ARJUN ATWAL 2/8/07 JOHN BUSH: Okay. We've got Arjun Atwal after a five under 67 today here at Pebble Beach. Arjun, thanks for coming by for a few minutes. Obviously a nice start to the tournament for you. If you can comment on the round, please. ARJUN ATWAL: First of all, the weather. It was nice when I started for the first ten holes maybe and then it started to pick up, the wind, got colder. Yeah, I didn't know what to expect coming into this tournament. I really haven't played much. Been practicing at home in Orlando for the last month, so it's been slow. My back wasn't too good last year so that's a little bit better. I'm looking forward to this year. QUESTIONER: Speaking of your back, you missed the cut last year, you have a couple of top 25 finishes the previous years. So you've had some success. ARJUN ATWAL: I like this place. Even though people complain about the greens and the conditions, I feel comfortable here. Even though the weather isn't the best, I like it. JOHN BUSH: Two pars to start the round, then five straight birdies. Not a bad way... ARJUN ATWAL: Got the putter working, that's the way you make birdies, it was fun. The main thing it was not windy, it was perfect conditions, the greens were soft. JOHN BUSH: Questions? QUESTIONER: Do you think if you teed off later you would have been five under? ARJUN ATWAL: Good question. When we finished 16, 17, 18, the way it's blowing, pars are good, really good scores. QUESTIONER: So you bogeyed 18 a little bit. ARJUN ATWAL: I didn't know what to do off that tee because it's coming hard off the left and it's cold. You don't know what line to take off the tee. I was trying to lay up. Obviously hit a long off that tee on the right. Yeah, it's tough, no doubt. QUESTIONER: When you're out there, did it feel like a good scoring day out at Pebble? ARJUN ATWAL: The first nine it did definitely. I had a few good shots and I missed a few putts here and there. Like I said, I haven't played a while. If someone told me I was going to be five under today, I'd take it. QUESTIONER: A lot of leaders are going to come out at Pebble. Does it seem like that would make sense, that that would be where most of the leaders would come out of? ARJUN ATWAL: Yeah, Spyglass and Poppy are tree lined more, so it'd be tough, you know, be swirly in those trees, it could get tough over there. Here it's exposed, you can tell exactly where the wind's coming from. QUESTIONER: Is this the first event you're eligible for or is this the first one you decided to play? ARJUN ATWAL: This is the first one I'm eligible for. The next one is Cancun. QUESTIONER: What did you hit on 7? I was just out there watching John Mallinger and it was blowing really good. What did you hit? ARJUN ATWAL: I hit a soft wedge. QUESTIONER: 14, 15, 16 were pretty good birdie shots. I saw you on 16. Kind of looked a little slider. Do you think it could have been lower because you had some good birdie chances? ARJUN ATWAL: Yeah, I think 15 and 16 I had two really good shots exactly the way I wanted to. 16 it kind of spun. 16 I had a great shot because it was howling howling off the left and just saw it and then crane hit one into the bleachers. I hit it what, about eight feet. QUESTIONER: Missed it to the left. ARJUN ATWAL: I think the best birdie of the day was on 17 today. QUESTIONER: That was my next question. Here you had a few good shots and 17 it's howling now. What were you ten feet, 12 feet? ARJUN ATWAL: About 15 feet. QUESTIONER: I know the bogey bogey finish kind of stinks, but to get that at 17 maybe made the round a little bit. ARJUN ATWAL: I didn't think about that, I just wanted to hit solid shots, make some putts. That was it. QUESTIONER: What are your expectations this year, knowing they're conditional and you can't get into everything you want to. How do you try to look at everything this year. ARJUN ATWAL: I told my wife, we were having the conversation last year how we were going to approach this year. I'm actually going to play a lot. I'm still fully exempt in Asia. I won the money list there. After I get done with Cancun I'm going to have a pretty full year. The thing is whenever I get if in here I want to be ready to play. Sometimes you get an alternate, someone pulls out, you get it. I just want to be ready whenever I play. As far as my goals go, always been the same, to win, you know. QUESTIONER: How many events over here do you think you'll get into reasonably. ARJUN ATWAL: I have no idea. Absolutely no clue, because of the FedExCup and all that. No one could tell you, till the queue pans out. QUESTIONER: How about overseas? ARJUN ATWAL: You know, my first few events I'm going to play the Johnny Walker Singapore Master's and see how it goes out here. If I don't get in for quite a while, then I might play a few more. QUESTIONER: How difficult is it to prepare when you don't know what event you're going to play? ARJUN ATWAL: You know, I was in the same situation in '05, this exact same category and I played I think 17 events that year but I would have got into 13. I had four top tens so made it 17. It was actually a great schedule. I played I think 22 all over the world and it was just I love it. You know, you could see the money list in '05 I made a million, just under a million and last year I made 550 and I made 33 events last year, so it obviously tells me I shouldn't be playing that much. That's how I hurt myself. QUESTIONER: What was the back injury? ARJUN ATWAL: It's a disk, L-4 L-5 slipped, it's bulging, I got a herniation. QUESTIONER: About when did you suffer it? ARJUN ATWAL: Last tournament of the year, Tampa, I actually finished my practice round on Tuesday and I was staying in Orlando till the tournament started. I was driving back and couldn't get out of my car when I reached home. QUESTIONER: Took a few months to get over it? ARJUN ATWAL: Yeah, it's still bad, not fully healed, but I could play, you know. I was playing with Ben Crane, this is his first event, his back is pretty bad. QUESTIONER: If I could get you to take us through your round, starting with birdie on number 3. ARJUN ATWAL: On 3? Hit a driver off that tee, first time I've ever hit driver. Hit a little soft pitching wood to I think about six feet under the hole. JOHN BUSH: 4? ARJUN ATWAL: Hit a driver lob wedge which then spin... didn't spin back surprisingly to about 15 feet above the hole, made that. JOHN BUSH: Par 3, five. ARJUN ATWAL: Hit a five iron to about eight feet above the hole. JOHN BUSH: 6? ARJUN ATWAL: Five wood just short of the green, chipped it to about a foot I think. QUESTIONER: The wedge on 7, how far was the putt? ARJUN ATWAL: Five feet. JOHN BUSH: Four iron to 15 feet, then your bogey on 18. ARJUN ATWAL: 18 just pushed it out right in the rough. Had a decent layout, laid it probably too far back. JOHN BUSH: Anything else? QUESTIONER: The guys at the top of the leader board right now, there's not a whole lot of experience with wins on the PGA TOUR. With Tiger not playing this event, you get the idea it's a wide open tournament, where not one of the expected contenders can come up. ARJUN ATWAL: The thing is I really don't look at leader boards till Sunday, it doesn't really matter what you do unless you're on the cut line, then you look at the other scores. I really haven't looked at whose up there and whose not. Come Sunday I will be looking. QUESTIONER: Jeev Singh had a career year last year. Apart from being a fellow countryman, does that kind of spur you on in any way? ARJUN ATWAL: Definitely. I read an interview when he got back to India after finishing his 44 tournament season he was like, you know, because he struggled for six straight years and he was like 390th in the world starting last year. Now he's 37. So they asked him what inspired him, Arjun playing on the PGA TOUR. He was the first one amongst all of us to win on the Asia tour, gets his card on the European tour and now he struggles and he's doing the same thing for me. JOHN BUSH: Thanks a lot, Arjun.