home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 5, 2005

Mike Weir

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

CLAUDE NIELSON: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome Mike Weir back to Augusta, winner of the 2003 Masters, first Canadian, first lefty, and Mike was the winner of seven PGA titles.

Mike, do you want to open with a few comments and then we'll take questions.

MIKE WEIR: Well, I'm excited to be back, as usual.

This is my fifth year being here. I'm as excited as ever, probably more so than any other year, and I feel like my game is coming around. I had a nice week of rest last week and a week to work on my game. I just feel good about things, so I'm excited to be here. I played a couple practice rounds. The course is fantastic.

I think it's right where the tournament committee wants it. It's playing firm and fast, and it will be great if the weather holds up that if stays that way all week. I think it will be an interesting tournament to see the course play like it is right now, so I'm excited about it.

Q. What is it about this place that brings about such a smile to your face? Besides the obvious that you won the thing, but overall, what is it about it that sets it apart so much for you?

MIKE WEIR: I think it's just the history. As a kid growing up where we grew up in Canada, it's kind of the start of the golf year for us, and for myself I just remember as a kid just being out here and watching, in particular, Jack in '86 win this tournament and how he won the tournament and how many great champions have won this tournament and the way they have done it.

I think the history and knowing the holes and seeing them for so long, I think that's what makes -- one of the reason that is makes it this tournament so personal and one of the reasons I can't wait to get out there. I can't wait to try to hit a shot on 15 and a drive on 18. That's why I get excited about it.

Q. Given the familiarity the players have with this course and the history, especially on the back nine on Sunday, what goes through your head psychologically when you're in that situation, the final back nine in contention?

MIKE WEIR: Well, it just depends on the situation. You know, if you're ahead or behind, there's some gambles you can take and there's some other things you can play smart and play some smart shots and make a lot of pars if you need to if you're in that position. If you're behind, you can take some chances.

I think particularly last year the tournament committee did a great job with bringing some excitement back to the tournament with some accessible pins, and Phil was able to capitalize on that and make some things happen, and I think that's what is so exciting.

Q. Do things slow down for you while you're playing, or is it just a normal round?

MIKE WEIR: No, it's not like a normal round. No, things are churning inside for sure, and you have to slow yourself down sometimes because things speed up.

Every tournament is different. Every Masters Tournament is different. Sometimes you feel very calm. Like the putt on 18 to get into a playoff, for some reason, all the work I've done, I've felt very calm on that putt and other times I don't. It's just every tournament you play, and that's what's the great thing about the game.

Q. Someone answered this; I guess you were glad to see the pin placements on Sunday last year, more conducive to the fireworks we saw, and could you sort of encapsulate what the back nine was like last year when you were here and what you've seen by now in the replays and the hole-in-ones and crazy --

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I felt like maybe the past few years before last year the pin placements weren't in as accessible places for some of that stuff to happen. You know, you didn't see many 31s, 32s on the back nine, and you didn't see many eagles on 13 and 15, and we saw a little more of that last year. I think that is what is exciting about this event is that you can go out if you're on top of your game and you're close to the lead, you can shoot a 30, 31 as we've seen in history at this tournament.

But, you can also shoot a 39 or 40 if you're just marginally off. I think that's what makes it so intriguing is that you can be six behind on the back nine and still win the tournament.

Q. How much different is this year from last year? Everyone wanted a piece of you, you're in the spotlight and the Champions' Dinner and you're excited about that. Is it more normal in terms of preparation this year?

MIKE WEIR: I think so. I was telling the guys yesterday that I think the main difference coming into this event last year, I didn't play very well at THE PLAYERS Championship; I missed the cut. I didn't play very well in Atlanta coming in here, and I felt like I really needed the time to work on my game. With everything going on, I didn't have the preparation I needed to start Thursday and probably was a little anxious, a little irritated because I didn't get that done.

So that was a little bit frustrating, where this year I came in, had a week off last week and played pretty well at THE PLAYERS and felt like I didn't need to work on my swing and just preparing for the course. There's a big difference there. I wish I would have had this feeling going into last year, but I didn't, and I feel good about it this year.

Q. Jack was in here earlier talking about the course when it plays hard and fast being a bomber's course. It seems to me when you won it, people said it was a bomber's course, so what suits you better?

MIKE WEIR: What suits me better?

Q. Depends on how you're hitting it.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I would say, obviously when I won, it was soft and playing very long. I still think firm and fast probably plays a little bit better for me because I think I can control my irons. Usually when I'm playing very well, I can control my irons and control the distance, and that's very important when the greens are firm and fast. You have to be very precise. You have to accept the ball hitting a good shot and having it catch a slope and rolling 45, 50, feet and you have to be very patient when it's firm and fast like this because you're going to make some bogies. The course is going to make you look silly sometimes when you hit a pretty good shot, and you have to be able to accept that and go on and move on, and I think usually whenever I've played tough, firm, fast golf courses, like Shinnecock, I've been able to do okay on them.

Q. When we talked to you before the tournament started in '03 and the rain and the wet, and obviously it was going to be difficult conditions, and I remember you saying you didn't really like your chances under these conditions. Does that one win change your whole perception to the course and approach in the tournament?

MIKE WEIR: I don't remember myself saying that. I remember saying that I'm not paying attention to all of the talk about the long guys. I felt good about my game going in there. You know, even though the course was playing long, the greens were going to accept shots because they were so wet with all the rain. So I felt like I had as good a chance as anybody, so I don't remember saying that.

Q. A favorite style --

MIKE WEIR: Maybe I said it still favored the longer guys. I think it does.

Q. After that win, does it change your perception of the course, just the fact that you have the memories and everything?

MIKE WEIR: It definitely gives me more confidence knowing that I've won here, and I feel good about the golf course. But I still think it favors the long guy, no question.

You know, a player who can hit it high and long and straight now, because there is a little bit of rough out there, is going to have a huge advantage. I hit a 4-iron into 15 today that landed two feet from the hole and was ten yards over the green. For me, my ball flight, I can't hit it high enough to keep it on there. It's tough for me.

Where someone else, you know, Tiger or Davis, these guys that bomb it out there, instead of 4-iron, they are hitting 7-iron in there and they are hitting it higher, so they are going to have a chance to stop it. So my short game needs to be much sharper.

Q. Sorry for the bad memory, but what went through your mind when you had to stay around here for those two days as defending champion after missing the cut?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it wasn't very much fun. Saturday I don't think I did much. Sunday I came out and practiced a little bit and then just hung out with my family and watched it on TV and then got ready for the ceremony.

But it was exciting watching it. It was exciting golf to watch.

Q. It's been a couple of years and you've had some up-and-downs since you've won this thing, but how does winning this tournament alter you as a golfer; does it give you a mental swagger afterwards?

MIKE WEIR: I think in majors you feel better. I think before I won the Masters, my major championship record wasn't the greatest, and I think since I've won the Masters, outside of maybe one or two tournaments, I've been in contention in most of them.

I think there's a different feeling about your game that I know I have about it.

Q. There's been a lot said on TV and written here and there about the driving accuracy of the big hitters and the top five players. How much rough is out there right now, and is this a week where it's sort of, to use a hockey metaphor, they can play the dump-and-chase more than the U.S. Open, blow it more out there with impunity given it's not in the trees?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, a little bit, but I feel like there's just a little bit more rough than there has been in the past. So you don't want to be firing at these flags out of that cut because, you know, as firm as they are right now, you're not going to be able to hold the ball. Even if you're hitting an 8-iron, it would be really difficult to keep it on the proper tier.

I think there's still a big emphasis on hitting the fairway, and maybe more so than I've ever seen here, actually. But given that fact, the long guys are going to be out there so much further; 15 for me today was a couple of yards into the rough -- I'm sorry. 14 I had a 5-iron in there and it just doesn't come out right and hits the back and rolls 20 yards up to the front where I drop one on the fairway and you can control it; but that's a 5-iron for me where the longer guys are maybe an 8- or 9-iron. We'll see what happens.

Q. You've talked before about how important the Canadian Open is to you, and in your mind it's Canada's major; given the events that transpired last year, and now that this is the first major this season, how big of an opportunity is it for you to come out and play well and kind of put that behind you? Do you think about that? Is this a chance to really setup your year gearing towards the other majors and even coming back to Canada?

MIKE WEIR: Not really. I don't think about -- I haven't thought about that tournament in a long time. Obviously that was disappointing not to pull that tournament out.

But I don't take any of that into this year, except for the fact that when I'm in that position, there may be a few things different that I may do. But it's just important to get off to a good start in major championships. This is why I play. I want to win some more major championships. This is the first one of the year. You want to get off to a good start leading into the rest of the year, and outside of that, September is a long ways away, thinking that far down the road.

CLAUDE NIELSON: Thank you, Mike, and good luck.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297