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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 20, 2006

Mike Weir

HOYLAKE, ENGLAND

STEWART McDOUGALL: Mike, 68, very nice score, indeed, leading in the clubhouse, 4 under par. Tell us how the conditions were different today from yesterday.

MIKE WEIR: The overnight rain softened the golf course up a bit. Still had a fair bounce into the green, but the ball wasn't getting away from you like it was in the practice rounds. So it probably played a little easier than what it did yesterday, but hopefully won't get more rain, it will keep firming up and getting more difficult.

But the greens were I felt like tough to judge the speed, because there's some green spots out there and then some bigger spots, and you end up putting through both of them, trying to judge what the ball is going to do. But I think that's a difficult part of this golf course, too, is kind of judging speed of the putts out here.

But all in all it was a good day, a little bit scrappy, as the card indicates, at the start of the day and then played solid golf from 7 or 8 all the way in.

Q. Walking off 3, having flubbed a chip for your second bogey, were you at all surprised to turn it around so quickly? You played very well after that. Where was your head at that point?

MIKE WEIR: Not at all, actually. My practice this week has been going great. I've hardly felt like I've hardly had to hit many balls at all, because it just feels good. I'm just trying to save my energy. I knew that if I just stayed patient I was going to have plenty of chances, because I feel really good with my golf swing, and my putting feels really good. Even though I was 1 over after 3, it was still early in the Championship; you just have to stay patient at that point.

Q. What role does luck play this week relative to other weeks and other events?

MIKE WEIR: I think it plays maybe a little bit more of a factor, but this golf course is very fair. If you hit one down the middle you're not going to get a crazy bounce, like when we played St. Georges a couple of years ago. There you could hit right down the middle and be on any side of the fairway or rough. Here if you hit solid shots you're going to be rewarded. And there's still if you hit a marginal shot you could get a lucky bounce, you could get one that rolls off the side of the green. So there's still that factor here, but I think it's a very fair test. I don't think there's as much of that involved as let's say maybe St. Georges.

Q. When you mentioned 2 iron, are you talking about a hybrid club there?

MIKE WEIR: Yes, it's a Rescue 2 iron.

Q. How useful is that around here?

MIKE WEIR: Really useful. I used it today again probably I didn't use as much today as I did the other days, my practice round days; because it was so fast I used it quite a bit the other days. But I still used it probably a half a dozen times out there today. So that's an important club there in the bag. Off the tee I used it into both 16 and 18. So it's a good club to have in the bag.

Q. I know you've always liked this kind of golf. You've always looked forward to The Open, et cetera. Opening up with a 68, does that just does it really improve your confidence level even more so?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I think so. It's been a while. I haven't gotten off to great starts in this championship. I've always felt like it's a championship that I should do well in. Although the last few years last year was great weather at St. Andrews, but you could still fly the ball on the green most holes. Here it's really a number of ways you're applying shots, applying a 5 iron 210 yards and flying it 170 and seeing it bounce in. You're playing the kind of golf that I always envisioned The Open Championship being. It's kind of fun to play that. It's different than what we play on the U.S. Tour. It's a great challenge, it's fun.

Q. A lot of courses in the majors have a hole or stretch of holes, like the Masters has Amen Corner, that you look ahead that you want to get past. Is there anything on this course that stands up, either scary or difficulty wise or is it

MIKE WEIR: There's a few scary tee shots out there for sure that you want to make sure you get the ball on the fairway. 12 and 14 are difficult tee shots. I think that's probably the only spot on the golf course that a long guy has an advantage that they might be able to carry the left bunkers. A player like myself has to play around them. Those are good tee shots.

Outside of that, there's a couple on the front; No. 7 I think is a pretty difficult tee shot; 8 is a little bit difficult, too, because you're hitting over that brush, you can't really see it land. There are some demanding tee shots out there.

Q. Based on how you played at the U.S. Open, do you sort of feel this as being kind of a continuation of where you've been for a month or so or six weeks in your game? Do you feel like you're getting the fruits now?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I feel good. The U.S. Open in a lot of ways was very disappointing. I felt like I played very well and really should have had a much better chance than what I did. I ended up finishing three back, but I birdied a couple of holes to do that. I shouldn't have the whole week, really, my putter let me down a lot. So that was disappointing.

So I've been working really hard on that. And today my putter was great. The ball rolled really nicely. That was the only thing that really held me back at the Open.

STEWART McDOUGALL: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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