BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 15, 2003

Mike Weir

STEWART McDOUGALL: Ladies and gentlemen, we have Mike Weir, the U.S. masters champion. Mike, you won The Masters on a course slightly different from Sandwich. How will your game translate to this links condition?

MIKE WEIR: Well, I think the one thing is I don't have to adjust my game very much. I'm a low ball hitter anyways. So that's the one adjustment I don't have to make, with the trajectory. But always in an Open you have to putt well. You have to be a little more creative with your short game. And your reference to The Masters, you're trying to flop the ball and land it on soft greens, and spin the ball a little bit. Here you don't have anything of that. Inside of a hundred yards you're playing more pitch and run. That's an adjustment that mostly guys coming over from the U.S. and Canada will have to adjust for. But I love the golf course. It's running nice and fast, and I think that's how the R & A will want it. It will be a good challenge.

Q. Is there anything you can do with the fairways so narrow and the ball running so much in terms of spinning the ball to keep it in the fairway, or because the ball doesn't spin as much these days is there less you can do?

MIKE WEIR: The ball definitely doesn't curve as much as it used to. So what you try to do -- I can curve it enough that if it's a crosswind hole you try to turn the ball into the wind to try to flatten it out. If you get it riding the wind on a crosswind there's no chance for the ball to stay in the fairway, because it will hit and bounce and go with the wind. You try to counteract that and try to play it against the wind direction, which helps it soften up as it lands in the fairway. So that's one way to be able to do that.

Q. I've heard a lot about the quirkiness of the course. Do you think by week's end this will have identified the best player or the luckiest player?

MIKE WEIR: I think the best player. You're going to have -- you're going to have probably a few bad breaks, you're probably going to have good ones that you hit off line and may bounces back into line of play. But the players that shape it around there will be a great champion, because you're going to have to have all your game in all aspects this week.

Q. You sound nasal?

MIKE WEIR: I think the dryness, the hayfever, allergies.

Q. Early in November you played in your first Presidents Cup --

MIKE WEIR: No, it would be my second one.

Q. Excuse me, second one. Is there as much anticipation from players on your side, on the International Team, as there is from the Americans with the Ryder Cup?

MIKE WEIR: I would say so. I can't speak for the American guys, but I can say that our side is very ready to play, and really eager to get it started. Unfortunately with September 11th, we had to postpone it a year, so I think there's even more anticipation from our side, because it's been three years. I think the last one left a bitter taste in our mouths, the way we got beat. We got beat soundly. So I think we want to at least play a lot better than what we did. So I think mostly guys are really ready to play.

Q. You've never had a lot of luck in the Open Championship. Coming into this one, is there anything or things that make you feel different coming into this one, chances for success or just the way you're playing?

MIKE WEIR: I think the way I'm playing, definitely is a -- my confidence level is probably higher than what it has been coming in here in the past. But at the same time it is different golf than what we play on the regular U.S. tour week-to-week. There is adjustments to be made and hopefully the small adjustments that I make will continue the good play I've been doing the last few months.

Q. Granted we've been guilty of building up Tiger when he was hot. But do you think there's something that you and Jim Furyk, not being bombers and shot makers, have changed the mentality of the field going into a major in the era of Tiger?

MIKE WEIR: That's the history of the game, there's going to be different types of players. Jack, in his day, was far and above the longest player out there. And there were players -- Gary Player and a bunch of different players that find a way to win. And that's -- that will always be the case in golf. Tiger deserves the right to be hyped up, he's been the best player for a long time. But I think there's always room for shot makers in the game, always.

Q. Can you talk about one thing or one or two things that have changed in your mentality since The Masters when you come to a major?

MIKE WEIR: Well, I'll use the U.S. Open for a reference, but I would say that after winning The Masters, going to the U.S. Open, I just -- I felt like maybe I know how to prepare for it a little bit better than maybe I had in the past. I think I kind of found a good formula for myself of success to kind of lead me into the week at Augusta and try to do as well as I could to do the same thing at the U.S. Open. And try to do the same thing here. It's just getting comfortable with your game and feeling good and ready to go Thursday, that you've got everything done that you need to get done.

Q. Any specific thing that you think you do better since winning?

MIKE WEIR: Since winning?

Q. Either mentally or otherwise?

MIKE WEIR: I don't know. I don't think anything really. I think it just happens to be coming together well, a culmination of the last ten years' work I've done coming together more than anything. More than anything from The Masters to now.

Q. Do you feel more pressure as The Masters champion?

MIKE WEIR: No, I feel less. I feel less. I've done it. Granted, as I said, this is a different type of a tournament than Augusta and different conditions, but pressure is pressure and you've got to be able to handle those situations. And since I've been able to do that, it kind of gives me a better comfort level, actually. When those situations pop up, hopefully I'm in contention, so when the situations pop up I can handle them.

Q. How many times have you played the course so far this week?

MIKE WEIR: Two.

Q. Have there been a number of instances when you've hit what you thought was a perfect drive or even approach to the green and it's been way off the mark or where you thought it would be?

MIKE WEIR: There's been a couple. I wouldn't a way off the mark. I've seen a couple of crazy bounces. But they'll bounce 10, 15 yards off line, and just kind of into the first cut. I haven't hit one down the middle and all of a sudden it's in two feet deep stuff. But there's been a couple that I've hit good shots right at and it takes a bounce 40, 50 feet or something. But a lot of open championships are like that. Royal Lytham was like that.

Q. How do you prepare for that?

MIKE WEIR: I don't think there's anything you do to prepare for that. You've just got to play the golf course and take what it gives you. And not let it get to you when you do get a crazy one, because you're probably going to get a good one, too, that you didn't deserve, that went off line, and hits a slope and rolls down stiff. Or you might have hit one off line that is going to go into the rough and hits a bank and it goes in the fairway, and maybe you didn't deserve to be in the fairway. It will all even out.

Q. The demands increase on your time, is there any sense you think your obligations change? When that TV crew yesterday came out and interviewed you in the middle of your practice, and I know your routine is important to you, how do you respond to that? You did it. But I'm curious about your sense of those kind of things.

MIKE WEIR: There's, I guess, a little more responsibility to that. I'm aware of that, but at the same time I'm a little guarded because I know, as I said, I kind of know my formula for success, what helps me feel comfortable Thursday. If I don't get that accomplished, maybe I get a little ornery. There's some responsibility, and I don't mind doing it -- and there's enough daylight over here that I can probably get it accomplished.

Q. One other question. The Toronto guys, you've heard about the SARS related exhibition, and they're pretty hyped up about it in Toronto, they're talking about it as if it's a done deal. What's your impression?

MIKE WEIR: I haven't heard any of it, honestly, for the last two months. It was an initial concept. And as far as I'm concerned, that's all it is right now. It was just an idea. But I know it's not done, by any means.

Q. But you would participate in it if you had the day free?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I would. It's a great idea. I'm just hoping if it does go along and get done, it would be great. But it's not right now.

Q. As a follow-up to that, how do you feel about exhibition matches, in general? You play so many things hard, what about exhibition, hit-and-giggle stuff?

MIKE WEIR: They're fun. It's fun to get away from the stress of grinding it out for four straight days, and be able to play one, maybe two days. I've done a number of them the last couple of years, playing in Wayne's thing, and my charity tournament. And you do those things. And most of the time they are for charity. So to do something for SARS and Canada, kind of put a little boost back into the economy and people's perspective about what's really happening there, which is probably obviously been blown out of proportion. I don't mind doing that at all.

Q. You're saying it's a done deal (laughter)?

MIKE WEIR: No.

Q. The last couple of years from July to the end of the year you've been trying to get your first win of the year. Now you're leading the money list. You've got a Major and Player-of-the-Year is really wide open at this point, I wonder if you could talk about the differences and how that affects your outlook for the last three or four months of the season?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, well it's a fine line. I felt like I wasn't that far off last year, even though I didn't -- overall it wasn't very good. I just need to fine tune a few things, particularly with my short game. I felt like that was the thing that was holding me back big time last year, inside of 120 yards, and my putting wasn't that good. I worked on that on the off-season. Yeah, it's been a great season so far for me. Like you said, Player-of-the-Year is wide open still it's going to be an interesting second half of the year, here. Hopefully I can keep -- on my side, keep playing well, and leave it up to whoever votes or we vote, I guess. But I just want to keep playing well, and just keep building on what's been happening so far this year, and keep trying to get better.

Q. What do you think about your draw with O'Meara?

MIKE WEIR: It's good. Good times. My first time at Carnoustie I had the 10:30, 4:00 start, so this is a little bit better. The 4:00 start is tough. It's a long time to wait. Especially when I stayed across the street from the Carnoustie golf course. I could hear the microphone all day for 7 hours straight.

Q. This is kind of offbeat, make you shift your mind here. But as far as The Presidents Cup, it's a relatively new event. Can you think back -- if you're a fan of the history of the game, are there players from Canada or South Africa or Australia that you wish you would have played in that format with from the history of the game?

MIKE WEIR: From those countries?

Q. Yes.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I would say --fortunately enough, Gary Player is our captain, so I get to be around him during the tournament, which will be kind of interesting. I'd love to have been paired with Gary or maybe Peter Thompson, who won five Open championships. That would have been pretty cool.

Q. You've played here now on a practice round. What do you think the key club in your bag is going to be this week?

MIKE WEIR: That's a tough one to pick, one key club. Obviously the putter is really important every week. If you're not holing putts, you're not going to be there come the weekend. I would say putting is the biggest thing, because you're not going to hit every fairway. You're not going to hit every green. As we said, the golf course has some quirky things out there that you're going to have to get the ball up-and-down, and you're going to have to convert some putts for pars a lot of the time. I would say the putter.

Q. Sounds like, talking to the players, this is going to be another major where length isn't the prime factor. Would you agree with that or do you like that as being the case?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I think so. It's a little more wide open. I played with Sergio today, and he was hitting driver on a lot of holes, and carrying some things he didn't have, hitting pitches into the greens, he was hitting his driver great out there today. I think for the most part the player gets it in play, stays out of those fairway bunkers. Those fairway bunkers, you're pitching out unless you get lucky. So I think the player that's just consistent, hitting the fairway. Because as you said you don't have to be long off the tee, you can bounce it in from short. So I think that's mainly the key, it's a little more wide open. But a bomber can be in there, too, because he can carry some of the fairway stuff, but he better be hitting it straight.

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