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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 11, 2004

Tiger Woods

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

Q. How do you feel?

TIGER WOODS: Hungry. I was feeling great when I got here , felt good on the range, and the rest of it got worse. On the first green, I had to lighten the load a little bit.

It made me feel better. I was feeling cold, hot, hot cold, hot, cold. I'd put on a sweater and next thing I know I was hot. I'm glad to get it out of my system.

Q. Did you sweat through one shirt?

TIGER WOODS: No.

Q. Did you lose it on No. 1?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, between 1 and 2 and then halfway down 2. Got the rest of it out.

Q. What do you think you have to work on to get to where you were?

TIGER WOODS: As I say, I'm pretty close. I didn't make any putts this week, at all. Any putt that I had within ten feet for birdie, I didn't make them, and you have to make those. Occasionally I had a couple of par putts, four or five feet, and I didn't make those, either.

You can't go around here and not putt well and expect to win.

Q. Could you explain why it's important to you to work it out on your own as far as on the practice range?

TIGER WOODS: I'm telling you, if you watch me hit balls, I'm not that far off. I'm hitting well on the golf course. I just hit a couple bad shots on this golf course. I didn't mean to do that.

Q. I meant doing it on your own. Why is that important to you?

TIGER WOODS: Why is it important to me? I explained that a long time ago, about Butch and I, so I'm not going to do it again.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TIGER WOODS: I was trying to I was getting a little aggressive and kind of going after it because I needed to make something happen. I blocked it on top of that, so it just kind of added to the frustration.

Q. You smiled after the birdie on 18. How does that leave you?

TIGER WOODS: Disappointed, certainly, because I didn't win. That's obviously the ultimate goal is to win the tournament, and I didn't do it.

I felt like I hit the ball well enough to do it. I just didn't make any putts. You have to putt well here. The only putt I really made today was on the last hole, and you can't expect to win doing that.

Q. When do you report for duty?

TIGER WOODS: I'll be there tomorrow.

Q. Do you think Army is going to agree with you better than some of your lunch today?

TIGER WOODS: God, I hope so. (Laughter.) I don't need to lose any more weight.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TIGER WOODS: He had trouble on the greens the first day.

Q. On 10 you had a little time to yourself 14 you were taking a look at the leaderboard, an unusual circumstance, to have all of the action behind you; you're not used to being there. What was going through your mind?

TIGER WOODS: It's part of playing golf to not always be up there. We were saying that right now, if we just went from the way the day has been going for both of us, up and down and nothing really positive, we can just go right for 14 green, tee up there be down I 20 in a heartbeat to catch a flight back to Europe.

We thought the way the scores were today, 5, 4 would be a playoff and 5 should win outright. It may turn out to be that way.

Q. Are you disappointed to see it 5 under knowing where you were

TIGER WOODS: These are some unbelievably difficult pins today.

Q. How disappointed are you?

TIGER WOODS: I'm frustrated because I wasn't in there. That's why we practice, that's why we work as hard as we do. It just wasn't there. Hopefully I'll be ready for the U.S. Open.

Q. Putting over the weekend?

TIGER WOODS: All week, I didn't make putts all week. I made one big putt; big deal, it's one putt. I didn't make anything, really. You can't afford to play this golf course I hit it good enough to win, I just didn't make anything.

Q. Sergio is 8 under in his last 12 holes, and the last time he played like that was at Bethpage. What do you think of him coming back?

TIGER WOODS: Well, he's been working on his game. He had a tremendous dropoff, but I think the work he's doing is trying to get him more consistent, and his swing looks more consistent. It's just that he needs to be more consistent with the flat stick, too. I think that's what's really holding him back. I've seen him on the range hitting shots and I've seen him at tournaments hitting shots. He's hitting well. He just needs to make more putts.

Q. When the day started did you think you could win?

TIGER WOODS: Without a doubt. If I shot 65, I thought I might put myself in a playoff at 4. 5 would probably win outright. I was kind of hoping I could do that.

Q. To see Sergio go out under the conditions he went out with, same situation, how remarkable is it to put up that kind of a number?

TIGER WOODS: He played beautifully, and on top of that he got to where he had a chance. He played beautifully coming in, got hot and just kept it going.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TIGER WOODS: You know that you can still win the tournament. With the pin locations and the speed of the golf course you know the guys are going to come back. You can't go out there and be in the lead and go out there and shoot 3 , 4 , 5 under par, not with these pins. The only thing you can probably make birdies on are the par 5s because they are pretty reachable and pretty accessible pins on 13, 15; you could probably make two 3s there. Otherwise these pins are unbelievably difficult.

Q. What part of your game do you categorize

TIGER WOODS: Well, right now, I feel like I hit it well enough to win this week. I just didn't make any putts. You have to putt well here. I look at all of the putts inside ten feet, I stuff it in there ten feet, got a putt for birdie, miss it. Today like on 9, I hit it in there, just birdied 6 and 7 to get it going, made a good up and down on 8, hit it into 9 about three feet and missed it. You know, you just can't do things like that.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TIGER WOODS: Indicative of how it's been going this week. Hit quality shots and don't take advantage of the opportunity. Or I might hit a poor shot and chip it up there to within ten feet. You have to putt well here. I just didn't do that this week. I had good pace on my putts. My pace on my putts were perfect this week. I just didn't have the right lines.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TIGER WOODS: I was feeling fine when I got here. I had a little sandwich, and when I got on range, I didn't feel too good. Going down 1, I definitely didn't feel well. I lightened the load a little bit. I went down and lightened a little more, got more streamlined and continued on with the day.

Q. So you felt better as you went along?

TIGER WOODS: A little bit better. Stomach calmed down a little bit. It was nice to be able to get it out of my system.

Q. What is more exciting, four days at Augusta or five days at Ft. Bragg?

TIGER WOODS: I don't know. Ft. Bragg probably will be more physically difficult, but this is more of a mental test here. Physically, anybody can walk this golf course and play well here. But it's the mental grind of these type of tight pins, the wind swirling. I've never seen the wind swirl like this before. We played every hole today with a different wind.

On 5, we played 5 dead downwind. We played 6 dead downwind. It's not supposed to work out that way, but that's kind of how it was all day.

End of FastScripts.

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