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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 21, 2008

Woody Austin

TUCSON, ARIZONA

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Woody, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the Accenture Match Play Championship. 19 holes with Adam Scott, moving into the third round against Boo Weekley. Just talk about the last couple of days. Looks like you're having fun out there.
WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah, it's been a great deal as far as the way I'm playing. I'm hitting the ball really well. I'm driving it really good. I didn't miss a fairway yesterday. I think I missed maybe a couple today. I've only missed two greens in two days, so I'm giving myself just a boat load of chances. Unfortunately today I just got the ball in some tough spots early and three-putted three times in the first eight holes, and that was why I got down. I just gave him too many free holes with the three-putts.
All in all, I'm playing really well, striking it really well, it's just a matter of getting the pace of the greens. The greens got really fast today and they ate me alive.

Q. Do you have much experience with Boo?
WOODY AUSTIN: I have as much as probably anybody out here. He's been pretty good friends with my caddie and his family. We played with Boo a lot when he came out here the first time, so I played a lot with him then. I played with him a few times already this year. I enjoy playing with him. He's a great guy. He really is a lot of fun to play with.
I said earlier when I finished my match today, I said irregardless tomorrow, we're going to have fun because he'll probably be the most talkative of two people in a match.

Q. I know you want to make that Ryder Cup team. Do you feel like this is a little bit like Ryder Cup training here?
WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I mean, the only way I can show Captain Azinger that I want on there bad enough is to perform in match play. The Presidents Cup is the first match play I played since amateur days, so it had been -- I don't know how long it had been, but it had been 20-some years, and I did all right. Now this is my first time here, and 2-down and a couple more to go. Hopefully I'll just keep advancing and showing him what I've said all along. Match play is kind of -- fits my personality, and I like it.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Any turning points in your match today that were interesting?
WOODY AUSTIN: No, like I said, we both played great. Adam didn't make a bogey all day. His big misstep was he three-putted 17 for par, which gave me the opening to at least go to 18 even, so he didn't -- that was his one gift to me, which offset my four that I gave him earlier in the round. We really both played well. Nobody was in trouble. He only hit one bad shot where he got himself in trouble on 10, but he was able to hit it out of the, like, creek bed or whatever down the right there, and then he was able to hit it about eight feet and tied my two-putt. There was no dramatic moves because we both played so good. The only problems were, like I said, when I three-putted or when he three-putted 17.

Q. In a tournament this big, is it harder playing a guy that you know as well as Boo?
WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I think it is to a point, yeah, absolutely. Like I said, I get along great with Boo. I think Boo is just awesome. I'd love to call him a good friend, chide with him, he'll chide me back. Like I said, tomorrow is going to be fun. But all in all, in the end you're still trying to beat him, and that's kind of a fine line. It's kind of tough to do.
You know, yesterday I was playing somebody I didn't really know. I know Adam pretty well, but it's not like I hang around him or see him as much as I do Boo.
So when you get to something like that, yeah, it's kind of tough. But ultimately you have a job to do and you do the best you can.

Q. You guys are kind of both American originals in different ways. Do you appreciate that about him, that he's not --
WOODY AUSTIN: Absolutely. I've said all along, when it comes to golf, when it comes to what you think of professional golfers, I'm not a professional golfer. I didn't come from any kind of background at all. I didn't play or practice in any kind of country club. I have no teacher, I have nothing that you would consider as a professional golfer.
Boo fits that same build. I don't know of any teachers that he said that he had while he was growing up or whatever. The big difference is he's a big hunter; I don't hunt. He's a hunter-fisher, I'm still a sports junky. So there's the difference as far as that.
But as far as golf backgrounds, I think that's why we get on, because we're both not supposed to be here, basically.

Q. You said you spent the winter in Kansas, didn't really play. How long of a period was that?
WOODY AUSTIN: Let's see, I played Disney. That was it.

Q. So you went, what, six weeks?
WOODY AUSTIN: I'm trying to think. From Disney to Maui I had one tournament, and that was the Shark Shootout that me and Calcavecchia won. So I played one time from Disney until Maui. When I get a chance to play -- and there's a couple days you get a chance to play, but how much practice can you get when it's 48 degrees and the wind chill is probably 35? But it's a nice day for that time of year so you go out, but is that practice?
Unfortunately the weather has been -- usually by now the weather starts to get okay, but they're having -- we're just having the worst winter in my 12 years since I moved from Florida. Last week or two weeks ago after Phoenix when I went home, we got snow, and it's just not supposed to be that way.
At the end of -- I think it was Friday, Friday two weeks ago, I played my first snow round. I played with snow on half the golf course, so I thought that was interesting. So there's my preparation and my practice.

Q. Did anyone through the years ever say you're nuts for moving to Kansas?
WOODY AUSTIN: Oh, yeah, everybody. It's like, why Kansas? All my amateur partners on Wednesday and whatnot say why Kansas. You tried to explain it to -- I don't know if he's in the room. I tried to explain it to one of the reporters yesterday. When I'm not -- when I'm out here, who's the most important thing? My family is most important, so my family needs to be where my wife is most comfortable. So we live in Kansas because that's where my wife is born and raised, that's where she wants to live, that's where we live.

Q. Did you use a colored ball?
WOODY AUSTIN: No, like I said, there was just like patches and snow banks and whatever, and it was pretty cool when you hit it and then you'd see it roll into it, how hard it is to find the white ball in the snow. Like I said, it was very interesting because what we were going to do, it was wild because I play on Friday with the Nuckolls brothers. Rod Nuckolls actually played on TOUR back in the early '80s, and him and his brother own this golf course called Willow Bend, which is where Nike plays like the qualifier in Wichita, and we were going to drive an hour and a half to somewhere else, I think it was called Ponca City, we were going to drive somewhere so we could go play because the weather was supposed to be nice enough to play but there was snow on the ground and we couldn't play. So we were planning on driving to Ponca City. They called while I was on the way to go meet them. They said, since we own the course we're just going to open the golf course and we're just going to stay here and play. We went out there and played, and like I said, I've never played with snow on the ground. So it was fun to a point. It was pretty cool.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Did they have the pins and everything?
WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah, the pins were in the greens. The first hole we couldn't putt out because it was covered pretty good. But then the other ones, like I said, it was just certain patches. It's like any golf course in the winter, they have two holes in every green for the winter so you can move to each hole and what have you. Like I said, it was fun. I wouldn't call it great preparation, but it was fun.

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