Stuart Appleby Interview (R3) - US Masters
IN: News | US PGA | US Masters (2007) | Round Three | 08 Apr 2007
Q: Good afternoon, or maybe I should say, good evening. We’d like to welcome and thank Stuart Appleby for stopping by, and we will take your questions.
Q: You’re either going to have the lead or be pretty close to it, but you probably would have been happier to have a couple more shots. Take us through the only blimp in the day, 17?
Stuart Appleby: Overall it was very comfortable out there considering conditions were an extreme opponent. Really played decent all day. You know, played smart, did the right things at the right time. 17, I hit a bad tee shot and really was trying to
well, seats, just sitting there, the members, were just when I hit my bunker shot on 17. I hit it thin and that cold, rattly feeling you get in your fingers and hurt for that one reason, fingers were just very cold.
I’ve played in colder conditions, but with the dryness of the golf course and that, too, normally this team tour is associated with rain or something you would see at St. Andrews. Tough day, I don’t think we’ve seen scores anything like this at Augusta for a long time.
Q: You have not contended in a lot of majors so far, but wondering going back to Muirfield what you took out of there and anything you can bring to the table tomorrow?
Stuart Appleby: Muirfield, very, very different. I was playing well all week, putting decent but just burning the hole. I just remember thinking, come Sunday
really was too nervous the first few days, and tried to get myself more relaxed. That’s the biggest battle at the moment. I said to you last week in Houston, I was never really comfortable the way I was putting, and you know, technique, my actual technique was not right and I cleared that up a lot more. And just getting comfortable out here is so difficult to do.
Q: You just answered my question with what you just said
what do you have to do to get ready for tomorrow knowing it’s going to be similar conditions, the final round of a major?
Stuart Appleby: I don’t know, I haven’t got much experience to really say, oh, well, I’ll do this, I’ll do that, based on that.
I will just plod along, do what I have been doing the last few days. Yeah, I’m just not going to be getting too wrapped up in it. There’s a lot, a lot of work left. There’s 18 holes, but to be honest, it’s way more than that.
Q: You so often hear it can be an advantage to play in the morning group when it’s quiet and the course has not dried out as much, but today it seemed like it was miserable for everybody no matter what you played?
Stuart Appleby: Yeah, Retief shot a fantastic score and probably played in colder conditions, and I’m sure his round would have been littered with some par saves, near misses. And that’s really a guy that just he skipped
not on but close to the pin and hit a great chip and made a par. That’s one you could easily have made something worse. But I don’t think you want to hear about that. (Laughter).
Q: You look at the board, we would say Tiger has an advantage because of his major championships. Does the weather
I got over it, spilled milk, move on. Boy, you’d better move on, because you’re about to try and hit a very difficult fairway and obviously a par is a huge bonus and I hit two great shots. Really was confident I could make that putt on the last. I knew I was never going to run it by much, but I thought really was really going to lag it in and was confident. I’m disappointed I didn’t make it because I felt like that would have been some redemption after 17.
Q: How long was the putt?
Stuart Appleby: Probably about ten feet.
Q: We had gasps in this room today as we were watching what this course is doing; how would you characterize what the course is doing to the best golfers in the world?
Stuart Appleby: Well, it’s set up right on the safe limit of tournament play. The officials here really know where the pins need to be, they know what the winds are; they are not doing anything silly.
The only really difficult hole from a sense of being too difficult was 14 yesterday, was just impossible to find a shot in your bag. But today, you knew where the danger was, you knew where you needed to play. The greens were consistent. That’s what is so good about this place, it just—it’s not funky by any means. It’s just a real, real test.
It’s a joy to play, finally, I know what I’m doing here, but the whole factor is actually doing it is another game again?
Q: I’m just wondering in your non-tournament rounds where you’ve maybe hacked around with Tiger for some fun over little Nassau or something, how you’ve done?
Stuart Appleby: Well, I think you just may as well, look at the Tour record, that will get you enough stats there, won’t it? What would you like me to say, that I cleaned him up all the time, I’m great on the practice range? I can beat him; I can hit it past him? No, no, and no.
Q: So you’ve never had your way with him at all?
Stuart Appleby: No, I’ve never had my way with him. (Laughter).
Q: How many times have you played tomorrow’s round when you’re a kid, last round at Augusta, final group with the best player in the world?
Stuart Appleby: Wow, I don’t think I ever have. I remember watching that and seeing a million highlight reels.
It’s going to be a very interesting day for me. It will be a real fight, really, really tough for me. It will be tough for everybody.
You know what I’m going to really focus on is enjoying tomorrow. Because if Tiger wins, or when he wins tournament, he’s not so wound up and tight and sense that he is not enjoying it.
I’ve found that the best play comes from really just relaxing and enjoying it and just taking what comes, because if you try and save what’s not already made, which is trying to find a par when, you know, you can’t control the outcome, you tend to make worse.
Tomorrow I’ll just go out and really try and enjoy myself and understand that it’s a very different scenario tomorrow from what the other days have been, certainly from a crowd point of view and where all of the fan base will be towards Tiger.
I understand how that works, but yeah, I look forward to it. I’ve just got to relax and enjoy it. That’s how all my best play comes.
Source – US Masters
Photo – WireImage.com
