Q. Since you mentioned putting, let's talk about the greens here. What's your thoughts on how difficult they are? I hear that there's a lot of undulations on them?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, there's quite a few undulations on them. I notice that a lot of the golf course if you're underneath the hole a lot you're going to do much better, even if you're further away -- you'd rather be 20 feet from the hole than 8 feet above the hole on some putts. Because as the golf course dries out -- they weren't too bad today, but as it dries up those putts will be lightning fast, and with the wind they'll get away from you. You definitely don't want to be over the green chipping back, that's one definite out here.
Q. You had quite a whirlwind after you won The Masters. How long did it take for it to sort of sink in, and also have you had any incidents of being recognized in public more often?
MIKE WEIR: Well, to answer the first parts of your question, it probably took a couple of weeks to settle in. I was reminiscing about the tournament quite a bit, and in my first tournament back, after three weeks off after The Masters in Charlotte, even playing my rounds out there, I told my caddy, some plays I made at Augusta, a putt here or a shot up-and-down, usually I don't do that, I'm pretty focused on the shot at hand. That made me think it hadn't sunk in, because I was replaying shots in my mind.
I get recognized a little more, going through the airport, grocery store. Nothing unusual, but I notice that I'm recognized more.
Q. Mike, you talked about the pressure down the stretch. What did you draw on to get you through those moments? What were you thinking? How did you cope with the pressure the way you did?
MIKE WEIR: Well, a few things, I've had some good experience already this year, previously, before The Masters that I birdied the last three holes to win the Bob Hope. I played very good on Sunday at Nissan to win, holed an 8-foot putt on the first playoff hole, so I made a bunch of good putts before The Masters even started that were important putts. And that's what I kept telling myself, I've done this, and let's do it again.
Q. Did you watch the hockey game last night, and have you talked to Adam since, and what are your thoughts about how it all ended?
MIKE WEIR: Well, we rented a house this week, and we watched it there, my wife and kids. And obviously it was disappointing for the Ducks. I love the game, and enjoyed watching the game, but obviously I felt for those guys, they've been the underdog the whole series, and for Adam's sake, being in the league 20-some odd years or almost 20 years, it would be great to see a guy like that that's had an outstanding career get a Stanley Cup.
For myself, I think myself and my wife, we know Adam, and obviously we're disappointed for them. But the Ducks obviously played fantastic. The Devils were just tough last night, give them credit, for sure, they played great.
Q. Did you call him?
MIKE WEIR: I called him. I didn't talk to him, I just left a message on his voice mail.
Q. This week more players are going to have a chance to be competitive. Is there a possibility that guys if not at Augusta, then at Bethpage last year, talked themselves out of being competitive, because it's a bombers' tournament and only they have a chance of competing?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, that's a trap you can fall into. You can talk yourself out of a tournament before it starts. Jack Nicklaus has talked about that for a long time. He would go to the tournament, and listen to guys in the locker room, and scratch this guy and that guy off the list. There's a chance that some guys can do that sometimes.
Q. Mike, just wanted to ask you if there's a certain mindset that you've taken up or practice routine, something that's allowed you to sustain your high level of play all year?
MIKE WEIR: Nothing in particular, I would say. I would say that I have tried to do the same things I've been doing since the beginning of the year, which is work a little extra hard on my short game, which I did do last year. And that's been able to save me some shots each and every round. Those par-saving putts and those par saving up-and-downs keep your momentum going, more so than birdies. And I think I've been able to conserve more shots around the greens, and that's why I've been able to shoot some more low scores.
Q. For several years now the sport has kind of been looking for the man to challenge Tiger, and we're such a personality-driven society in our sports culture. Do you think that that's an accurate quest that sports should be on? And do you find yourself thinking a little bit, maybe could I be that guy to finally be the one to come up and challenge Tiger?
MIKE WEIR: Well, I think to answer the first part of your question, I don't know if the guys as a general whole think that I want to be the next guy to challenge him. I think we're all trying to get better and do our own thing, what each individual person thinks they're capable of. I think I'm capable of getting better in the game, and where that leads me, to challenge Tiger and the rest of the guys, I feel that that's where I want to be. And so it's a great goal. It's a great quest to keep trying to improve and keep getting better each and every week, each and every year.
When it's all said and done, hopefully I'm a better player at 40 than I was at 30. So that's kind of the bottom line for me, really.
Q. The amazing attention you've received back home, have you thought about the impact you can have on kids playing golf in Canada versus hockey? Have you considered that much?
MIKE WEIR: I guess day to day I don't really think about that. I think -- I had it run through my mind definitely after I won The Masters, that I remember as a kid growing up in Canada, the first tournament I remember watching was The Masters, because the winner and everybody getting excited about the spring season, golf season starting. I remember watching that tournament and being inspired by Jack Nicklaus, and how he inspired me and he actually came and played our golf course when I was a kid.
So that kind of ran through my mind, so that maybe there is some little boy or girl watching that's thinking, he's from a small[] town in Canada, and I can do that, too. You do that by example, not by setting out to do it. You just play and hopefully that draws them to it.
Q. There's a 16-year-old here at this tournament. What were you doing when you were 16? What kind of frustrations and troubles and trials did you go through in your first major tournament what would you tell this 16-year-old who's here?
MIKE WEIR: First part of your question, 16, I won the Canadian Juvenile in Canada, which is a 16 and under, which was huge for me, but shooting scores of 73 to 76, which are not U.S. Open caliber. So I definitely wasn't ready for a U.S. Open.
The second part of your question, I guess -- what was the second part? I know the third part, what advice. What was the second part?
Q. What were the frustrations and trials you went through when you went to your first major?
MIKE WEIR: My first major, I'm trying to think -- Pinehurst. It was a U.S. Open at Pinehurst. I think -- Pinehurst was such a different Open that there wasn't a lot of rough around the greens. There was a little bit off the fairways, but around the greens you were hitting a lot of pitch and runs, so it was not what I was used to watching on TV. But I think just getting used to playing with the best players was probably the biggest thing I had to overcome. A 16-year-old, as you said, his comfort level is probably going to be the biggest thing he's going to have to overcome.
Q. Could you have anticipated the kind of response you've gotten from your countrymen after winning The Masters? And what has been maybe the most overwhelming element of it?
MIKE WEIR: Well, yeah, I would say, no, I didn't anticipate what it would be like. I was just trying to win a tournament and trying to win The Masters. And I wasn't really thinking about that. But the support has been fantastic, the number of letters I've received and congratulations from a lot of people has been fantastic. It's been outstanding.
Q. You had a small Team Canada presence out there today. Talk about that.
MIKE WEIR: Ian and I had a chance to play with Chris today. He's playing at -- he's got a lot of game. When I was in college I didn't hit the ball as solid as he does right now. He's got big potential there, for sure.
Q. He's got a little money today?
MIKE WEIR: No, we don't play for money.
Q. This time last year it was a bit of a low point for you, wasn't it, missing the cut at Bethpage? What a difference a year makes. Where was your mindset and your game this time last year as compared to where it is now?
MIKE WEIR: Well, it was probably -- it was frustrating, definitely. I was a little confused about what direction I was going with basically my golf swing more than anything. I was trying to -- caught in between taking the waggle out of my swing or trying to keep it in, although I was seeing some distance gains, I felt like the overall shot power I was getting wasn't what I was after. So I think after this tournament really that's when I started to turn it around, actually. Even though I didn't have any really good finishes, I could tell my game was starting to come back, I was starting to hit it better. I needed to work on my wedge game and my putting. It may have been a good thing.
Q. You probably already addressed this before, but I'm seeing it more and more in print, and I don't have an answer when people ask for it. Where does Weirsie come from or Little Weirsie?
MIKE WEIR: I don't know. I think it's been since high school, really, just kind of -- it might be a Canadian thing, everybody putts an E on the end, it's Oatsie, whatever else. It's kind of just a little nickname, I don't know.
Q. Mike, up until winning The Masters, which of the majors do you think would have given you the best shot at winning, and what is it about your game on this course that makes you think you can win this week?
MIKE WEIR: I would say I've always felt the strength of my game was probably, up until this year, I would say my mid-irons. So I would say this venue, U.S. Open, I would have thought would be the most likely or the British Open where my trajectory is pretty low, I can kind of bump it in there, one of those two tournaments I thought would be my first one. This year my short game is better, I'm driving it much better, a lot more in the fairways. So I still think one of those two kind of suits my game better than Augusta did. I happened to win there first, but I've always still felt like one of the two would be closer.
But this golf course, what makes me feel that I can have a chance here, is you still have to drive it in the fairway. I'm not going to be hitting 3-woods and 5-woods and 3-irons into every hole. There's going to be a couple of holes like that, but for the most part it's going to be a lot of mid-irons, which I think is overall the strength of my game. That's what makes me think I'll do okay.
Q. What do you think of the long par-3, No. 17? Do you think that could be the pivotal hole in the tournament, which would be unusual for a par-3 to be a key?
MIKE WEIR: It's not really that unusual of a hole. We play 230-plus par-3s quite often. So it's a big green. It can be a pivotal hole, obviously, finishing, depending on what the wind is doing. But the golf course has a lot of quality holes out there. It's not like you come to 17 thinking, you know, this is a pivotal hole. The whole golf course, No. 18 is a tough finishing hole. So there's a lot of good holes out there, all the way through.
Q. When Tiger wins The Masters, all the talk is the U.S. Open is coming, can he win the Grand Slam. You won The Masters and I'm not hearing a whole lot of people talking about can you win the Grand Slam. Is that an insult, is that the way it is, because he's who he is, and no one else is who he is? How do you look at that?
MIKE WEIR: It's not an insult at all. He's a guy that has won four majors in a row, so it's a legitimate question. For me, you know, it's my first major championship, but at the same time, I've said this before, if I didn't feel like I could do it, I'd never do it. But I feel there's a possibility I could do it. Things have to fall all into place, and the stars have to line up. But we'll see what happens this week, and we'll go from there. But you never rule anything out.
RAND JERRIS: Thanks very much for your time. We wish you lots of luck this week.
End of FastScripts....
