home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

HSBC WORLD MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

September 14, 2006

Shaun Micheel

VIRGINIA WATERS, ENGLAND

SCOTT CROCKETT: Shaun, many thanks for coming in to join us today and many, many congratulations. A fantastic victory over the world No. 1 Tiger Woods. Tiger has not been losing much these days recently, but he did today. You must be delighted.

SHAUN MICHEEL: I am. I think sometimes it's easier to play as the underdog as most of us do week in and week out when he's in the field. He's so strong mentally, which also makes him very difficult to play in match play. I think sometimes match play can be a little bit more of a mental game, as opposed to going out and seeing who shoots the lower score.

But I had a nice day. I really had a nice round of golf for 32 holes or whatever that I played. I don't really know what my score was. We each had our share of bogeys and some mishaps out there as you might expect. But overall, it was just a nice, really solid round of golf. I think pretty typical of the way that I play, and I hit a lot of fairways, and if I wasn't in the fairway, I was right around the first cut, so I was able to get the ball close to the green, if not on the green.

And it wouldn't surprise me to go back and check to think that I probably hit I probably hit 29 out of 30 well, not quite that many. I probably only missed six or seven greens all day, which is my typical game anyway. I would have liked to have putted a little bit better as Tiger I imagine might have.

But just feels great. He had got me down to where I was only 1 up, and I made a nice birdie and hit some nice shots coming down the stretch and made a couple birdies and made an eagle on 12 to kind of separate myself. From then it was just about hitting good shots, because I think the difficult thing for Tiger today was and it really probably affected everybody, was he just wasn't able to keep it close to the hole. The pins were such that you had to fly up to the hole, and if you had too much spin, there's four or five holes out there, that if it spins back, you just don't have any chance to make birdie. I think that kind of affected him today. He didn't make many long putts as he normally does. I think that was certainly a key. It never allowed him to get too fired up. I didn't see too many fist pumps today, which is a good thing if you're playing against him. He actually played pretty well but he just didn't make the putts like he normally does.

Q. On Tuesday when you said to me, "I'm not going to be a sacrificial lamb," how much was that boosting your own confidence?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I was probably making a little bit of fun there. I think all of the players in the field are quality players. What I did today really goes to show that you can beat anyone on any given day. I mean, typically, I finish second to him more than he finishes second to me. It does feel really special to have beat him. I don't feel like he gave it to me. I feel like I earned every hole. There were a few holes out there that, you know, he had a couple 3 putts, but I felt really good about my game coming in.

I've been playing very well. It was just a matter of how many birdies I can make, because I expect Tiger to go around here and make 12 or 13 birdies, because the par 5s are pretty reachable. There's some short holes that you can take advantage of, as well. You know, I just played a nice round of golf, and it feels very good.

Q. You don't get to play too much match play, but everybody is trying to catch Tiger in stroke play. So how do you go about taking it from here?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, I said to someone earlier, had this been a four day championship, I suspect the outcome might have been a little bit different. But, you know, again, I've been playing some pretty good golf. I think what it comes down to for me is just making more putts on a more consistent basis. I mean, Tiger does that and that's why he wins week in and week out, just because he is making those birdie putts and the par saves.

But, you know, I don't know, I'm learning to be a better player. I'm learning to play smart and to manage my game and to be aggressive when I can be. You know, I tried myself in fairways and greens. My greens in regulation percentage, I'm usually pretty high in that category, but the last couple of years I've fallen back a bit.

Stroke play is totally different, you've got to play four days and you've just got to keep making the birdies.

Q. Did you enjoy the format today, 36 holes, in terms of people watching you, the golf course having so much history and a championship where everyone in golf is watching Tiger Woods?

SHAUN MICHEEL: First of all, to be accepted, to have earned your way into this event is pretty special in and of itself really, outside of maybe The Masters or a couple of the U.S. majors, the Grand Slam of Golf comes to mind. It may be one of the most difficult tournaments in all of golf to qualify for. So the guys that are here, you feel like you deserve it.

As far as the crowd goes, I think I enjoy playing in front of the foreign fans much more than I do sometimes the U.S. fans because it's just so different. They are very courteous and very respectful. I think the majority of them wanted Tiger to win. They would love to see him win six in a row and catch Mr. Nicklaus and all that, but they were cheering for me equally. It was a pleasure to play today.

It also feels better when you're hitting some pretty good shots out there. It makes you feel, again, like you deserve to be playing the No. 1 player in the world.

Q. There's some criticism that some of you guys in America don't come and play over here enough, would you be tempted to come back more now?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I'm asked that question all the time, and I think the reason I'm asked is because I do travel. I've played in Australia, I've always been somebody that's enjoyed traveling. I played the Asian Tour in 1998. But I know that is kind of the rub of the Americans really, that the guys get a little too content staying on the Tour.

It's very difficult, too. There's a lot of guys fighting for their jobs out there, particularly with what's happening next year in the FedEx Cup series, the Tour is forcing the guys to play more at home. There has been kind of a mass exodus of the European players to the U.S. Tour. And I suspect that might have something to do with why a good friend of mine, Carl Pettersson was not selected to be on the Ryder Cup Team, being a Swede.

I think that golf is huge globally and I enjoy playing. That's why HSBC is putting on this event. They recognise that, and any chance that I get an opportunity to play, if I'm invited or if I earn my way into certain events, I'm going to make every effort to go play.

Q. With Tiger gone, Els gone, Furyk gone, suddenly this championship is wide open, isn't it?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I mean, you know, you've still got one match per day and you've got to really focus on your next competitor. I think anybody that lost today would have been a surprise. I might have been the only non surprise loser had I lost. I think all of the other matches were pretty equal. Here I am 75th or 76th in the world and Simon was 77 or 78, something like that, and then there's a huge jump between where I and Simon are to where the other next player is in the World Rankings.

So I think, you know, it would not have been as much of a shock for me to lose, but the other guys, I think they were all evenly balanced. Yeah, I think it's wide open. It always is. The champion at the end on Sunday is obviously going to be the person that obviously plays the best. It's very mental out there. It's very difficult to concentrate for 36 holes when you're doing it four days in a row.

Q. You are Major Champion, if you win this week, you will take one of the unofficial Top 5 other golf events. You mentioned touring and playing abroad, in terms of this is your profession, you talk about the FedExCup, when you sit down and sort out your calendar in say one or two years time if you continue to be as successful as you are, would you decide I want to go and play here, here and here, because this championship is something that I want to win, rather than being forced to play?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I think that's why Tiger was here this week, because he got an invitation, he earned his way in here and he really wanted to come and play. I mean, Tiger doesn't go anywhere, I don't think any of us do, we don't go places that we're find of forced to. Again, I enjoy playing. Ultimately I'm a member of the PGA TOUR, and so that obviously is where my loyalty lies, as you might expect.

But you know, any chance that I get to go play, as long as it works, as long as I'm not taking away two or three weeks off of my tour schedule, I'm going to do it. Maybe going to Asia sometimes is difficult because if you want to get there and adequately prepare, you really need to leave on Saturday to get there on Monday, so basically that's taking two weeks, as is this, but it's fine. You don't get an opportunity to play this event each and every year. Some of the guys do. But for someone like me, it's an absolute pleasure to come and play.

So I look at it based on how many weeks away from the tour it's going to take me, where I sit on the Money List, how is that going to affect me. There's so many different things. I'm trying to get in the Top 30. All of my contracts are over this year. I'm going to be a free person after this. So I'm still looking at Top 30 in the Money List to try to boost up some interest in sponsorships for next year.

You know, all those things considered, I do plan on playing more, and I would love to.

Q. When your lead went down to one, other people were saying, okay, this will be it. How did you feel?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, I thought it was only a matter of time before Tiger did some pretty good things out there. The first 18 holes, I think I reeled off four holes in a row there, and I think that's just the way match play is. It just ebbs and flows. It's a series of runs and then you've got to watch the other person's run. He made a great birdie on 2, I hit it in the fairway bunker on 1, and no chance of me getting it to the green, and I hit a great shot. The ball was three feet from the hole and spun back to 20 feet. He did the thing he had to do; he hit the fairway.

I didn't really feel I felt like he was due to do something special because he really hasn't done anything. I was still playing well enough that a birdie here or a birdie there, a par here or there at the right time, was just going to, you know, kind of keep his momentum down. Like I said, he didn't have too many fist pumps today, which is unusual for him in a 36 hole day, because he usually runs off five, six birdies in a row and he just wasn't able to do that.

Q. How frustrated are you that this run of super form that you've come into has come too late to get you into the Ryder Cup Team?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, I think I'm disappointed I think because I had several opportunities May and even into August at Milwaukee to finish in the Top 10. And as you know, earning points on the U.S. Tour is based solely on Top 10s, and I had two 12s and a 13th. A lot of those were because of poor Sundays, even par or 1 over or 1 under, or I just wasn't able to get enough out of it and so I didn't earn any points. Had I earned some points in those events, I would have made it. I really feel like I'm a great team player. Chad Campbell and I lost in a playoff in the Shark Shootout and that was a team event a couple years ago. I think I could complement a lot of players because I'm pretty consistent off the tee and pretty consistent into the greens.

Yeah, I'm disappointed. But I didn't deserve to be on the team. So it's kind of hard for me to be too disappointed. I didn't do what I needed to do to be on the team. The guys that we have, they played very well, and with the way that PGA of America and the way that Coach Lehman set up the way to earn points this year with trying to get the best players in proper form, I think he's done that. I don't know how we'll do, but we'll just have it wait and see. But I know there's going to be a lot of excitement, and I really think it's going to be close either way.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Shaun, many thanks for that.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297