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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

November 6, 2004

Jimmy Walker

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

TODD BUDNICK: We'd like to introduce our 2004 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year Jimmy Walker and thank him for coming out here to the TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola to give us a chance to introduce you to the PGA TOUR for next year.

Jimmy, congratulations, two-time winner this season, seven Top 10s in 25 events. You're a resident of San Antonio, Texas. First of all, congratulations and talk about how proud you are to win this honor.

JIMMY WALKER: Well, thanks for having me. It's pretty special. I mean, this is an award they give out, I guess, that's voted on by your peers, so to have everybody feel that you've had a good year, it's just a big honor. I'm pretty pleased. It's pretty neat. If you would have told me at the beginning of the year that this was going to happen, I would have taken it, said thanks a lot and run with it.

But it was fun to go through it and I wouldn't have changed anything.

TODD BUDNICK: You're following in some big footsteps. Of course just this week, Tom Lehman, the 1991 winner was named the next Ryder Cup captain. We have last year's winner Zach Johnson and last year's champion Chad Campbell here this week. Talk a little bit about the guys you're following and what you're looking for.

JIMMY WALKER: I think it's pretty big footsteps. It shows the depth of the Nationwide Tour and what we're about and out there trying to do. I look forward to continuing the tradition of playing well out there and just keeping it going. I think there's a lot of good players out where we're coming from. It just seems like every week on the leaderboard on PGA TOUR, there are past Nationwide Tour players, and it's going to keep being that way.

I like watching -- I don't watch a whole lot of golf, but I watched Zach win this year. I thought that was great. We had five winners out here this year out of last year's class. It just keeps getting better.

Q. Have you talked to any of your immediate predecessors about what to expect out here like Zach and Chad?

JIMMY WALKER: I haven't talked to any of them as of yet. I remember seeing Zach in Houston this year and just sitting down and chatting with him just a bit about what he was going through this year. He had already won by that time.

I hang out with Cameron Beckman back home in San Antonio and I pick his brain every time I'm home to get a feel for things that are going to be going on out here next year. I'm real good friends with David Ogrin who's a veteran out here. I don't really know Chad. I know Zach just a bit.

Q. What's the biggest thing you've taken away from talking to them about what they've told you?

JIMMY WALKER: From what I get from most guys it's managing your time because there seems to be a little bit more demands on your time out here, things off the golf course, sometimes on. There's more people trying to get into your golf bag, seeing what you've got, and they've got something new for you. So just managing your time, sticking with what you've been doing in the past, practice habits and this and that. That's going to be the major thing, so I think that's mostly what I get from them.

Q. How long have you been out here this week?

JIMMY WALKER: This week? I flew in this morning.

Q. So you haven't had a chance to look around?

JIMMY WALKER: Not really. I just went in the clubhouse and looked at all the pictures. There's a lot of history here, so I was interested in seeing that.

Q. What are your expectations for next year?

JIMMY WALKER: As far as?

Q. Just on the TOUR. What do you want to accomplish as a rookie out here?

JIMMY WALKER: I'd like to set my goal structure up small and work towards bigger ones. You obviously want to finish in the Top 125. I feel like that's something that I want to go far above that. I'd like to continue my play that I've had the last two years. If I can keep that up for next year -- I feel like some really neat things can happen. I'm looking forward to it.

I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but I have high expectations for myself and I want to do well. I feel like I work hard, and I want to work hard over the off season like I did last year and be ready to go in January.

Q. Do you dive in and play as many tournaments as you can, or where is a balance there for somebody coming off the Nationwide Tour?

JIMMY WALKER: Well, I'm kind of in a special situation because finishing No. 1 you don't get reshuffled and you're pretty much at the top of the list of getting into tournaments, so I can set a schedule. I think one thing that this year taught me, the Nationwide Tour, is this is my first full year of playing golf. I played 25 events, and it goes back to managing your time, knowing when to take a week off, knowing when to go home and rest and relax. I'm going to take some of that into this year. I don't feel like I did it as well as I should have this year. You've got to relax.

I plan on playing the first four or five in a row next year and then having a week off and then going -- about a three-on, one-off, four-on, one-off kind of a schedule.

Q. You talk about having goals and you kind of set them in little chunks. What does that do to your frame of mind when right out of the box, four tournaments in, you've won twice and you've got one more win and I'm on the next Tour? How did you handle all that?

JIMMY WALKER: You've got to set your goals realistically. When you start the year off you have aspirations of doing incredible things. If you're not thinking that way then I don't think you're going about it the right way. Winning the first one of the year was just -- I played great, and it was kind of like, wow, right off the bat, this is great. I got my year started off just as good as you could ask for. Then getting another one three weeks later, right then I knew, I've got my card locked up. It's just a matter of seeing if I can't get another third win.

You know, every week it was the same thing as far as when are you going to win again, this and that. I knew if I could just get myself back into position I'd have a good chance of winning. I didn't play very good weekend golf this year as far as the second half of the season goes as opposed to the season before. I think as time goes on, you'll learn that there's parts of your game that get better -- not get better, but there's parts of the season, like you'll play the weekends better, you'll play the weekdays better, just different things are going to happen.

I had a great year this year. I guess my stats go right along with the year before, so just to keep showing a steady progression is I think key, but as far as the goals getting bigger and bigger as the year goes on -- I had to sit down and reassess what's going on. Now I'm looking at finishing No. 1, getting a third win, Player of the Year, stuff like that.

Q. What did you learn about how to handle expectations from that process?

JIMMY WALKER: Well, I felt like I did it pretty well. I got back in -- I felt like there were numerous times, at least eight or nine times this year, where I had a chance on the weekend if I would have played well. I was right there, five, four, three shots off the lead. It just never happened. Winning golf tournaments I think things have to go your way, and sometimes you can just kind of slide right into it.

I was happy with the rest of the year. I had maybe two more seconds in a three-week stretch, so the good play was there.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you very much, Jimmy, for stopping by, and good luck next year.

JIMMY WALKER: Thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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