RORY SABBATINI: I don't know if that's possible. We had so many long putts go in today.
TREVOR IMMELMAN: I think the first few holes, you know, Rory holed a nice putt there, but I was like 5 feet, and then the second hole, you chipped in stone dead.
RORY SABBATINI: I chipped to about a foot. The third hole Trevor was about four feet.
TREVOR IMMELMAN: The first three holes we got on a nice roll. We looked like we were going for birdie all those three holes because we were close to the hole. So that was a real nice feeling, kind of jump started our day.
RORY SABBATINI: Trevor made a couple of good putts during the middle of the front nine. I think he made about a 20-footer and probably about a 15-footer and then about another 20-footer. He made some good birdie putts there. And then I think the bonus for us came on the back nine. I think it was 12 or 13 -- yeah 12, I hit a poor second shot in there and made a putt from the right edge of the green, which was pretty comparable to the one I made on 17 yesterday.
It wasn't like we were making -- just dropping bombs from everywhere. We were both -- generally one of us was close and the other person would make a putt, whatever, which always makes it a lot easier on the other player. When your partner is taking up the slack for you and kind of taking the pressure off you, you never get stressed out there and you never get tight, so you can go out and relax and have some fun.
Q. How much would a win tomorrow mean having missed out on the Presidents Cup?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, I mean the Presidents Cup is behind me now. Well, it's being played next week, but missing the team is behind me. So I'm not trying to prove anything to anybody. I'm just here trying to play good golf. It's a great honor to be here and represent the country. So I'm trying to play well this week and play well for my partner and hopefully we can go out and do a good job tomorrow.
RORY SABBATINI: You forgot the most important one, your future wife. You're playing for your wedding present.
Q. Do you want to explain that?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: I'm getting married soon.
Q. How soon?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Quite soon.
Q. What's the date? Tomorrow afternoon?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: No. The 6th of December.
Q. And you've promised her your share of this? All of it?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: I mean, yeah.
RORY SABBATINI: Think of it this way, you better take her on a nicer honeymoon.
Q. You guys said you need to make birdies tomorrow and kind of play -- not play to a score and just kind of keep playing, realistically, though, a 7-shot lead, do you have to make any birdies tomorrow?
RORY SABBATINI: I'd take 18 pars right now and run. The course is a tough golf course. There's nothing easy to it. Even when there's not a breath of wind, you would still find difficulty out there. The situation being, we are out there and everyone is trying to catch us and it's up to them to try to push. And unfortunately, the situation being the more you push on this golf course, the more it gets you back. I think if we can go out there and just be consistent and be patient out there, just try and stay relaxed, I think we'll be fine.
Q. Is there any difference, do you think, playing with a 7-shot lead in alternate shot than there would be in straight up stroke-play?
RORY SABBATINI: Yes, because you're only responsible for half the damage.
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Exactly. Obviously alternate shot, sometimes you can struggle to get into a rhythm, but as we said earlier, we had some success yesterday and we've played great so far this week. We have to try and make sure we do the same things tomorrow.
Q. Would you like to jump right over to the first tee and start over?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: No, I'm real hungry right now, so definitely not.
RORY SABBATINI: He knows I would be hitting the ball terribly right now.
Q. After the first two days, did you guys envision being able to put up a number like this on this golf course?
RORY SABBATINI: I would have said no. The situation being, firstly, I couldn't imagine nine holes out there that you can birdie, but we really made the most of the opportunities we had today. There were a couple of holes that we kind of blew ourselves out of it and really took birdie out of play on a couple of the possible birdie holes, but at the same time we also birdied some very unlikely holes out there.
It's a course that's not really going to give you much. Any time you think you have got an opportunity, somehow it manages to snatch that opportunity away from you, not necessarily by hitting a bad shot, it's a tough golf course, it's continuously challenging, and it's definitely a course that you have to respect.
Q. Were there any holes you had difficulty making pars on today, that you had to save par?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Not really.
RORY SABBATINI: I would say probably the biggest hole that we both kind of struggled on was 17. We both hit poor tee shots there. After that, it was pretty easy. We got ourselves into position and made par with very little difficulty.
Q. How treacherous was that tee shot on 17?
RORY SABBATINI: I have yet to hit the ball on the club face and I've made two pars. No, it's tough. The situation being, it's a very intimidating hole and the fact you have to stand there and you have a lot of water out there in front of you. It's a typical Pete Dye design golf course. You have your railroad ties and you have a green that slopes away from the water, so the challenge is always going to be to keep the ball on the putting surface. And then to add to it, you have two pretty severe bunkers to the left over there and not exactly bunkers you want to mess around with too much. So it's a hole that if you can really focus on what you're trying to do, more so than what you don't want to do, you're going to be more successful.
Q. Leonard and Furyk were in here. We asked why they were shooting such great scores. They insinuated you guys shot great scores but everyone shot what they should have shot. Do you feel that way about it? Is it sort of like nobody took advantage of what you took advantage of, or did you take more advantage than everyone else?
RORY SABBATINI: In my opinion, our score was very impressive. I think we pretty much squeezed about as much as we could have out of this golf course today. There was maybe one or two shots out there that we could have picked up on. The situation being is there was a lot of times that when we could have gone the other way we didn't because we pulled ourselves together and we did that well today. Any time you can go out as a team, let alone individually on this course and go under par, you've done a great job. I would never turn my nose up at a score of 2-under on this golf course. I think if you had two players who get around this course and work it out and you finish under par, it's admirable.
Q. What would you guys have shot, you think, if you had been counting your own ball today?
RORY SABBATINI: Both 9-under.
Q. How impressive is it now, you guys go out and shoot a 63, which is what Alex Cejka shot in '97 with his own ball? How impressive does that look knowing what you did today?
RORY SABBATINI: I would say Alex played very well that day. He tied us. But the two of us could have taken him, especially off the course.
TREVOR IMMELMAN: We would have fed him to the alligator down on 12.
GORDON SIMPSON: We look forward to seeing what happens tomorrow.
End of FastScripts.
