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BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 16, 2004

Mike Weir

ROYAL TROON, SCOTLAND

STEWART McDOUGALL: Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Weir, 68 this morning, yesterday 71, for 138. Good score this morning. You played well, finishing 4th at Shinnecock. Do you find links courses to your liking?

MIKE WEIR: I do. My game is kind of a precision game. And I'm not a power player. I need to kind of plot my way around the golf course, and I did that well today. I hit the ball low anyway, so I don't have to fight that, to try to keep the ball down. It was a solid round. I hit most of the greens and made a couple of putts. Most of my birdies, three of my four birdies were within 5 feet, and the other was about a 15-foot putt. It was a good, solid day all the way around.

Q. The difference between today's game and yesterday's game was what?

MIKE WEIR: I just made a couple of putts. Yesterday I didn't make anything, really. And today, I seemed to sneak a couple of balls closer to the hole today. I missed a short putt on 4 for birdie, maybe 5-foot, 6-foot putt for birdie on 4.

And then the very next hole I had a 6-iron. On the par-5, I hit it to 4 feet.

A nice putt to 315 feet on 7. And so I just had that little stretch there where I made three in a row. And it was just solid all the way around.

And on 17, chipped it to about three feet.

Q. I think your first one was Carnoustie in 1999. Can you tell us how you've grown as a links golfer in five years? And tell us how you've grown and how you're in a position to challenge for the jug this year.

MIKE WEIR: I think what I've learned is how to play shots over here. I think in the past I've worked on my swing trying to -- if I hit an 8-iron for 155, that's what I tried to hit. I noticed today I was hitting 5-iron where my playing partners were hitting an 8-iron. I was playing shots and keeping the ball down and using my imagination a little bit more than what I did four or five years ago. And I think that's important around here, when the ground is very firm in links golf.

And this year and the last couple of years I've been coming over early and playing golf. I stayed down the road at Turnberry and played three or four times. And played Dornock and played Prestwick, and got used to playing rounds of golf at links golf courses. And when the tournament starts, I don't feel like I'm going from U.S. golf to right here.

Q. Do you play more by feel now? Is that fair?

MIKE WEIR: I would say, yeah, definitely I play more by feel. I almost eyeball a lot of yardages. I have a little game with my caddy that when I get to it I kind of try to tell him the yardage by my eye before he tells me what it is, just to kind of fine-tune my feel.

Q. How did today's wind compare to yesterday?

MIKE WEIR: It was a lot stronger. It was strong right from the get-go. When I woke up at 4:30 this morning it was blowing hard and it's just continued all day. It's a tough wind for me going out, it's a right-to-left wind, so I have to hit a lot of draws against the wind on the front side. Coming back it's a left-to-right wind. It sets up a little better for me coming in.

Q. Did you hit driver on 18?

MIKE WEIR: I did. I hit a nice cut driver in there. It was probably a little too much club, but I hit it down the middle and had a wedge in there. A tough pin to get to with the left-to-right, with the pin in there.

Q. It looks like you've played, given the conditions, a low-stress 36 holes. You haven't scared any -- you made some bogeys, but there's no fear of a big number. Is that kind of satisfying and important in its own way?

MIKE WEIR: Oh, yeah. That is. It tells me that I'm controlling the ball well. I'm not hanging any wild shots. I hit a couple off line, but you're going to do that and I've been able to scramble well. But for the most part, I've been in control of it, keeping the ball down and that's what you've got to do out here. I've been playing smart golf and hitting most of the greens. It does feel a little less stressful. I'm not scrambling for pars on a lot of holes. I have a lot of birdie putts out there. If I can warm the putter up more I'll be in good shape.

Q. I understand your grandfather is Scottish. I wonder about that, and also whether he's a golfer, whether he introduced you to the game or anything like that?

MIKE WEIR: My grandfather is and he was born in Canada. His father was born here. Yeah, he was a golfer. Actually had his first hole-in-one when he was 87 years old. Until he passed away, he carried his bag. We used to hustle to catch up with him. He was an amazing guy and a good athlete, good baseball player, as well. He was a great man.

Q. Stats say you hit twice as many fairways as yesterday and two fewer greens; is that right?

MIKE WEIR: Seems like I hit most of the fairways today and I probably did hit a couple less greens. I was right on the fringe a number of times. A couple of times I had 15-footers, but I wasn't really on the green.

Q. And five fewer putts?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I guess you know, two putts off.

Q. Just getting back to playing more with the feel, do you find yourself discarding yardages all together, just ignoring where it is, because it doesn't jibe with what the shot is? What's an example of that?

MIKE WEIR: No, I like to know what the number is, but still the number is not as big a factor as maybe what a normal tournament is in the U.S. or something. And then I try to counteract that by what type of shot I'm playing. If I'm playing a cut into the wind, the ball isn't going to travel as far. If I'm letting it ride with the wind, it's going far away. I like to get the number and play the shot accordingly.

Q. Would you mind comparing this golf club to Royal St. George's last year?

MIKE WEIR: Well, I think this is a much fairer test. I think there was a lot of -- maybe a little bit of luck involved in St. George's when you hit it down the fairway and you weren't sure if it was on the left or right side. This golf course is much fairer. For me, I feel it's a better golf course, a truer test of what The Open Championship should be.

Q. Two things: One, yesterday you weren't entirely satisfied with 71, but that was your best first round in an Open by two or three shots. I wondered if that kind of donned on you at some point and you said that was okay?

MIKE WEIR: I don't know if Mike or Ken told me that. Yeah, I hadn't had the greatest starts. I don't know, I thought last night when I was sitting there, 71, obviously I was a little disappointed, because I felt like I played much better than that. I didn't putt very well at all yesterday. But on the other hand, I was only five off the lead and had the morning round and hopefully could get off to a good start today.

Q. The other thing is you looked at making a bet now to then. Did you get any 50-to-1 this week?

MIKE WEIR: I didn't.

Q. It's noon. You've got a long time -- I don't know what time you'll be playing tomorrow. What will you be doing today and tomorrow morning?

MIKE WEIR: Today I'll be doing a little bit of practicing. I won't hit a lot of balls, but I'll work on my short game. I'll fine-tune my putting a little bit more. We went down to Safeway and bought a bunch of DVDs to pass the time. We'll watch some DVDs and watch a book and relax. I'm staying on the beach. It's nice to go down there. I've been beating balls off the beach a little bit and it's been fun.

End of FastScripts.

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