THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

May 28, 2000

Tiger Woods

TIGER WOODS: Relax at home. That's it. Just hang out and repack.

TIGER WOODS: I'm not very happy right now because the Lakers are down. Although, we can make a run and get right back in it.

TIGER WOODS: Actually, it's pretty easy if you haven't teed off. You know you're going to have ample time to get warmed up, get stretched out, get ready, go out there and play, mentally and physically. If you have already played a few holes, I think that's when it's more difficult because you don't have as much time to loosen up and get ready. You've got to get ready -- they give you a half hour to get ready. It's a little bit more difficult to do that but they called time a few hours before I was scheduled to go off. So I had plenty of time to get ready.

TIGER WOODS: It doesn't matter to me, either way. From the forecast yesterday said there's just a chance of rain, nothing like this. But I knew that when I was driving out here -- well, I heard the -- saw the lightning, heard the thunder, figured that the tournament probably had been suspended.

TIGER WOODS: That's fine, too. Or I can go out there and prove it on 18 holes, either way. Hopefully I can still win the tournament.

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's more difficult if -- well, I know they would make the call a little bit differently if it was next Sunday, qualifying for the U.S. Open, sectionals, there's no way they could would do that. That's what usually happens on this tournament. This year it's different, came a little earlier and so happened that tomorrow the forecast is supposed to be pretty good. So we'll probably get out there tomorrow.

TIGER WOODS: Well, I think they are trying to get a grasp on whether or not they can get out there and at least get started and have some groups continue to play. I know tomorrow is going to be basically a normal day for all of us. But it's hard to make the call earlier. I know that it's kind of funny to see the storms building up down there in Dayton coming up our way and they were saying at 4:00 we were going to go out, and at 2:30 the ranges opened. At 2:30 the range opening was pushed back. They had well the storms are coming why don't you guys just -- we're going to go out at 4:00. They wanted to throw a time out to, I guess, just throw a time out.

TIGER WOODS: I did.

TIGER WOODS: Well, I ate a lot. Watched a lot of TV and listened to a lot of stories. No, no, can't tell in here.

TIGER WOODS: Mentally, just taking a day golf and get some rest. Just go back out there and play tomorrow. You're not going to lose your entire game in one day if you're playing well. You're not going to struggle to break 90 tomorrow. It's not going to be like that. It's disappointing in the fact that, you know, this whole day we were ready to go out there and play and a lot of them have gotten out it there to play. But mentally you just know that you need to go out there tomorrow and you need to get the job done.

TIGER WOODS: Not that much. Record or no record, I'd rather just get the win.

TIGER WOODS: I was there. I was the first one that came on. We were watching Indy. Yeah, we were watching them talk about that.

TIGER WOODS: Rip it, just don't pull it. In '97, the fairway jetted more over the bunker than it is now. Now it kind of runs a little bit more along the right-hand side of the bunker so before you could actually pull the ball left of the tree, carry the bunker still be in the fairway. Now you do that you're in the rough. When I usually hit the ball like that, I usually hit the ball high right, which is perfect. Just hit it, aim it, hit it hard, come out of it high right; I'll still have a shot in the right rough or be in the fairway, unless it's fast. Just 280.

TIGER WOODS: No, I expect them to go out there and play well tomorrow, if we play. I know that Steve is a veteran on the TOUR. He's won -- I remember watching him win at Castle Pines and his finish with a couple eagles coming in. So, you know, Steve can play. And with the tragedy that he had with his home, you know, he's handled that well, and he's been a great player out here for a number of years.

TIGER WOODS: That's what we do anyways, normally, before a round. The media usually doesn't get a chance to see that. A lot of guys in the locker room just kind of hanging out, talking or playing practice round on the tee, driving range, putting green, whatever. You do BS a lot and hang out. It's just that when we're all together that people really take notice of it, rather than just having a few guys here and there sporadically do it.

TIGER WOODS: I always go back over the tapes to take a look at my game. Not necessarily how I finished or what went wrong. I just wanted to see where my swing was, if the swing was in the right position, right plane, putting posture good, stroke good, all the basic stuff. So I usually review the tapes and see where I went wrong and some of the things I did right.

TIGER WOODS: I did.

TIGER WOODS: Well, first of all, I never once thought about any legacy of mine. To be honest with you, I just watched, and just like all the players did in the locker room and some of the guys who were actually out there, just watched in honor of a great champion. You know, what he's done for the game, playing-wise, what he's done for the growth of the game we have to step back and we have to honor that. Wednesday was a wonderful day to do it, here at his home course, his own tournament, the new millennium. He's done so much for the game, it's only right for him to get honored.

TIGER WOODS: Big difference. They actually know me know now. When you first come out, just like anybody when you first come out, when you first go into a new job people really don't know you. They don't know what to say how to react to certain things, how to talk to you how to approach you. That's kind of how it was when I first came out. And then you don't play in the same tournaments; you don't get to see them enough times. Out here, it usually takes a few years to get to know someone just because you're not always in the same tournaments, you're not playing in the same tee times, sometimes you might be opposite times same days and you just never overlap. I felt like one of the guys probably back in late '97.

TIGER WOODS: Just hanging out, relaxing with my buds, practicing here and there and getting ready.

TIGER WOODS: It's hard to categorize it in that sense. It's like trying to say which major is more important than the other. In a resume, you just want one of them, you don't really care, a major is a major. But in regular tournaments on PGA TOUR, I think we all understand that this has a different feeling, just like it does at the Nelson, just like it does at Bay Hill, just because of the certain people who are associated with the tournament and what they have meant to the game. You know, you feel -- it feels a little bit different when you're at their tournament and you see them in person out there, either playing or watching the event and being part of the tournament. It just makes it that much more special.

TIGER WOODS: Well, it all depends. A lot has to depend on the weather. If it's calm, soft greens soft fairways, obviously you're going to have to make a few birdies, but if a front blows through there with the wind behind it like this, if there's a lot of wind tomorrow, you don't have to go as low. But I think in either case, no matter what the conditions are, you're going to have to drive the ball well. You drive the ball well here, you're going to have some opportunities to go ahead and attack. And if you get the right number in the right situation, go ahead and fire at it and if not just put the ball on the green and see what you can do.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I told Freddie, I'm coming after his driving title.

TIGER WOODS: No.

TIGER WOODS: I think the same things we've been working on, really. The same fundamentals that we've been working on for the past year and a half. Just that every once in awhile I tend to get them a little out of whack and just need to be adjusted and go out there and keep practicing, keep working on the same things so that when I play in a tournament, they are natural. You don't have to think about it just want to go out there and see the shot react to the shot and go ahead and create it and put it up there.

TIGER WOODS: Quite a bit better. Every area of my game, can get better and that's the great thing about this game is that you are continuing to try and find things that will take you to that next notch up in your level of play whether it's a swing change, a putting posture, new putter or new clubs, new ball, whatever it is, you're going to try and find something to try and take to you that next level.

TIGER WOODS: I think it's done pretty good so far.

TIGER WOODS: Well, it flies -- obviously it feels different, for one. Any time you hit a two-piece ball versus a wound ball, you're going to feel a dramatic difference there. But the performance, the cover of it feels very similar to mine. Performance, obviously it's going to fly a little bit different, just take some time getting used to that. Not necessarily higher or lower, but there's a different arc to it. Wild balls tend to spike up or peak a little bit more and two-piece balls tend to be a little bit more flat.

TIGER WOODS: Well, probably realistically you probably want to win -- I want to win every week, but that's a nice goal. The thing is, like I've told all of you here in the press room back in '97 and especially '98 when I told you that I'm a better player now than I was in '97, no one believed me. I wasn't winning. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're -- you make changes in your game, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to win every time. What it does mean is that over the long haul, that you're going to make improvements to continue to get better to give yourself more chances and in '99, look what happened and so far 2000. I think for any player, winning majors and the Var Trophy is obviously very important for any player to win. I think probably those two and a few other things that come to mind. But I know you guys will expand on it and blow it out of proportion and hammer me when I'm not playing well. (Laughs).

TIGER WOODS: A lot better. It's just I have an understanding of my faults. I can recognize the feelings in my game and can understand what my ball is doing in the air and what that -- the fix is, what's probably wrong with it. And that just takes experience and learning your game. The more you can find out about yourself and your game, the earlier, I believe the better player you'll be over the long haul, because you're not going to have a coach out there inside the ropes at all times. And I guarantee you you're going to find some times when you just don't have it. And you need to find out what it is, fix it, and have the guts to go ahead and hit the shot, say, over the water to a tight end and know that's the right thing to do.

TIGER WOODS: Probably every round I play. We're always trying to -- you're not going to always hit every shot good. Like when I played out here on Saturday -- I'm sorry, Friday I didn't really hit the ball, you know -- the results were great, but I didn't hit the ball the way I wanted to. A couple shots I got away with it expended up eight feet from the hole, but that's not where I was aim being. I was aiming 15, 20 feet right or left of that or short of that and to feed it in there some other way, but kind of ended up where it was. And people were going crazy, and I'm over here telling Stevy, "Oh, that's great, here's a club."

TIGER WOODS: To be honest with you, I really don't know. Not too often I've had a six-shot lead.

TIGER WOODS: Last time was probably the Masters.

TIGER WOODS: Right now, go home as fast as I can and catch my Lakers and root them on to victory and hopefully they can take a big lead and go into L.A. and clean this thing up and get well rested for the finals. Other than that, just kind of relax.

TIGER WOODS: I've only met him (Shaq) a few times at games, and he came to my concert that we had in L.A., and I believe that's it.

TIGER WOODS: I have not, no. That would be interesting, have him hold my club.

TIGER WOODS: I believe of the ones I've finished second in, the most disappointing probably would be -- well I finished third last week, hitting that shot on 11 like that. I may have been 15 feet left of the hole, maybe 10 and just trying to hit a straight ball. There's nothing to it, nothing hard to hit a straight shot, if not, pull it, and instead I got stuck and laid the shaft and hit it straight right in the water. Probably the worst shot I hit all week, and just happened to be in the final round on the back nine.

TIGER WOODS: Well, I didn't make a mental error, but I made a physical error and from that standpoint you are always pleased when you don't make hay mental mistake but to go out there and swing as well as I did last week and hit that one stray shot like that, it's kind of frustrating.

TIGER WOODS: Oh, yeah, I'll be there. You'll see me screaming and yelling. If they make it.

TIGER WOODS: Be in both homes, L.A. and Florida.

TIGER WOODS: Driving, be able to shape the ball both ways and land the ball on the particular side of the fairway you want to land it on. For instance, on 10 you have to actually hit draw off that tee to hold the fairway if they are fast. You can't go out there and hit a ball down the left side and cut it a little bit, two -, three -, four-yard cut and end up in the first cut of rough on the other side. You know, you just need to be able to shape the ball both ways and really do have to pick a side to land the ball on the fairway onto it will say in the fairway. Very reminiscent to how it was at Olympic.

TIGER WOODS: Probably if it was firm and fast, I'd probably hit more fairways because I would be hitting 2- and 3-irons off the tees. For instance we were talking about this today, when the guys played the Ryder Cup here, they were hitting 2- and 3-irons off of 18. I mean, you never do that. I'd probably have to hit 4-iron and leave myself probably like a 6- or 7-iron to hit the green, just because it was so fast. Like when I played last year, I hit 2-wood off of 10 because it was playing fast. It was running out there and I hit it just as far as I did my driver yesterday, actually. Hit 2-iron and a wedge.