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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 23, 2007

Tiger Woods

TUCSON, ARIZONA

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Tiger, for joining us. You battled it out hard out there today. Why don't we just start with some questions.

Q. What, did the ball hit on a spike mark?
TIGER WOODS: No, it was a ball mark. I was so enthralled with the line and where I had to start it. It was just left center, just go ahead and hit it, and I didn't see the ball mark.

Q. So you just forgot to fix --
TIGER WOODS: I wasn't even looking. I was just looking at my line. I knew if I hit it inside -- left center, the match is over. That's my fault for not paying attention to detail.

Q. So it was a fixable blemish?
TIGER WOODS: Totally, yeah.

Q. Do you think the extreme change in the weather from one day to the next not just affected your mental attention but your physical being, as well?
TIGER WOODS: Well, physically I felt fine. My golf swing didn't feel very good, did not feel good all day. I just battled through it, and the only thing I knew I could do was putt and just try and get on the green somehow.
I felt anything inside -- anything on that green I had a chance of making today, but I just couldn't get there consistently.

Q. You had a battle with cactus and everything else.
TIGER WOODS: It was a struggle. I just didn't have control of my golf swing. I had a two-way miss going today. I hit it right because I was hitting it left, and it's one of those things where -- if you can hit it right or left you can play for it, but I had a combo thing going today.

Q. Can you remember the last time you were that off for a four-hole or a similar stretch, maybe Muirfield, but that was pouring that day in 0 2?
TIGER WOODS: I was pretty off because obviously I've been playing pretty well. It was disappointing. The only thing that saved me coming in was the holes were downwind, so I couldn't hit too far off line.

Q. Could you just repeat what happened on that four-footer? The ball mark was -- your ball hit the ball mark?
TIGER WOODS: Hit the left side of the ball mark and kicked it right. All I had to do is just fix it and it's in. It was a very simple thing to do. I was so enthralled with just left center, left center, left center and the match is over. I just didn't pay attention.

Q. Almost continual vision on the line --
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I get that way at times. Sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad.

Q. Just curious what happened on 17. Did you just overcut that? What club was it?
TIGER WOODS: No, it was 3-iron. I hit straight on the toe. It was a terrible shot.

Q. That's the only place you can miss really, the worst place you can miss?
TIGER WOODS: Well, that's probably the best place to miss is long and the worst place to miss is where I missed it. Anything short of the green it's a pretty easy pitch.
You know, it was 220 yards dead down with a 3-iron. It was pretty simple to carry that and I hit it straight off the toe.

Q. You go from looking as bad as you've ever looked to mounting one of the more impressive and unlikely comebacks that you've ever had. What did you do between the 7th hole and -- what happened?
TIGER WOODS: It wasn't anything. I was struggling, and I just said, Just give myself looks at putts. That's all I can do because I know I was putting really well today.
You know, it felt like every putt I was -- except for the putt I hit on 3 the first time around, I blocked that putt, but other than that every putt I hit was right on-line.
So just gave myself plenty of looks and I just felt like I was going to make them. But could I give myself the looks was the question. Starting out, no. But I kept telling myself, At least it's downwind and my two-way miss won't go too far off line dead downwind.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TIGER WOODS: Yeah. I was just trying to hit a low cut and I hit a low draw, pull draw.

Q. Big putt on 18, five, six footer?
TIGER WOODS: That putt was right on top of the left edge, and just be committed to the line. I hit a good putt there and it went in, but I felt pretty good over that putt.

Q. What did you hit into 18?
TIGER WOODS: I hit a 60-degree sand wedge.

Q. You talked about the most disappointing loss was with Darren in the final because you worked so hard and won five matches to get there. Granted, it's a PGA TOUR streak as you call it, but you work so hard. Seven in a row is still seven in a row. You worked so hard to get there. What's the disappointment level regarding the streak?
TIGER WOODS: Well, it's not the streak. It's the fact that I'm disappointed I didn't pay attention to detail, something so simple. I got so enthralled and so focused like I normally do on the line, and I just -- something so simple like that just escaped me.

Q. A word about Nick O'Hern, and did he win it or did you lose it today, you think?
TIGER WOODS: Well, obviously I had a chance to win the match with a little four-footer. Nick played very consistent golf. You know, he's not very long, but all he had to do was just keep putting it in front starting out on the front nine, because obviously I couldn't, and he won two holes with bogeys. That's not very good on my part.

Q. The chip on the last hole, mediocre, 10, 12 feet maybe?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, well, they just cut the greens.

Q. Oh, really?
TIGER WOODS: You know, it was faster, so I'm thinking, Well, I don't want to send this thing past the hole. What do I do? Hit it way short.

Q. Cut it from when you played this morning?
TIGER WOODS: Yes.

Q. Did they tell you they had cut them?
TIGER WOODS: No, but it was definitely a lot faster than what we had played.

Q. Your take on playing this course and the move from San Diego and kind of brought some of the rain with them.
TIGER WOODS: Well, at least we were able to play. If we were playing at La Costa we probably wouldn't have played a match yet. It's actually pretty nice for me at least; at least I played three matches.

Q. When you look back at the seven in a row, it's still something I assume you're pretty damn proud of.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, very proud of. To go basically from July until now without ever finishing out of the top three, that's not bad.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thanks, Tiger.

End of FastScripts

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