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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

August 29, 2008

Mike Weir

NORTON, MASSACHUSETTS

STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome the first round leader here at the Deutsche Bank Championship, Mike Weir, to the interview room after a course-tying record 61, ten birdies, eight pars, and I guess golf is a pretty easy game on days like this.
MIKE WEIR: It was one of the rare days it did feel like that, but just one of those days with my putter I hadn't had in a while, so it was fun.
STEWART MOORE: You get out there in the afternoon and you saw a lot of low scores this morning. Did you know you were going to have to keep it going?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I was hoping to. Even starting the afternoon the wind was very calm, the flags were limp and we had a little cloud cover, which made the greens not get baked out at all. They kept soft for most of the day, so I was able to take advantage of that. You know, there was still some guys shooting some low scores out there this afternoon. The wind kicked up probably the last four or five holes and made it a little trickier.

Q. You were playing well last year, different set of circumstances where you had to play well to get on to the next step. How much different is it this year, especially since no one is asking any Ryder Cup questions?
MIKE WEIR: Right. Yeah, that's a little different. I was kind of struggling with my game coming in here, and you know, played two good rounds. But I don't know how I did that. I wasn't very confident with my game and it showed on the weekend. I feel like I have a lot more confidence, been playing a lot better, been right there in the mix two of my last three tournaments, Canada and last week. I feel like I'm playing good golf. So that's a little different scenario than last year.

Q. What was the difference with the putter today?
MIKE WEIR: You know, I don't know. I wish I could bottle that. I think I was just seeing it better, and for whatever reason, you know, there was no indication on the putting green when I was warming up or whatever that was going to tell me it was going to be like that. It just felt normal. I was knocking in some ten-footers and putting around the hole, and my long putts weren't going in or anything on the putting green. Just one of those days where I made about a 15-footer on the 1st hole and another one on the 2nd hole, and then I had about maybe eight feet on the 3rd hole, and it looked easy after those first two. You know, about another ten-footer on 4.
I just kind of built on that momentum and just kept doing the same thing, just tried to keep -- as I was telling the guys out there, keep the pedal down, because I knew the scores were pretty low today.

Q. Backing up a week, I guess the wife was watching on TV, saw the beard and gave you the thumbs down, or what happened with that? It didn't last -- the rally beard didn't go too deep in the playoffs.
MIKE WEIR: Not quite hockey player-ish. But I made it until Tuesday and then they flew in here, and I hadn't seen my girls in a while, my two daughters, and when they didn't want to give me a kiss or anything, I said, well, it's got to be gone. I each got them a razor and they took off the beard for me and they each started hacking away. I finished it off, but I let them do the first couple strokes.

Q. They didn't cut you?
MIKE WEIR: No.

Q. That's a lot of faith. How long had you grown the beard?
MIKE WEIR: It was only two weeks.

Q. Can we get the rest of the card real quick? We got through 4.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I birdied the first four. Six, probably about a ten-footer there on 6.
And then 7, I was on the front of the green maybe 20, 25 feet, I made that.
Sorry, 6 was a 7-iron.
7, I drove it in the fairway bunker, I had to lay up short of the cross bunkers and had to hit a 9-iron to the green.
Just about birdied 8 and 9, hit two very nice putts there.
10, I birdied, hit a 9-iron to about four feet.
13, I hit an 8-iron to about four feet.
15, I hit a pitching wedge to 20, 25 feet probably. 25 feet.
And then 18, two-putted from off the green there.

Q. How far was that do you think?
MIKE WEIR: I guess on ShotLink there it said 57 feet -- 59 feet, and it ran probably four feet by, made that.

Q. And almost made a 60-footer?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah. Well, I told Brennan, I said my low score on TOUR is 10-under. I wasn't thinking the number of 62. That was at Doral. I was just thinking 10-under. If I shoot 11-under, that would be my lowest ever. I really just wanted to get focused on that stick. Instead of concentrating on trying to lag it down there, I wanted to concentrate on making that thing, and I almost did.

Q. I was just going to say, that is your low number by a shot. What's it like for those of us that have never been in that stratosphere, to kind of be going through that situation? If you look at the length of the putts that you were making there on that printout, you made everything.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it was, like I said, one of those days where -- just as I was saying earlier, after making those putts, everything seemed to look easier to me or something. Like I said, it's tough to explain, but I just tried to stay in that frame of mind when I got on the green, just remembering the last putt, just remember the last one, how that felt, and try to do the same thing. I did that all the way around.

Q. How have you done in the past when you've had a really low round?
MIKE WEIR: Well, the last time at Doral I finished second. I shot 62 the first round, and Joe Durant shot I remember like a 65 Sunday in some strong wind, a really good round, to beat me by a shot or two. I played well the rest of that week, so hopefully I can do the same.

Q. You had to wait a little bit on 18 between shots. Was it a little harder to stay calm at that point?
MIKE WEIR: You know, I felt pretty calm. I thought I was really going to hit a little better shot than that. I had a 5-iron in, I had 205 yards and the ball was a little above my feet, and I thought I'd aim it about 20 feet left of the hole and it would draw right in off that lie, and I didn't want to do anything with it except let the slope dictate that shot. I was surprised that it kind of came out straight, and the wind was blowing right to left and it just drifted on the wind.
But waiting for that shot, you know, I was okay.

Q. Have you changed putters much this year? How has your putting been this year?
MIKE WEIR: It's been inconsistent, and I've changed it a few times. I've changed putters a few times. But I'm using the putter I've always used right now. I've used that for a number of weeks.

Q. Going back to the first question, no matter how you're playing, is there a difference in your freedom, I guess, when you're not having to -- I mean, there's so many guys talking about just wanting to make the cut so they don't get hosed that way as opposed to where you are now, so it just frees you up and now have to worry about the outside stuff and go play. Is there any difference there?
MIKE WEIR: I think there is. When you get off to a start like that, that's one thing you don't really have to worry about. On the other hand, you need to be in that frame of mind from the first hole.
That was kind of my goal today. It's been kind of my goal the last month or so was to get off to better starts in tournaments. I hadn't been playing very -- it seems like I've been coming from behind all the way, even where I finished second at Memorial. I had 73 or 74 the first round and rallied back. But I've just kind of put it in my mind to try to get off to a better start, and obviously this was way exceeding my expectations, but I just wanted to get to off a solid start, and once I did that at the start of the round today, I just wanted to keep that going.

Q. You had to use a hybrid instead of your putter for much of one of the rounds at Oakland Hills. Have you been using the same putter since then?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, same putter -- no, it's my old putter. Old Faithful is back in there.

Q. I was just wondering, after last week, three pretty darned good rounds, you're right in the mix on Sunday and then you didn't do a lot. Do you come out of that feeling good about how you played or feeling bad about how you played? Is it a mixed bag? Is it confidence?
MIKE WEIR: It's confidence.

Q. Or unfinished business?
MIKE WEIR: No, I was confident. You know, I felt like I actually wasn't -- I don't want to say I wasn't playing well, but I wasn't striking the ball as crisply as I would have liked, even Friday, Saturday -- even Thursday. I hit it in the rough almost every hole it seemed like on Thursday. But I managed my game well and scrambled well and dug it out.
And then Sunday I had a couple short missed opportunities where I hit it in the rough maybe by a yard on that long par-5 and I couldn't reach over that, so I have a 3-wood in for my third shot, make a bogey. But then my last four or five holes I had chances on every hole. I birdied 14, hit it close on 15, 16, 17. I had chances all the way in, just seemed to be burning the edge. When I really look back at the week, I was only two shots out of the playoff and I had some good looks at it coming in.
The other thing I looked at is that it played tough. The golf course for the later groups in that afternoon played much more difficult than the morning. The morning was cloud cover and calm, and as soon as that sun came up, broke through the clouds and that wind picked up, it played at least three shots harder. The greens got really firm and crusty and it played very difficult.

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