PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 20, 2022

Tiger Woods

Southern Hills Country Club

Flash Quotes

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon. Welcome back to the 2022 PGA Championship here at Southern Hills. We're joined by Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods just carded a 1-under par 69 today. He's 3-over par for the championship.

Tiger, you really kind of steadied the ship after the double after 11. Maybe talk about that and maybe your approach shot on 16.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it's not like I drew a bad lie on 11. Just hit a terrible 8-iron in there and hit it left and was in a hazard and hit a decent shot into a bad spot. Hit a good bunker shot and just missed the putt.

Next thing you know, it equates to 5. I knew the number was going to be 4. I just had to go get there. I got off to a great start on the back nine birdieing 10, and let's see if I can get back there somehow.

I whip into a bunker with an easy little wedge there on 12 and was nice to make a nice par putt there and right the ship and make a couple birdies coming home.

Q. What about being here this week, getting back at the Masters, makes it worth going through what you're having to go through to do it? Obviously we can tell you're in some pain and clearly there's a lot that you have to do to get ready, whatever ramp down, ramp back up. What makes it worth it?

TIGER WOODS: Well, just the fact that I'm able to play golf again and play in our biggest championships. As I alluded to earlier, you guys all know, I'm not going to be playing a lot of tournaments going forward. They're going to be the biggest tournaments. I want to be able to play the major championships. I've always loved playing them.

Coming back here to a place that I've had success on, to play against the best players in the world, that's what we all want to be able to do. Fortunately enough, I'm able to somehow do it. I've had a great PT staff that have put Humpty-Dumpty back together, and we'll go out there tomorrow, and hopefully tomorrow I can do something like what Bubba did today.

Q. How aware were you of where the cut line was and can you also address the degree of difficulty of the bunker shot on 15?

TIGER WOODS: Well, the cut was going to be between 3 and 4 starting out, and then with the wind pumping like it was, I thought it might drop to 4, and it did. It finalized itself probably right around the turn. You know it wasn't going to go to 5, and it wasn't going to go to 3 certainly.

As I said, so I started off the back nine perfectly. Made a birdie at 10 and made a mistake at 11 and had to fight back, which I was able to do.

15, that was a tastey little bunker shot there. That was a good one. I liked that one. I didn't like putting myself there, but I liked executing the shot.

Q. Your entire career has been built on success, has been built on winning things. Can you explain the adjustment and how difficult that is to battling so hard on a day like that just to make the cut just to play the weekend?

TIGER WOODS: Well, you can't win the tournament if you miss the cut. I've won tournaments -- not major championships, but I've won tournaments on the cut number.

There's a reason why you fight hard and you're able to give yourself a chance on the weekend. You just never know when you might get hot. As I said, I've won tournaments being on the cut number.

This weekend I'm going to have to go low. It's going to be different. The wind is going to be coming out of the north. It's going to be cooler.

I think what Kerry has done has been amazing. He's set up the golf course great. It's been very fair. Hard but very fair. Hopefully tomorrow will be the same thing. It'll be a great test, and with the wind out of a completely different direction with cooler temperatures, again, it'll be a great test.

Q. You're obviously thinking about winning the tournament still, and I'm just curious if you're at any point able to take a step back and appreciate the fight to make this cut or is it just focused on what's next?

TIGER WOODS: As I alluded to earlier, I'm hoping I can shoot a number like Bubba did today tomorrow. That's where my mind is at right now. I've got to do some things physically to get myself there tomorrow and it will be a quick turnaround.

That's the reward you get for just making the cut. You get to tee off early the next day, and hopefully I can get it in. The weather is supposed to be a little more difficult and be a little more testy, and hopefully that's the case.

If that's the case, hopefully I can post a good round and at least move up the board, get myself within striking distance on Sunday. I'm pretty far back, but you just never know.

Major championships are hard to win. We've seen guys with big leads or have made big comebacks, so you just never know.

Q. I wanted to ask if you could expand on that discomfort level? Did you feel worse today? Better than yesterday --

TIGER WOODS: Yep.

Q. On a scale of 1 to 10 --

TIGER WOODS: All that.