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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDEMay 29, 2019Tiger WoodsPeyton ManningDublin, Ohio Q. So many great memories here for you. TIGER WOODS: Yeah, there have been. I've been playing here for a long time. I've won Jack's event a few times. It's been very special to see him out here today. I haven't seen him since the Tuesday night dinner at Augusta. So it was great to catch up a bit. And this golf course is not set up easy this week. It's going to be tough to play. Q. No. 6 will be difficult? TIGER WOODS: None of them have been easy. But this one is going to require a lot of good driving. It's going to be soft. Guys are going to be aggressive. The ball is not going to be going anywhere. We'll see if we play it up the first couple of days. Q. How about this guy? TIGER WOODS: He can play. PEYTON MANNING: Birdied 18, which is all that matters. Hit a good drive on 1. Trying to copy the golfers, just positive attitude they have about a tournament. Always wanted to do a football press conference, with similar the way the golfer does. I had a great stretch today. I got all my handoffs. I got all my snaps. The most part, I'm excited about my game, looking forward to next week. Keep some positives. To go behind the ropes and to play with this guy on this course, and anybody that loves golf, it's a real thrill. Tiger couldn't have been a better host to me and to Nationwide customers. Great sports fans, football fans and golf fans. Really fun to be out here on behalf of Nationwide. Q. What was the most impressive thing that you saw with Tiger's game today? PEYTON MANNING: I've played a lot of golf with Tiger all the way through the years. It doesn't really amaze me much anymore, because I've seen so many incredible things that you kind of come to expect it. When he makes a par, it's kind of like you're surprised. He gave me a great read on 18. That was the most impressive thing I saw. I executed it. Q. What was the most impressive thing that you saw with Peyton's game out there? TIGER WOODS: He's got so much better. When he first played, he was just kind of starting out the game. But now that he's retired and can play a lot more golf, you know, that's been pretty cool for me to play with him throughout the years. And to know that what he's gone through, to see him get ready for the season and what he's been able to accomplish after all the surgeries and then to see -- to walk around greatness like this, it's always fun. Q. Do you feel refreshed after the PGA? TIGER WOODS: I do. Q. Do you feel better about the way your game is turning? TIGER WOODS: I feel a lot better. I feel a lot better. I just need to play a little bit more now. And hopefully it will be four solid days this week heading into The Open. Q. As Tiger alluded, you may be one of the few people on earth who knows -- has any sense of what he's gone through to come back to win a major like he did. Can you speak to what it was like watching the Masters? Would that have been like you winning the Super Bowl after the surgeries? PEYTON MANNING: It's hard to make comparisons. I don't know how anybody can speak to what he went through from a physical standpoint, injury-wise. Only you know what it kind of feels like. I just know how hard he worked. I know how many -- how he had to stop playing for a while because -- I had to stop at one point, because I didn't like the way I was throwing. You stop and kind of restart. That's what he did. And I think the most impressive thing is how he's been able to adjust and be adapted to playing in a new physical state. That's kind of what I did. To use a baseball analogy, I couldn't throw the hundred-mile-an-hour fast ball anymore, but you could still work the outside edges of the place. You could still strike a guy out that way. He struck a lot of guys out. He came home with the win. That to me is the most impressive thing, is how adaptive he's been. And as a golf fan, like everybody, I loved watching that Sunday. And it's great to have him out here to watch him play again. Q. Did Peyton say anything inspiring to you? TIGER WOODS: No, he just gave me crap the entire time (laughter) which is par for the course, that's what we do. We gave each other pretty good needles. And as I said, to walk around with greatness, I get a chance to know for all these years, I mean, what he's gone through and changed and adapted to. That's what we talked about for a number of years, because we didn't quite have what we used to have. Q. Jack said this week about the win at Augusta may have fueled your hunger even more to go get that record of his. Obviously it's important to everybody. But how important is it to you, and how did the win at Augusta fuel that passion? TIGER WOODS: Well, it validated that I can still do it at the highest level. Last year at East Lake was a big thing for me to have won my first year back. I've only played, what, five majors now? And if I'm able to stay healthy enough to continue playing -- six majors now -- it's about just giving myself the opportunities to be able to work my way through it like I did, and kept my patience and kind of chip away at it at Augusta was pretty cool. Most of the years that I've won there I've been out front early. This was not the case. Q. Tell us about Pebble? TIGER WOODS: Pebble was wet, rainy and cold when we played. So it was playing really, really long, but obviously it will be a little bit different come tournament time. The rough is not quite up yet. It's a little bit short for now. They've got another few more weeks to grow it in. The greens are -- I forgot, I haven't played there in a number of years, I forgot how small the complexes are. Add a little firmness and speed to them, they get really tight. But seeing some of the new greens that they had redone, taking a look at the new pins was nice to see. So come next week, when I start concentrating and focusing on Pebble Beach, it will be nice to have those images. Q. How long after Bethpage did it feel you were back to the same? TIGER WOODS: A little bit. I lost quite a bit of weight and wasn't feeling my best, but was able to put most of it back on and continue to work at it. Q. Jack said yesterday that you probably think like he did, that it was all about the majors. That's how he counted success in his career; that he wasn't looking at Sam Snead's record, for example. But now that you're right there, what would it mean for you to get 82 or 83? TIGER WOODS: To get into those numbers it takes longevity and hot years. I think you need multiple winning seasons. You need to do that for decades. That's something I'm proud of. That's not something that happens overnight. To be able to come this close to get to one behind Sam Snead has been pretty amazing. It's been a pretty amazing run throughout my 20 some-odd years out here. Q. A 62-year-old Snead was asked, Why do you keep competing? And he said, Well, if I stop competing, I'm going to dry up like a pea. Can you relate to that? TIGER WOODS: No matter what I'm doing, I'm competing. Whether it's golf or anything else, I'm going to be competing. This is just one of the mountains. I love competing in golf. I love playing. There's nothing better than playing against the best players in the world. It's what I dreamt about as a kid, and it's finally come to fruition. Q. And being the best player? TIGER WOODS: Yeah, to have been up there in the No. 1 slot for number of weeks and number of years. Like I said, it's about consistency and getting those multiple win seasons and keeping it going for long periods of time. That's something I'm very proud of, is that I've been able to be as consistent as I have been for a long period of time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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