WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 26, 2000

Tiger Woods

TIGER WOODS: Well, today I got off to a good start (smiling). I hit the ball well most of the day, made a couple good saves out there. Rolled the ball well, just nothing really went in. Overall, I played solid today, and I had the lead; and I shot 67 with the lead, which was a good score to shoot today. And I was able to increase my lead.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I got stung by a little hornet or wasp or whatever it is. It was just laying on the ground kind of wounded, and I had my glove on. Tried to pick it up and not kill it. When I tried to throw it, I lightened up my grip pressure; it came around and got me.

TIGER WOODS: Finger, yeah. Right on my finger tip.

TIGER WOODS: Ring finger.

TIGER WOODS: If I was, you'd know by now. (Laughter.)

TIGER WOODS: Treated? I don't need to have it treated. Stinger is still there. That's fine.

TIGER WOODS: I'll dig it out when I go home.

TIGER WOODS: He was hopping across, and he was getting into my line, so I decided to get him out of the way.

TIGER WOODS: I feel like I rolled the ball well, and I felt steady over the putts; felt like I was releasing the blade nicely. The putts just didn't go in. A couple times I misread a couple putts out there; and consequently, I didn't make a whole lot of birdies. But I made the good start. That's when I made my putts, so that's nice.

TIGER WOODS: I'm very happy. I had an 11-shot lead at the time, which meant that if they were going to come get me, they had to make up 11 shots if I made pars all the way here through the end of the day tomorrow. And 11 shots is a lot to make up on this golf course. I just felt like if I hung around, hit solid shots, put the ball on the green on the fat side, and I might be able to make one or two. Never made one. But I did the right thing by trying to fire away from a lot of the pin, leave myself uphill putts. A couple times I hit bad shots and got away from them, put them on the first cut. But overall, not bad.

TIGER WOODS: If I can hit a lot of fairways and greens, I like my chances -- I feel like I'm rolling the golf ball. On this golf course, greens are not very big. So if you dump the ball on the middle of the green here, you're doing all right.

TIGER WOODS: I got a terrible lie in the rough, and I have to be able to -- if you've got a lie like that, you've got to be able to get the ball up over the tree and then hook it against the left-to-right wind, enough where I hit my ball straight up dead over the tree. It's up against the right rough, up against the right tree, which means I had to have an open face at address and close it up at impact and produce the hook and loft it enough to get it over there. And when I do that, I put my whole right side over the ball to get the ball to hook; and consequently, I put a weird follow-through on it.

TIGER WOODS: Probably the one at the British Open is the only one I've seen, and the one at PGA in '99, underneath the tree over on -- what was it? 15, the low-cut 2-iron up there. That was kind of funny looking.

TIGER WOODS: I think it's funny looking, but the shot ended up pretty good.

TIGER WOODS: Not really. I just found out today that 18-under par was the record here. I didn't know that, but I just like to get the "W" and go home -- I'm sorry -- go to Palm Springs.

TIGER WOODS: Big lead any time. I've said it again and again, and I will continue to say it. Granted, it's more drama for all of you and the people watching when you have a finish like we did last week. But I would much rather have it where it's a lot like the U.S. Open.

TIGER WOODS: I've played well, and I guess I've played well on tough courses, where it has been difficult to score. And to be honest with you, I've just played well, I've managed my game well. And on top of that, I've made a lot of putts. And if you can do all of the above, you're going to be in pretty good shape. And it just so happened that it came along at some of the bigger events.

TIGER WOODS: Wedge.

TIGER WOODS: I had 62 front, and I had 20 more -- 82.

TIGER WOODS: Open face. More loft.

TIGER WOODS: Okay.

TIGER WOODS: If it got to that point -- but it has to -- I really don't like to play that way. I'd much rather just play my own game and kind of put the ball on the green where I have a lot of putts at it. Like I told Stevie at that Buick, I was playing on -- I believe it was Saturday or Sunday, the greens were really soft. And I said, "You know what? It feels weird to fire at every pin." I don't really enjoy that. I enjoy putting the ball 10 feet right, 10 feet short, having certain putts. I like doing that a little bit more than having to fire at every flag.

TIGER WOODS: What was I thinking about? Hitting fairways and greens.

TIGER WOODS: Not really. If you look at the shots I hit, a tee shot on 1 was kind of borderline. It was kind of skanked off the heel. The wedge shot was good. The drive on 2 was good. Second shot, I pulled it about 15 feet, tried to hit it right of the hole, and it ends up left of the hole. Made the good putt. The 2-iron going down 3, I kind of heel-skanked that one. But it rolled down the fairway, and I had a good angle at the flag. I hit a wedge shot in there. I hit a couple marginal shots.

TIGER WOODS: No. I don't think I have. Junior golf, I had one pretty good record there for a while. But I don't think I've ever eagled three days in a row.

TIGER WOODS: 14 straight pars -- I think I did it in a major one time; didn't I?

TIGER WOODS: 1, I hit 2-iron and a wedge. I had 123 to the flag on 1. Then I hit about 10 feet behind the hole, and made that. 2, I had 178 to the flag, and I hit a soft 6-iron, and it landed pin-high and kind of skidded left, right off the green. And I made about a 15-footer there for eagle, from the fringe. 3, 2-iron off the tee, a pitching wedge from 127 to the hole. I hit it about a foot. No. 4, I hit a driver off the tee, landed in the fairway, rolled into the left rough. It landed on a drain, so I took a drop and ended up playing out of there. I had 65 front, another 28. I hit wedge, that went over the green, and hit a poor chip to about eight feet short and missed it.

TIGER WOODS: There was a little bit of heckling out there, but nothing that I have not been through before.

TIGER WOODS: Today. Obviously, I can't today. But I enjoy going out and just hitting balls to just kind of relax and basically wind down a little bit. Yesterday, when I was on the range, I was still trying to get my swing plane a little bit better, round it off at the top so I could come down in front of me. I felt that most of the day I hit good shots -- there were about two or three shots that were kind of marginal. So I wanted to go ahead and hit those clubs again, make sure that I get some good feedback going into tomorrow -- going into today.

TIGER WOODS: I feel great. It's one of the reasons why I try and stay in decent shape.

TIGER WOODS: I think I've gotten better at learning how to play the game, managing my swing and my emotions and the shots around a golf course, what needs to get me around the golf course in as few of shots as possible. I've gotten better at doing that. It's something that has taken time to learn. And I will continue to learn on it and improve on it, because I've always felt that course management, you could never get good enough at it. You can always learn something new. You get new shots, new lies and new things that happen on the golf course that you have not seen before -- ooh, you can put this in the file. Those things end up getting to the point where you do win. You've got to learn how to play the game before you can win. And once you -- if you can do both, then you're going to win a lot.

TIGER WOODS: I hit a wonderful 5-iron in there, right on my target. It just flew a long ways. I had -- what was it? 228 to the hole. And I had a 5-iron that flew pin-high it. Was downwind, but I didn't think I hit it that solid. It rolled up against the deep stuff, and it was just a weird shot. I didn't know if I wanted to 3-wood it, blade it with a sand wedge, or bump-and-run it, because I was into the grain. The reason why I chose a 60-degree sand wedge was because the grass was going into me. If it was going downgrain, I probably would have bladed it or putted a 3-wood, so I wanted to make sure I could fly all that. And the lie, it was sitting up perfect where I felt like I could spin it. So I tried to play a spinner, but I spun it -- I carried it too far. I carried it about two feet too far; came out hot, and got lucky by hitting the hole, because it would have been about 12 feet past.

TIGER WOODS: I have not. I have them, though. I just got them.

TIGER WOODS: I've seen that. I've seen the slowdown -- what's it called when they enhance the light on it? I've seen that. And I've seen replay after replay. If you look at it, as the ball lands -- and there's a guy running down. He disappears. But there's another guy right to the left on the other side of the cart path that is parallel to him. I would think that if he would have done something, this guy could have seen it, because he was looking right at him. But if you were out there, you know how steep that slope was. And as soon as that ball starts getting any kind of momentum, I mean it is flying back, and it spent most of it's time on the cart path, too.

TIGER WOODS: If it was kicked, then it's unfortunate, because that's not how the game is meant to be played. We play by truth and honor out here. There's the difference between every other sport; that's what separates golf from all the other sports is that we try and monitor ourselves, and we call penalties on ourselves. It happens all the time. That part of it, if it did happen, would be very unfortunate, because that's not the way the game of golf is meant to be played.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, he did. I've seen the tapes of that. He tried to hit long irons out of rough, trying to hit the ball up near the greens, which I -- and Billy played a wonderful back nine. When I played at St. Andrews and I had a good lead and David made a run at me early on, I just wanted to keep hitting solid shots and keep giving myself chances at birdies. And I felt I was putting good enough where I could convert, but more importantly, I needed to keep the onus on David by hitting good, solid shots and always letting him know I'm right there, and have a birdie opportunity at each and every hole, and again and again and again. And granted, I'm going to make my share and I felt David was going to do the same, but if I could just keep hanging around -- if he hits first, put the ball inside of him, make him look at my ball; make it on top of him and move to the next. Those are things that you need to try and do.

TIGER WOODS: One thing that my father has always taught me is that the main competitor in the game of golf is always going to be the golf course. You can't play other people. You need to play the golf course. That's what you're playing. You need to go out there and execute shot after shot, play what you want to on that golf course; and at the end of the day, if you beat the golf course, you're going to take care of yourself in the tournament.

TIGER WOODS: Well, if I make a lot of pars, then that person has really got to go low. (Laughter.) If they can play that type of round, well, hats off. If I can just go out there and take care of my business, hit a lot of fairways and greens, and not really put a whole lot of stress on myself, I'll be all right.

TIGER WOODS: He hit -- going back to 17, he hit a wonderful second shot out of the bunker; that lip was pretty high, and it surprised me he was actually able to get it to the hole. I thought for sure he was going to be short of the green and pitching up the green. At the best, he'd be on the front edge, but he flushed it and got it all the way out there. And that shot, I've had that shot before. I've played that shot in a Pro-Am one time, I think back in -- what's that, '97 I think I played it back there -- not a Pro-Am, but one of my practice rounds. I hit just a terrible shot playing for a little cash, with whom I was playing with -- I think it was Marko, and he made me play it, and I whiffed it and chipped it long and lost the hole. But I remember how tough that shot was. It's not an easy shot. And he tried to play the best shot he could, which is: Try to land it in the first cut and try and roll it through. Because if he lands it anywhere near the green, it's going down to the bottom, right where I was, and just didn't come out. The next shot I thought for sure he'd hole. He's been chipping wonderfully all day and just came up short and made the bogey put. On 18, kind of surprised me, because he's been putting so well all day, he's had wonderful pace on his putts. I guess the only -- I think he only hit three bad putts all day. The other one was on 10, similar distance and the two on 18. But the rest of the day, he putted beautifully.