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THE PRESIDENTS CUP

October 6, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

DOUG MILNE: We would like to welcome the first four American members of this year's Presidents Cup team to the interview room. Thanks for joining us. We have Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Tiger Woods, Kenny Perry. If we could just start off with a couple of brief comments. You've played the course, just some thoughts on the course and then we'll open it up for a few questions.
Jim, we will start with you down at the end.
JIM FURYK: I think it's a good golf course, we were obviously here four years ago for the World Golf Championships. I think the big question for everyone coming in was the greens and they seem to be doing just fine.
The good thing is there's only 24 people on the golf course and so they won't get beat up too bad. The golf course is in good shape and I am excited to be here and excited to be playing with these 11 guys.
STEVE STRICKER: Ditto for me. It's very exciting to be here. I think we are all very much looking forward to the start of the event. The course is in great shape. The greens have gotten a little bit better it seems like every day, but, you know, I think by Thursday, they will be good and have picked up a little speed by then probably. But just looking forward to getting going.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, same here. We are looking forward to getting out there and playing. The golf course, as Steve and Jim alluded to, is in pretty good shape. The greens are not what they were when we were here four years ago, but certainly not as bad as everyone made them out to be, as well. So we are looking forward to getting out there and playing a couple of days.
KENNY PERRY: It's tough going last. (Laughter).
You know, I like hanging out with this guy for a week (patting Tiger Woods on the back) and getting to know the rest of my teammates.
The weather forecast looks great and there's not much rough out there. You're going to see a lot of birdies and a lot of excitement and I think it's a good golf course for this event.

Q. Tiger, something different, we'll start with you. Absence makes the heart grow fonder; you didn't play last year, is it good to be back in the team environment? And I hear Phil is getting really good at table tennis.
TIGER WOODS: Well, I watched these guys, yeah, I did watch them play last year.
Did I miss it; I didn't, because at the time I was just trying to learn how to walk again. Golf was so far from my mind. I was still another four or five months away from even swinging a club again.
So it was fun to watch these guys play well, and it's good to be back on a team again. This is just a pretty cool mix of guys.
Usually over the past Ryder Cups or Presidents Cups, I've been generally the youngest one, but now we have got a whole new crew. We saw that last year with Hunter and AK and now we have Lucas, as well, and Sean O'Hair. So it's younger, but we also have Kenny to balance it out as well. (Laughter).
KENNY PERRY: I knew you were going to say something like that.
TIGER WOODS: As far as our table tennis, we are playing a lot. The reason why we were late is Kenny was playing Zach in there.

Q. For Jim and Tiger, you guys are veterans of both iterations of this, Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup. There are a few nuances here that they do different, playing four days, everybody plays every day, they do the fantasy draft thing with the names at the end. Are there any of those things or any other things that you might enjoy about this over The Ryder Cup, just kind of the way they do this versus the way they do that?
TIGER WOODS: Well, as far as what you -- those are the things you did name. There's probably one other big distinct difference is when we play foursomes, it's not the one-ball rule that's in effect at The Ryder Cup. We can play whatever ball we want on each and every hole. So there's a lot more strategy involved in how you -- whose ball to hit off the tee, and changes of golf balls. Obviously they had a problem at Kiawah in The Ryder Cup and got rid of that.
Presidents Cup is different. There's a lot more changing golf balls and trying to figure out how you're going to play each hole. You can't just go out there and play one ball.
JIM FURYK: I hate to let you keep going, but they actually changed it last year. (Laughter).
TIGER WOODS: It happens. (Laughter).
JIM FURYK: It was a great answer, though.
TIGER WOODS: Thank you. Appreciate that. (Laughter).

Q. Having lived in the area and went to school down the road, is there anyway that the term, "home-court advantage" would apply to this tournament?
TIGER WOODS: No, because we never really played here. We played SF Club, we played Olympic, Lake Merced, but we never played Harding.
No, I've only played it a few times when it was basically a clover field when we played it four years ago.

Q. You're friends with Michael Jordan, what's it like having him around with the team this week?
TIGER WOODS: I've been around him a lot, so it's normal to me. I'm sure some of the guys, it's neat for them to meet him for the first time and get to be around him and get to know him as a person like I do.
JIM FURYK: I think exactly what Tiger said, most of the guys on this team don't know him and haven't met him and haven't had a personal relationship where you can sit down and talk with him and joke with him. Like everyone else here, you figure out he's a human being and a regular guy just like we are.
I think the guys are going to really enjoy it. He brings a lot to the table and he's a lot of fun and he's a good person to hang out with.

Q. How competitive are those ping-pong table games, and who is the best player on this table?
TIGER WOODS: (Pointing to Kenny Perry).
KENNY PERRY: No, I got thumped by Lucas last night and Zach was wearing me out in there. But I haven't played in about a year, so that's my excuse.
JIM FURYK: Why don't you just call Phil out? He brought his own paddle this year, his own kit, little bag. You'll have to ask him about that tomorrow.

Q. How has your view of team events sort of evolved over the years? You made some comments several years back where it didn't seem that important to you. But has it changed as you've aged and reached this point in your career? Is it more important?
TIGER WOODS: It's all been important, but it's different. I was never the team leader because I was always the youngest one on the team. You know, now that I've been around the teams and it's been Jim and myself and Phil who have been around the longest, guys are now starting to ask me for how does it feel to be on these teams, what do we do, and what can we expect.
I was always on the other side. So now, I've been out here long enough where that has certainly evolved.

Q. Kenny, you switched shafts earlier in the year; would you give that any credit for playing as you have this year?
KENNY PERRY: Well, I put the KBS shafts in my irons at the beginning of '08. I've used this set of irons for two years. I would credit a lot of that for my success. I used the Fujikura 75 X on my driver for two years, so I don't know what you mean by changing shafts. I used the same product for two years now.
Your equipment is important, I was playing the Gold X 40's on my irons and switched and my irons got a little tighter pattern and my misses seem better. But I would credit my putting more than my ball-striking. It's been a lot better the last two years.

Q. What do you do to make that better?
KENNY PERRY: This putter I've been using, it just works, whatever it is. It looks good. Where my eyes are looking, that's where the ball is going, so it matches my stroke.

Q. For the top five or six guys on the team to play on an international event every year, is that too much or just enough or continue with what you're doing?
KENNY PERRY: Well, I haven't played in many. This is my fourth Presidents Cup and I've only played two Ryder Cups. So to me, I love them. It's exciting. It's new, it's fresh. You've got 11 great guys and all of the wives hang out. It's just a neat week of hanging out and getting to know them a bit better. To me personally, it's just a fun week.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it's been a lot of fun to get to know the guys on a different level over the years. You're always trying to beat these guys each and every week you play, but now when you come together and hanging out with these guys and start to get to know them, and not only them, as Kenny alluded to, their wives and girlfriends and kids. You see them in a totally different light. And I think that's one of the things that you certainly appreciate that.
And the friendships that you make here on these teams are lifelong friendships.

Q. When you won here four years ago, some of us were left in the impression that you were really fired up for a Titanic dual in overtime with John Daly and maybe were disappointed with the way that ended. Was that accurate? Were you disappointed that it kind of didn't pan out?
TIGER WOODS: You never want to see your friend miss a putt like that. I felt for John in that regard because that's not how you want to have a tournament end for someone to miss a short putt like that. Especially John's been a friend of mine over the years. It was a win, yes, but also then again, it didn't feel probably as good as some of the wins, just because you don't like seeing friends make a mistake like that.

Q. This is for any of you, what's the most American thing about your team, golf-wise or otherwise? Representing America, what's the most American thing about your team in?
JIM FURYK: The most American thing? Tiger, you went to Stanford. (Laughter).
TIGER WOODS: Cheeseburger and fries. (Laughter).
JIM FURYK: Kenny's accent? (Laughter).
DOUG MILNE: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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