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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 11, 2018

Tiger Woods

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Q. Looks like the driver was a lot better. All your tee balls seemed to be better, but the scores didn't match?
TIGER WOODS: I didn't hit the ball close enough today. I didn't get off to the start I wanted to. I had sand wedge on 10, reachable par-5 at 11, sand wedge again at 12, and I played those even par. That's not the start I wanted to have and unfortunately kind of went the rest of the day the same way.

Q. What's going on with the golf course? Do you like it right now? Most of the players are saying that it's really good right now.
TIGER WOODS: It's in perfect shape. It's just playing really short. It's so hot out here, the ball's flying. We're probably playing close to a club less than we normally do. They gave us some pretty accessible pins. We could go after it and post some good numbers, and I think that's what you're seeing. The cut right now is under par, which is unheard of around here.

Q. What's the longest club you hit into a par-4?
TIGER WOODS: 6-iron on 18.

Q. What did you hit on 14?
TIGER WOODS: 14? I hit 9-iron.

Q. The wedge shots into the par-4s seems like would be the easiest thing to figure out, but do you know what's going on there?
TIGER WOODS: I didn't hit -- I didn't quite swing it right today, and I didn't quite have the shape, ball flight. I didn't have much of what I wanted. With these greens as soft as they are, I didn't take advantage of the opportunities I had today to really shoot a good number.

Q. You were talking about sort of having to dial down your practice from the past; is that also true with short game and putting especially? Are you able to do the drills and stuff that you used to?
TIGER WOODS: Not for the length of time, no. I just can't stand over for that long, bent over for that long. It doesn't hurt, but the muscles get sore and tight but, no, I certainly can't log in the hours I used to, and it's part of being 42 as well.

Q. Is No. 4 symptomatic of what went on the whole day? You got a wedge, maybe 105, 108, you put it in the back bunker?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I had 106 there and tried to flight one in there, and geez, I stuck it in the ground and hit it long. It was a bad combo.

Q. How long before you stop reminding Joe of what happened on 18 green?
TIGER WOODS: I never brought it up again, but boy, I think Phil gave him a pretty good one.

Q. Putting, was it speed or read or both?
TIGER WOODS: No, my speed was fine today. I had good touch with my speed, I just didn't quite read them exactly the best a couple times. But I wasn't close enough, I didn't hit the ball close enough and in the right -- in a section where, yeah, I had those 10-, 12-footers and which I should do with 9-iron on down. I didn't leave myself hardly any of those opportunities today.

Q. The ball stuck in the tree, have you had a ball stuck in a tree like Rickie?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I remember I had one at Doral at 17. You remember the blimp followed it in there. I had a few of those happen out on TOUR.

Q. Is it tough to keep your focus when the other guy in your group is struggling?
TIGER WOODS: No, no, I have my own struggles. I have my own business I need to take care of. This golf course is so demanding and it puts so much stress on you from tee to green, it's very stressful, a very stressful ball striking golf course because there really isn't kind of -- there really isn't a let off. You really have to be committed and be focused on what you're doing.

Q. What do you look to gain from the weekend?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I got to shoot something in the probably mid 60s both days to get myself up there to have a chance or something. Hopefully give myself some more looks. Feel like I'm putting well, I'm just never inside that range which I should be with the irons I'm having.

Q. Middle of the round you had about three putts about 10 feet and it looked like you struggled, you were putting pretty decent, just missed them?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I just didn't quite hit a couple of them hard enough. As I said, the grain kind of -- ugh, I wish I would have been a little more committed to what I was seeing with the grain, but other than that, it was okay.

Q. How are you feeling? If you take a long view like have you done several times this year, is it normal to be struggling to put all aspects of your game together at the same time? Is that normal? You've had different parts and then the other parts are lacking. If you could step back from that, is that kind of what you would expect?
TIGER WOODS: That's golf, unfortunately. If we were able to put all of our facets of the game together I think there would be a lot more tournament winners out here. But this is just part of the job. We have to figure out a way to put it together, and I have not done that consistently this year so far.

Q. Are you frustrated after a day like today or do you accept that it's just building back to where you want?
TIGER WOODS: Both. Both. Definitely. I'm more frustrated in the fact that I had some shorter irons in there and I didn't hit any of them close. I should be hitting them inside flag length, and I didn't do that at all today.

Q. As the only guy to win both in March and May, although the courses are different, but do you prefer one over the other? Which one did you like better?
TIGER WOODS: Well this golf course this time of year is far shorter. It's always hot, ball's always flying, and with it all being Bermuda, we're getting runout. In March that's not always the case. There are numerous years that I've had -- we've all had mud balls and you have to deal with that type of difficulty coming into these greens. This time of year, no, ball's rolling, ball's flying, it's usually dry, these greens are always dry this time of year, so very different.

Q. So the answer is May?
TIGER WOODS: I won them both.

Q. Mother's Day coming up and we have always asked you about your dad, but what impact did your mom have on your life and your career?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, my mom was the tough one. She's a very tough lady, and when you talk about discipline, the Asian culture is a little bit different, that's what I was raised on and my mom was definitely that way and she was tough but extremely loving and so supportive. I probably wouldn't have got to this far without her because she's the one who took me to all the golf tournaments. My dad was working. My mom is the one who had to drive me to all the golf tournaments. She would drive an hour just to go play nine holes in a peewee league. And so she made a lot of sacrifices for me to get here, and I can't thank her enough for it.

Q. Was your mom a good driver?
TIGER WOODS: She's fast.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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