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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 19, 2005

Tiger Woods

PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA

Q. Do you feel like you could do all you could today, Tiger?

TIGER WOODS: I played well today, I just did not putt well. I didn't putt well the entire week. And that's unfortunate that I could just not get the feel of the pace, so pace determines line, and if you can't roll the ball on the right pace each and every time, you can't determine your line. And I really struggled with that this week.

Q. Sergio said he played as well as he could. And he's come to a point of maturity that that's all you can ask with yourself. He's disappointed, but content with how he played.

TIGER WOODS: I'm pleased with the way I played, not pleased with the way I putted. There's a difference. I hit the ball well all week, and I controlled my ball. I hit the golf shots I wanted to hit.

I made a big, giant step with my ball striking since Augusta. But unfortunately, I just did not get the speed; hence, I could not get the lines. And I really struggled with that.

Q. Is it more disappointing because of what Michael did?

TIGER WOODS: What do you mean?

Q. Just the fact that he could

TIGER WOODS: I figure Goosen was probably going to stay under par. You figured the score would be even par or under par. And I felt it was trying to get back to even par for my total. And hopefully, that might be good enough. I didn't think it would be, but I was hoping it might be. And in hindsight and we all now know that even par would have been a playoff.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Michael, after what he's been through, and lost his game completely, and came back. He's won a bunch of tournaments since then, and continually built up his resume. So hats off to him, because he was down in the doldrums there and worked his way out of it, and he's now one of the best.

Q. 11 over the final round at the U.S. Open, how surprised are you at that, the stature of player that he is?

TIGER WOODS: You look at that golf course and those scores out there. It does not take much. You get off to you can hit good shots and get absolutely hosed. You putt balls off greens, hit good shots that kick one foot, two feet, and next you know, you're 30 yards away from the flag.

And it does not take much. And I've watched the thing on telecast on TV, and TV does not even come close to doing justice to the slopes of these greens and where they put the pins. They put the pins so close to the edges. You talk to most of the guys, they're lagging up short of the hole and try to make three or four footer. Because anything three or four feet off past the hole is going to be away from the flag.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I thought I needed to get to even par, after I just made bogey there. I figured I had to birdie the last two to get to even par. And hopefully, that might be good enough to get into a playoff. And I pulled my first one and blocked my second one. If I had been somewhere in between, I'd have been all right.

Q. The start today, your start today (inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: I'm sure people didn't give me any chance to win this tournament after my start. But as I've said, I've won this tournament before, and I've won major championships before. And you've just got to go out and keep grinding and fighting away. You've got to be patient.

And this golf course really tests your patience. If you get greedy, fire at a couple of flags, hit it 3 feet left or right of the flag, next thing you know you're making double.

I figured if I stayed patient and got back to even par for the day, that was only two birdies away, a par 5 in front of me, and I felt like 7 was a pretty easy hole today, it was dead downwind, so make two easy birdies there, I could get back to even and let's see what I can do on the back nine.

Q. You were close on 13 and 14, can you talk about those, in the grand scheme of things?

TIGER WOODS: It's not 13 or 14. It's just the entire week of the way I've felt on the greens. I just could not get my speed right, and if you can't get your speed right, as I said earlier, you can't get your line right.

Q. The speed was quicker today?

TIGER WOODS: It was. But it was extremely slow going up the hill. Slow up the hill, two feet past the hole and away from you. You want to make a run at it, but if you hit it two feet past the hole, you're looking at a 6, 8 footer coming back.

Q. How good was a 69 today?

TIGER WOODS: It was not easy out there. I played as I said, I hit the ball really well and I hit it well all week. And today, again, I struck it really well, even though I got off to a bad start, it was not because of poor ball striking. I think it was poor decision making. I got a little aggressive on that second shot on 1. It should have, if anything, missed the ball short of green. Anything short of the green I can make par, anything past the hole was different.

It looked like they didn't cut the fringes around the greens. The fairways were faster than the fringes. And I knew that going up that hill on 1. I didn't hit it, didn't trust it and subsequently I end up with bogey.

Q. Even though this course was obviously tough, the final pairing was 25 over par, could you ever have imagined that?

TIGER WOODS: I wouldn't say the final pairing I could ever imagine being that way. But out here on this golf course under these conditions today I'm sure some pairing would have been. But I never would have guessed that Goose would have done what he did.

End of FastScripts.

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