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

BUICK OPEN

August 3, 2006

Mike Weir

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

DAVE SENKO: Talk about your 9 under 63, which matched your low round of the season.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it was a great round. I think the key on this golf course is to drive it in the fairway and I did that well today. I may have hit one ball in the first cut maybe all day, and that was it. So, you know, hit every fairway. Hit a lot of close iron shots.

Going through it, my first birdie was the longest putt I made all day, I guess on No. 3, the par 3. I hit it pin high about 30 feet to the right and I made that putt.

4, I hit a wedge to about six feet maybe.

7, the par 5, I hit it right in front of green in two and pitched up about six feet again.

9, I hit an 8 iron to about four feet.

So a lot of close iron shots. Kind of continued that on the back. No. 10, I hit a great shot in there to about 45 feet and I missed that one.

Made a nice save actually on 12. I had a little wedge in there and spun it, landed a little short and spun it back, had a tricky up and down. Got lucky, got a lucky bounce, hit the pin; otherwise it would have ran 10 feet by. That kept the momentum going.

Hit two nice shots into the par 5, 13, bounced into the bunker, hit it out to about four feet and made that.

Hit a driver and 70 yard shot to less than a foot on 14.

15, I hit a drive and I cut a 6 iron in there to about six feet.

16, I hit drive, 3 wood and had a little pitch from about 40 yards and I hit it about an inch from the hole. Stayed right on the front lip and tapped that in.

17, I cut a 5 iron in there to about six, seven feet, eight feet maybe and made that one. So I made that one putt on the third hole, a long putt there, but outside of that, I hit a lot of close iron shots.

Q. With the conditions ripe for scoring like they are today, does it feel good to have your game going, and when did you know that you would be able to put up the score that you did?

MIKE WEIR: I felt pretty good all day. Right after the start I felt pretty good. When the course conditions are like this, you can actually play into even into the par 5s, you can hit your approach shots up there ten yards short of the green. If the course is firm that wouldn't be a very good position because the pin is tucked over the bunker; with the firm greens you couldn't. Today you could get it up there as far as you could and pitch it, it was so soft around the greens.

My wedge game was good and I gave myself a lot of wedges and chances that way, so I hit a lot of wedges close to the hole. It felt good early in the day and you never know what's going to happen. I knew I felt good, so I wanted to stay aggressive.

Q. With the low scoring, is there

MIKE WEIR: You know, I didn't even really look at the board today, but you know that going into this tournament that you're going to have been pretty close to 20 under or more, now that the course is very soft like it is. So that's always just in the back of your mind before you even start. You have to look at the board to kind of know that here.

Q. Can you talk about Mike Weir the golfer back in 2002 when you last played here and Mike Weir the golfer today and some of the differences in terms of your game and maturity, being on the PGA TOUR?

MIKE WEIR: 2002 to now? Yeah, a lot's happened in four years. I've won some tournaments and lost some tournaments, and like most of us out here, but I think my game is probably better than it was in 2002. I'm not just saying that just because of today. I've put a ton of work no my game the last few years, and I've showed some good success, but not as consistent as I'd like. Today was a good step in the right direction.

Q. Kind of in a similar vein, can you talk about returning to Medinah, two weeks from now, a place where you obviously played very well; and a lot of us here in the States, it's a place where we kind of learned about you a little bit. Talk about going back there and reflecting on '99, if you will.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, that's right around the corner obviously in a couple of weeks. Yeah, that was you know a great experience for me. That was the first time, obviously my second year on Tour, and the year before, I had lost my card so I'd just kind of got back through Q School. That was a good learning experience. I had my first win two weeks after that, so it was an important lesson to learn that week.

I had a chance to play Medinah back in July. The course is longer and they have made some changes to the greens on a number of holes. They made some changes around the greens. Instead of deep rough right off the edge, they have a lot of mown grass right off the edge, so they made significant changes out there.

And then, you know, finishing holes are totally different. 17, 18 are totally different holes. It still has the same feel of what it did in '99, but there's still some significant changes out there.

Q. I was just curious, why haven't you played here more in recent years, and with the crowd out there today, do you kind of wish you had or do you think you will more in the future?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, there's a possibility more in the future. You know, summertime for me, that's the time when my kids are off school. That's the only time I get to spend with them. We usually it seems like in the last few years, it's been a family vacation trip or we've always gone somewhere or whether it's a river rafting trip or something like that. We decided to do it next week. So that has kind of been the reason.

Q. You're one hour and a half away from your hometown, Sarnia, how much does that add seeing the Canadian fans out there following you to the magnitude that they are?

MIKE WEIR: Oh, it was great. It's nice to play well for them. I had some of my family out there and a lot of friends, so that's pretty cool. Like you said, it's only a half hour away. It's the closest event that people from my hometown can get to, even closer than probably Hamilton. It was great to see familiar faces out there.

Q. What did you do during the delay, what kind of effect did that have when you were pulled off the course for two hours in the middle of the round?

MIKE WEIR: I ate. That's what we did. I think we all just sat around, BS'd, told a few jokes and grabbed something to eat. No one knew how long it was going to be. I was grabbing a few towels to go find a corner and lay down and catch a nap. By the sounds of it, it was going to be strong winds, and I thought we were going to be a while because it sounded like some trees might be down and some bunkers were going to be washed out and it might take the ground crew awhile to get the course ready. But most of it missed us, so had to get ready quicker.

Q. Right now I think you're ranked third or fourth in consecutive cuts, which might not be your most important stat from a personal standpoint, because I know you want to be best. But is there one aspect of your game that you look at and say, this is an area I really need to work on to get to that next level and get back in the winner's circle?

MIKE WEIR: I think overall my putting has been pretty good this year, but I think it still needs to gain a little bit more consistency. So I've been working extremely hard on that for a while. Showed some good signs today, I rolled the ball really nice today.

So I've spent some extra time on that, and my overall short game. Just the little shots around the greens, the two or three shots that maybe I've wasted in the last few weeks, I've noticed that it adds up at the end of the week. Through four rounds, that's ten or 12 shots that I've wasted, just a little green side bunker that I usually get it up and down a lot of the time and I haven't been doing that. So I've just really tried to sharpen my short game a little bit more.

DAVID TOMS: Thanks, Mike.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297