WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 24, 2004

Mike Weir

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Mike, for joining us for a few minutes. Great win last week at the Nissan Open, defending your title there, coming here, playing match play, but you're playing well, should be excited about this week coming up.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it's a totally different animal than stroke play. You have to be leery of whoever you play, but I am playing well. As I said, it's man-against-man and hole-by-hole, a little more than stroke play, but I'm looking forward to it. I haven't played as well as I'd like in this format the last couple of years, so I hope to do a little better this year.

Q. If a player gets to the weekend in this tournament, how much more grueling is it than, say, a regular stroke play?

MIKE WEIR: I'd imagine it's quite a bit more. Obviously I think the final is 36. I'm not sure if the semi is. Is the semi 36, as well? No, just the final. I think to make it all the way through and then get to the final 36, especially with the conditions being a little wet and sloppy, it'll definitely be a little fatigue factor there.

It's definitely more grueling because in match play, I know, just from playing The Presidents Cup and that type of format, there's just a little more -- seems to be a little more pressure on each and every shot compared to a regular event where in three days you're kind of more playing the golf course, so you're probably more tired at the end of it.

Q. Do you enjoy this, and is once a year just right? Would you like to see it more or not at all?

MIKE WEIR: No, I enjoy it. It's a good change, a really good change, actually. Not only this, I played the HSBC over in England the last couple of years. I like match play. I've always enjoyed The Presidents Cup, that kind of thing. I like it.

Q. Where does that come from, Mike? What in your past?

MIKE WEIR: Well, we played -- I played a junior tournament growing up in Canada, called the Les Thomas Invitational. It was always match play. We had two rounds of stroke play and then went into match play. I won that a couple times. Then I remember the Canadian Amateur my last couple of years went stroke play and then into match play, so I did have a chance in junior golf to play it quite a bit, and I always enjoyed it. I think at an early age playing junior golf, I took a liking to it.

Q. What goes into your thought process when you're trying to decide whether you should give a guy a putt or not?

MIKE WEIR: A lot of things. You kind of pay attention to the demeanor of the player and whether he kind of wants you to give it to him, just where the match stands, pay attention to how a player's putting. More importantly, I think just the tee shots. There's a little bit of strategy, I guess it is. You might want to lay it back off the tee so you hit your iron approach in first and maybe put pressure on him with a close iron shot.

There's definitely a little more strategy involved than stroke play, so there's a lot of factors that play into it. It just depends on the situation, how it's going out there.

Q. After you won that Masters, how did your life change on and off the course?

MIKE WEIR: It hasn't changed a whole lot. I think for me personally, I haven't changed at all. And my family, we do the same things. It hasn't changed at all. But I guess -- I think I'm more recognizable than maybe what I was before. I've said before, I think even the casual golf fan tunes into The Masters, whether it's the beauty of the place and music and everything else that they enjoy, people enjoy watching The Masters. So me winning last year, I think I'm recognized maybe more by the casual fan than the die-hard fan who did know me before. That's the big difference.

Q. Do you draw off that win out on the course when things aren't going right to stay positive, or say, gosh, I did it at Augusta, I can do it here?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, you do. I mean, experience in this game is a huge factor, and I've been through a lot of situations in the game my seven years on the Tour, and other years that I was on some smaller tours, and you use all those experiences to pull yourself through tough situations. I had a tough battle last weekend and I was able to draw on some past experiences to stay very positive and help get me through that last week.

Q. Was it important for you to build on that win? Sometimes a guy will win a major and you don't hear from him again. That consistent play, is that what you really strive for?

MIKE WEIR: That's definitely what I strive for, is more consistency. I think I've always been a player that even from junior golf days to amateur golf to my beginning stage of professional golf to where I'm at now, I just always try to find a way to get a little bit better. I was a good junior golfer, decent amateur, decent college player, and when I first turned pro I was okay. That's my deal, is I try to find a way to get better consistently.

Q. Do you see kind of an upside getting better every year?

MIKE WEIR: I see a lot of room for improvement.

Q. Have you kind of looked toward Augusta much yet, as far as what you're going to do and do with the dinner and all that stuff?

MIKE WEIR: A little bit. I have a friend of mine that I grew up with from the time we were in preschool who is a chef in my hometown, so I'm going to ask him to throw some things together. We've been faxing some things back and forth and trying to get it all hashed out.

Q. You're not sure yet what it will be?

MIKE WEIR: No. It's close. I'll give you the final update pretty soon.

Q. You once said coffee and doughnuts?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, that's Canadian, for sure.

Q. How about just going into that week knowing that you're going there as the champion? That's a whole different mind set than you've ever had before. Will you push that towards later on in the spring a little bit or are you thinking about it already?

MIKE WEIR: I think after this week, my mind will start leaning towards Augusta definitely and The Players Championship, for sure, but I want to do a lot of similar things that I did last year. I'll probably stay at the same place. My preparation will hopefully be a little better. The weather conditions played a big factor in that last year. We weren't able to get on the golf course very much before the tournament.

I always felt like I have a good strategy for the golf course, and that's important. As I said before, iron play, distance control with your irons, and putting it on the smart side of the hole is at least for me the most important thing, and that's what I base my plan around playing the golf course. Whether I'm able to do that, hopefully I'm striking my irons well enough to be able to control them, but that's how I go about that place, trying to attack it.

Q. The Masters victory, did you think that changed other people's expectations for you? And if so, is that good, bad?

MIKE WEIR: I think it probably did. Yeah, I think any time you win a major, expectations rise probably. It probably gave hope to a lot of medium-range hitters that it wasn't going to be all long-ballers out there last year. It proves that you can find other ways to get it done in this game. I've always had high expectations of myself, but I think there is probably a little bit more expectations.

Q. The expectations are not such that -- fans would not be expecting an excessive amount of accomplishments out of you?

MIKE WEIR: I don't know that. I'm not sure.

Q. Here's my reference, and I was talking to Tiger about his situation. Everyone thinks he ought to be doing this, that, and something else because they're always comparing him to 2000. And I was wondering, when a player like you wins, although you had had significant victories and you've built your victories up over time, then bam, you win The Masters, I was wondering if you, like him or any other player, would have fans expecting a great deal more of you, not necessarily realistic?

MIKE WEIR: That's a good point. As you said, referring to Tiger, I think people do make reference or are held in that esteem to the 2000 season. I think those of us that know the game very well know that's very hard to do. The game is very difficult to stay at a super high level all the time. He's done it better than anybody in the last -- since Jack probably.

But for myself, I know that I can't quite stay at that level all the time. I'm trying to. I think we're all trying to reach a certain level, and I'll try to stay there. But the game has so many ebbs and flows, and you just try to peak for the majors. You try to get your game so it does peak at that right time, because you know you can't stay there the whole time. It's too demanding physically and mentally to stay there for that long of a time.

Q. A lot of guys who -- even before the changes at Augusta -- who weren't considered bombers have won there. Do you think it isn't as much of a bombers' course and maybe is just perceived to be?

MIKE WEIR: I think that little -- I don't want to say it wrong. I'm not allowed to call it rough.

Q. Second cut.

MIKE WEIR: That second cut is a big difference now. You cannot hit out of that second cut and spin the ball and keep it close on the right tiers on the right levels on the green. You can't just unload on your driver out there anymore. The last few years it's played pretty wet. I always remember watching The Masters on the TV, and the ball chasing down the TV on 9 and 13 and 15, and when Tiger won his first time hitting wedge in and launching down that right side, those days are gone. Now it's a little more tactical game around there.

I think still a long hitter has -- someone who carries it in the air a long way has an advantage there, definitely, as long as they can keep it in the fairway. Obviously it makes sense. I mean, holes like -- for me, 18, I hit a good drive on Sunday and have a good 4-iron in, I'd much rather have a 7-iron in, but at the same time, if I can control that, and I had a really hot putter last year, I can offset a lot.

Q. How often do you check the World Rankings?

MIKE WEIR: How often? I don't know, maybe once a month, you know, whenever. I don't really pay attention to it that much. I glance at it once in a while, but it's not something I pay attention to.

Q. I think fans gravitate to you as well because you're a medium-range hitter, you're not bombing it. Do people relate to that more?

MIKE WEIR: I think maybe the average amateur can maybe relate to my game a little more because I play with a lot of amateurs that hit further than I do, so I think maybe they can. Not many guys can hit it as far as Tiger and Vijay and Phil and Davis, and that's a different game that they play than even I play and amateurs play, so maybe they can relate to my game a little more.

Q. What's been the biggest perk to winning The Masters? Is it playing golf with Wayne Gretsky?

MIKE WEIR: The biggest perk? I don't know what the biggest perk is. I would say --

Q. Other than your ATM account.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah. I'd say probably just even security, knowing I have a five-year exemption, security knowing that I'm in the majors for a series of more years, and hopefully I keep building on that.

Going into last season, I didn't play very well in 2002 and I was close to the tier on the Top 50 in the world. Once you fall off that, I would have to go qualify for the British Open, qualify for these tournaments, which I'd be very willing to do, but I didn't want to get back there, so that's a nice thing, that I don't have to do that for a while.

Q. Obviously winning The Masters brings a lot of extra demands on your time. How difficult was it over the latter two-thirds of the season to keep that edge or to maybe even regain that edge that you had the first third of the season when you got all of your wins?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, that was a challenge, definitely. I'm a player that likes to have things in order before I tee it up Thursday in a tournament. I have to get in the work that I need to get in so I feel really like I've been prepared for the week, and I felt like some of that was taken out of my control a little bit towards the end of the year, and I didn't handle it as well as maybe I will now. You know, I learned from that. So it probably may have affected my game, maybe, but it's something different that I had to get used to that I wasn't used to before, and until you win a major you don't know what it's like, and it took me time to get used to that.

Q. You had a successful defense last week. Is there anything from that that you could eventually think about in successfully defending The Masters?

MIKE WEIR: Boy, I think -- my putter was just really hot last week. I don't know if there's one thing I could take away. I think probably just the preparation I did last week that was comparable to 2003 LA Open, Nissan Open. So that's what I'm going to do at Augusta, is try and prepare the same way. It puts you in a good frame of mind that everything is on track for the week.

Q. It seems like winning The Masters, the thing that's common is everybody is putting well.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, you can't go around there without good touch. You're faced with so many difficult putts all the time. You can't help but have six or seven-footers for your second putts some of the times. You're going to hit it on the wrong side of the hole sometimes. If you don't make the putt, there's almost no way for it to stop right beside the hole. You're going to be left with some testing putts throughout the day, all day and every day, so you've got to be able to make a lot of those coming back, and there's so many little subtle breaks on the greens that you've got to pay attention to. Putting is very, very complex.

Q. I'd be guessing probably, but if I assume you have one regret from last year is it the back injury at Oak Hill? Is that the only regret of last year?

MIKE WEIR: That was unfortunate. I started having problems the week before the International when I was home, and the International I was pretty bad. But at the same time, you know, it was a fluke accident when I was stretching, and that was disappointing obviously but not regrettable really. There was nothing I could do about it. I was proud of the way I played there actually because I didn't bring much to the table. I chipped in a bunch of times, hung in there really well, even after the start on Sunday I put a decent score together after the way I started. Not regrettable, I'd say disappointing maybe.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Mike, for joining us.

End of FastScripts.