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HSBC CHAMPIONS TOURNAMENT

November 10, 2005

Tiger Woods

SHANGHAI, CHINA

GORDON SIMPSON: A round of 67 today, 7 under par, and already you're right in there.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I hit the ball really well today. I made a couple of putts here and there, but overall I feel like I really played well today. Even though I made three bogeys, ten birdies usually offsets three bogeys.

Q. Can you talk us through that final hole, please?

TIGER WOODS: I've never seen anything like it. I hit a 3 wood off the tee and hit it in the middle of the bunker and it buried. So I did well just to get the thing out of the bunker. It was just unbelievable. Never seen anything like it.

Hit 8 iron there, spun it off the green and then 2 putted from there. Just to have a ball bury in the middle of the bunker is not something you're used to seeing, not off the tee, anyways.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about playing here in China and what's expected of you and how you're received by the fans and if anything has been a little different than playing elsewhere?

TIGER WOODS: No, it's been wonderful. The people have been very supportive, fantastic to all of the players, been very respectful. It's been wonderful out there.

Q. I'm from India, and you played a practice round with Arjun Atwal for about nine holes and you also a played a couple of practice rounds before that. Do you have anything to say about Arjun? He's one of the biggest golfing heroes in India.

TIGER WOODS: I've known Arjun for a while. He has a place in Orlando and I think he might become a member at the same club. I see him around there quite often this summer, been practicing together and Arjun is a great guy. He's funny. I enjoy his company, and it's always fun to play practice rounds with him.

Q. Can you tell us more about your Tiger Foundation, please.

TIGER WOODS: My foundation is basically an educational foundation, not a golf foundation, a little bit of a misconception there.

We're trying to get kids to have better grades, become mentors themselves and leaders and that's what we're focusing on. The Start Something Program we have, the mentoring we have has been fantastic. I think we now have like 3 million kids in the program around the country, so it's been fantastic.

Q. There were a lot of cameras going off on the course; how big of a distraction was that to you?

TIGER WOODS: It was a little bit of a distraction certainly, but hey, you know, golf they are not used to seeing golf here, so we can understand it. But they are pretty respectful. They felt bad. They don't know when to take the pictures and once you learn, they get better.

Q. Related to that, can you just talk about your ability to pull out of a shot when it seems a split second before impact?

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's like baseball or maybe I shouldn't relate it to baseball; I should relate it to cricket I guess for you. It's just like when the ball is thrown, you just don't like it, you stop. So, you know, it's the same thing. I just happened to stop.

Q. Nick Dougherty was saying he may need a 7 stroke head start on you. Do you think this is a course that suits your game and a course that you can do some damage on this week?

TIGER WOODS: I think it's a golf course, in way we have it ball in hand this week. And so far, they have announced rain again, so we might have it for the rest of the week. You're going to have to be aggressive. You're going to have to fire at a lot of these flags. You know the ball is not going to be rolling anywhere. Only thing you have to watch out for is actually spinning the ball back too much.

Other than that, the fairways are so soft that you can be aggressive off the tees, hit a little bit more club down there and get the ball down there. And because of all of these different things, soft golf course, you're going to have to be aggressive and make some birdies, because you know the guys are going to continue to be aggressive.

Q. Have you had a chance to talk to Arjun Atwal about golf in India?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, he said it's growing. He's obviously a big icon there in India, and as well he should be. He's had some success. And this year at the BellSouth he played really well and was in a playoff and he lost, unfortunately.

You know, more importantly, he's a great guy, so I think he's going to be great for Indian golf. I'm sure there's quite a few juniors in the pipeline that are coming up.

Q. Colin talked yesterday about feeling physically and mentally whacked after the schedule he's had lately. Could you see that in his play today?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, a little bit. He got off to a good start and made a couple little mistakes there early in the middle actually the middle part of the front nine. From then it was difficult for him to make some birdies. But in the last hole, he got a bad break there, too. Just kind of compounded the problem there for some reason.

GORDON SIMPSON: Well played again today. Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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