WGC ANDERSEN CONSULTING MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 26, 2000

Darren Clarke

DARREN CLARKE: Just hard work of putting a lot of time on the range over the weekend. Match play, you need a little bit of luck at certain times, and I've had that as well this week.

DARREN CLARKE: I'm pretty solid. And hitting fairways and greens. If you do that, I give myself birdie opportunities. And knocking a couple of putts in.

DARREN CLARKE: I paid him $175, and he gladly took it off me. 6 and 5, stuffing it, yes. On the other course here, yes.

DARREN CLARKE: I don't even know how I'm going to cope tomorrow. I've got to play very well.

DARREN CLARKE: No. Just goes to show after all that hard work I've put in the gym this winter -- my right arm is definitely stronger.

DARREN CLARKE: Tiger is the world's No. 1. He's the best player in the world, that's pretty obvious to everybody. We get on pretty well with each other. We sort of have a go at each other all the time. But because I'm working with Butch as well, I've got to know him pretty well this last year and a half. He's a really good guy. He's a quality player. And I'm going to have to play particularly well tomorrow, I think, to have a chance to beat him.

DARREN CLARKE: If I knew that I would have been here a bit longer last year. I don't know. It goes up and down. Butch has been working on my basics more than anything else. We all tend to fall back into our bad habits, and just ball position, just basics, nothing in particular.

DARREN CLARKE: I don't know. But obviously the standard between amateur stuff and professional stuff is different. Anybody comes along this week, you're playing against the best players in the world. If your game isn't on, you're not going to win. The standard has risen considerably. I think the Ryder Cup experience is invaluable when it comes to tournaments as big as this. So it's just a natural progression, I think.

DARREN CLARKE: No. No. We have a bit of fun. I've been joking with him all this week that I'm 1 and 0 playing in match play. Because Lee Westwood and I beat Tiger and David at the Ryder Cup. We've been joking about that this week. It will be more looking forward to it as opposed to intimidation.

DARREN CLARKE: Match play is not like that. Match play is a totally different game. You can win holes with pars or bogeys. That's not likely to happen tomorrow, obviously. It's a totally different game. I'm going to play the golf course; there's only going to be one winner. I've got to play my own game tomorrow.

DARREN CLARKE: I'll slag him off if he doesn't. I think he'll be fine, just whatever. That's a pretty serious thing we're playing for. If that's the case, so be it.

DARREN CLARKE: No.

DARREN CLARKE: Just go play and see how good I can become, that's all. Nothing really.

DARREN CLARKE: I've still got a lot of room for improvement in a lot of areas of my game, and hence the reason I'm working with Butch to try to make those better, to become a more consistent worldwide player.

DARREN CLARKE: Not really. I've just got to keep on working at my game and trying to improve as much as I can.

DARREN CLARKE: I said at the start of the week that anybody can beat anybody over 18 holes. And over a 36-hole match, you're more likely to get the best player will win. And obviously if you look at the rankings, Tiger is No. 1 and I'm No. 19. Hopefully I can play well enough tomorrow and we can have a really good game. So I'd say his chances would be increased over 36 holes. That's the way it should work.

DARREN CLARKE: Yes. I have to. He's calling me all sorts of names. I have to go into the gym, unfortunately. It doesn't appeal to me much, but I have to do it.

DARREN CLARKE: We have a gym at home, yes, gathering dust.

DARREN CLARKE: I don't know if there was any turning points, really. I tried to focus and just play as well as I could. I know David very well, so he's a quality player. Today, he wasn't quite on top of his game this afternoon. And he wasn't hitting the ball that close to the flag to put me under pressure. I was trying to hit greens and knock in a few putts, which I managed to do.

DARREN CLARKE: I'm playing very solid. After my first round against Paul Azinger, I said my swing felt good, my scoring has been better the last couple of days. I think I'm swinging pretty well. I'm hitting the ball pretty solid, and I don't think I've missed many greens.

DARREN CLARKE: I was just trying to do the best I could do out there.

DARREN CLARKE: No, not yet. There's time left, though. (Laughter.)

DARREN CLARKE: Probably. Probably. When I just turned professional and come out and started to play, and obviously all the guys you've been watching on TV and all that stuff. But of late, no.

DARREN CLARKE: I don't know, really. There's days I play really well, and there's days I don't play very well. I'm very much -- if I'm on, I'll play very well; and if not, then I won't. So probably the strength would be my driving, and weakness would probably be short irons, probably. But I'm working away obviously on that and trying to get better with everything.

DARREN CLARKE: What do you mean?

DARREN CLARKE: I'm never going to be as skinny as he is or as light. I just do whatever Butch tells me to do and hopefully that works. And then Chubby (Chandler) sticks his words in there again. And says do this and that.

DARREN CLARKE: Obviously it's more difficult for me to see Butch than it is for Tiger, because I live thousands of miles over that way. Butch watches the European Tour in the mornings, and if he sees anything in particular, he gives me a call as soon as I'm finished, and says do this and that.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah. He'll be with Tiger for a while and then can come in and spend a bit of time with me, and back to Tiger. That sort of stuff.

DARREN CLARKE: I have yet to decide.

DARREN CLARKE: If I was defending I would.

DARREN CLARKE: Not at all. No, not at all.

DARREN CLARKE: No, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. We were chatting away out there.

DARREN CLARKE: No, not yet. The shops are closed.

DARREN CLARKE: Can you give him a kick before we go out and play, something like that? I don't know, I have to be on top of my game. I've got to hit a lot of fairways, greens, and hole putts. You never know with match play. It's that type of game, that you don't know what's going to happen.

DARREN CLARKE: I have no clean shirts yet. I've had reservations on planes every night this week, and haven't managed any so far. I have to use one tomorrow. I don't know what color I'll come up with tomorrow.

DARREN CLARKE: Nothing really. I had a par from maybe 10. I hit a nice 6-iron in there to about three feet , I made I birdie to go 2-up. It gave me possibly an edge to keep on going.

DARREN CLARKE: I shot 67 in the third round of the Open. It doesn't make any difference if someone takes seven or eight in a particular hole, it's only one hole. So of course, experience is good. I think as I said earlier there, I think the Ryder Cup experience is invaluable in a situation like this. But I think because it's match play, it's a totally different game and you have to play shot by shot, because the momentum and things change -- can change within a hole. The whole game can turn around within a hole. It's a totally different thing than anything else.

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