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WGC AMERICAN EXPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP


October 2, 2003


Mike Weir


WOODSTOCK, GEORGIA

Q. A lot of guys got off to a hot start on the front nine and the back kind of tagged them a little bit. Could you assess the difference between the nines?

MIKE WEIR: Well, yeah, it seemed that way. I didn't think the front nine was playing that easy, either. Some of those holes coming in are difficult, especially if you miss the fairway. They're so long that if you get running down the fairway, you can get yourself a mid-iron, short iron in there, but if you miss it, it's going to be quite a long ways back because you're going to lose a lot of distance, so you're coming out of the rough and you're 200-plus yards out, so it makes some holes play more difficult. The speed of the greens on the backside, for me anyway, seemed like they were a little quicker than the front.

Q. Do you give yourself a good grade today?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, pretty good. I'd give it a B. I haven't played any golf in the last three weeks hardly at all. I've been river rafting and hanging out with the kids. I've been practicing pretty hard the last week and a half, but it doesn't substitute for competition.

So overall today, it was pretty good. It could have been a little bit better. I caught a couple -- felt like I caught a real bad break on No. 12, that probably cost me one or two shots, but overall it was pretty good.

Q. What about 12?

MIKE WEIR: I hit a nice drive and hit a perfect cut 3-wood right at the pin. These bunkers, you can throw the ball as hard as you want in the bunkers, they don't normally plug, but where my ball landed, it landed dead about half an inch right underneath the lip and stayed there actually, right underneath the lip. If it carries a foot, it's probably close for eagle. I had to play it backwards and made bogey. It's golf, it was a great shot, and I can't complain about it too much. It was the best shot I hit all day probably.

Q. What was the yardage on that?

MIKE WEIR: Probably 250 to the hole probably.

Q. Did you crush that one?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah.

Q. How hard do you think this will be by the end of the day? Where would you expect to be a 68 following the day, pretty close?

IKE WEIR: I think someone will maybe shoot 5-under, maybe 6 if they really get it going. It would be hard to keep that pace up for four straight days, so I'm in a good position. Like I said, I'm really pleased about the way I'm starting to strike the ball. From the British Open through the Canadian Open I was struggling, and for the last week and a half I worked with my coach and figured a few things out, and it's feeling a lot better.

Q. The way you're playing aside, how is it different from a couple years ago? You said you're going to play hard to the end. A couple of years ago you were grinding hard to try to win for the first time, period. How is that different and the effort you put into it?

MIKE WEIR: I think it's still the same. I think my effort is still the same. For me I need to take time away from the game and get back at it and enthused and excited to practice, which I really had great practice sessions the last week and a half.

I would say it's about the same effort-level wise. I think confidence-wise my confidence is a lot higher. When I have a few things happen like we all do out there, some funny bounces, I don't let it bother me, where maybe in the past -- last year it would have.

Q. Aside from having undulations these greens are not too much slower than the ones at Augusta.

MIKE WEIR: No, they're not.

Q. Is it really just a feeling of knowing when to attack it?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I didn't think I hit that bad of a putt on the last hole and it snuck 12 feet by. It was kind of a tough angle, but the greens are just really slick, and you get long putts, and with the greens this fast it's tough to judge them. You've just got to really be paying attention. Even just a gentle slope and the ball can get away from you. They're pure greens. For just being over a year old, they're as good of greens as we've putted on all year.

Q. Do you find yourself trying to lag out there, even from 20, 25 feet?

MIKE WEIR: Not really, not from -- no, I've never, ever had that mentality to lag a putt. I always try to make it. Whenever I'm out on the green and it happens to go 10 feet by or 10 feet short, I just try to make them.

Q. Is it tough to get out of the rough?

MIKE WEIR: I hit one really good shot on No. 8, I hit it in the rough and hit a 9-iron from 170 yards that landed about 130 and rolled up to about an inch, but the other couple times I struggled on I believe it was 14, I hit it in the rough off the tee, maybe half a yard in the left rough, and I was just trying to bounce it down in front and it came out straight left and was still in the rough and I made a good bogey.

Q. What did you do on 5?

MIKE WEIR: I hit driver in the greenside bunker, got up-and-down, left bunker. That's a fun hole. It's fun.

Q. Are you tempted at all to hit iron and play it safe?

MIKE WEIR: If it was into the wind possibly, but whenever you get a chance like that, you're kind of licking your chops, you want to stand up there and bust it at the green.

For the real long guys, they'll be hitting 3-wood there today. It's so firm, even though it's 290 to the front, you can land it 270 or 265 and it will roll up there. My ball actually looked like it almost flew into the green side bunker, so it may have even been long if it was on line.

Q. Were there any hole locations today that you thought were maybe a little questionable?

MIKE WEIR: I didn't think so. I thought they were good. There were some tough ones out there, but I didn't think there were any questionable ones. I thought they were all good.

End of FastScripts.
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