BUICK OPEN

August 12, 2000

Woody Austin

WOODY AUSTIN: Really just disappointed about today, really. Like I said yesterday, it is just a matter of trying to be make little positive improvements each day and I felt like today I went so far backwards that even if it was just that little bit -- even if it was after the first two holes, just anything that goes forward and goes positive and I felt like I let that all get away today, so I am very disappointed.

WOODY AUSTIN: Like you said, people don't realize -- you can sit there and think about how great a player he is, but he has so many advantages; not only just with his golf game. I think he has a huge advantage at every tournament he plays in because he always has -- you can look at it this way: If you always have so many people around you to positively always lift you up, to keep you fighting, to keep you into a game or to keep you in the tournament, you are at an advantage. I played with him on Saturday here a couple of years ago and I was playing pretty well and he wasn't playing very good. And I think I was 1-under; he was maybe a couple over, actually, playing No. 11. I hit 4-iron into No. 11 like that. He hit it in that left bunker. Everybody -- he has got at least 3,000 people following him and just everybody: "Come on, Tiger, come on." And he holed it out of that bunker and the deafening roar from him, holding it out just -- that has got to go right inside you; lift you up and get you going. Now it is a little different for, let's say, the average person who is out there on the course on Sunday who is 2-over; hits it in that bunker, he holes out the bunker, you know, few people might clap or whatever, but he is sitting there you know: 'It is about time I hit a golf shot today.' But he is not lifted up and, you know, thrown into the fray because he doesn't have all those people: 'Come on come on.' It is just being in like those last few groups. If you are in those last few groups, you have got the people pushing you, pushing you. If you are not, you have only got yourself trying to motivate you and keep you going. I think that is a major advantage, I think. We just joked today, we just thought we were in the first group out.

WOODY AUSTIN: I don't think there is any difference for me. Like I said, I am pretty much afraid of my own shadow, so I don't think it is any different for me. I just -- I came here this week to try and play a good tournament and whether I was leading or pursuing tomorrow, the idea of the chance to win the tournament was more overwhelming than where I was.

WOODY AUSTIN: I drove the ball extremely well which is what I need to do again tomorrow. I drove the ball in the middle of the fairway on every hole except for two. I had the ball in proper spots. I just -- my iron-play, which is usually the best part of my game, wasn't there; could have been the nerves; could have been anything. And then I made absolutely nothing after the second hole. (laughs) Only 1-putt after the second hole was the 6-inch-er on the last hole.

WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah, 3-putted 17.

WOODY AUSTIN: Like I said, it is tough enough when -- it is a tough enough game to play when you are playing well. If you are struggling and you keep putting yourself up against the wall to make that 3- and 4-footer every hole just to make pars, then you are just putting so much more pressure on yourself that eventually it is just like anything, eventually you are going to miss. If you keep it just like it is -- they say -- the old adage, if you keep hitting it five feet, eventually you are going to make one. Well, if you keep having to make -- having to make every one for par eventually you are going to miss one. That same thing. You just don't want to keep doing it to yourself; especially when you are trying to win the golf tournament, you don't want to be having, every hole, your first putt a 3-footer for par. That is just not conducive to positive play.

WOODY AUSTIN: That is a good question. I said that was the first green I had missed all day really. And it just -- I tried to make sure I didn't back off. I hit such a good drive on that hole, it is such a tough hole and I was trying to hit it in the middle of the green with a little draw. I started at the hole with a draw. It is one of those things and I don't know if they put it in there, who knows. (laughs). I had one thing happen to me today that has never happen, I guarantee it's never happened to anybody. On the 5th green, I hit my first putt on the 5th green up to the hole about two feet from the hole and I was walking around the hole to putt it in and a water balloon came flying on the green and landed and busted on the green. Now how is that one?

WOODY AUSTIN: Before, while I was starting to address it. I backed off-- thought maybe like -- it sound like an umbrella had fallen on the ground or I thought the cameras -- I turned to the cameramen, I looked at my caddie and was like: What was that. After we finished the hole he said it was a water balloon. Somebody had shot a water balloon. I don't know how they did it. But pretty good size water balloon, he said.

WOODY AUSTIN: He said it was only about 15 feet, just off to the right side of. Me: So I told --

WOODY AUSTIN: We don't know. Like I said, we don't know. (inaudible).