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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 5, 2005

Tiger Woods

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Q. Were you trying to get to 10? Was that a target of yours?

TIGER WOODS: The final two holes, yes, to get into double digits, but on the back I wanted to just shoot 2 under par, get it as close as I could to double digits and if I happened to get there, it's a bonus.

Q. Was that Tiger's wild ride today, hitting it out of trees, everything?

TIGER WOODS: You know, I felt like I hit the ball so much better today. I hit a lot of balls in the fairway that didn't stay in. I felt like I swung the club so much better today. As I said, I've never hit the ball this far, so hitting a ball this far, it's hard to keep the ball in the fairway. 350 yard drives, it's a little harder.

Q. I've got to ask you, on the 4th tee you hit it way right, you hit second. I don't know if you remember what happened because sometimes you get into that focus where everything is gone. You stood on that tee for 38 seconds just staring straight ahead. What was going through your mind?

TIGER WOODS: You know, a lot of different things, none of them are good and none of them, as Steve said not printable, but I was just upset that I wanted to make the swing that I've been making. I made a proper swing on 1, I made a proper swing on 3, and then all of a sudden I don't have a commitment to that golf shot, and that's not how I play golf. I was kind of in between shots, should I play this one or that one, and I hit the shot anyways, and I vowed to myself I wouldn't do that again the rest of the day and I stood there and yelled at myself today.

Q. You finally birdied some par 5s?

TIGER WOODS: How about that? Miracles do happen. I hit my nice little old timer club, 5 wood into 9, just short of the green and got that up and down, hit driver and 5 iron there at 15.

Q. Did you figure out the sequence on 11, where exactly the ball hit?

TIGER WOODS: It landed on the left edge of the hole, ripped around the hole, came out the back right and then back out, went all the way around.

Well, first time I've ever seen anything like this before where a ball lands in the hole, it obviously rips, makes a big ball mark, made a big ball mark on the back left of the hole, but then as it exited, it exited so quick it actually had a little offshoot and kicked up the back right part of the hole, too, which is wild. I've never seen anything like that. Usually you just tear up one side of the hole where it lands, but not on the exit.

Q. It was good.

TIGER WOODS: If it was good it would have stayed in.

Q. Do you hit driver on 17?

TIGER WOODS: I have, and I've also tried to steer a 3 wood in there, too. That's how I've been training to hit golf shots. The one on 9 was that way. I missed the fairway on 10, but that was a proper swing. These are the swings that I know I'm capable of making, and that's exciting.

Q. Does it surprise you at all, though, that you are where you are, considering you have had to play so many out of the rough? You're 14 of 42 fairways.

TIGER WOODS: It's just one of those things where it's obviously the golf course is playing fast, and with the rough being this high, it's going to be hard to get the ball to stay in the fairways. If you are able to keep the ball in the fairway, you can be aggressive and fire at just about every single flag. The guys who are driving the ball straight are obviously Bart and Goose, and they're going to be very aggressive up there. Obviously I've been driving it far enough where I can be aggressive, as well, but naturally it's from the rough or sometimes from the fairway.

Q. It seems like you had years where you didn't have a come from behind win, but you've had a couple come from behinds this year. Is that a confidence builder, I suppose?

TIGER WOODS: Not necessarily. If you're in contention, you're in contention. If you've got a chance to win, you've got a chance, and right now I'm in a great spot with one round to go and hopefully tomorrow I can go ahead and piece together the round that I know I'm capable of.

Q. Even though he's won The Memorial, to see Bart up there for three days in a row, do you expect him to do it tomorrow?

TIGER WOODS: Well, this is a perfect setup for him because the rough is high and the fairways are fast, and he's not the longest driver but he drives it straight. He's up there in driving accuracy the entire year. This is a perfect setup for him.

Q. What were you happiest with today as far as your game?

TIGER WOODS: The improvements I made last night with my swing, and my short game, some of the things I worked on with my short game last night, which came in handy because my technique was just a touch off yesterday, cost me a couple shots, and today it was right there when I needed to have it.

Q. What's your schedule for tomorrow with the time change? When do you leave and

TIGER WOODS: 12:30.

Q. You leave at 12:30 at night?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, get in at about 6:00 o'clock Tuesday.

Q. P.m. or a.m.?

TIGER WOODS: A.m. I still have the rest of my day.

Q. Japan first?

TIGER WOODS: China, Shanghai.

Q. You talked about yesterday putting the ball in the fairway, reaching the par 5s. You took care of the par 5s today. Is the concentration putting it in the fairway tomorrow?

TIGER WOODS: I hit good drives yesterday, it just didn't always stay in the fairway. I'm not as disappointed as you might think of the way I drove the ball today. I'm disappointed the way I obviously drove it at 4, that was a terrible tee shot, but the rest of my tee shots weren't really that bad. The shots that I was trying to hit, I hit, and some of them rolled through the fairway, which is fine, but at least they're 350 yards down there.

Q. Skins game, too, this year?

TIGER WOODS: And Grand Slam.

Q. Is that the last year Disney, ABC, ESPN obligations on that contract, or is there still more of that silly season stuff out there?

TIGER WOODS: (Smiling). I just can't wait to see if Freddie gets outdriven or not.

Q. How many driver shafts have you gone through this year? It seems like there's been several different colors?

TIGER WOODS: No, it's the same shaft, it's just that Modern Graphics changed it from blue to silver, so it's the same exact shaft, same gram weight, same everything. I've changed heads, obviously I cracked mine at the British Open, and I played the Sasquatch for one day at Disney, but other than that it's been well, I played a also played another new head the week of Amex, and that's the one I'm playing now.

Q. Will you try the Sasquatch again?

TIGER WOODS: I'll continue experimenting with it because I certainly hit it the physics behind it, you're going to hit it a little straighter. I'm just having a hard time finding the right launch conditions. I hit it much further than I do now, which is kind of freaky, but the thing is it's getting the right flight consistently each and every time, and that's what I want to have. It's higher and it goes forever. I just need to get that ball down a little bit.

Q. When you're on the swing speed launch monitor machine stuff, what's your off the rack swing speed at impact with the driver right now?

TIGER WOODS: Swing speed or ball speed?

Q. Swing speed.

TIGER WOODS: Probably about 27, 28 26 to 28, somewhere in there.

Q. If you jump on it?

TIGER WOODS: 35.

Q. How often do you jump on it, actually let the shaft all the way back like No. 9 and just go get it?

TIGER WOODS: No, I just hit it higher today. Probably never, unless it's on the range fooling around with you guys or something I'll do it because the only problem is when I do that, I spin it too much. I can hit it higher and further, but it's kind of a spinnier shot, so I don't do it that often.

Q. Have you hit it farther this week than in parts of the year because you've had some real monsters?

TIGER WOODS: The fairways are fast, but I'm also hitting the ball further in the air. Not that much, probably five, eight yards further. Not that much, but the fairways are just lightning hot there.

Q. You're 40 yards past Charles and he's no wimp yesterday.

TIGER WOODS: But Charles was kind of hitting up shooters yesterday. His good ones weren't that bad. The difference wasn't that much.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Usually we don't really look at swing speed anymore; we look at ball speed. That's what we normally look at.

Q. You were on the range the other day and the Nike rep came in and gave you a 3 wood

TIGER WOODS: 5 wood.

Q. You looked at it and said "smaller." He came back and said it's 5,000ths of an inch smaller. Could you really see that?

TIGER WOODS: I saw it. That's my job. I'm trained to see these things (laughter).

Q. I've heard stories of you taking drivers and hitting blades of grass to see if a gram or two is slightly off.

TIGER WOODS: It's just my job. Sometimes you guys have more ink in one pen than the other.

End of FastScripts.

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