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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 21, 2008

Boo Weekley

TUCSON, ARIZONA

LAURA NEAL: Boo, thanks for joining us. Let's talk a little bit about your match, 2-down through 10 and then birdied four of the last six to close it out there with two birdies on the last two holes. Just talk to us about how things went today.
BOO WEEKLEY: We both kind of struggled a little here and there. The last couple holes, you know, just after I got 2-down, I just told my caddie, we've got to either go for it or we're done. We kind of went on and started playing decent, hit a couple good shots, got lucky on 16 there, knocked one in off the green. It was going a little fast. It probably would have rolled off if it didn't hit the hole.
LAURA NEAL: You don't mind match play. Two days of it, pretty good.
BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, it's different, very different. I kind of like that stroke play better myself.

Q. So you've had zero experience in this format, match play?
BOO WEEKLEY: Well, I mean, I played it -- last time I played it was in '96. We had it as a Scratch Tour there for amateurs, and what little bit of golf I was playing during that time, the Pensacola had a team and the Mobile had a team, and it was kind of like we did a match play, a best ball scramble. We played -- take the top 12 out of our Pensacola and played the top 12 out of Mobile over there in Louisiana and we played each other. So that was the last time I even did anything like this.

Q. It was like a geographical Ryder Cup.
BOO WEEKLEY: More or less, yes.

Q. You didn't know about the concession rule?
BOO WEEKLEY: No, I didn't. Martin hit it up on the first hole there, and he putted it first, he hit it about eight feet and he just missed it. It wasn't probably eight or nine inches from the hole, and I'm hitting there and I'm putting my ball down, and he's looking at me and I'm looking at him, like are you going to tap it in? Joe said, "Just pick it up." I'm like, "Pick it up?" Honestly, I didn't know. That's how that started out.

Q. Was it a little uncomfortable, or did you explain to him you didn't know and then everything was fine after that?
BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, I mean, after I told him, hey, look, man, I don't know. I didn't know the rule. He was okay with it.

Q. Is it a little bit strange then for you to do that? Obviously you're not used to that.
BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, it's very strange. I mean, it's very strange to just walk up there and just pick your ball up, you know what I mean? Especially when you ain't used to doing it.

Q. Martin conceded a putt yesterday on the 17th hole that was three feet. Would you expect to be given a putt like this on a decisive hole?
BOO WEEKLEY: I didn't. I mean, I'm going to make somebody putt it. I made Sergio putt a couple of them today. I shouldn't say me and Sergio. I know me, for instance, I'm not a very good putter inside three foot. That's one of my weaknesses. I feel like if I can miss one, someone else can.

Q. Talk about that tournament in '96. I don't know if tournament is the proper word for it. What was that like? Was it just a bunch of guys going to play golf? Was it fairly casual?
BOO WEEKLEY: No, it was actually -- it was ran. You played like 14 events or 12 events, and you got -- there was 78 to 100 of us that went out and played. It was just a regular tournament. You earned your points, and whoever finished in the top 12 got elected to go play. It was just like a Ryder Cup thing.

Q. A couple of questions. Do you feel like you're comfortable now with the format, or do you think there might be some other rules about match play that you don't know?
BOO WEEKLEY: I don't know. I don't want to know them. I was kind of glad when -- what was that man's name that was walking with us? He's a rules official and he was like, "I'm going to be walking with you today." I was like, "Good, I can ask you if I have a problem."

Q. Also, have you ever played with two-putters in your bag at an event?
BOO WEEKLEY: Well, I mean, if you want to consider your lob wedge a putter, yeah. But no, I haven't.

Q. He did yesterday, and I don't know whether -- did you notice whether he had two putters in the bag today or not?
BOO WEEKLEY: I didn't pay attention.

Q. Had you not watched the Ryder Cup or anything or The Presidents Cup as far as like the picking up rule and all that? Had you not watched the Ryder Cup to see them do that?
BOO WEEKLEY: I don't watch golf. I mean, I just -- I'd much rather watching fishing or hunting or NASCAR or something. It's got to be moving, man. Golf ain't moving (laughter).

Q. We asked you this half jokingly, I think, at the PGA, which seems forever ago. But the way you're playing, you might very well get on the Ryder Cup team. You'd better bone up on this stuff because there might be some of it in your future here. What would that mean to you?
BOO WEEKLEY: It would be an honor to go represent the United States and play in the Ryder Cup. I mean, it's just golf, though. It's just another event that -- I get to represent the United States. It's just like when I went to China. I wouldn't turn that down for nothing. Just like if I got invited to go play, I'm going to go play, you know?

Q. The rules are the same, but in match play people will play different because they'll play their opponent as opposed to just playing the course. Were there any situations either yesterday or today where whatever your opponent did dictated what you did?
BOO WEEKLEY: The last hole right out there a while ago. That was a tough pin placement, we both hit it in a bunker there. Sergio, I knew he had to make birdie, and he hit a good bunker shot, it just didn't check. It just released out. I ended up about 10 feet, 15 feet right of the hole and hit my shot. That was about the only one I done that I can remember anyway.

Q. It's still golf basically?
BOO WEEKLEY: Oh, yeah, it's still golf.

Q. Was there any mention between you and Sergio made of the score keeping errors at the PGA and at the Deutsche Bank?
BOO WEEKLEY: Man, that's water under the bridge, dude.

Q. Not even a laughing comment about it?
BOO WEEKLEY: That's all -- no, we didn't say a whole lot out there, you know? We're out there to play golf.

Q. How do you feel about your golf right now? Your stature just seems to keep rising and rising. The China thing last year really kind of put you guys on the map internationally. I mean, how do you feel about where you're at right now golf-wise and kind of how you're becoming more and more popular?
BOO WEEKLEY: My golf game is all right. I mean, I struggle right now. I've got bursitis in my left shoulder and I think a little tear up there, too, so I'm struggling a little bit with it. I'm having to take some medicine for it, some anti-inflammatories, stuff like that, just to keep it from hurting so bad, and maybe a cortisone shot or two.

Q. Are you going to take some time off at all?
BOO WEEKLEY: I take two weeks at a time. When I go home I don't play golf. You know, by the time I get back home next time it'll be Turkey season. I just got back from deer hunting so now it'll be turkey season. Then I'll play five weeks and go back home and it'll be fishing season.

Q. What's your favorite among those things you just mentioned?
BOO WEEKLEY: I'd have to say hunting. I love the smell of that gunpowder burning. You just shoot and hear the noise.

Q. Were you hunting just as a side line for the golf? Do you do this just so you can do the other?
BOO WEEKLEY: I can do the other without doing this. I've done it my whole life until I got out here. If you're going to survive where we live at, you've got to get out there and get with it.

Q. Do you ever stop and think, wow, I'm a millionaire?
BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, I did that last year when I got back from China, you know, and actually it was my last tournament of the year. I got home, sitting around the fire outside, and we all got to laughing, it was like, dude, you're a millionaire, and I said, "You think?" I was like, "Well, that's pretty special, to be able to make that much money." But at the same time, I turned and looked at him, "Well, I'll tell you what, I'll pay your taxes if you pay mine."

Q. You had said last year if you got to a certain amount of money you would pack it in and you could do hunting and fishing full time. Are you still good with that or what is that you are number you're trying to get to?
BOO WEEKLEY: Well, it was a number. Now I've just got to -- it ain't that I didn't want to change it. I've got another young 'un on the way. Now I've got to figure out how I'm going to do what all I wanted to do and still support them and financially have them set up so they ain't really got to work as hard or do the things that I had to go through in life.
But that goal is still -- if I can get to 8 and I manage it right, we should be good to go.

Q. Any observations on Sergio's putting? I know you mentioned you struggle inside three feet yourself. See any difference between last year at the PGA and today?
BOO WEEKLEY: Look, you've got to ask Sergio about his problems. I don't -- I mean, I ain't going to comment on that.

Q. When is the kid due?
BOO WEEKLEY: July the 4th. We hope it comes a little early, though.

Q. Do you know boy or girl?
BOO WEEKLEY: It's a boy.

Q. You said you like the smell of the gunpowder. Is it just the act of hunting or do you really want to kill something when you're out there?
BOO WEEKLEY: No, it ain't about killing. It ain't about the killing. We ain't going to kill nothing unless we're going to eat it. I learned that quick-like. My great-granddaddy, I shot a blackbird. Blackbird is awful, dude. You ought to try eating that thing.

Q. Did he make you eat it?
BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, he made me eat it. I shot the bird, and he said, "If you're going to shoot this bird, take a life, you need to eat it." I brought it right in, plucked the feathers off of it and he stuck it right in the fryer. It ain't very good, I can tell you that.

Q. It doesn't taste like chicken?
BOO WEEKLEY: No, no.

Q. Can you talk about the bursitis in your left arm or shoulder?
BOO WEEKLEY: What happened is I just when I got back from China, I was putting up -- had a friend of mine come over and rebuild my barn and putting something up, and I fell off a ladder, or the whole thing came and fell and we landed on the concrete. From there it's just gotten worse. Somehow it tore something, injured something. I've had an MRI on it and it's just a little micro tear, but at the same time it's just bursitis that got inflamed just like arthritis and stuff I got. So it's just gotten worse since I fell. I've had arthritis for a long time.

Q. Are you taking stuff for it?
BOO WEEKLEY: I take Mobic as an anti-inflammatory. I've got a prescription for that. And then Soma, which is like a muscle relaxer, so it relaxes that muscle right in there.
LAURA NEAL: We could keep you in here all day, but I promised I'd get you back to lunch.

End of FastScripts

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