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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 25, 2005

Retief Goosen

CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Retief Goosen, thanks for joining us for a couple of minutes. Had to extend your match this afternoon with Chad, but I'm sure you're happy that you came out on the winning end. If we could start with some opening comments about your day today.

RETIEF GOOSEN: Chad played really well, actually, the first nine holes, ten holes, I think he was 4 under par, so he played really solid and I was 3 down. I birdied 11 to get back 2 down and he got it in the water off the tee. And I made a monster putt on 15 to suddenly be square. So it turned around for me on the back nine. I'm lucky I birdied the first hole in the playoff.

Q. What was the iron you hit into the 19th hole?

RETIEF GOOSEN: I hit a drive, I had a smooth 8 iron, about 155 yards left. It was probably the best shot I've hit all week, sort of three, four feet away. I don't think we could have played much longer after that.

Q. And the monster putt, how long was that?

RETIEF GOOSEN: I don't know, it must have been all of 15 yards on 15.

Q. Was it a straight putt or did it have to curl?

RETIEF GOOSEN: It was from the front left of the green. It had probably about two feet of break on it. It was just one of those I was trying to get close. It was a long putt going up a steep hill, the first one I made all day and first time in three rounds, as well. I think everybody has been saying that, they haven't been making anything. You can play well and lose if you don't make the putts on these greens.

Chad putted very well on the first ten holes, like I said, but then things turned.

Q. So you were just trying to get it close, you weren't

RETIEF GOOSEN: Obviously you try to make it, but, yeah, he wasn't close to the hole, either. I thought if I could roll it up there to give, then he's got a tough two putt himself.

Q. At that point are you thinking half?

RETIEF GOOSEN: I thought I had a pretty good chance of winning the hole. He had probably a good 20 foot putt himself.

Q. Could you run through 18 and the match play possibilities, what your thought process was, to go for it, not go for it, and how bad was that lie on your chip shot?

RETIEF GOOSEN: On 18 it was terrible. I could hardly see the ball. If it wasn't for all those people standing there, I'd never have found it. It was probably the worst lie I've had all three rounds. I did well to get it to where I got it to.

Q. Back in the fairway, were you thinking

RETIEF GOOSEN: I was actually trying to hit it in the front right bunker. From there it's a fairly simple bunker shot, so I thought if I could get it in the front right trap I'd try to blast it close from there. I knew the wind being a little off to the left, you have to turn it, and I had overdone it.

Q. Were you thinking that he was in birdie range there? Did you think that was going to be it?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, the way he's been putting, he's been putting very well. I thought that pretty much he was going to make it. And how he hit it from where I was standing, it looked low, and it did lip out on the bottom of the cup.

Q. In the beginning of the year we were all talking about a big three, and then Phil wins a couple of times, and it's the big four. What would it take for people to start talking about a big five, including you?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Maybe if I win another six majors (laughter).

Q. In some ways do you like to be a little under the radar from those guys and playing as well as you are?

RETIEF GOOSEN: It's the media that makes it up, really. Phil has been playing well and Ernie and Vijay obviously. But, yeah, just keep playing the way I play and plugging away and trying to win tournaments, and the rest will come all by itself.

Q. Talk about the feeling you have now, just the whole day, playing two matches in one day and walking on soggy ground. Was it a tougher day physically or emotionally, mentally?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, mentally, I played 37 holes today and 18 yesterday, so pretty much played a lot of holes, as well. Chad had a long day himself today. Yeah, you feel it on your feet now; it's not an easy course to walk. You're walking sideways on some of the holes to try to avoid the mud.

But when you're not really swinging it well, it seems very hard mental wise. You're grinding out on every shot. That's what I'm doing at the moment. I'm not swinging it well, but I'm hanging in there, and coming down the stretch I managed to make a few good swings and keep the ball in play.

Q. Are you surprised or not that surprised at the other top seeds getting knocked out today?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, there's so little between the 64th player and the No. 1 player in the world. Like I said earlier on, greens like this, when you hit a lot of good putts and nothing is going in, you're going to lose. I'm sure that's what's happened with Tiger. From what I've seen, he's putted very well and just didn't make anything. And what can you do? When you hit good putts and they're not going in, there's always next week.

Q. Can you talk about how you felt going into this week in light of what happened last week?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, I was ready to play. I've been hanging around here since Wednesday last week, although I've only played one practice round around this course. I played another course up the road on the weekend. I've only played three tournaments in the last three months, so I'm sort of ready to get going. I played The Million Dollar at the beginning of December and then the two in Hawaii. I thought last week would have been pretty good practice, but at least I got a practice round in on Tuesday.

I've been out this week, and this is about as far as I've ever been in a match play event. I've always struggled in this tournament, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Q. Sort of that much more encouragement not to have another short week?

RETIEF GOOSEN: That's right, yeah, although I'm ready to go home. My wife and kids just flew in just now to America; they probably just landed in Orlando. It's been two weeks since I've last seen them. So I'm sort of ready to see them again. But going this far, I might as well wait until Sunday.

Q. What did you do after Wednesday? Did you come right down here, did you get out of there or what?

RETIEF GOOSEN: I just left straight away. I came down here. I didn't stay here, I stayed at another hotel down the road and just been ready at the Taylor Made factory down the road here, on the launch monitor. I've tried different clubs and things. So it's time sort of well spent in a way, good time with the Taylor Made boys down there, so it was good.

Q. With the wet conditions, did you change anything about your clubs this week, a little higher loft or a little bit more carry, or did you leave everything alone?

RETIEF GOOSEN: No. I got new irons in the bag; the irons I got last week, beginning of last week. So the irons are new. That's the only things I've changed.

Q. What are the irons?

RETIEF GOOSEN: They're the new RAC irons that they made for me.

Q. When was the practice round? Wasn't it over the weekend that you played here when Phil played

RETIEF GOOSEN: I played nine holes last Friday and Saturday and then that was pretty much it.

Q. Guys were practicing out here, but you just didn't want to come out and slog through it?

RETIEF GOOSEN: No, I just practiced down the road. They've got good facilities there to practice and I thought it was good time well spent every day.

Q. Where did you practice?

RETIEF GOOSEN: The Taylor Made center.

Q. Just Taylor Made?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah.

Q. You didn't practice on the course?

RETIEF GOOSEN: I played some other golf course up here last Friday. I played with a couple of Taylor Made guys.

Q. As you were playing, did you watch what was happening?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, this morning I think the golf course being as soft as it is in a way suits the shorter hitters in a way, because they don't spin the ball as much on the greens. And you can pretty much see a lot of guys up there that don't spin it a lot that are doing well.

End of FastScripts.

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