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BANK OF AMERICA COLONIAL

May 19, 2004

Mike Weir

FORT WORTH, TEXAS

Q. Some opening comments?

MIKE WEIR: I've always felt that this golf course fits my game. You have to shape the ball around a little bit out there. I'm looking forward to getting back in the mix of things. I've been struggling a little bit, been a little stale with my game. I've been practicing really hard the last three weeks and it's starting to show some signs.

Q. How hard is it to be in contention every week and then to have a couple of months when your game isn't at its best.

MIKE WEIR: I was able to get there a little more often last year. My game was a little more consistent in my swing, I felt like. This year I've been battling a little bit more, so it's been hard to get into contention, but when you're clicking on all cylinders, the edge is off a little bit out there. You're not searching for as much in your swing. But it's starting to pay off - the hard work - and this is a perfect golf course for me. It's similar to Riviera in the sense you have to shape it around, so hopefully, I can find some magic here.

Q. Sounds like this is a course on which you'd expect to win at some point in your career.

MIKE WEIR: I'd love to. I don't know if it'll ever happen. I mean, it would be a nice double this year - to win here and at Riviera. But it's a tough field, as usual. At some point in my career I'd like to be in the mix.

Q. What are the similarities in the two courses?

MIKE WEIR: It's just a straight and friendly golf course. No tricks about it, but it's tough. Riviera played kind of soft this year, but normally it plays hard and fast, and so does this golf course. When you get in the rough, even though the rough isn't deep, you can get some flyer lies. It's hard to control the ball out of the rough, and then the greens are small and the pitching areas once the ball gets off the green are very difficult. You can have a good lie; you can have a really bad one, or an in-between one, so I think that little bit of inconsistency makes it difficult. And I'm sure the tournament staff here and the golf course is very happy with where the golf course is right now leading into the week, because it's quite firm, which means higher scores. The wind blows around here, which makes club selection difficult. It's like Riviera, as well, where the wind blows off the ocean, swirls around the trees a little bit. Plays with your mind a little bit.

Q. Do you think equipment is making this place a little bit of an outdated course?

MIKE WEIR: I don't agree with that. I think it's still a tough test when it plays firm and fast. I don't care if you have a wedge or 5-iron or whatever you have, it's tough to get the ball close to the hole. You have to get a real clean hit on the ball out of the fairway. Otherwise you're not going to have control on it, and like I said everything around the green still is difficult. You'll have some shorter irons in there and you might not hit as many drivers as maybe in the past. Now, for someone like me, I'm still using driver quite a bit, but it's a good test.

Q. What are you mainly working on?

MIKE WEIR: Mainly driving. I haven't been driving well, and it's tough playing out here on the tour if you're not driving it in the fairway. It sets up the whole hole if you're playing from the fairway, but if you're struggling - left side, right side and you're not sure where it's going, it's tough to play.

Q. You didn't play here last year. Was that part of a schedule change after you won the Masters?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, my schedule did change a little bit after I won the Masters. I felt I needed a little break from the game. I took four weeks off - some time to digest everything that happened and enjoy it a little bit.

Q. Did you make Letterman or anything like that?

MIKE WEIR: I got some of those invites, but I didn't do them because it was time away from home. It's nice to do that stuff if it's convenient, but Salt Lake City to New York to do that sort of stuff is kind of tough for me.

Q. You won earlier in the year. How long do those good feelings linger?

MIKE WEIR: Funny thing. I was playing very well at the beginning of the year and not showing anything, not having any good tournaments. But I showed some progress. I finished fourth or fifth in Phoenix and about the same at Pebble Beach, and I was hitting it very, very well, putting OK. Then I go to Riviera and wind up not striking it nearly as well as I did the weeks before, but my short game was phenomenal. I made everything I looked at and got it up and down when I needed to, and it was just heaven. Then I started struggling. Last year from the beginning of the year, I kind of carried it through pretty much almost all the year. I felt like when I teed it up I was going to be there. That's how much confidence I had in my swing at that point.

Q. Was there any kind of gig after the Masters you really remember?

MIKE WEIR: Probably dropping the puck the next day. That was a big one. That was cool. I love hockey, plus being around the guys before the game and seeing how excited they were.

Q. What is your mindset leading up to Shinnecock?

MIKE WEIR: I've been trying to play a little more leading into Shinnecock. This is my third week in a row, and I'm skipping next week and I'll probably play the two weeks prior to the U.S. Open. So I'm going to be playing and playing a lot in that mindset. I haven't played the golf course. The week of Memorial I may try to get up there and play the golf course. I've heard a lot of great things. Obviously at a U.S. Open you have to drive it straight, so you'd better be working on that. And then you're going to be scrambling, too. Nothing's going to be perfect out there. You're not going to hit every fairway, so your short game's got to be really solid. It's a little different short game from here. You're going to be playing a little more bumps.

Q. It has a kind of linksy feel. With your short game, is that something you're looking forward to?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, definitely. Actually, the next three majors coming up are all British Open style, so it's kind of strange that way. And you know you're going to be playing in wind pretty much in the next three majors, so for me I don't have to change my trajectory, my ball flight, because I already hit it pretty low. So hopefully that'll play into my favor a little bit.

End of FastScripts.

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