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THE 50TH BOB HOPE CLASSIC HOSTED BY ARNOLD PALMER

January 21, 2009

Mike Weir

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

JOE CHEMYCZ: Like to welcome Mike Weir into our interview room. Mike with a 10-under par 62 today. Closing with an eagle and a 30 on the back nine. Obviously you played well today. Maybe just talk a little bit about your round.
MIKE WEIR: It was a solid round. Most things I did well. I hit couple errant ones, but for the most part I was down the middle and at the pin and had a lot of chances today.
I started right out of the gate I hit a nice drive and a 9-iron to about three feet. So that kind of set a nice tone. And made, birdied the next hole and just was in a nice rhythm going through the front side.
I had a couple other chances, but burned some edges. And then we had that long wait and it felt like maybe the key to the round was that 10th hole after the way I hit a poor tee shot and had to pitch it out sideways and hit a wedge from 135 yards to about three feet and made a par.
That kind of kept that momentum going into the next par-5. And made a birdie there. And then just started -- it was one of those rounds I think when you shoot 10-under you get a lot of great numbers. You're not in between clubs, you're in the ideal yardage. 105 yards is a perfect sand wedge for me or 130 yards for a pitching wedge, you just seem to get those right numbers. And it doesn't always work out that way, but I seemed to today and that part of my game was probably my strength when I'm hitting some good wedges in there.
JOE CHEMYCZ: How long was the wait?
MIKE WEIR: Close to 40 minutes. So it was time to -- I had enough time to go inside, have lunch, go back out, hit a couple putts. So it didn't help me having to hit the -- it's a pretty tough tee shot there on 10. And just maybe lost a little bit of feel after that a little bit. But I was able to again hit that great wedge to kind of keep it going.

Q. You call it a solid round. A lot of times a lot of tournaments you shoot a solid round and shoot 68, 69. Here it's 62.
MIKE WEIR: Well, maybe it wasn't the best word to use. It was a great round. But I played solidly. I guess I wasn't, I didn't feel like it was like phenomenal putting or ball striking, it was a combo of everything. And the front nine I was really hitting it really well and missed some putts. Birdied the first two with really short putts.
But then on three I had about an 8-footer and missed it. Four, I had about an 8-footer and missed it.
And it was kind of like a little bit like that on the front nine. And I made a nice putt on nine from about 15 feet, probably, for birdie.
Then I kind of, struggled just a little bit, that tee shot on 10, and hit a poor second shot into 12, so it was a little bit of everything. And then I started finding my game again.
So it was a combination of all good things. When I did miss a green I chipped it well, I think everything was working pretty well today.

Q. Obviously when you won this tournament in '03 this was the host course. You played it twice then. I mean, is that still a comfort level you can go back to in your mind and say, I remember when I was 30-under on this golf course.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I think there was a comfort factor knowing that we're finishing here. And that year was such different conditions. I mean, I think it was blowing 30, 35 miles an hour on that Sunday. And I shot 5-under, 67. And I think it was low score by a couple shots that day because it was blowing so hard that day.
So this course can have some teeth, if you get a little wind out here. But it's perfect conditions today and the guys are taking advantage. But I think that, yeah it probably does give me a little comfort knowing that any place you won and you get back to it you have that, I guess that extra ammo in there.

Q. As well as you played the front and you have that momentum, how hard is it to not get frustrated by the long wait? Do you have to kind of talk yourself out of getting frustrated? And two, what did you have for lunch?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, lunch, made six more birdies with the lunch. No, I wasn't frustrated. I played with three great guys today. We were having a good time out there. I didn't think of it as frustrating, I guess you kind of know that at this event sometimes have you a couple little waits, so yeah, I wasn't frustrated by it, so I went out and just relaxed upstairs and had a sandwich and a salad and it was all right.

Q. When is the last time you remember having that big a break in between nines?
MIKE WEIR: Well sometimes in the pro-am formats you get that. I can't remember the last time. But maybe Pebble Beach, maybe we had some waits there.
But it's not very often. I notice that the other side didn't have as long of a wait, so it might have been just circumstances today on that rotation on our side was a little bit longer. But it wasn't too bad.

Q. Any changes in your game or your equipment this year and how much skiing did you do to get ready?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, my equipment, I'm using a new set of irons, but they're very similar to the old irons I was using.
And outside of that, what did I have in there? I put a different rescue club, TaylorMade rescue club in there for my 3-iron today. I took the 3-iron out of the bag and put an extra rescue in there which came in handy there on 18.
Everything else I'm still experimenting with the new driver which I like a lot. I just need a few more practice rounds with it, but it feels great and I can't wait to get it in play. But other than that, everything's been the same.
And skiing wise, I skied quite a bit the last couple weeks, we made a trip to Whistler, BC, and skied a few days up there. And skied a couple days with my family up Friday and Saturday right before we came out here, and I flew out Sunday. So probably got about 10 days in this year.

Q. Are you the best skier on the PGA TOUR?
MIKE WEIR: I don't know. I'm sure there's some guys that are probably pretty good. I haven't skied with many guys. So I don't know.

Q. Do you snow board?
MIKE WEIR: No, I just ski.

Q. Do you think anybody's going to miss the Classic Club two rounds there and without it, will 38-under be enough?
MIKE WEIR: Well, I think, I like that we're all in this area. All the golf courses are in this area so there's not that golf course so far away that the difference in tee times and what day have you that course can be such a big factor and such an advantage or disadvantage. And with the courses all being in this area and this valley, I think it's better. I think it's better for the players, better for the fans, the fans don't have to travel around as much, kind of know where to go and know where to find the players they want to watch. So I think it's better.
But scoring, yeah, scoring might be a little bit better. I'm excited to play the Nicklaus Course tomorrow, I played a few holes Sunday and drove around in a cart. I think it's a really neat golf course. It has some real character. What a great members golf course to play on every day. It seems like, it seems scorable, but it has some trouble out there. So looking forward to playing that tomorrow.

Q. When you play here in a tournament like this you're kind of like the DC, the designated Canadian because we got so many snowbirds in the valley. How is it to playing with this many Canadian fans? I remember seeing you at Maple Leaf Gardens about six years ago, the place went nuts when you showed up with the jacket. So how does that feel?
MIKE WEIR: Well it's wonderful. I mean it's special, really. I mean, I'm in a unique position that not many guys have that and, but, yeah, a lot of Canadians like to get this warmer weather in the winter time. This is a great spot to do it and I had great support out there today.
So I was glad to shoot a good round and hopefully keep it going for them, because they have always been very supportive of me. And it's different. It's usually the west coast Canadians are down in California and then we work our way to Florida. It's a lot of Ontario and Quebec and east coast Canadians that winter down there. So we get a mix of them once we work our way across.

Q. All the license plates say, "Beautiful British Columbia."
MIKE WEIR: Yeah there's a lot of those, aren't there.

Q. Can you talk about the eagle on 18. Give us a play by play and what you thought.
MIKE WEIR: I hit a really nice drive for me. I think I had, I looked at the front of the green I had about 205 and I had, I think it was 10 on, so maybe 215.
I was a little bit of a down slope, but as I was saying, the one club change I made, I have taken out my 3-iron just in the chance that I might have a shot like that. It came in handy because the rescue club you had hit a little higher. And for me I hit a pretty flat ball. So I switched that out and I can get it in the air a little bit better.
I was on the down slope, caught it a little thin, didn't catch it great, but I caught it well enough and had enough height with that club to carry it and made a great putt there.

Q. I saw a wire story this morning that you talking about not playing with the celebrity field and talking a little bit about George Lopez and your disappointment about him not hosting the tournament. Can you tell us more your thoughts about that?
MIKE WEIR: That might be taken a little out of context because before George played in this event I always played in the amateur field. And George, when I became buddies with George, he asked me to play in the celebrity field, because I enjoyed playing with him. And it was great to meet some of the other guys, but mainly I played because George asked me to. And since he wasn't playing this year -- and it was true that I was, I was disappointed in the way it was handled.
He told me the way it was handed and I don't need to get into it any more than that, but it could have been dealt differently, I think. And not to say that Arnold's not great. I think it was very appropriate to have Arnold here. His 50th year. But it's, George's situation could have been handled a little differently.
JOE CHEMYCZ: All right, Mike. Thank you.
MIKE WEIR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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