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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

August 31, 2008

Mike Weir

NORTON, MASSACHUSETTS

STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome Mike Weir to the interview room here at the Deutsche Bank Championship after a great round of 67 out there. You're heading into tomorrow with the lead, and you said coming in that round by Camilo must have been one heck of a round because conditions were certainly a lot more difficult today than they were the first two.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, that's a heck of a round. I played with Camilo earlier in the week. We played a charity event for -- a skins game for Notah Begay and his foundation, and he was playing really well. But still, that was a heck of a round out there today.
I thought the course played difficult. It was hard to pick up what the wind was doing. I think that was the difficult part about it. It was swirling around quite a bit. Club selection was difficult.
STEWART MOORE: Let's quickly go through your birdies and we'll go to questions.
MIKE WEIR: 2nd hole, par-5, I laid up and hit a wedge to -- it was about 20 feet behind the hole, made a nice putt there.
Bogey, I hit it in the deep rough on 6 and I had to hit it out and missed about a 12-footer for par.
The par-5, 7, two good shots right in front. I hit a little pitch in there to about eight feet, made that one.
10, I hit two nice shots, hit a 3-wood and a 5-iron. That hole was playing quite long today, to about -- that was probably about eight feet, as well, on 10.
14, hit a really good shot there, hit a drive and a 7-iron to about three feet.
I chipped in on 15 from just off the edge of the green.
And 18, I hit wedge in there to about five feet and made it.

Q. It seems this time last year you had The Presidents Cup and going home and everything looming when you were here. How much more of a relaxed mindset is it without having this hanging over you this year?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, that's true. It's a different mindset. I think my mind was elsewhere at different parts of the year last year. You know, wondering if I was going to make the team, and then once I did, the anticipation for it.
Yeah, I think maybe that's why I played well at the end of last year, and once it was over -- besides the fact that I had good momentum after that, it was just such a sense of relief because I figured that was the only opportunity in probably my career that it would be in Canada while I was still competitive.
Yeah, this year I'm playing well. I've been playing well the last month or so and have been kind of building on that. I think today was a day that wasn't textbook at all. I really had to rely on my short game. I was real happy with the round today. Like I said, I think my short game really held me in there today.

Q. 14 was a hole that caused fits. It looked like the last six, eight groups -- I think you were the only one of two guys to hit the green and hold the green. Was that one of the more difficult decision shots to pull a club on that one?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, 14, you know, I was fortunate enough that I finally hit a good drive there and I had 199 yards, and it just seemed like the wind was blowing straight down, and I just told myself, let's just hit a good hard 7-iron and try to land it seven to ten paces on the green and hopefully it'll just skip back there, and that's exactly what it did. I was a little lucky that it skipped all the way back to the hole, but it's such a tough pin placement, you don't expect to hit it three feet.
I had a nice number. I had a club that I could just swing full and not have to carve it one way or the other. I could just hit it hard and not worry about it too much. Just a nice number, I guess, is what I had there.

Q. Can you talk about -- you seem relatively fresh coming into these. You took Bridgestone off, someplace you would have had guaranteed money and decided to take that off and get yourself ready for the PGA and this stretch. Can you just talk about that thought process and if it's actually worked out the way you thought it would?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, my thought process was two big weeks, the British Open and Canadian Open for me, I knew that if I played Bridgestone going into the PGA that I wouldn't be ready for the PGA, playing three tough events like that in a row before a major.
You know, earlier in my career, it's tough to pass up a free check. But at the same time, I wanted to be ready for the PGA and then this big stretch that we have here. You know, I figured if I could be ready for that, we play for enough out here, and more than that, I just wanted to be ready to try to contend and win, and that was the reason.

Q. Do you feel like versus last year that you're fresher coming into these now?
MIKE WEIR: I do, I do. I think the question earlier, just the mental stress of trying to make that team last year, I was pretty worn out by this time of the year, just the stress of trying to make that team. That's what guys are doing for the Ryder Cup now. I feel much fresher.

Q. What are your expectations for tomorrow, for everything, the course, you, the leaderboard, everything?
MIKE WEIR: Everything? I mean, you know, I've got my hands full. There's great players on the leaderboard, some guys that are hungry to win for the first time, guys that haven't won many times, and I'm trying to do the same thing. You know, tomorrow I just want to keep playing my type of golf. Hopefully I can hit it a little better and find a few more fairways. But like I said, I'm in a good mental state that I was able to -- I feel like to battle off a so-so ball-striking round and come out with 4-under, I'm happy with that.
I've just got to play my kind of golf, and that's when I get a wedge in my hand I've got to attack. Obviously I can't really reach most of these par-5s, so I've got to do it the old-fashioned way, really, wedges and some good putting.

Q. It's worked before.
MIKE WEIR: It's worked before. And I've spent a lot of time on that the last month. I've spent a lot of time on my short game, and it's showed. I made a lot of birdies last week in New Jersey. I made a lot of birdies with wedges in my hands, and I have this week, as well. Just made a commitment to spend more time on it.

Q. What specifically have you worked on, a certain yardage in?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, just distance control a little bit better, and just practicing a little bit more. Instead of just hitting balls, really spending more time pitching the ball and little wedge shots, because that's what I'm going to have a lot of out here, especially on par-5s and maybe some of the short par-4s.

Q. You mentioned earlier that you played a charity event. Where was it?
MIKE WEIR: It was at Turning Stone, where the event is in the fall, and it was for Notah Begay, who's affiliated with his foundation, it was a skins game, myself and Vijay and Camilo and Stewart Cink, and Notah, of course. The five of us played a skins game.

Q. Who won it?
MIKE WEIR: Camilo won the skins, Vijay was close in there, and Stewie won a skin and Notah and I were shut out.

Q. But you said you'd get them this week?
MIKE WEIR: Oh, yeah (laughter). No, I played well that day. It was a skins game. In a stretch of four holes I went eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie and didn't win anything. When you have a five-man skins, that's when it's really hard to make any headway.
I was a little disappointed not to get a skin, that's for sure. But we had a good time, and I think playing well that day kind of led me into here, it really did. Camilo and I were talking the same thing. It's good practice sometimes, just instead of being on the range and practicing, maybe to play, and there's a little bit of competition going on, and it worked, actually. When I played my first Canadian skins game I finished second to Tiger the same week in the Western Open. So there's something to that, maybe playing and being a little competitive early in the week trying to get you in the mindset.

Q. What day of the week was that?
MIKE WEIR: We played that on Tuesday.

Q. Did you win that Western Open?
MIKE WEIR: No, it was '99. I was playing with Tiger in the final group, but he won by a couple shots.

Q. Given how much the wind was kind of blowing and swirling and whatnot, would you have seen a 63 out there?
MIKE WEIR: I didn't, no. I didn't. I thought 5- or 6-under would be really good. 8-under is exceptional. That's a testament to some great golf that Camilo played. You know, I know he's hungry to win, and like I said, there's lots of guys on the board that could -- you can shoot 63 on the board, that's the PGA TOUR these days. Usually if you're close to the lead and you shoot a decent round or if you're in the lead and you shoot a decent round you have a real good chance to win. Nowadays it's so tight and there's so many good players that you've got to still play an exceptional round to win a golf tournament. That's my plan tomorrow. I want to go out there with that mindset.

Q. Camilo mentioned Vijay last week basically saying I'm not going to listen to everyone telling me I'm a bad putter, I'm going to tell myself I'm a good putter. Camilo is now doing the same thing. Does that work?
MIKE WEIR: I don't know, I heard him talking about that. I heard Vij talking about that. Hey, whatever you can do to get between the ears in a good place, and obviously it's working for him. He's been putting well the last couple weeks, Vij, so something is working with his flat stick.

Q. Have you ever done that to yourself on any aspect of your game, except for the Nick Price moment at the driving range that one time?
MIKE WEIR: What, talked myself into -- yeah, there's been times. I mean, Shinnecock at the U.S. Open, Wednesday afternoon I was hitting it about as bad as I could, and I just convinced myself that I was going to play well that week, and I finished 4th on a tough golf course. That's just funny how it can change with a different mindset sometimes. It's almost like when you're not playing well, sometimes you just say bag it and just get out there and see what happens and maybe just take the pressure off and you can play great sometimes.

Q. That's Calcavecchia's line.
MIKE WEIR: I like Calc's line, he just goes to Pro Golf Discount and buys a putter, gets a new one and wins with it (laughter).

End of FastScripts

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