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TARGET WORLD CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY WILLIAMS

December 11, 2004

Miguel Angel Jimenez

THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Miguel Angel, thank you for joining us for a few minutes. Another great start this morning, two birdies yesterday, started out with two birdies today, and great round out there, good going no Sunday

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Yeah, well, really well making birdies today and one bogey, hole No. 3, I hit on the par 3, I hit a very nice 5-iron there. The flag is just very, very close to the bunker. And I just pitched just on the fringe on the green and rolled back on the face of the bunker, and that was a big mistake there -- not a mistake, but just not a good score. The rest I played very well, very solid, from tee-to-green and putting well, so that's what you need to make a good score.

Birdie on the 17th. But then I missed the green on the right. I made a nice chip and I holed the putt from two and a half meters for par. That was a good recovery there. Also, I had a good recovery on hole No. 7. I missed my drive on the left and I was just short of the green there. And then I made a three-meter putt for par. On the other hand, I missed a little birdie on the 16th.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. Is this already next year for you?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: No. This is the end of this year. (Laughter.) I only play one season. Yes, I win in Hong Kong, but no, this is the end of the year. After this week I'm not going to play for two months. For two months, I'm going to disappear.

Q. What do you do in those two months?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Nothing.

Q. Go back to Spain?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Nothing. I will try to do nothing. (Laughing).

Q. Will you go back to Spain and just fly around?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I will go to see my family, my brothers and lots of friends, and I will see all of them, my family, my friends for these two months. Next year is going to be very hard, very hard from the end of February, so not before.

Q. You've been playing very well, because I listened to Aaron Oberholser saying that he had a tough time when he beat you in Korea down the stretch. He beat you by one shot or two, but he said beating you showed how well you played.

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: No, he played very well. That course is tough. He played very well, and I made a couple of mistakes and that's it. So today it's tough to play around the world, you see the scores, and you have to see the golf, also in the Far East, the people make the things happen, you know, and then it's normal that you play good all around.

Q. You were I think No. 112 at the start of the year. Did you have any idea you would be No. 12 at this point?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: No, when I start this year, around 100th, but you never know when you are going to win tournament, no. It's tough, to win one tournament, two, maybe three tournament, I don't know, but five tournaments, thank you very much. You never know what's going to happen, you know, and you just play well, enjoy yourself and collect your titles. You don't say, you know, this year I'm going to win five and now next year I'm going to win six or seven. No, it's not working like that. You should play, and if you are in the right mood and play well, you have to play well to win tournaments. It's not only you; there are 150 other players there that have the same attitudes and everything and they want to win tournaments, you know. Also it's a big percentage of them are ready to win tournaments.

Q. What have you done that you were not doing previous years to win five times?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I could not tell you at the beginning of the season, I didn't know I was going to win five tournaments. It happens. The only thing I'm doing is just be happy on the golf course and enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself. You need a wedge to the hole, if even if it's disappointing, just be happy. The golf, it is either half-full or half empty.

Q. Was it half-empty last year?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: From the couple of years it looks half-empty, yeah.

Q. When will you make your U.S. --

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: What, why are you laughing at that? You know -- very simple, just enjoy yourself and try to enjoy yourself on the golf course. Of course, when you hit a bad shot, you feel disappointed, but hey, it's done. It's done, it's done. What are you going to do?

Q. Do you think others can learn that lesson?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I think sometimes, I don't know what's going to happen next year. I will think the same positive things on the golf course, but it's very important that you can go on like that on the golf course.

Q. Did you have to learn to be happy on the golf course? Did you ever have a problem not being happy?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Depends sometimes. I feel sometimes in some seasons I feel like I have to do something, I have to win, I have to. And then you stress yourself and then you don't hit a good shot or you don't hit a decent shot, and before you don't hit the decent shot and then you always are fooling yourself. It's not much different the way you hit the ball. It's just the way you feel.

Q. What will be your first tournament over here next year?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Match-Play.

Q. The Match Play, not Riviera, not before?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: No, I am going to play to Malaysian Open, that is the same week of Nissan. I like Riviera, one of my favorite golf courses.

Q. What's been working well for you at Sherwood this week?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I enjoy myself here. I hit it well, you know, and focus and passion, you know. I'm feeling well my mind I think is in the right place. I hope I keep it in the right place tomorrow.

Q. What did you think of Tom Lehman's selection as Ryder Cup Captain?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I don't know.

Q. Don't know?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I don't think about it.

Q. Half-full or half-empty on that one?

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: I don't know, I don't think about it. I think it's the PGA's decision, no. I think Tom is a good player, and it's a big plus for the team and was the right move for the team and I think he will be a nice captain -- the -- at the end, he has the job, but in the end it's the players who are going to hit the shots. It's a combination between him and the other players. If they have the right mood, they are the perfect -- what do you want me to say?

Q. I'm curious, when he was announced, some players from Europe and even some in America wondered about, because of what happened at Brookline whether that would cause things to be revisited.

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: Yeah, but the thing is, I think that, I believe we are intelligent people, and I don't live in the past. The past is just to learn and to not make bad things happen in the future, you know. I think what's happened in the past is the past, and that shows you that for the good of golf, it won't happen again. But just, forget it, and if you're going to leave like that, you cannot be happy at that point in your life and you cannot play golf and you're not going to win. You get the point.

The history, all of the history, everything around the world, everything around anything, in the past, is to learn for for the future, to learn for the future. We are here to learn. If we go away from the past and learn nothing --

Q. I guess my question, if you don't have an answer, that's okay. But when his name comes up, it seems like he's the example of things that went wrong at Brookline, and I'm trying to figure out why.

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ: No, I still don't think -- I don't see the point. Look, the guy, he played in the Ryder Cup, he is a great player, he's a winner, I think he has respect from lots of the players in America, from the rest of the players in America they respect him. He's a good player and that's it. What happened before, it happened, that's it. I cannot recall anything from that, and I have respect for any player. Just live for the moment, for here, tomorrow. Forget that thing; you cannot live there.

Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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