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NORTHERN TRUST OPEN

February 14, 2008

K.J. Choi

PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the Northern Trust Open, 6-under par, no bogeys today, just talk about your day and also maybe how conditions changed as the day went along.
K.J. CHOI: Just the first part of the question, today I felt very good in the morning. I had a good rest during the off-week last week at home, and then coming over here, I just felt very light. I think starting off a good run like this today, shooting 6-under, you can't be sad about that, so I'm very happy.
You know, this course, I've always had trouble putting and my iron shots have always been a problem. But I felt like they were working today, and I think even the weather was pretty pleasant when I played, so it all worked out good.
With regards to the playing conditions today, starting out in the morning, the wind was pretty calm. It wasn't as bad. But as the day went by, the wind started changing and I think a lot of the players are probably having a little bit of a difficult afternoon compared to the morning.
Even for me, just reading the wind, reading the lie was a little bit difficult and it was kind of confusing. That's why I feel like that as many birdies as I've made, I felt like I lost a lot of chances in making more birdies.
But for example, the last hole, No. 18, the way the hole played, it's different when you're facing the wind and when the wind is behind you. There's a big difference. So you know, I had like 175 yards, my second shot went over the green, and that was mainly because I couldn't really determine the wind.
But all in all, it was a good round.

Q. You've been on the leaderboard in several major championships now, you've played enough of them to know what they are all about. What do you think it will take to get in contention and win one considering the fact that you've won a lot of other tournaments and you seem on the verge of doing something like that.
K.J. CHOI: First of all, twofold, first of all, I don't think I could do it alone. It's something that the Lord is going to have to help me. Without His help, I don't think I'll be able to do it.
Second, in order for me to win a major tournament, I think I still have to improve on my short game. The practice routines that I do, I'm going to have spend more time developing and improving my short game, although, you know, it's my ninth year out on TOUR, I still feel like I can't read -- I'm having trouble at times reading the lies, the grass, the greens. Maybe it's because I've been so accustomed to playing on the golf courses in Korea and Asia where it's a lot different than the courses here. But you know, maybe in the back of my mind, I'm too accustomed to that.
So even the rough, in a major tournament, when you're in the rough, I feel like sometimes I can hit it out and you know, I can hit it -- I'm trying to hit it short but it goes long; I try to hit it long, it goes short. It's really hard to determine how the ball is going to come out of the rough. So it confuses me. When I get bogeys on holes like that, it confuses me.
If I'm able to improve on the short game and hitting out of the rough, I think my chances will get better.

Q. Can you talk about the importance of hitting your left-to-right ball flight off the tee and how much Steve Bann has helped you in working with that?
K.J. CHOI: Yeah, Steve Bann has been a tremendous help to me. You know, what he's really good at is he keeps the fundamentals simple. He doesn't try to overwork you. It's all about the basic fundamentals of golf, about the simple swing, and he makes it -- he explains it in a way that I'm able to understand it easily, and I think that's his merit.
That's why I feel comfortable with my swing right now, and with regard to my fade shots, I feel really confident because having that shot in my bag, you know, where let's say, for example, there's water on the left. I'm now able to, you know, before I would try to hit a way from the water, but now I'm able to hit it directly to the water because I know I can fade it and knowing that I have that shot in my bag, it gives me the confidence that I need.

Q. You said earlier that you've had problems putting here at Riviera in the past. Coming into a week like this, do you find it easy or difficult to forget those negative thoughts?
K.J. CHOI: Yeah, I mean, the past six years playing here, the difficulty about these greens is that it looks like -- the greens look like it's going to hook then it slices. Then it looks like it's going to slice and then it hooks. It's really confusing.
But this week, what I plan to do and what I did most of the day, was I just putted as I saw it. And I think that's what made the difference.
For example, on the 17th hole, it looked like a hook, the putt looked like a hook but actually I thought it was going to slice. So thinking it was going to slice, I actually hit it -- I thought it was supposed to go -- I thought it was going to go as a hook but it actually went as a slice. When I putt it, I thought the other way around, so that the ball would actually fall in. (Laughter).
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can we go through your birdies?
K.J CHOI: First hole, 250 yards 5-wood, 70 feet, 2-putt.
No. 2, second shot, 189 yards, 6-iron, three feet.
5, 135 yards, 9-iron and 12 feet and one putt.
7, 152 yards and 8-iron and one foot.
11, third shot, sand wedge, 65 yards and two-foot putt.
17, third shot is 96 yards, sand wedge, and 11 feet. Make the putt, birdie.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, K.J.

End of FastScripts

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