THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 6, 2002

Mike Weir

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to welcome Mike Weir to the interview center of the 2002 Honda Classic.

Mike, thanks for coming in for a couple of minutes. Why don't you get us started on a little bit about the course and maybe a little bit about your year so far.

MIKE WEIR: I think the golf course, you know I think the defense the course has is the wind. I think it is always going to be a factor.

I noticed that the greens were very fast yesterday. They were fast and firm, and I'm not sure if they watered them or if we got rain last night. I'm not sure, but they were a little bit softer today. But I would like to see them play nice and firm, because then you really have to watch your approach shots into the greens. Because over the green, with as firm as they were just yesterday, it left you some difficult up-and-downs.

I think that's the challenge of the golf course, is really kind of position off the tee, and then kind of leave it in the right spots around the greens. But the greens are rolling really well. They are in perfect shape.

Q. A characteristic of your career is your victories have been fairly significant events and venues, and you have contended in other majors and events and everything. Do you concentrate more on those situations, or do you like to mix in an event like this once in awhile? How do you explain that?

MIKE WEIR: I think I always have -- I think the last couple of years, those new rankings, I think my strength of schedule has been the hardest the last couple of years. And I think it's to a point, I want to play in the strongest fields, but it seemed like the way it's worked out has just been the schedule I've wanted to set up, as well, with the timing, things with my kids and things along those lines, as well.

This year I have changed up a few events. Added this one. I'm adding Hilton Head. I added the Bob Hope. I mixed in a few different ones early in the year that I have not played the last few years. Just trying to change the same routine I've done last couple of years.

Q. Do you think your intensity is the same in a week like this, or do you consciously rise to the occasion?

MIKE WEIR: Well, I think I'm getting better at getting my concentration up week-in and week-out. I think, as I said in the past, I think my concentration has been better in the big events, and I think it has to do with -- this is my fifth year on TOUR.

Before I got on the PGA TOUR, I was used to playing only -- I played maybe six or seven events until the Canadian Tour and Australia and Q-School. So I probably only played 13 or 14 events throughout the year. Kind of spread it out. I was able to really gear for those events and get my mind ready.

So to get used to playing my first year on TOUR, I think I played 28, and I felt like I was out way too much. And try to find a nice medium in the mid to low 20s of events and try to really focus on those and try to get more consistent, as you said, intensity level for each and every one.

I think it's just come through experience the last couple of years, and I'm especially trying to pay more attention to that this year and really play well in every event.

Q. The 18th hole. Your thoughts on that hole, how it fits in here, how tough it is, how good a finishing hole?

MIKE WEIR: I think it's a very good finishing hole, especially the way the wind has blown the last couple of days. I think I hit a 5-iron into the green yesterday, or maybe even a 4-iron into the green yesterday. And today it was a 5-iron with a pretty good drive. It's a narrow landing area. If it gets downwind, at least you can carry it past and get it into a little wider area. But the way the wind is blowing right now, very difficult, demanding hole coming in with the long irons, especially. That pin is over on the right. It's a very difficult shot.

Q. Do you have to shape your shot there? What are you trying to do on the tee shot?

MIKE WEIR: On the tee shot, well, it actually sets up pretty well for me because I play a left-to-right shot, so it -- you know, I can start it down at the bunkers and bring it in a little bit there. So it sets up pretty well for me, the tee shot. It's just a nice finishing hole, a really good finishing hole.

Q. The golf courses that have been made in the last 20 years, and I know nobody sat down and decided this is a conspiracy, but if you are a left-hander who plays a fade, does it almost seem like all golf course architects are working against -- you have the ability to hit a draw off the tee --?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah.

Q. -- Which sets up to a fade for right-handers. But are golf course architects, almost like they have some kind of prejudice against left-handers?

MIKE WEIR: I don't think so. I haven't really noticed that at all. I think there's a good ball of holes working left-to-right and right-to-left. I haven't really noticed it.

I think all of the really good players, anyways, can work the ball both ways.

Q. But conventional wisdom for the public is that most people are right-handers and most high-handicap golfers hit slices or fades, which is why some architects design a lot of holes along those lines. Does it get frustrating being a left-handed golfer?

MIKE WEIR: No.

Q. Or with equipment?

MIKE WEIR: Not really. I think when I was a kid, equipment was an issue. But it's not much of an issue anymore. I think most of the manufacturers make good left-handed equipment and you can pretty much find whatever you need left-handed now.

Years past, not even that long ago, ten years, five years ago, it was tough to find real premium left-handed equipment.

Q. The letter you got from Nicklaus playing left-handed; did you keep that?

MIKE WEIR: Oh, yeah. I still have it. I still have it in my office downstairs.

Q. How important was that in your commitment to it? If he had said to play right-handed, would you have?

MIKE WEIR: Who knows. I may have. I think I was at a young enough age that I could have switched, if he suggested it. I think I was about -- the letter was dated 1981, so I was 11 years old. So I was still young enough to switch. It was still early in my golfing career. I was just starting out, really.

Q. Can you recall to the day it arrived? Was that a big deal? Do you remember the details?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, we grew up in Canada. Had a little slot in the door; so it was like through the slot on the -- just inside the door. So I remember my mom always grabbed the mail. But she handed it to me and I opened it and I was pretty excited.

Q. Talking about gearing up for big tournaments, with Augusta National changed so much this year, have you made a special trip there or will you make a special trip?

MIKE WEIR: I will make one. I haven't made it yet. But probably early in the week of THE PLAYERS Championship I'm probably going to go down to play, on Sunday or Monday before and check it out.

Q. What's your feeling about -- I know you haven't seen it, but adding 285 yards to the course?

MIKE WEIR: Well, I don't know. I feel like that golf course plays fine now. There was a couple of changes, I think 18 needed a little bit of a change. Maybe I think they added a little length to 7, which that's fine.

I think the other holes were pretty demanding. Even though they were hitting some shorter irons in there, you still have to be really precise. If you hit it above the hole on some of them, you're in trouble anyways. So now instead of coming in with 8-iron, it might be a 4- or 5-iron. So it's just going to make it tougher.

But I think the golf course was -- it was demanding anyways. I don't think the scores were getting out of hand, except for the one year Tiger won by 10 or 12. But I don't think the scores are out of hand. I think the scores were pretty good last year, but the weather was perfect. It was really good and the greens were a little softer than normal. So it was perfect scoring conditions, as well.

Q. Pardon my ignorance about hockey, but can you explain what it is about the physical act of playing hockey that promotes left-handed golfers, the large number of left-handed golfers coming from Canada?

MIKE WEIR: Well, I think just that -- I don't know what the stats are in the NHL, but I think the majority of guys, I think it's like 60, 65 percent, if I am not mistaken, shoot the puck left-handed. So it's the same -- it's the same motion.

Q. Now, why is that? Why are so many left-handed hockey players --?

MIKE WEIR: I don't know. There are a lot.

I don't know, I think there's like 25 percent of the golfers in Canada are left-handed because of that, because I think there is a hockey influence. So, I don't know why that is.

Q. It was about a year ago Johnny Miller wrote a column for Golf Digest where he said he would consider turning his kid around and make him right-handed if he had a natural tendency to it be left-handed. So do you still see, obviously in that case and everything, does it get frustrating to still know that there are people who would take a kid and say, no, hit it right-handed, even though it's natural?

MIKE WEIR: I don't know if anybody still does that and I don't know if Johnny really would actually do that. He might have just been saying that.

But I don't see any reason why you would switch a kid from his natural move to right-handed. I don't know why he would, really. The ball doesn't know the difference, does it?

Q. How many holes at THE PLAYERS Championship at the Stadium Course set up well for you because you are left-handed?

MIKE WEIR: Quite a few. First hole is a dogleg, a little bit left-to-right.

The next hole actually goes a little bit right-to-left.

The next hole is a par 3.

And the next one is pretty straightaway.

The next one goes a little left-to-right.

And the next one is a little right-to-left.

It's a little bit of both. That golf course is really demanding. So you have got to hit all of the shots, you have to hit fades, draw, low, high. It touches on all your game; that's why it's such a good tournament.

Q. How have you played 18 there in the past?

MIKE WEIR: I haven't played it really well. I've only played it really two years.

Q. How do you play it?

MIKE WEIR: I try to hit it down the right side with a little bit of a fade.

Q. Do you hit driver or 3-wood on that hole?

MIKE WEIR: Depends on the wind.

Q. Dudley Hart, a big hockey fan; does he engage you in hockey talk a lot?

MIKE WEIR: Oh, yeah. He talks like he knows hockey, but I don't know. (Laughs). He's from Buffalo; so I guess he knows his hockey a little bit and knows a lot of the guys.

Q. I know he likes to go to Panther games. Has he ever taken you to one?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, we may go this weekend. My parents are in town. We might get over there Friday or Saturday night. They play Edmonton on Friday and Nashville on Saturday.

Q. Who is your team?

MIKE WEIR: I grew up in southern Ontario, only about an hour from Detroit. So the town I grew up is in half Red Wings and half Maple Leafs. I'm a Red Wing fan. My friend, Dino (ph) and I, who run a tournament together, is a long-time Red Wing and kind of grew up watching him.

Q. So if you're a Canadian kid that is relatively near the border, that's not a problem with rooting for a U.S. team that happens to be near you?

MIKE WEIR: No. It's not an unusual thing at all. Glen Hnatiuk, he's a big Philadelphia Flyer fan and he's from Winnipeg. He grew up a Flyer fan.

Q. So nationalism doesn't necessarily come into who you root for?

MIKE WEIR: Well, because most of the guys when I was growing up, it's changed a lot now, but most of the guys in the League anyways were Canadian. So it didn't seem like even if they were playing in the States, a lot of the guys were Canadian anyways. Even though I know it's changed lot with a lot of Europeans now.

Q. I think Dudley skated with the Panthers.

MIKE WEIR: He did.

Q. Did you skate?

MIKE WEIR: I skated with the Washington Capitols in '99 in training camp.

Q. Wasn't Dudley also a goalie?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah. I'd like to blast a few slapshots out of him. I'd put it by him easy. (Laughs).

Q. But you guys have not skated?

MIKE WEIR: He and I together? No, we haven't. That would be a riot.

Q. What do you demand out of your caddie? What do you want out of a caddie in general?

MIKE WEIR: For one, he just needs to be consistent and reliable. You need to know that he's going to be there, be on time and he's going to be in the game all the time, really. His mind is not wandering on whatever he is, but he's really in the game.

I'm lucky. I have a great caddie. I've got one of the greatest caddies out here, Brendan Little. He's been a buddy of mine since we were 12 years old. We played Junior Golf against one another, hockey against one another, college golf against one another. So we are good buddies, and he knows his game well; and more importantly, he knows me well and that's important, as well, because you need your caddie.

Your swing coach is always out there with you, but your caddie can help you with alignment, he can help you with your ball position, and you can see things because he's out there with you every day; that if you're getting off on something in your game, he can usually point it out.

Q. Is this getting to be a trend, where not necessarily like Vijay and Jesper who have former Tour players, but do you think guys are more and more getting good players, at least good college players out there, or more than filtering into the caddie --?

MIKE WEIR: I think so, because they have that background and they know the game and they know the mentality of scoring and playing. I think it's important.

Q. Do you necessarily want your guy to read a lot of greens for you?

MIKE WEIR: He never reads a green for me. Not unless I'm really having trouble with the greens, reading the greens or something, which has happened a few times, where you feel like you're hitting good putts and you're way off and I'll have him take a look. But most of the time, I rely on myself.

Q. What percentage of TOUR players read greens without any help from their caddies?

MIKE WEIR: I would say it's probably half and half from what I see. Some guys really use heir caddies and some guys don't use them at all.

Q. I was reading one of your putters sold on EBay recently for like $650. Are you aware of that?

MIKE WEIR: Yes, I am aware of that. I don't think it sold, did it? I don't think it sold on there. It was a -- well, if you can ask TaylorMade about that. I'm not even going to comment on that. But I didn't have any idea of it.

Q. Is there a major that you think, or either a major at a venue that's coming up in the rotation, Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship, is there one you think that would be best suited for your game, one that you feel like you're going to win first before another one?

MIKE WEIR: If I had to pick one, I would probably say the British Open probably suits my game better than any of them just because you have to really -- I have a low-ball flight anyway. So I don't have to work on getting my ball low nor the British Open. That just kind of suits my game. You've just got to be creative. You have to be able to hit a 3-iron 150 yards sometimes and 8-irons 200 yards. I think it just suits my game.

Q. Do you think Augusta might be the one that's more difficult for you to win?

MIKE WEIR: I think it might be the most difficult one for me to win. But you never know. If you get a hot putting week -- two years ago my first Masters there, I was about fifth or sixth place going into the last day. I've only played two of them, but I feel comfortable around there. My short game has been really good around there. I just have not been able to strike the ball really well when I play.

Q. When the wind kicks up here like it has, does it resemble a British, not necessarily a British Open course, but a British course at all?

MIKE WEIR: Not really. It really doesn't. I guess the winds are as strong probably as what you see at the British Open, but it's a totally different feel looking out there at all that sand and green grass, which you don't see over there.

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