WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 22, 2006

Corey Pavin

CHRIS REIMER: Just go ahead and start off talking a little bit about your season and with your win in Milwaukee.

COREY PAVIN: Well, I'm surprised you're talking about that, I guess. You know, Milwaukee meant a lot. It obviously had been ten years since my last win. It was a lot of hard work, a lot of time put into it and a lot of satisfaction with accomplishing something that I thought I was still capable of.

It made my year obviously. I felt like I've played well for a while, for a couple years, and it took a while before I got into the winner's circle, so I was pretty pleased with that. I've been here for ten years, I think. It's nice to be at a World Golf event. It's my first one ever, and it's nice to be involved in an event like this.

CHRIS REIMER: Any changes? Obviously it's been a while since you've been here. What do you see that's different out there?

COREY PAVIN: They've taken a wealth of trees out of the golf course and they've added some length. I'm not sure when they did that. It could have been eight years ago. But they changed a couple greens a little bit.

But the golf course is in unbelievably good shape. It's as good as I can remember this course ever being, but it's pretty hard to get a golf course in better shape than this one is in.

Q. Do you see the day come when there's going to be an 8,000 yard golf course?

COREY PAVIN: I'm sure there will be. You can go back 50, 60, 70 years and they're playing 6,400 yard golf courses and now we're playing 7,500 yard golf courses, so I'm sure it'll happen. It just seems like the path it's going on. I'm sure it'll happen.

Q. What do you think of that?

COREY PAVIN: I think that I won't be playing golf anymore when that happens (laughter). I'll be too old. I think it'll be fine. You probably could have asked that question 50 years ago and everybody would have thought you were nuts. You know, it's the pattern, it's the way things are going. Athletes are getting bigger, stronger, and that will continue to happen in the next 50 years, as well.

Q. A Ryder Cup question. America kind of wants to know why do these Americans not win that thing? What are your theories?

A. Well, we haven't won five of the last six. We've lost five of the last six. Before that our record was pretty good. You know, I think one the biggest things about it is that the European team is way better than they've ever been, and they continue to get better.

I don't think that the United States team necessarily has the best team all the way down the line. I don't think that if you take us as a collective group, we may not be the best team out there. It's very possible. It certainly has shown that in the last six Ryder Cups.

So to the American people, I think everything I've read over the last group of years keeps saying the U.S. is the favorite to win, and I don't really believe that anymore. I think that the U.S. team is the underdog. I think we have an excellent, excellent team this year, don't get me wrong, but we have our work cut out for us and we have to go out there and win the Cup. It's not ours just to kind of hold onto and show up and we keep it anymore. It doesn't work that way.

Q. Do you think this American team will how should I phrase this? With an underdog mentality, is it easier to play? Will it help this team with that underdog mentality?

COREY PAVIN: I don't know. I mean, I can speak from personal experience, and I think for me as an underdog, it's always easier because people don't expect so much from you. I expect a lot from myself, and I'm sure the team expects a lot, as well. But there is something to be said for being an underdog in that regard.

Q. Could you say you said you believe that we're probably underdogs. What would be your criteria for determining that?

A. Because we've lost five of the last six Ryder Cups.

Q. But they're all different teams.

COREY PAVIN: True, but it's still the United States against Europe. I mean, you can whichever way you look at it, you have to look at the history of events. You can look at other sporting events and come to that conclusion. Until we start winning it, why should we be favorites, as far as I'm concerned? I think we have to win to become favorites again. I think it's very simple.

I understand your point that it's a different team, and every year is a different team all the way through history. You could have the same argument in reverse. Even if we're winning it every year, why should we be favorites when we have a following team the following time.

Q. In the Presidents Cup, which arguably the U.S. team top to bottom is better than what the Europeans have to offer. We usually find a way to at least split with them or at least be a little better than them every two years. Why do you think there's such a difference between a Presidents Cup and a Ryder Cup?

A. I don't know. That's a good question. I think that historically The Presidents Cup is played more in the United States. Is that correct?

Q. No, every two years it changes.

COREY PAVIN: It does now, right? How many have there been?

Q. At the very beginning we played the first two years.

COREY PAVIN: Yeah, at first. I don't know the answer to that question, either. I can't tell you why. They've been very close, I think, if I remember right, for the last few of them for sure. They've been extremely close, and obviously the one in South Africa is as close as you could get; there was no outcome in that one.

It's a funny thing. You can look at the teams on paper, and every year you look at it on paper, and this year we have the No. 1, 2, 3 players in the world on the United States team, and you think, you know, we've got the best players and we should win. But it hasn't happened that way. It seems like every year we've had a similar situation, and at the end of the day we've lost.

We just need to go out there and go get the Ryder Cup, go out and get it and bring it home. We can't show up anymore and win. The guys have got to go out there with that attitude. I'm sure they've had that attitude of winning, but something has to change a little bit. I'm not sure what it is. I haven't been at the last I haven't been at a Ryder Cup since 1995. I have to go on what a lot of people have said has happened in the past, the last ten years. Everybody seems pretty positive about what's going on. So we'll see. We'll see when we get over there.

As an assistant captain, I will look at the guys and see how they feel and talk to them, and hopefully help them deal with it. The young guys on the team are going to be people that need to be talked to, the rookies on the team, and get them in a very good mode for playing in the Ryder Cup. It's a very tough atmosphere to play in.

Q. How close were you to being in this year's Ryder Cup?

COREY PAVIN: Very. I wanted to play. I think everybody that Tom had looked at, which was basically 11 through me, which I was 30th, are disappointed they didn't get picked except for two guys. And I think they're very, very good picks. I think Tom feels and Loren and I feel they're the best picks for the team, to make it the best team.

Obviously I would have loved to play, but it wasn't my choice to make that final decision. You know, I think everybody Tom talked to probably said, I want to play, I want to play. I'm no different from everybody else being disappointed not playing.

Q. Tom said that there was a list of six at the end that he went to bed on

COREY PAVIN: I'm not going to answer your next question.

Q. You know you were on the list. He said you were one of the guys on the list of six, so my question is as he called those guys in the morning I don't know if this is the same question you think it's going to be

COREY PAVIN: I'm sorry, I jumped the gun there.

Q. That's okay. He said that he called those guys that didn't get on and obviously called the two guys that did get on. You were kind of a different case because you were there. Did he tell you in person?

A. He called me on my phone in the next room. No, we sat down and we talked. I think I was the only one later in the game obviously that he talked to in person. We sat down and we talked about it.

Q. Did you see that being difficult for him? I mean, obviously it was difficult for you.

COREY PAVIN: Oh, absolutely, yeah. Tom hated calling anybody to say they're not on the team. I watched him make a couple of the calls, and it was very hard. It would be hard for anybody, I'm assuming. But I know Tom pretty well, and it was very difficult for him to do.

Q. When you went to bed Sunday night did you think you were going to get picked?

COREY PAVIN: When I went to bed Sunday night? For my two hours of sleep that I got?

Q. Yeah.

COREY PAVIN: I did not know. I honestly did not know.

Q. You weren't like Verplank with a gut feeling?

COREY PAVIN: It was hard. It was a very difficult position for me to be in. The one thing I wanted to be was true to myself and to Tom and the team, and it was a very unique position that I was in. I think I did all right with it. It was very hard, and you can ask Tom about it if you'd like, but I tried to be completely true to Tom and the team and to get the best team out there for the Ryder Cup. I hope I did the right things.

Q. Generally someone when they have an interest in something would recuse themselves from certain discussions. When the discussion came around to you, did you say anything or leave it up to Loren and Tom?

COREY PAVIN: We talked about a lot of players and assessed a lot of players as I would do as an assistant captain. When it came down to certain conversations, I excused myself. I either excused myself or Tom excused me, which was, I thought, the best way to do it.

Q. How important is it to have Tiger and Phil being leaders of this team? In the past people have perceived them to maybe not be leaders of the Ryder Cup team?

COREY PAVIN: Well, I don't know about the past, but I know that they both want to lead the team. I mean, you can say the same for Jim, DiMarco and Toms, as well. I think they all want to be an integral part of leading the team. Which, as I said, I don't know about the past, but it's very important to have leaders on the team like that.

I know that it means a lot to Tiger to win, and he's going to do everything he can do to win, and same with all the other guys. I think everybody is on board and everybody is ready to do what it takes to win.

Q. Verplank said out there a little while ago that he senses that Tiger is more eager for this Ryder Cup maybe than past Ryder Cups. I know you weren't at the other ones he was at, but do you get that you're around this community. Do you get that sense?

COREY PAVIN: I don't really know. I mean, I can't answer that because I don't know. You know, everything that I've just watched on TV, I just see Tiger playing his heart out all the time. That's what I see, and I haven't really talked to him directly about it.

Q. One last thing about the selection process. In the past it seems like the captains were relatively set on who they wanted even maybe before the PGA and once the PGA was over Stewart Cink got the phone call and he was flying back to Atlanta right after the PGA. Were you surprised on not necessarily the depth but the amount of players that Tom actually was looking at as far as Sunday night before he got down to the point where it got down to those six?

COREY PAVIN: Not really. I think the choices for this year were very clouded. Tom thought long and hard about everybody and looked at everything, and it was very hard to maybe one of the easier ways was to eliminate people this year. There were so many players with similar records. There just wasn't players just sitting there crying out to pick me by their performance. It was a very hard group of people to look at and try to figure it out, and that's why it took so long. That's why it was so difficult for Tom to figure out. Well, and Loren and I, too, but it was Tom's call.

Q. Your career was spanned the last decade of Nicklaus and the first decade of Woods. This guy has won now so many majors. What's it going to take to run him down in these majors?

COREY PAVIN: The difference between Jack and Tiger?

Q. Yes.

COREY PAVIN: I never played with Jack in his prime. I played with him near the end of his career. I came on Tour in '84 and he won The Masters in '86, but he was still on the downside of his career.

From what I've watched of Jack and seen on TV, et cetera, Jack was obviously extremely dominant, but he dominated in a similar way that Tiger does. He hit a lot of greens; he played extremely intelligent golf; didn't make many mistakes. In that way those guys are real similar.

I see Tiger having a better short game than Jack did. I think Jack probably drove the ball better, straighter, but he wasn't I'm thinking he wasn't as strong. I know he hit it long in his time, but I see Tiger as a more rounded player physically, and his abilities I think are probably a little bit better just because of his chipping. I think Jack has even said that his biggest liability was his chipping and his pitching. I see Tiger extremely strong mentally, and as I said, I didn't see Jack playing in his prime, but he was extremely strong mentally, too.

Tiger is managing his game better and better every year, and I think it showed a lot at Hoylake, how he played there, and it's showing a lot it showed a lot last week, as well. He knows what he needs to do to win a golf tournament, and he executes it. Pretty impressive.

The last part of your question, how do you stop him?

Q. How do you chase him down? It seems like he gets ahead after three rounds and people lie down or they don't catch him.

COREY PAVIN: Well, I didn't see much lying down last week. I saw guys going after him and he just kept going. You know, he's hard to catch. 12 for 12, Tiger leading going into the last round of a major, pretty impressive. Obviously he has not backed into these tournaments; he's won them. I don't know what his worst last round at a major is. I don't even know. 71, 70?

Q. His average in those 12 is like 69. And the astonishing thing is the guys he's playing with average about four strokes higher.

COREY PAVIN: He's an intimidating guy to play with. He's a guy that obviously has won 12 major championships and 51 tournaments. His mental toughness is incredible. I mean, it's as good as you can get, I think. He's intimidating to play with.

I mean, I'd love to go ahead and hit with him. I'd just have to play a little bit better. It would be a great, fun challenge. There's guys out there that are trying their hardest and doing everything they can and maybe trying too hard sometimes.

But he's just the best golfer in the world, far and away. I mean, he's two and a half times ahead of Phil, I think, in the World Rankings. That's a huge gap, huge gap.

Q. You talked a lot about Tiger's mental toughness. He seemed so dialed in last week. How tough is it to maintain that level? He just seems like he's another level above everybody else.

COREY PAVIN: He doesn't seem to have too hard a time with it. I think just looking at Tiger's schedule and what he does, I think he makes sure that he's ready to play when he gets to a tournament. What he does on his weeks off, I have no idea. But whatever he's doing, he's doing it right. When he's there, he's fully focused at the tournament. And that's part of the planning. He plans his year and he makes sure he's ready to play in majors, makes sure he's ready to play whenever he's playing or whatever his goals are, he's ready for when those goals come around to achieve them. He's an extremely focused man.

You know, if I could give you the answer to how he does it, then everybody would be doing it. I think a lot of it is just God given ability to do that type of thing, and he's nurtured it and worked on it, and whatever he's done to nearly perfect it, he's done.

Q. Kind of along the same lines, and I don't mean to be insulting, but if he's as dialed in this week as he was last week, is everybody else playing for second place?

COREY PAVIN: I don't think so. I mean, he's beatable. It's not like if he plays great that nobody can beat them. It's just a heck of a lot harder, no doubt. But he can be beat. He doesn't win every tournament he tees it up in. I'm sure there must be a few tournaments where he's felt like he played reasonably well and didn't win. Maybe it's happened once in his career, I don't know (laughter).

He is the best. Even the best players, when they don't play well, he can still win. And they're extremely tough when they are playing their best. But everybody is beatable.

CHRIS REIMER: With all that's going on with the Ryder Cup and the decisions and what you've had going on, the majority of the questions have had to do with that, is it tough to concentrate to play golf this week?

COREY PAVIN: No, this week is actually easy compared to the last few weeks for me. The hard part for me the last couple weeks is that I'm trying to make the team, and I'm also watching and I'm talking to Tom about what he wants to do with his picks. So I was having a few things to think about, as well as playing the tournament. I felt like I played fine the last few weeks. I just didn't get done what I wanted to get done.

Obviously Sunday night was a very long night. Last night I went to bed at 7:30 and got up at 7:00 today. I was exhausted. I can't even imagine what Tom was feeling because he was the one that had to make the decision, so he was even more stressed out. Loren and I and Tom did not get much sleep Sunday night. It's a very important decision and could be one of the most important decisions we ever make, or Tom ever makes, regarding golf. We all took it extremely seriously.

CHRIS REIMER: Good luck this week and at the Ryder Cup.

COREY PAVIN: Thanks.

End of FastScripts.