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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 6, 2007

Tiger Woods

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

Q. Can you talk about your round today?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I felt like I hit the ball decent today but putted a lot better. Just had that one bad hole at 7, but other than that it was a pretty good day.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TIGER WOODS: On 7? It was just a tee shot there. It was a tricky tee shot, but once you get the ball in play there it's a pretty simple hole. I only had 112 to the hole and I tried to hit a little bitty pitching wedge in there, trying to take the flier out, but I ended up catching it. But it was the wrong club. I never should have hit that club. I mean, I had 15 steps between the bunker and the flag, and you've got to play short, and I hit the wrong club.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, 18, the tee is up today which makes it a little bit easier. It's a pretty wide fairway, get the ball in play there. The hard part is that pin, there's really no place to miss it, to bail out on. You just have to suck it up and hit a good shot in there, and if you do miss the green it can be a tricky up-and-down.

Q. What did you have left after the pitching wedge over the green? Was the pin back and running away from you?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it was running away from me. I was just trying to dump the ball on the green, just trying to make about a 15-, 20-footer. I wasn't trying to get cute on it at all, and it just went right underneath it.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TIGER WOODS: Maybe about four steps.

Q. Can I get you to talk about East Lake as a venue, as a golf course? Do you like it? Do the sight lines fit you?
TIGER WOODS: Well, East Lake is a great golf course. It's right in front of you. The Bermuda rough can be tricky there. The weather can be very interesting there, and when we play the TOUR Championship there we can get some pretty cold days, but obviously not this year.
The greens are always perfect there, so if you drive the ball well there, you can shoot some pretty good scores.

Q. Have you heard anything about the greens there this year?
TIGER WOODS: No.

Q. They're supposed to not be very good.
TIGER WOODS: I haven't heard anything. With the heat? Oh, well.

Q. In general having played well there but not getting a W, does that change your mindset about it one way or another?
TIGER WOODS: You know, I've come close, and hopefully this year I can get it done. Overall I've always liked that golf course. I always thought it was a difficult golf course but it was very fair. It's right in front of you, and there's no tricks to it. You've just got to go out there and really hit the golf ball well. All the guys you've seen who have won there in the past, you can't short game it around that place. You have to hit the ball well.

Q. The par 5 on the back, left of the green, having ball in hand and being able to place it with the hole close to the edge, how much did that help?
TIGER WOODS: It did. It wouldn't necessarily take the slope away, but it took some of the fringe away. I only had to putt through maybe two inches of fringe instead of a foot and a half. Obviously that's a big difference.

Q. Were you watching Rose at all, -8 after 11?
TIGER WOODS: No, I only saw that he was at 7. I believe it was 5 through 8, and then I saw he was at 7, and that was the last I saw.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TIGER WOODS: To be honest with you, I haven't really spent a whole lot of time in the locker room. It's been a pretty short week. I got out here Wednesday and all of a sudden we tee it up Thursday. I didn't come out here Tuesday and play a practice round where I talked to a bunch of the guys.
Well, K.J., we didn't really talk too much about that, and Stricks and I did talk about the fact that he's a past winner here of the Western Open. It's unfortunate we're not going to be able to play this each and every year. This is one of the biggest markets, and we're not coming back here every year, which is unfortunate.

Q. Did this course play much different today than in past years?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, big difference, yeah. The fairways slowed up, but much more the greens. You know, today when you have ball in hand, you're firing at just about every flag. You know, it's one of those things where you felt like you had to shoot something in the mid-60s or else you're just going to get left behind. I don't know why we went ball in hand today, but as soon as we did, you just knew the guys were going to tear it apart.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TIGER WOODS: Maybe it's probably the seven out of nine weeks. They're all big events, so seven out of nine weeks of that, and then obviously next year with the Ryder Cup there, I think it's seven out of eight weeks.

Q. Talk about playing with Steve, just talk a little bit about his comeback. I think the average fan kind of appreciates it. Do you guys appreciate it even more knowing how hard that can be?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I was telling Doug here, maybe he should get Comeback Player of the Year for back-to-back years because the way he came back last year and then obviously he's continually improved from last year, it's been amazing to watch. He's now one of the top tier players out here; week in and week out he's always there. He drives the ball on a string, and one of the best putters out here. It's great to see him make that comeback, make the commitment to getting back, and he did it.

Q. (Question regarding small crowds.)
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it's disappointing, as I said. There's a lot of sporting events going on. Obviously the date has changed. Kids are back in school. Families aren't coming out as much. It's a totally different atmosphere.
This is about what we see for the Pro-Am. But today is the first round, which is so different.

Q. Your tee time has changed, too, but originally you were supposed to go closer to lunchtime.
TIGER WOODS: Exactly, and also the forecast of rain. So maybe this weekend might bring out more people and bring in a pretty exciting atmosphere like it always is for the Western.

Q. Going with the answer of winning takes care of everything, I wonder if you can relate to some of the guys on the 30 level this week and whatnot to what you were going through in '96 when you had a target, still trying to win a tournament but had a target to get your card. What was that like?
TIGER WOODS: You know, I just felt that if I could just get a -- well, my outlook was get into a rhythm of playing week after week because I had never done it before at the professional level. Get into a rhythm of playing, and then on top of that get a win somewhere, and it'll take care of everything. That's why I was so bummed out when I played that bad against The Gripper on Sunday, because I knew that if I just won that event, I have a card for two years and I don't have to go to Q-school. But now I had to continue playing and hopefully stay out of Q-school. It was BC. I think I was third.

Q. If you had a chance to win coming down to the last two or three holes would you start looking at placing --
TIGER WOODS: No, I just kept thinking if I make birdie after birdie after birdie I can win the tournament. My outlook hasn't changed.

Q. Is it a different kind of pressure, though, when you've got only so many events to go to reach a certain number?
TIGER WOODS: There's no doubt about it. There's no doubt about it. The closer you are to -- for me in my exemptions running out, but I look at it this way. I had seven exemptions, and if I could Top 10 it, then I could not use an exemption the following week, and I think I had about ten tournaments I could possibly play in in a row. If everything worked out, then I wouldn't have to use all my exemptions, I could actually not use one and still continue to play.

Q. Who do you think benches more, you or K.J.?
TIGER WOODS: Oh, K.J., there's no doubt. I know he can squat a hell of a lot more than me. He can squat a car (laughter).

End of FastScripts

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