THE RYDER CUP MATCHES

September 22, 2006

Jim Furyk

Tiger Woods

GORDON SIMPSON: Good morning, not quite so good afternoon, and an interesting day all around, seven of the eight games going to the 18th green. I suppose that's what the Ryder Cup is about.

JIM FURYK: What was the last part of that?

GORDON SIMPSON: Seven out of eight went to the 18th green today.

JIM FURYK: Good for all of the sponsor packages. (Laughter).

GORDON SIMPSON: How did you assess your contribution today then, Tiger?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I thought we kind of ham and egged it pretty good in the morning. This afternoon, we got down early. I missed a short putt there on the 10th hole, and we rallied back, got it back to level. Sergio hit a beautiful shot into 16 and 17, and they got 1 up there and we just weren't able to get to together.

GORDON SIMPSON: We'll take a few questions then, please.

Q. How did you enjoy the atmosphere this morning when you stepped on to the first tee?

TIGER WOODS: It was nice. It was what you have to expect at a Ryder Cup. It was exciting. It was very loud and very boisterous, and overall, the people here in Ireland are absolutely fantastic, the crowds have been really loud at times. It's good to see, because they have also been very respectful on shots.

GORDON SIMPSON: Jim, what did you think of the atmosphere?

JIM FURYK: It was wonderful, a lot of excitement. Obviously going out there with Padraig and being Irish, and Colin, there's a lot of excitement out there.

It's kind of what you expect, it's what you look forward to when you tee it up on Friday morning.

Q. Your yardage, what happened on the last shot on 18?

JIM FURYK: Yardage was exactly 230 to the pin. I was trying to start it up the centre of the green, and just I hit a bad shot. I made a bad swing, caught the ball out on the toe, and got it, pulled the ball, got it hooking, just did everything I shouldn't have done. I was playing to a right to left wind, and in order to hit a good shot there, you would have had to hit it up the centre of the green and put probably a little bit of a cut onto it, and I hit the ball way on the toe and made a poor swing from over the top. So I have no excuse there, I made a bad swing.

Q. Tiger, how frustrated are you with your play? You seemed to struggle a little bit more than Jim today, particularly in the morning, and also, Tom Lehman coming in made a big deal about wanting you guys to have fun on the course. What kind of fun did you guys have out there today?

TIGER WOODS: It's always fun playing. It's actually fun to get this week started finally after all the stuff we have to do prior to this. So it was fun to get it kicked off.

You're right, I did struggle in probably the first, six, seven holes in the morning. But I got it turned around and hit some really good shots, and this afternoon, I actually hit it pretty good.

JIM FURYK: He hit it beautifully this afternoon. My partner striped it this afternoon. He hit a lot of iron shots at the pin and I struggled to get some 15 footers for birdie, and even though we fought back, it just wasn't to be. If we left anything out there in the round, I had a lot of putts and a lot of opportunities.

Q. The fact that seven of the eight games went to the 18th, it really just says, doesn't it, how close these two teams are?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I think it does. I think that's the nature of the Ryder Cups in the past, probably three or four. A lot of matches did seem to go to the 18th, and you rarely get a blow out here anymore.

It makes for an exciting finish, especially with 16, 17, 18. A lot of things can happen on those three holes.

Q. There were mistakes made on both sides in your matches, but did it feel a lot like a heavyweight fight out there, just going down to the 18th, and one side punches, the other side punches back; is that a fair assessment of both of them?

JIM FURYK: When I think of a heavyweight slugout, I think of two teams being 6 under par and lighting it up with birdies.

You know, we won quite a few holes with pars today and vice versa. So I don't think we played poorly out there today, but I also don't think either side is probably all that particularly excited about the score that they put up there. It was an exciting match. We had a hard time, I don't think we were ever out in front, but we pulled to even quite a bit and had our opportunities to go up, and we weren't able to capitalise.

Q. 36 holes today, it's a long day, but two points down, do you start thinking about tomorrow, and if so, when you get to tomorrow, how do you approach that?

TIGER WOODS: Well, (looking at watch) someone is on the first tee in 13 hours. (Laughter) hopefully we're going to get out of here soon and go get something to eat. I'm starving, and I'm sure Jim is, too.

So get some rest quickly, and whenever we go out, we go out. But just make sure you're ready, and it's four ball, so we're going to have to make some birdies.

GORDON SIMPSON: Okay, thank you for coming in.

End of FastScripts.