What they said: Nick Watney

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JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Current leader in the clubhouse, Nick Watney, thank you for joining us here. You finished at 10 under with birdies on your last two holes. I'm sure you're happy to not only have the clubhouse lead, but also finish on a strong note. Maybe some opening comments about your round today, specifically your last two holes.

NICK WATNEY: Well, I played very well again today. The main difference was the putter; whereas yesterday I made a whole lot of putts, today was a bit of a struggle with the putter.

So to finish with two birdies in the last two was a good feeling. I made the last putt on 17, and so I feel good about the way I'm playing, and just going to work on my putting a little this evening and go on to the week indicate.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Pretty bunched leaderboard, some big names up there obviously. Right now you've got the lead but there's also some players, Tiger, Phil Mickelson, among others, within a couple of shots. Does that change your mind set at all going into the weekend or do you just play your own game?

NICK WATNEY: No, I mean, I knew from the start that they were in the field. So it's no surprise that they are playing well.

If anything, it just whatever the lead is at, that's not going to win the golf tournament. So I need to go out and keep playing well and keep making birdies to have any shot.

Q. Some players have had complaints about some behaviour of the crowd out there. I was wondering how big your crowd was and whether there were any distractions or if you had any comments about that.

NICK WATNEY: Well, we had some decent crowds out there today. But I wasn't distracted too bad at any one point. It was just kind of there's been a few camera clicks, but for the most part, I feel like once I kind of get going into a shot that I don't hear a lot.

So for me, it hasn't been bad at all.

Q. Compared to the PGA TOUR, is there any difference coming to the HSBC, WGC?

NICK WATNEY: Compared to the TOUR, I think if this tournament was in America, it would be one of the top tournaments. The golf course is good. Obviously the field is very strong. So I think they were whoever made it a World Golf Championships event, I think it was a good decision.

Q. Can you talk to us about the attitude of the players you played with today?

NICK WATNEY: I played with Ian Poulter and Martin Kaymer. And as far as how they played, Ian played nice, I believe 3 under. And Martin, I believe he shot 2 over.

But as far as playing with them, I enjoyed it a lot. It was the first week I've played with both of them. But obviously they are very, very good players, top players in the world, and really nice guys. So I enjoyed it.

Q. Well, you've experienced down town Shanghai. Can you tell us the major difference between your home country and what you can see in China?

NICK WATNEY: Well, it seems like there's a lot. This is probably the biggest city I've ever been in. I live in Las Vegas and there's probably maybe two million people here, and I heard there's 18 here, 18 million here. So I think this is the biggest city I've ever been in. Apart from I guess the food, it's just a big city. I can't tell any major differences.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Nick Watney, thank you very much.

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