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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 24, 2006

Tiger Woods

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

Q. More difficult day but better score. Can you tell us about that?

TIGER WOODS: I felt like I hit my irons better today. I hit a few more good putts, missed a couple on 7 and 8, which were my 16th and 17th holes, but overall I thought I actually putted a little better today.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's blowing, yeah, and that's fine if it blows like this, but the problem is it gets in the trees and starts swirling and comes from all different directions. You play one hole two holes back to back the same direction, one can be right to left, the next hole is left to right. That's the hard part. It gets in these trees and starts dancing all over the place. It's hard because it's hard to get committed to something that within a couple seconds could change dramatically. A good shot could end up 40 or 50 feet away.

Q. Greg Owen said you came up to him and shook his hand and said good playing. Did you do that because of the way the tournament ended to kind of give him a pat on the back?

TIGER WOODS: Well, he played well. No, he played well. He just had a mistake there on 17 and then 18 ended up making bogey, as well. But still, he played well. There's no denying that he played great for the entire week until the last couple holes. That happens to everybody. We've all been there, and it happens, and you pick yourself up and you move on and you live and you learn. Don't worry, he'll be back in that position again.

Q. Did the course play hard all day or did it get a little bit harder?

TIGER WOODS: As soon as the clouds left it started picking up. We had it gusting early but it would die down for a couple holes, but now I think it's pretty much here to stay.

Q. On a difficult golf course like this and the wind swirling, talk about how important it is to be patient.

TIGER WOODS: You have to, absolutely have to. As I said earlier, a good shot can end up 40, 50 feet away with a turnable wind. Just the wrong gust at the wrong time. You've got to stay patient. You know that some of the pins are pretty accessible. You can feed the balls down there and you can make some easy birdies, but then again, some of the holes are pretty brutal and you have to go ahead and understand that par is going to be a really good score on that hole.

Q. How much was your patience tested after that first putt on 17 and then what happened at 18, too?

TIGER WOODS: You know, put it this way, I've played those holes worse. I kept telling myself, that and the fact that as bad as I played those two holes, I'm still under par for the day under these conditions, and that's good. No. 1 and No. 2 are pretty easy holes; if I could make birdies there back to back, I should be back to level for what I thought, and then birdied 1, just didn't birdie 2.

Q. How big was that last shot, the one you finished up on?

TIGER WOODS: Well, it should have been a 7 but ended up with 5.

Q. You didn't go through your normal pre shot routine?

TIGER WOODS: No, I was a little bit on the run there. As I told Clarkie, if he didn't get out of the way I probably would have hit him.

Q. Did that approach shot look as good to you as it did to us?

TIGER WOODS: It looked pretty good. I had 175 front, and that's all I was concerned about. I don't know what I had to the hole. I was just trying to carry the ball to the front or somewhere around the front edge.

Q. Would you have dropped it ten more times?

TIGER WOODS: Maybe 100 more times. It's one of those lucky shots that came out well.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, but I couldn't quite get into it. I'd have much rather played it off the cart path if I could have.

Q. On 5 it looked like you just didn't have a shot out of there.

TIGER WOODS: It was in the rough, just way down in there. I had no lie. I was happy to just get back to the fairway.

Q. Was today one of those days where it's better to be a little lucky?

TIGER WOODS: Well, you're going to have moments where you're going to have to have a little bit of luck, and also you're going to have some moments where you're going to get bad luck out here today. The wind is blowing so hard, as I said, a good shot can end up in a terrible spot and make bogey. A marginal shot could end up down next to the hole and you make birdie. It's the nature of this golf course. With the wind swirling in these trees you're going to have some bad breaks and hopefully you can get enough good ones.

Q. Take us through 17.

TIGER WOODS: I got up to parallel, I think, in my back swing, and I let it go, probably should have hit a knock down but let it go, hit it off the green. Probably should have flopped it from there but decided to putt it. It was bad. A terrible putt. It was flat out terrible, an explosion. Gunpowder all over me. It just was a terrible putt.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Stevie could throw the flag right behind it and take the penalty so I don't go in the water. It was just a terrible putt, and what makes it worse is the second putt, I left it short right in the middle of the hole. I knew it, said this putt is into the grain and a little bit slower than it looks. Hence I don't hit it anyways. I didn't think it was off the green, but I knew it was at least six, seven feet by the hole.

Q. Are there days where you shoot a 69 where you felt physically like a 66 and other days it felt like a 68? Do you feel like you shot better than your actual score?

TIGER WOODS: I did. I felt like I hit the ball better than the score indicates because I missed a couple of the short putts; the three putt at 17 and then I missed two short ones on 7 and 8 for birdie. I just felt like I left a couple shots out there. And then pin high on 2 in the right side bunker, green side bunker there, and make par.

Q. Did you talk to your dad last night?

TIGER WOODS: No, he was resting.

Q. Considering these conditions now, do you feel like at 4 you're right there and nobody will really get away?

TIGER WOODS: If they do get away, hats off to them because they deserve it. The conditions are getting tough, and 3 under par right there, it's right in the ballgame. Tomorrow hopefully it'll be tough again and we've got to go out there and see what can happen. The rough is up, the greens are drying out. The greens were certainly a lot faster when we finished than when we started out. The greens are going to be difficult this afternoon.

Q. With this wind will you hit many balls this afternoon?

TIGER WOODS: Zero. I'm going to go home and work out.

Q. Is it easier for you when you're right here in Florida?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, we have Stevie and his fiancee and their little boy there, so it's really neat to have all of us together like that. We're just having a great time on the boat.

Q. You must have room for like 15 more.

TIGER WOODS: Except you (laughter).

End of FastScripts.

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