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QUAIL HOLLOW CHAMPIONSHIP

May 3, 2009

Tiger Woods

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

Q. Tell us a little bit about your round. Seems like you left a lot out there, a lot of opportunities.
TIGER WOODS: I did, I did. I didn't hit the ball well at all today. With this wind you have to. You have to flush it to keep it going through that wind, and I wasn't doing a very good job of that today. A couple upshoots today, I wasn't able to keep the ball flat and penetrating through the wind. The wind had a little bit more effect on my ball than it should have today.

Q. Talk about the course.
TIGER WOODS: The course is playing tough. The greens weren't as baked out as we thought they would be. The back nine definitely was. A couple exposed greens, man, they were crusty and fast. You had to be so patient out there. You had the four par-5s and a couple short par-4s and you had to take advantage of those holes because it was hard to get the ball close on most of the holes.

Q. Curious whether you thought some of those last three holes were over the edge at times and whether they're the best three holes to finish with on TOUR.
TIGER WOODS: I don't think 16 is that bad. 16 is not over the top, it's just long. It's a lot more penal when they've had the rough up short of the bunker. This year there was no rough short of the bunker, it was just first cut, so you could actually play it down that right side.
17 is a little bit severe with the greens like this, at this speed. You know, a lot of tilt to that green.
But they did a good job, I think the TOUR did, of moving the tees up a couple days with some of the tougher pins, which is good. 18 is just all the tee shot. If you get the tee shot in play, it's really not that bad a hole.

Q. If you just posted a score, did you feel at any point they may come back to you?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I had my opportunity there at 14. I made a mistake there. I knew the green was baked out. It was downwind, and I didn't heed my own warning myself and ended up putting too hard, blocked it and hit it too hard. Good combo. Then ran it by, and the next one I blocked again, then I made just a wonderful six-footer for a third putt.

Q. Do you know when you step up to the tee, like when you've been on the range, do you have a feel of how your swing is going to be for that day?
TIGER WOODS: Normally you do. There's so many days that you go out there and you pure it on the range and hit it like an idiot on the golf course, and vice versa. I've had some of my worst warm-ups and gone out there and striped it. You just don't know. I mean, you try and get an idea and a sense of what's going on on the range, but in the end, it's just a warm-up. A lot of times you have to look at it that way.
Sometimes you may get out here early and do a practice session to try to fix a few things and then you have a really good idea. But normally you just try and get warmed up, loosened up, get some kind of pattern and go play.

Q. You've been back five tournaments. Short game better than long game at this point?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, no doubt. My short game -- well, that's all I did for months is chip and putt. So yeah, my short game is better than it has been in a while. I just need to get a little bit more crisp with my driving and my long irons and get that dialed in. My short irons are actually pretty good, it's just the longer stuff is not where I want it at all.

Q. Just the fact that you've been away for so long, do you think you don't have a sense when you get to the first tee, like say a year ago would you know where you were going to hit it and know how to manage it?
TIGER WOODS: I don't know, it's hard to say. Maybe, maybe not. I've had plenty of time to come back. I've played a few tournaments now. I've had a lot of practice sessions. It's just a matter of getting out there and trusting what you've been doing. With windy conditions like this today, it's sometimes more difficult to do it.

Q. Happy to get on the road and get some sleep?
TIGER WOODS: It was nice to get some sleep. I did. I slept good this week, and that will be it.

Q. Sean looks like he's going to be the third player under age 30 with three or more wins. Where does he fit in the spectrum of young guns coming out? Looks like he's got all the shots.
TIGER WOODS: He's got all the talent. We know that. We've seen how well he's played. It's just he's been through a lot off the golf course, and it's just a matter of time before all that settles in. He's got a great family, and you can see now he's starting to gain confidence with what he's working on. I think he's gone back to his old coach, and things are working out pretty good for him.

End of FastScripts

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