stuart, a little different conditions than your normally are used to in Miami but a good round nevertheless.

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, actually yesterday forecast was -- pretty cold morning, in the 30s, my call was hardly ever going to see weather like here, actually right, it was in the 40s, pretty brisk, pretty cool, breezy, certainly enough to keep your cool enough where you really weren't quite warm and also blowing enough where it was making an effect on your shots. Seemed to calm down later in the day.

Fresh greens, first group out, sort of were pretty slow. We tried to dawdle a little bit just so we weren't jumping up in the rear end of the guys coming to the turn; ended up catching them on the par 5, 12, a bit slow from then on. I played good. I hit the ball generally pretty good; didn't drive it very good. I have done a lot of my work on my game the last -- straight after the first round last week committed to this event. I felt like I needed to play golf; not just practice which I had done a lot of practice more, you know, like practice I have done years and years ago like really hard work. I felt like I needed to play. I have done a lot of practice. Now it is time to just do a little lapse. Basically trying to practice what I have been preaching to myself just not get too involved.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Go over your birdies, bogeys. No. 1 birdie.

STUART APPLEBY: One was a good drive, pulled a 3-wood left, got up-and-down, sand wedge shot out of the sand from probably about 5-footer there for birdie.

6 I blocked a driver little bit right, hit my -- got a really (inaudible)back of the green, got an ordinarily lie, lipped out for 4, obviously to drop a shot.

8 was driver, 4-iron to about just off the green probably about 20 feet, I made that for three. Not too hard a putt, 20 feet just off the green.

9 was a bad tee shot, chunked it barely on the front green. Pretty tough putt from probably 60 feet, 50, 60 feet got away for me the first one, missed probably a 10-footer for par.

10 was a good drive, laid up. That's really not quite a two-shot hole yet unless that wind changes around, and hit about a 90 to 100 yard shot to about three feet, tap-in birdie. Nothing much happened after that.

Good par on 13, 13 is playing really long today, par is almost a shot on the field.

Then I came to 16 hit a sand wedge -- lob wedge from about bit over 100 yards too about 10, twelve feet, made that.

17 really bad drive down 17, blocked right in the trap, hit a 9-iron out of the trap to about 15, made that.

Then 18 made a really good chip from short of the green, that must have been 40 yards from the hole great, chip to a couple of inches. It was nothing -- driving wasn't overly fantastic, couple of good drives; still a little bit of the old swing trying to combine with the new, a bit of a clash. I think the more I can trust it, just let it get -- not try and fight the two I will be okay.

The putter feels much better. That's feeling much better. My hand is not feeling like a snake anymore.

Q. Where were you working and when did you commit? Were you back home?

STUART APPLEBY: I lost Wednesday, the first round. I think probably committed Wednesday, spent Thursday, Friday practicing throughout. My coach was in town that week so I really wanted to make the most of him. He was scheduled to fly out Friday night, so we basically worked for two days. I knew if I went back to Orlando I wouldn't practice, I -- really was two things, I needed to practice, I really was pretty pissed off at my game. I wanted to really punish myself on the range for quite a while, just really work through it and work through it and work through it. Very frustrating, but we got through that barrier.

I think sometimes you can practice - if you don't get to a certain time in the practice session or certain mental stage, then you either walk away or you are going to get through it. I was at the stage I had to keep going - no matter if my hands were sore or stiff - I had to just do it. I had to get through it. I have made inroads but it is not like I have reinvented the wheel or anything, I'm just trying to get back to what make my games tick. Putting in four hours plus a day on hitting balls and putting stuff like that, so basically when I have come here I have gone the opposite, I am going to practice but when I get out I am just going to play. I just need to play golf, do all the homework and hard groundwork and just go out and hit the balls.

Q. Sounds odd for a guy that won the Australia Open in what, December?

STUART APPLEBY: I was swinging the club pretty good then. I played -- obviously played pretty good that week, putted really well, chipped and putted up-and-down from everywhere. I wasn't 100% as confident with my swing then as I was when I had won the events over here on the Tour, but that just proved you don't have to play your best or feel your best to win, you don't have to. But yeah, actually did like the way I was driving the ball. I really liked the way I was swinging it. I am getting closer. It is all about recreating those thoughts too. Certainly putting yourself in the state of mind where you can transport yourself mentally to what was I thinking on that 9th hole when I hit that cracking drive under pressure. That's the sort of stuff you have to keep flowing back and not don't hit it right again or don't hit it left. Certainly bringing up points where you played well last helps.

Q. Who is the coach?

STUART APPLEBY: Steven Bann. He coaches Robert and myself. He travels back and forth probably 20 plus weeks on this Tour.

Q. Is he out of Melbourne?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah. Probably makes about five to six trips a year back and forth like in four-week stints.

Q. You said you flew back to Orlando you knew you wouldn't practice. Once you get at your home in Orlando you just hang out?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, I get caught up doing stuff that's not golf. I just knew I couldn't -- I just felt like if I stay there at San Diego I will be still in golf mode. I went down to the Taylor Made facility did some testing, hit some balls there. They have a great facility there. Well, I found a driver that's more suited, so to speak, I just, yeah, I would have just gone home, the community that I live in, this is just a very casual, relaxing type thing. I just know --I just would have been stuck at home playing on the computer daunting around the house, I just wouldn't have been -- I would have taken the week off, which you know, I would have gone home angry that I lost first round, taken the week off actually not gained anything. I didn't need time off. I needed time on, I needed to play. I needed to get serious.

Q. Allenby probably would have had you moving his couches?

STUART APPLEBY: He was all trucked up and out of there. I think Saturday to Friday morning he was -- basically he moved into his house that morning. I think they put everything in his rooms. He had it all trucked up but I wouldn't pick up any couches for him.

Q. Would you sum up the last couple of years on this side, in the States?

STUART APPLEBY: Mildly frustrating. Frustrating, you know, because I know I am a better player than my results state, but you are only really as good as you play. I believe that too. All it says is I have played better, so I don't know I can play better, there's a lot more left, a lot more in me and a lot of that is mental a bit; some of that is physical and some of that is swing. I think it is a bit of a package; not as simple as well, you know, being in the right shape, it's not as simple as practicing hard and thinking good as a certain formula. Everything's got to be a combination, certain equal balance, so I've got to get that balance back again, and I know what makes my swing fall apart. And I know what makes it work. That's the never-ending sort of search to not making it fall apart, getting it to go to click together.

I remember when I first won here when I say "here," in Florida in 1997, felt you know, very confident, mildly confident, but not overly wrapped up in how I was doing in the tournament, was swinging it great, loved the way I was hitting it, putting like a demon. I came here the week before missed the cut, but hit the -- putted so well, so I did some hard work again. Hours and hours on the range, busted through, got a couple of ideas and off I went, as soon as I basically I think it was like Saturday afternoon or something, all of a sudden I went, geez, that felt good. I kept doing that over and over and over. Take that into Honda, I knew I was putting well, and off we go.

But I think trying not to be focused on the result, trying to really focus on the process, the process of what I have got to do to play; what I have got to do right now for the next shot, and let that add up and not focus on winning and saying: I want to win, I want to win, that is great, but there's a stack more stuff that's got to be done to even get close to that. You putt yourself in contention, as Tiger says, go along, do your thing, if you get in contention come the last nine holes then you decide on what you are going to do. You can lose the tournament from the first nine holes but you can't win it.

Q. Working on the range, what are you basically trying to do?

STUART APPLEBY: Can't tell you the secrets. Can't tell you because then you will try it and then you will try and get out here.

Q. A little talent differential.

STUART APPLEBY: Maybe not (laughter).

Let me think. Alignment is very important, certainly it is for me. It is for every golfer because you are playing a sport where you are this way and hitting to a target sideways. Most sports are sort of in front of you. So it is very easy to lose your alignment which is critical for me. Alignment was certainly one.

Grip was my main fault. My grip had gotten too strong and I had to try and throw in a bit of occasional flick of talent to try and get the ball straight. Then that's not going to cut it -- a lot more than talent - got to be able to repeat itself under pressure and really basically pull my errant shots down to a tighter zone, but also raise the stuff I had before and I think grip change is one of the biggest changes you can make in a swing. I think you can learn how to align up clubs on the ground, tweak your shot, alignment, grip is the biggest. Your hands feel with it and sense the presence of the club so for me that was huge. The change of my grip felt ugly. It still does feel a little weird actually. I have to say, come along way from where I was. Grip, alignment were the biggest things. The coach was pretty happy with everything else. But because of the poor grip it was causing me to do other things. There's a couple -- handful of players that can play with a strong grip. They have learned to swing it a certain way to get that to work. I was running to a different program, couldn't cut it.

Q. How many hours do you figure in San Diego on the range, if you added it all up over those two, three days basically you said?

STUART APPLEBY: Hitting balls, I guess not including putting, probably about 12 hours over three days, so I guess you are talking four hours a day. That's a lot of ball hitting.

Q. Rough on the hands?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, I have got a blister on one -- big one on my thumb because I was doing this drill. I just kept doing the drill the thumb started getting a bit hotter and hotter. That afternoon it popped up.

Q. Left thumb?

STUART APPLEBY: Right thumb. But that was lucky anyway, as I kept hitting balls it was -- it disappeared a couple of days later.

But then I did some work back in Orlando, did -- a lot of work Saturday -- sorry, Sunday and Monday, I did a lot work again, that similar sort of routine; then came here Tuesday played nine holes. A bit worn out Tuesday, I guess that was catching up to me. It is just I used to do that sort stuff all the time. I remember I was one of the last guys off the range, me and Jesper, I remember that, I am not bragging by any means. That was because I was trying to find myself on the Tour, trying to establish my game. I was working hard. It's not that I got lazy now. It is just that I have to make sure there's times when you go hard and times where you don't. Whereas when I was younger, I went hard all the time; maybe that got me where I was, but you -- I don't think you need to did that your whole life.

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