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FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC


June 7, 2012


Jeff Maggert


MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

COLIN MURRAY:  I'd like to welcome 2006 St. Jude Classic champion to the interview room today.  Nice 4-under par 66 to get started this morning.  Just talk a little bit about the round, four birdies going out on the back-9, your first 9 and then the eagle at 3.  Just talk a little bit about that and we'll go to questions.
JEFF MAGGERT:  Yeah.  I got off to a really good start.  I knew the golf course was going to be a little bit easier the first couple hours this morning being first off, so I was able to take advantage of that and just played really solid on my first nine holes and the last nine I played well, too, had a nice eagle on the third hole, couple of bogies coming in, kind of a bad chip shot on the fifth hole.
And then on the eighth hole just an unusual circumstance in front of the green there, being so muddy, you know, and the ball just kind of plugged in the mud.  I wasn't able to chip the ball or putt the ball very close to the hole and made bogey there.
It was a little frustrating there.  I called for an official, two officials.  One didn't work, I would try the second.  There is a rule in the rule book about abnormal turf conditions.  And that rule is applied when you get to the part of the golf course that's abnormal to the rest of the golf course, and I really thought that that was the situation there.  Obviously I don't know if the sprinkler busted or they overwatered that particular area, but it wasn't that way in the Pro-Am on Wednesday.
So, I felt like I was justified, but the powers that be thought that I was not.  So, anyway.
COLIN MURRAY:  You just mentioned coming in you played five in a row through the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.  Talk a little bit about the state of your game coming in, and we'll take questions.
JEFF MAGGERT:  It's been up and down this year.  It's been better.  I had shoulder surgery last year about June 1st and missed about four, five months.
But the shoulder surgery was fantastic and, you know, feel like I'm a hundred percent now.  I haven't felt that way in two, three years.
I hurt my shoulder back in 2010 in the spring and just tried to play through it for a year and a half and just really struggled.  My game kind of went south, and so last summer I decided it was time to kind of get it fixed.
So, anyway, thank goodness for that.  Surgery was fantastic.  My shoulder is great, feeling good.  Age is probably a little bit of a factor, maybe, of the inconsistent play.  Twenty-two years out here is a long time, but fortunately I'm still here doing it.
COLIN MURRAY:  Thanks, Jeff.  Go to questions.

Q.  Can you talk about last year having to go back to Q-School, something you've done twice in your career.  How was that with the shoulder, coming off the shoulder, knowing you had to get it done.
JEFF MAGGERT:  I had a major medical exemption for the first half of the year for this year, so it was really kind of as a backup plan.  If I didn't play well in the beginning of the year, I have kind of a backup.  So I went to the Tour school, maybe not quite as much pressure as some of the kids, because obviously I knew I was going to get to play some.
So I just want to improve my position.  I was feeling healthy.  My game was coming around a little bit.  I played really well at Q-School, played solid, and actually a good confidence builder for the beginning of the year.  So it was good for me to get back to Tour School, get into the competition and help my game.

Q.  You mentioned getting a chance early this morning.  How were those conditions early, and did the wind seem to pick up, and is that making it a little tougher for those coming off this afternoon?
JEFF MAGGERT:  We had pretty tame conditions for the first seven, eight holes.  We started on the back-9.  When we got around to about 17, the wind started to pick up and it was pretty, pretty breezy the rest of the way.  It wasn't -- it wasn't -- I thought yesterday it blew a little bit harder.  But the last four, five holes there, it was picking up 10, 15, maybe gusts at 20.
This golf course, in particular, if you get those type of winds, this golf course is difficult to score on.  Only two par-5s on this golf course.  So you kind of want to take advantage of those two holes, they're holes you can make a three or four on if you hit some good shots.
But other than that, the rest of the golf course, there's a lot of holes out there that you can make bogey on real easy.

Q.  At No. 8 you hit a shot and every other shot, hits in front and bounce up, it's like "boop."  You're like what happened?
JEFF MAGGERT:  I don't know.  I'm walking on thin ice here, because you can get fined from the Tour for saying inappropriate things, but, you know, all I can say is that shouldn't have been that way.  There's enough people in the know and guys on our Tour that should be watching out for that and they just -- they didn't get it.  They missed it today.
You know, I realize they make mistakes and that.  I don't want to get too much further into that, because it has nothing to do with everything else that goes on in this tournament.
The tournament volunteers, this tournament in particular is one of my favorite.  They do a fantastic job.  So I don't want to take away from the great job that they're doing.
FedExCup has been an awesome sponsor for our Tour for a number ever years.  The St. Jude Hospital, just being involved with that has been great.  And I was fortunate enough to win here six years ago, and I've been enjoying this tournament for 22 years.  So hopefully, I got a few more years in me.

Q.  Jeff, can you detail again the eagle on 18, what you hit and how far the putt?
JEFF MAGGERT:  On three?  Just a perfect line on the drive and playing a little bit downwind.  I was kind of in between a 4 and 5 iron to the green.  My caddy talked me into the 4, and I hit just kind of a soft 4.  Hit it a little bit thin, but the line was right where I was trying to hit it.  And it hit probably just short of the green, 3, 4 yards and rolled into the green about 5, 6 feet from the hole.

Q.  Obviously St. Jude is involved in this tournament.  Does it mean even more now to you considering your mother and her surgery and all?
JEFF MAGGERT:  My mother is recovering right now in the hospital from breast cancer surgery.  So, yeah.  It's kind of a tough week to be here and be away from my mom, but she's got some great family with her and looking forward to see her when I get home.
We knew for about a month the surgery was going to be this week, so it wasn't something we had -- we had been planning for.  Kind of early stage.  So, you know, that's positive sign, but obviously you always have to stay on top of things and hopefully she's at M.D. Anderson in Houston and they've got some great doctors there.  She's going to pull through okay.
COLIN MURRAY:  Anything else?  Jeff, thanks for your time.
JEFF MAGGERT:  Okay.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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