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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 26, 2006

Tiger Woods

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

Q. How would you sum up this tournament for you?

TIGER WOODS: Frustrating in the sense that I threw away so many shots around the greens this week. This weekend was probably one of my best driving performances all year, hit my irons terrible and putted even worse.

Q. Hard to believe this is the same guy that you throttled in match play five weeks ago?

TIGER WOODS: That's golf, though. Each week is so different. We start all over each and every week. Stephen didn't really play all that well when he played against me in the Match Play. The great thing about this game is it starts over again the very next week.

Q. What's your plan for later in the week? Will you go back to California?

TIGER WOODS: We'll see how it goes. Right now I've got to drive down and play tomorrow and Tuesday and we'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Q. If you do go down, is there a place where you can prepare for the

TIGER WOODS: I can practice at my home course there, yeah, right there in Big Canyon.

Q. This golf course is so different from Augusta. How will you prepare for that week after being here this week?

TIGER WOODS: Well, this week there's no comparison to the two, two totally different golf courses. Here you don't really use your driver very much, there you're going to use your driver quite a bit. The greens are totally different how you putt them. Here there's eight inch rough, and Augusta there's that second cut that's really not that long, but it can be penal.

Q. Would you say your day was a combination of the shots that you lost around the greens plus thinking about your dad?

TIGER WOODS: It is what it is. You know, I didn't hit my irons particularly well this week, and I didn't putt very good. And I certainly didn't chip very well.

All that combined, I just did not have it I mean, today is a perfect example of it. I made two doubles from the middle of the fairway, and I never do that. That's how poor I hit my irons and how bad my short game was.

Q. If it ends up in double figures as a winning number, how good would that be in these kind of conditions?

TIGER WOODS: Pretty impressive, considering that the wind is swirling all over the place. It's tough to judge out there. When I was on 17 today, I could have easily hit pitching wedge off the tee and then all of a sudden it switches and I'm hitting 8 iron and 8 iron wasn't enough. It's all over the place out there. It's a matter of timing and execution and hopefully you get it right at the right time.

Q. With the culmination of everything, are you mentally exhausted at this point? You're stepping right back into it tomorrow a little bit.

TIGER WOODS: I'm fine. I'm good.

Q. Can you put that out of your mind and focus?

TIGER WOODS: There's plenty of time to focus out there. You have all day in between each and every shot. You have time to regroup and hit proper shots, and unfortunately I didn't do that this week.

Q. Players are always talking about how strong your mind is. Can you talk a little bit about the ability you seem to have to turn difficult situations into positives? You seem to never really look at things as negatives.

TIGER WOODS: Well, you try not to. I think that's what all golfers do, we rationalize everything. You hit a bad shot, it's not that bad, I can make perfect from there, birdie from there. That's how you're supposed to think. You should always try and look at the glass as half full. That's what you have to do in life, and there's always a bright side to everything, you've just got to find it sometimes.

Q. Do you ever take the boat to Trinidad and Tobago?

TIGER WOODS: I had to stop there one time, yeah.

Q. Not the Coast Guard thing, something else?

TIGER WOODS: No, that's Costa Rica, I think, or Puerto Rico.

Q. What's that island like, Trinidad?

TIGER WOODS: I was just there and we were picking up another boat so we weren't there very long.

Q. What's the biggest thing that helps you get through today?

TIGER WOODS: Try and be as patient as possible. The golf course is playing really hard out there. You've got to somehow stay in the present, keep your mind where it needs to be on each and every shot, and 100 percent attention to detail. Out there it's not easy sometimes because the wind is dancing all over the place. You may hit a good shot and just get an absolute bad break. That's just the way it goes out there.

This golf course, one yard means so much more here on this golf course than most golf courses you ever play.

Q. If your dad was not if he was okay and was not in the equation this week, would your plan be to go to Augusta after Tavistock, in a perfect world, so to speak?

TIGER WOODS: I've already been up there, so I don't have to worry about it. I've already prepared, seen it.

Q. Will you go up Monday then, of Masters week?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, uh uh.

Q. Stephen is dealing with a loved one who's fighting an illness. Can the golf course be a haven when you're in a situation like that?

TIGER WOODS: Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Some days are where that's the greatest place to be, on the golf course away from everything. Sometimes that's one of the tougher places to be. It depends on the situation and given circumstances. Each and every person, how they deal with things, it can be tough or it can be a nice little place to be.

Q. How was that for you this week? Where in that equation did it fall for you?

TIGER WOODS: Both.

Q. Do you think it's affected you not having your father here this week?

TIGER WOODS: He doesn't come to this event, no. He hasn't come to tournaments except for Augusta the last couple years.

Q. Did you like the way the course was set up? What are your thoughts on that?

TIGER WOODS: Since I've played here, I've never liked the way they've set it up with the rough high because the golf course wasn't meant to be played that way. I've talked to Pete Dye, and it wasn't meant to be played that way. It's supposed to be hard and fast and all the palmetto bushes are supposed to be coming into play. When we played the Amateur here in '94 that's the way it was, but they've cleaned it up and changed the golf course and changed, I think, how Pete wanted it initially to be played.

Hopefully when we come back here in May, it will be playing like that. Hard and fast is great, but six, eight inch rough, I don't think that's the right combo.

Q. What's next for you?

TIGER WOODS: Heading back home to play tomorrow.

Q. Will you watch 60 Minutes tonight?

TIGER WOODS: No.

Q. Have you seen that?

TIGER WOODS: I'm sorry, no offense to you guys, but being around you guys, I don't watch anything anymore (laughter).

Q. As much as you value winning, are you able to derive some satisfaction from just how you kind of gutted out a very difficult week and didn't give in?

TIGER WOODS: This is the way I always play. You're there to compete. If you tee it up, you tee it up and give it everything you've got. That's how I was taught to play the game, and that's how I play it.

End of FastScripts.

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