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ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANSMarch 30, 2008Woody AustinAVONDALE, LOUISIANA Q. Woody, tough day out there today. It's tough to say, but you admitted it, you said you choked it coming in the last nine holes. WOODY AUSTIN: Oh, I puked my guts out, no doubt about it. I didn't have control of my golf swing and I put two hands on the steering wheel and was trying to steer it around, and it caught me at the end. Q. Talk me through 18 because we got you on our sound talking to Brent about that second shot. You wanted to go for it, and it sounded like he wanted you to lay up. WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I mean, he was just asking if he thought I could get it out, and I could have got it out. The only reason why I topped it or whatever is because I didn't go down in and get it. Again, I flinched, like I said, and it really -- it really wasn't that hard a shot as I made it out to be. But again, like I said, I'm not afraid to admit, when I choke, I choke, and I choked. Q. You said the one thing you were happy with today was your putting? WOODY AUSTIN: Absolutely. Good experiment this week. I put that big, light, fat grip on my putter, and that's the best I've putted all year by leaps and bounds, and that's the best two days -- the last two rounds was the best I've putted in, shoot, probably my entire career. I mean, I rolled it, I had great pace, the balls were rolling at the right pace going in, and I'm excited about that part of it. Q. What's the plan now going into The Masters for you? What are you going to be working on? WOODY AUSTIN: My little guy's 10th birthday tomorrow, so that will be first and foremost, media day in Memphis in the middle of the week, so I kind of have a busy schedule. Hopefully by the weekend, hopefully the weather is good for the first time this year when I'm home and I'll actually get a chance to prepare and be ready for Monday start of Augusta. Q. If you would take me through 18. WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I hit a solid drive but I yanked it away from the water, which was the first fear factor. I hit it solid so I got it over the bunker, but that was the thickest rough we had all week. Everything I hit in the rough all week I had a pretty good lie, so that was the first really questionable shot out of the rough that I had to think about all week. And I thought I could get my rescue on it because I didn't want to lay back and have a 9-iron or an 8-iron into that back flag. To make 4 I felt like my best chance was having a little sand wedge or whatever to get to that back flag. I'm trying to win, I'm not trying to play for second. I tried to go with the best approach, but unfortunately my faculties weren't there today. I really struggled with controlling myself, and it showed on the back nine. I didn't make too many good golf swings on the back nine. It caught up to me at the end. You can't fool it all day, and I was fooling it pretty well, but it bit me in the butt at the end. Q. After the second shot, the third one was just as difficult? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, the third one was just as difficult, but again, I'm still trying to somehow make 4, and I've got 231. Again, from a certain standpoint, yeah, I didn't want to hit it in the water. I could have probably made 6 and saved myself a lot of a lot of money by at least hitting it out to the left. But again, I'm still trying to make 4. Even though I'm nervous as hell, I'm still trying to make 4, and again, I had no control of my golf swing obviously on the back nine today, and it showed. Q. Do you feel like you let one get away, not having control of your swing but still being in the mix? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, yeah. Considering I had a chance and wasn't playing well, you know, so from that standpoint, yeah. But from the other standpoint, I didn't play well enough to win, so it would have been a definite steal. Q. Masters two weeks away, your preparation between now and then? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, next week is a little busy. My little boy Parker, he turns 10 tomorrow, so that's first and foremost, and then I've got a media day for Memphis on Thursday, so busy start to the week. And then hopefully Friday, Saturday and Sunday hopefully Kansas will have good weather and I can practice. Q. Your thoughts on the re-pairing a week ago and then this week, the exact opposite, keep them going on Sunday? WOODY AUSTIN: You know, a goofy situation. I mean, I don't know what the last guys are doing, but it's pretty weird to have guys finish -- I know Andres finished probably an hour before me or an hour and a half, and now I'm done and I'll bet Peter Lonard is another hour and a half behind me. I think he's up there. It's kind of weird to have that kind of a staggered finish with guys that have a chance. Q. You were very, very critical of yourself on television? WOODY AUSTIN: Like I said, I'm an honest person. I'm looked at kind of strange, but you know, I know I was choking. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to give you a political answer and say, well, I just didn't have my game today. I didn't have my game today because I was scared out of my gourd and I was puking my guts out. That's the reality of it. Some days I'm better prepared to deal with it, and today I was hiding it pretty well. I was hanging in there, but eventually it caught up to me. Q. Why do you think you were like that today? WOODY AUSTIN: I'm always like that, that's the whole thing. That's the thing that keeps me from being the player I know I can be. I've said it my entire career, that physically I can hit any shot like anybody, but mentally I'm so far behind the game it's unbelievable. Some days I fight it better than others, and when I do, you see the talent that I have, and when I don't, you see how bad I can be. It's kind of a -- I'm getting old enough now to where I'm trying to laugh at it some days. Some days are easier to laugh than others. But I'm doing a better job of dealing with the fact that that's just my Achilles heel, and that's just the way it goes. Q. Yesterday you talked about the rain delay and how much that was going to affect your momentum. How much did that play into it? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, it certainly did, because like I said, when we got pulled off the golf course yesterday, I believe it was like 1:50. Perfect afternoon as far as heat or whatever. I had 212 yards into 12, and yesterday I could have probably got a 4-iron there without any problem. Today I couldn't even get a 3-iron there this morning at 7:20 this morning. The 15th hole, the 17th and the 18th were playing so long because the moisture, it was so overcast, and the golf course played long as all get-out this morning. From that standpoint that was tough, and then the fact that you're having to come back at 7:20 in the morning and start something that -- I was on a little bit of a roll yesterday, so definitely took my momentum away, no question. Q. You look at players like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, and then you talk about what happened to you mentally today. Is that kind of what separates those guys from the rest of the group, that they can handle that? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I mean, like I said, the thing I always say about Tiger, what makes Tiger so good is Tiger has no weakness. You can go through time, everybody had a weakness, even in their primes. Everybody seemed to have a weakness, and he has no weaknesses. So therefore that's why -- that's why he's at his level more often. I thoroughly don't believe that Phil Mickelson's level is below Tiger's or for that matter mine, but he can stay there more often because he doesn't have the weakness. When Phil drives it really bad or does whatever, he has his bad weeks, he misses cuts, he does whatever. When Tiger does it, it doesn't matter. You've seen he has such an unbelievable short game. He makes every putt he looks at when he has to. So therefore when he's off he's still okay. Guys like myself, when my game is off, obviously I don't perform at that level. Q. (Inaudible.) WOODY AUSTIN: Well, you would think, but again, the competitive side of you, I think anybody who's competitive -- any time you're competitive, you know you're nervous, everything kind of kicks into that little extra gear. This is a game, but it's also my livelihood, and I don't ever want to perform as bad as I did the back nine today. So from that standpoint everything gets heightened, and when it gets heightened, I couldn't control it today, and unfortunately on the last hole it bit me. Q. (Inaudible.) WOODY AUSTIN: There was nothing on the first shot. Like I said, I'm trying to make 4, they've got the tees up, it's downwind right to left. I mean, I'm trying to get my drive out there to where I can get my second shot up into the bunker or up into the green. I hit it solid off the tee, it's just guarding against going in the water, and I just -- I felt like I could hit that second shot, and I know if I go back out there and I'm not worried about it, I know I can hit that shot. Unfortunately, like I said, I did not have control of my faculties today, and it finally showed up. End of FastScripts |
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