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BUICK INVITATIONAL

January 19, 2005

Tiger Woods

LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

Q. How does it look out there? How does the course look with all of the rain?

TIGER WOODS: It's bone dry, really. The fairways are rolling, with the hot dry air out, the golf course --

Q. With the schedule, how does that affect everybody? A lot of the top players are here?

TIGER WOODS: I think it's great to have a stronger field here at the Buick and San Diego. It's a great tournament and it gets lots of local support and hopefully they will come out even more.

Q. You've played here for a long time --

TIGER WOODS: Two totally different golf courses now. The South Course is totally different. The North Course is playing the same, has not changed at all. A couple tees have been moved back but that's about it.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TIGER WOODS: I think, yeah, it's probably the best thing to do, just a matter of time. I'm sure they will get that resolved.

Q. (Inaudible)?

TIGER WOODS: I think as I said, this tournament in general has always provided a really strong field, and I think this year with the tournament being moved up, the guys wanted to get off to an early start in the year. It's great to have Ernie here for the first time. It just adds another presence to the field and to the tournament, another excitement level, which is great to see.

This tournament has always turned out some great local support and I think this year will be no exception to that.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TIGER WOODS: I haven't talked to him, no. It was not about Tom himself being selected. I thought that Mark might get it, especially being Irish and he goes there every year to fish at The K Club and knows everybody at The K Club and spends a couple of weeks a year there. I thought it would have been just a perfect fit.

But nothing against Tom Lehman at all as a person or as a captain. Tom would have been a perfect fit back here in the States, and I thought Mark would have been a perfect fit for someone there in Ireland with his Irish heritage, just like when we go to Suffolk Manor, I think the perfect captain there would be Woosie. Doesn't get any better than that.

Q. How are you feeling right now and how is your game?

TIGER WOODS: Feeling all right. Feeling better than I was at the beginning of the week. You know, certainly I'm excited about tomorrow.

Q. Talk about Vijay, he's on a tear right now?

TIGER WOODS: He's been playing that way for the last couple of years and this is just an extension of that, a continuation of it.

He's been playing great, and last week he played very solid when he really needed to down the stretch. He's been doing the same things, just now it's a different year.

Q. With four or five guys playing, are you sure will you be surprised if there's another nine-win run?

TIGER WOODS: Any time you win nine times it's not easy to do. It's going to be hard for anyone to do that and even when they did that in the past it has not been easy either. It takes a lot and you're going to have to -- sometimes you have to play great and you're going to have to get lucky a few times. But more than anything is you have to keep putting yourself there time and time again. That's how most guys who have won at least nine or more tournaments in a year, they have done that, they have put themselves in it with a chance on the back nine each and every time they seem like they tee it up.

Q. Talk about six or seven guys playing at their best level ever; makes it exciting?

TIGER WOODS: I think it's exciting going towards the first major championship, there's no doubt about it. But we have a long way to go for the year to go. The year is just getting started so we don't know what the prospects of the year hold in front of us, but as of right now, yes, it is very exciting.

Q. Can you understand the troubles that David Duval is having and how hard it is to be where he is right now trying to get back; what do you say to someone like that?

TIGER WOODS: It's hard, because he, obviously, has gone through his share of troubles. For the first time since I've seen him and known him, he's finally happy off the golf course and his life, he's got a smile on his face every day.

So now it's just a matter of time before his game comes around and that's just going to take time. It takes a lot of work and effort, but more importantly, think for me as a person, and I've known David for a while and been his teammate a few times in World Cups, to see him smiling again each and every day is just pretty cool to see.

Q. Can you talk about how this is going to affect the Open; do you play this with an eye for the Open?

TIGER WOODS: No, I could care less. That's, what, three years away? We've got a while to go before then. I'm sure the USGA will change it between now and then, so what we play now and what we're going to play then might be two totally different venues.

Q. You play the South and North -- (inaudible)?

TIGER WOODS: Probably three or four shots, yeah.

End of FastScripts.

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