THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

November 8, 2003

Tiger Woods

TIGER WOODS: Not good today. Didn't really make anything today. I hit -- I had four lip outs for birdies. And I hit a couple other ones that were just right on the lip.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TIGER WOODS: Quite a few. If I make my normal amount of putts I would have a chance going into tomorrow. But obviously I'm pretty far out of it now.

Q. Did you change putters? It looks like the same models?

TIGER WOODS: No, no, I've had this same exact putter for every round I've played since the Byron Nelson of '99. I never switched. I had some success with it along the way.

Q. No scuff marks or anything?

TIGER WOODS: No, no, it's all good. I've had so much confidence in that putter and we have gone through so many different battles. I've won 7 Majors with it. So it's pretty good.

Q. So second only to the 3-wood?

TIGER WOODS: It's about the same, actually. Because this 3-wood came out about that time. I had a PT series prior to that one and then this one.

Q. Basically a Ping Anser?

TIGER WOODS: Anser 2, kind of.

Q. What do you think about Chad's round?

TIGER WOODS: Oh, impressive. He messed up on 17 and made par. The way he's playing, I mean hats off to him. Obviously he's playing aggressively, because you can play aggressively into these pins because the greens are so soft. Bob and I were talking about that today. You're actually better off missing on the short side, being overly aggressive and missing on the short side and having an uphill, into the grain putt, or even a chip, rather than a 40 or 50-footer, cross grain, over a knob. So obviously we're not swinging good enough to do that, but obviously he is.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TIGER WOODS: Greens are soft enough where you can be aggressive. It's just a matter of getting hot and making absolutely everything. He had one mistake, he made bogey on 8. But he's still 10-under with a bogey and that's impressive, anywhere.

Q. Coming into the last round of the year for official at-bats, are you going to let it all hang out or just sort of stay the course?

TIGER WOODS: I think the most important thing is getting ball in play, obviously. And then once you get it in play you can go ahead and be aggressive. I tried to do that today. I just wasn't quite swinging as well as I was the first two days. So it was a little bit more difficult for me to be precise going into flags, especially when you have 6 and 7-irons and 5-irons into a lot of these holes. When you're not feeling all that comfortable, it's tough to get it in there close.

Q. There was a lot of Player of the Year talk coming into this week. Do you think it's a two-man race or do you think someone else would be in the mix?

TIGER WOODS: Who else would be in the mix?

Q. Davis.

TIGER WOODS: I thought they would have had to have won this tournament.

Q. Mike Weir?

TIGER WOODS: Those two. If Weir would have won it, it would have been locked up, it would have been his. If Vijay would have won the tournament, or still can, if he would win the tournament, he would lock it up. And if I would win it, it would be locked up. So it was all in our hands at the beginning of the week.

Q. And now it's in everyone else's, I guess?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it's in the voting hands now. It comes down to what they believe is a better year, Money List, Vardon, top-10s, wins, Majors. It all depends on the personality of the voter.

Q. The hole that has been playing the hardest this week is 12 and I'm just wondering, is it just a long hole? Is it a good hole? Talk about that?

TIGER WOODS: Well, today it's playing short. It's like 236 today. Into the wind. It's not too often you play two holes at 230. But on this golf course you get two of them. You get one on 4 and you get -- sorry, one on 3 -- sorry, 4. 4 and 12 are playing, today it was 235 and the other one is 236. 12 is just dangerous because it's got water left. If that ball lands -- if you hit the ball in the middle of the green and it lands just on that knob it will actually roll in the water and nothing is going to stop it. They shaved the bank down, so it will roll in the water.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TIGER WOODS: The key is keeping the ball in play. You get the ball in play you can be aggressive on this golf course. With the greens being as soft as they are obviously I think if you look at all the guys on the top of the board, they're all driving it well. And that's what you have to do here.

End of FastScripts.