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THE BARCLAYS

August 23, 2008

Mike Weir

PARAMUS, NEW JERSEY

LAURA HILL: Mike, thanks for joining us. Another nice 67 today, and 7-under is looking better and better toward the last couple of minutes. Talk about your position going into tomorrow.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I was surprised. I played well today and I was a little disappointed I didn't birdie 17, and then hit I real nice shot on 18. I thought if I could get to 8, that would get me within two or three of the lead and I was surprised to look up when I tapped in there to see that the guys had come back.
It's going to be a tight race tomorrow, a lot of guys, and you're going to have to shoot a low one tomorrow, probably 4- or 5-under, 6-under maybe to win this thing, with that many guys close to the lead, and not too many -- and a bunch of guys not too far behind the lead. It's going to be a bit of a shootout tomorrow.

Q. That birdie putt on 18, is that going to stick with you tomorrow or will you try your best to forget about that one?
MIKE WEIR: Well, it was 30 feet; it's not that disappointing. I hit a nice putt, and it didn't go in. It won't stay with me at all. I played great today.

Q. I know you shot 67 today. Are the conditions out there biting back a little bit? Do you get that sense that they could?
MIKE WEIR: The course biting back a little bit, yeah, it was starting to. We started the day and I got off to a great start and we were both 3-under through four holes, both of us and the greens were soft and receptive. And as the day wore on, the wind picked up. I thought there was some really good pin positions out there. Tough to get close to the hole.
And the greens really firmed up. And even that little ten-mile-an-hour wind, the big trees, it has that Augusta feel where you think it's going this way and it might go this way and that's the difference between maybe having a 10-footer or a 30-footer. So it got a little bit tricky out there near the end of the day.

Q. Could you talk about your year? You made the cut in all four majors and a lot of middle finishes, not high-high finishes, so imagine a mixed bag from that standpoint.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, that's exactly it. I felt like I've been really close to playing some really great golf but for one thing or another, I don't putt well that week, or it just seems like I haven't put everything together.
The last few weeks I've been playing a lot better. Obviously I had a good chance at Canada and the PGA, I played okay and had last week off and playing well this week.
I feel like I'm playing well now. And there is a part of the middle of the year, kind of March and April, where I wasn't playing great. But it's been a bit of a mixed bag, yeah. After this FedExCup season, I'll play a couple in the fall and then shut it down for a while and get geared up for next year.

Q. If you could, give us a sense of where the FedExCup falls in terms of accomplishments you're going to have for the season, winning a major, winning a tournament, the money title; where would you rank it?
MIKE WEIR: If you win it? Yeah, obviously it would be a big accomplishment to win the FedExCup. It's right up there with, you know, the World Golf Championships and moving towards hopefully the majors.
It's obviously young and in its inception here in the second year and it's going to keep getting better. With this year's points, it's created a lot more excitement and a lot more volatility with guys moving up and down. I think it will just keep getting better as the years go on.

Q. When did the Gretzky thing get filmed I know you have gotten to know him well through the years; when was the shoot and when did it all come together? Looked like you had a lot of fun doing it.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, we had a great time. We did it -- I flew back to Toronto for a Media Day for the Canadian Open about a month before the Canadian Open and right after Wayne had his Nationwide event in Collinswood. So we did that on Monday after his event and he just flew down or drove down and we did it in the afternoon.
Yeah, it was fun. I don't get to see him very much with his coaching and his busy schedule and my busy schedule. It was fun to hang out with him. It's been fun and with the little beard I have going this week --

Q. Any correlation?
MIKE WEIR: I didn't plan it. To tell you the truth, after the PGA, I had a family vacation, my kids and I and some friends. We went down to a lake in southern Utah and just didn't have a razor on the lake. I got home and thought, you know what, it's Playoffs. I guess the old hockey player in me thought we'll keep it out there.

Q. Do you have approval to keep it for as long as necessary?
MIKE WEIR: Well, I haven't seen my wife since I guess Sunday I left, so I don't know what she'll think of me when she sees me next week when she comes out.
That's the approval I'm sure you're talking about, right? (Laughter).

Q. The boss.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, the boss.

Q. Can you give us your birdies?
MIKE WEIR: The first hole I hit a 3-wood and a wedge to probably about 12 feet and made birdie.
The par 5, drive and a 3-wood right on the front fringe and 2-putted.
The fourth hole, I hit a drive and an 8-iron to about 20 feet and made a nice putt there.
Then my only bogey was on 10. I hit a nice shot actually about 25 feet and then I just misjudged it and left it a little bit short and missed that putt.
Then my other birdies were 14. I hit a 3-wood and a 7-iron to about 12 feet.
On 15, the par 3, I hit a wedge to about six feet, and those were my birdies.

Q. It seems like I tease you about this all the time and here you are sitting in second place and probably have them right where you want them based on your history. For whatever reason, you're a guy that's been better coming through the weeds and sneaking up on these guys versus being the marked man out front.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, that's true. For whatever reason, I can't put my finger on it. That's the truth, for some reason, I guess I've come back, my wins, seven of the eight, and I'm not sure where I'll be at the end of today, how many behind. I seem to be comfortable there. I would like to be in the lead sometime and telling you how I'll stretch a lead out from in front.
I am coming from behind here and it is a comfortable place for me I guess and we'll see what happens for me tomorrow. But there are so many guys there, I know tomorrow I'll probably have to play a little more aggressively than I might.

Q. Can you talk about some of the names up there; major champions?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, Vij has been playing well. He won a few weeks ago and he's always going to be tough.
I think the players around here that really have a great short game -- as fast as the greens are, you have to lag putt well. And in the rough around the greens, you're in some gnarly rough around the greens, and if you can save par, that keeps a round going. On 6, I hit it in the bunker left and made probably a 10-footer for par. Those are probably the kind of things I haven't been doing as much and they really keep the round going. I think that a player who does well tomorrow will really do that.

Q. You say you had kind of a mixed bag this year. Is there any one part of your game, I think you may have just touched on it, but things that you're doing better now that you weren't doing early in the year?
MIKE WEIR: Well, I am putting a little bit better, but I think my overall wedge game is a lot better. From inside 125 yards, I was thinking about that actually last night. A lot of little wedges that I had into a hole like 5, where you can either drive the green or lay it up; well, I feel confident laying up because my wedge game feels good and I'm confident and I've hit a couple of nice wedges on it and some of the par 5s, I've hit some wedges close.
That's my game, I need to wedge it close. I'm not the longest driver so I have to convert some birdies when I have a wedge in my hand. I've been maybe off with that the last couple of years. Almost two years with the new swing coaches I've been using, I've spent a lot of time working on my swing and finally got it through my skull to start working on my short game a little harder. That's probably why I've been playing a little better this week.

Q. Have you become a fan of the little par 4s and making guys have to think about grabbing something other than driver, because it's kind of a seminal hole this week, and one next week in Boston, a huge hole in the grand scheme of things there, they have been popping up even in the majors.
MIKE WEIR: I agree. I love those holes. I am dabbling in design now and I love the drivable par 4. Mike Davis at the USGA has always done a great job incorporating one in the last few U.S. Opens. They do make a player think instead of just standing up there, and we get kind of mundane, just driver and long iron into a lot of these holes to make you think whether to try to go for the green and maybe short-side yourself and you might not be able to get it up on the green from left of the hole on No. 5 here.
I like it. I think it brings more strategy into the game, and I'm glad they have been doing that the last couple of years out here.
LAURA HILL: Mike, thanks for coming in. Good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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