Stuart Appleby talks about his cruise to Houston Open victory

(April 25, 2006) - Australian Stuart Appleby became the third multiple winner on the 2006 PGA Tour by going wire-to-wire to win the Shell Houston Open. Appleby closed out his virtuoso performance with a 5-under 67 on Sunday to win the event by six shots over Bob Estes at the Redstone Golf Club Tournament Course in Humble Texas.

The victory is the sixth for an Australian on the Tour this year, and the eighth career victory for Appleby, who previously won the Houston Open in 1999.

Appleby has now won twice in a season for the first time, having won the Mercedes Championship to start the season, the third consecutive time the Aussie has won that event.

Here's what Appleby had to say following his dominant victory:

Stuart Appleby

Question: Stuart Appleby, congratulations on winning the 2006 Shell Houston Open wire-to-wire, second win here in Houston. Congratulations on a great week, 19-under par, six-shot win. Opening comments.

STUART APPLEBY: I thought if we didn't get the wind that 15-under plus score might be a chance on the cards. Today was the typical day I think we thought we should have had for four days that would have kept scoring a lot higher, probably around the 10-under par mark, 10 to 12.

I enjoyed the week obviously. To have a comfortable victory has never left my lips. I've never had that luxury. It was nice to know coming down the last part of the day that things were in hand and it was just a little bit easier to relax.

Q: Talk about winning for the second time in one season. This is the first time you've done this in 11 years on the PGA Tour.

STUART APPLEBY: That was something I had always got off to good starts in the last three years, and there needed to be another dose of that throughout the year, and there hadn't been. So '03, '04 and '05 were good years but I didn't feel like they were great years. Certainly now winning twice puts that feeling, an emotional feeling at a high level, to say that I won twice. It's a good year. Winning twice on the Tour in a year is a good achievement for me. Other players are probably thinking four or five and other guys are thinking if they don't win six it's a bad year. I think winning once or twice proves to you that what you're doing works, and it can work more than once every Blue Moon.

Q. Do your expectations of yourself change?

STUART APPLEBY: Absolutely not one level. From the time I won here in '99 until the time I won now, I don't expect anything. What I expect to do is to compete my best any given week, the best I can, and work with what I have the best I can and respect the swing and chipping, putting, whatever is in my game, and this week my game was at a stronger level in a rounded aspect. What I'm trying to do is get better at having a well rounded game. I know that that level, that quality of golf is going to put me in contention more often, and that's really what it is about, being near contention or in contention. Today I was always there, but a lot of weeks you've got to fight to find your way into contention.

Q. Do you prefer winning by a bunch or winning be last?

STUART APPLEBY: A bunch is a lot more enjoyable the last hour or two hours of the day. I kept it on the leaderboard once I made the birdies early in the back nine, I sort of said, right, okay, I said to Joe, let's knuckle down, push down, drive this thing home. That really was my focus. I got just as intent as I was at the start of the day because I thought, well, now I've got a lead that I just want to outgrow. It's something that I knew I could win from here but I didn't want to give up any part of my lead. I wanted to hold it or extend it.

I knew what I had to do to do that, much like I used that sort of food for thought I had at Kapalua back when I was dueling with Vijay and he had a run at me. Someone could make a run at me, but what do I have to do and it'll be just make pars coming in. I got my goal of shooting 3-under par on the front nine and knew if I could do the same thing on the back no one was going to catch me.

Q. Would your game this week be capable of winning a major, if you take the game you had this week into the majors

STUART APPLEBY: God, that's hard. It was good. I'm not sure because I haven't been in contention enough, I don't think, to know what was that level I had then. Maybe that might have been my best game and it wasn't good enough, so I don't know. I think the way I played today, if I played like that in the major, there's no doubt I can be a contender at the back.

Q. Other than the fact that you won out here, what's your take on the course and this as a tournament site?

STUART APPLEBY: Well, a few obvious things. It's nice to play everyone is a bit concerned about changing courses, especially when you change one that's only 100 yards away, and that was a good golf course. I played well there when I last played there. I liked the feel of this course. I liked the feel of this course. I liked the way the greens were designed. I thought they were very fair. Everything moved, you could position your ball on the greens near the flag if you wanted to be aggressive. You could be conservative and have a good conservative effort where you could be conservative to the bad side and have the same length putt and have a real tough one. You could plan your way around and be aggressive. The greens were firm but very fair. You had to draw the ball, you had to fade the ball.

There was nothing wrong with this golf course. It was definitely out there. It was repetitious in look but didn't play the same. I think everybody felt comfortable out on the course and I think their eye fit it very early. It was a good change.

Changes are good sometimes but sometimes players are a bit weary of changes, and I think this one was fun.

Transcripts provided by ASAP Sports.

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