VERIZON BYRON NELSON CLASSIC

May 13, 2001

Tiger Woods

TIGER WOODS: Same thing I do every day, try and go out there and golf the best I can, make a few putts. And I've been working on a few things this week trying to get my game where, as I said, I would feel competitively comfortable out there; and I really haven't felt that way until today, and hit a few good shots today and I made a few putts.

TIGER WOODS: Actually what really hurt more was the putt I missed on 13 to keep the run going. I made a lot of putts. I don't know what I had today, probably like 22 or 23 putts today, but it was a nice day and to be able to go out there and really shoot a score I needed to shoot. We were trying to get to 15 today. At the beginning of the day I thought 15 was going to be a good number, but I hit such a good putt at 18.

TIGER WOODS: No.

TIGER WOODS: No. Never once because I just knew I needed to get to 15 somehow, and if I wouldn't have bogeyed that hole, that would have been the number.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah. Coming back after a month off, you know you're not going to be as sharp as you need to be. I'm very pleased that I was able to hang in there and not really have my best stuff. I hit the ball halfway decent this week, putted all right, but I really got going today with the putter. I really didn't hit the ball great, but I just made a few putts.

TIGER WOODS: I don't know. Right now the wind is awfully swirly out there and we were having a tough time deciphering which way the wind was coming from. Like on 14 the wind went right-to-left, then it was left-to-right. And I went with a left-to-right wind, hit the shot and it gusted back up and it came in right-to-left. So that's the problem out there right now because the wind really hasn't found a direction yet. It's gusting back and forth, and on 17 you could see the ripples come up on the water when I was teeing off. So I backed off and then when I hit the shot, the wind just completely laid down. And it's going to be tough for the guys coming in, but the guys are playing well. They're leading, and maybe they'll get it done.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah. I hit one poor chip on 14. Other than that, I really chipped the ball pretty well. As I said, I really didn't hit the ball great. I missed quite a few greens, but I just putted -- knocked a couple putts in from off the green.

TIGER WOODS: Well, the putt, I remember having it last year, same putt and missing it on the low side. And I knew that that putt breaks a little bit more than it looks coming off that mound. When you see the grains coming from right-to-left and especially up next to the hole. It's really grainy up by the hole, so I played a little bit more break than what I read, and I went up there and punched it, putted it right where I wanted it, it was the right speed. And like I said, the grain is pretty thick up by the hole and it just snagged it.

TIGER WOODS: If I catch that wind -- let's say if I would have hit eight when I was first approaching the golf ball and backed off, I would have caught that same gust and been in the middle of that. So that's the danger. You have to take seven and take the water out of play. I was trying to play ten feet past the hole and go ahead and take it from there.

TIGER WOODS: I just made a few putts. I mean, honestly, I didn't really hit the ball that close. The putts I made were anywhere between 25 feet and 15 feet. They weren't stonies. There was some distance that I had to make, and for some reason I hit the putts and they rolled in.

TIGER WOODS: I worked on my game every day this week. I've been out there. And I think it's just trying to feel more comfortable. I've pounded a lot of golf balls back home and putted a lot and chipped a lot, but getting on site and doing the practice for the golf course, seeing what the conditions are, playing off this type of turf, it's just completely different. And it's nice to get a nice feel for the golf course on the range and the shots I'm going to have to hit.

TIGER WOODS: I think so. I'm very pleased with the way I played this week, not really playing a whole lot for a month. I practiced quite a bit coming in here, but I didn't really play. Our golf course with the water restrictions, we've kind of lost our golf course a little bit, so I really couldn't get out there and play.

TIGER WOODS: It was about 10 feet just a little right of the hole.

TIGER WOODS: It's fun competing. That's what I love to do. I love to get out there and compete, but I also like to take a little time off, so when I do come back, I can give it 100 percent, and that's one of the reasons why I don't really play a whole lot because when I do come back, I know that I'm fresh and I'm ready to go. And this week was a prime example of that. I just have to try and tone it down more than anything. First day I thought probably would pick back up, but I handled it all right and posted a good number.

TIGER WOODS: My mindset's on cool right now.

TIGER WOODS: I don't know. All of them. You can't look at it like that. If you look at it like that, you'd kill yourself every week doing that, what if I would have hit that one shot, what if I would have done that on that round. If anything, if you want to criticize yourself for anything, it's the mental mistakes you do make. Physical mistakes, you know that's going to happen, that's part of playing the game, part of playing the sport. But we have all day decided what we're going to do and then to make a wrong decision mentally it's very disappointing. I've made a few of them this week, just from not competing and not playing, but once I got in the competitive feel, I didn't really make any.