THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 25, 2001

Vijay Singh

VIJAY SINGH: I played pretty decent. I made two mistakes: The 3rd hole and the 9th hole. I missed a drive on the 9th in the rough and got a horrible lie, so I could not really do anything but lay up. Then I laid up downhill, so I could not really hit over the trees; had to go around it. But besides that, I played pretty good. The greens were rolling excellent. You could actually attack the pins, and there was a lot of birdie opportunities out there. I'm quite happy with the round, and looking forward to finishing it tomorrow.

VIJAY SINGH: Well, I'm going to go home, not a hotel room like anybody else. But I feel good about my game. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I've had many of these delays before. It's not that I am not used to it. I'm just going to come back tomorrow, refocus, and try to finish it.

VIJAY SINGH: A little bit. The greens, the balls were really spinning a lot. And the pins were further back as well, so you could not really fly it past the pins. You had to hit a lot of soft shots where it does not spin as much. My ball on the 6th hole must have spun at least 30 feet up the green. So you've got to deal with all that. So as you get along, you know that you've got to adjust to what kind of shot you need to play.

VIJAY SINGH: It's 18 holes, so he's not going to finish in three holes. I just kept playing my own game.

VIJAY SINGH: I was looking forward to -- my mindset was playing the golf course like it was set up yesterday. I think it threw everybody off a little bit. I think it is better for the guys that are behind so they can fly the ball to the greens instead of playing conservatively to the middle of the greens. I was looking forward to playing like the course was set up yesterday, but I guess you just have to play the golf course the way it is set up. Right now it is set up soft, so you have to just go out there and do your thing.

VIJAY SINGH: Yeah, you kind of loosen up at home. I loosen up at home a little bit and come back out here and do the whole thing again. It's nothing new. We have played early tee times before. You just go and do your own routine. You feel like it is a new day, which it is a new day. So you just go out and warm up and go and play.

VIJAY SINGH: Not really. Think about what I need to do tomorrow, like everybody else. Probably watch a movie.

VIJAY SINGH: My coach is with me, he said, "Well, you know, if you were not playing Monday, you're going to come out here tomorrow anyway, so it's no big deal." (Laughter.)

VIJAY SINGH: Yeah, in this stage, everybody that is playing, pretty much knows what they are doing. Obviously, you feel the holes, your approach shots; you know where the pin is and know where you are going to land the ball. Like on 4, there's no necessity to go at the flag. You can hit it 25 feet right of the hole, and it is going to spin down to the hole. Those little things, you know, we are aware of, and maybe guys not playing it too often, it may slip their mind. But I'm aware of where the pins are and where you need to hit it. In that respect, I have a little bit of an advantage. But everybody knows the golf course overall. I don't think there's any edge from one player to the other.

VIJAY SINGH: I don't know. I would love to have played on, because I was feeling really comfortable with my golf swing. You know, you just can't do anything about it. We knew we were only going to play nine holes when we started off, so your mindset was just for nine holes. There's nothing we can do about how we feel or if it is an advantage or disadvantage. Just have to come back tomorrow and refocus and try to play the best you can.

VIJAY SINGH: I'm a little pissed off about it. (Laughter.) It would have been worse if I had dropped three or four shots back, but -- I don't know if I'm one back or in the lead.

VIJAY SINGH: It's not really a biggie.

VIJAY SINGH: If you do that, if you get too aggressive, you can blow away a few shots very easily. You still have to hit the fairways and greens. You just have to play the golf course the way it is set up and take your chances when you can. You've got to play a little aggressive tomorrow. But you just have to go ahead and see what the other guys are doing. I'm going to go out there and see if I can make as many birdies as I can and not make any mistakes.