WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 21, 2002

Paul Azinger

PAUL AZINGER: He birdied 7 and I birdied 8 and I -- I made a great birdie on 9 to stay 4-up.

I was 5-under par through nine holes. I chipped in on 15 for par and then he made a birdie on top of it, so I was back to 3-up.

Then, he hit it to 15 feet on 11; and I hit it like three feet on 11, which is an unbelievable shot with a 5-iron. So I was back to 4-up.

He made a nice birdie on the par 5 for 3-up. Then he made a nice par on 13. He made another nice par on 14.

And 15, the wind was blowing, the wind was blowing, kind of helping right-to-left. I just let my guard down a little; it's a perfect wind for me. The wind I don't like is left-to-right and into it, but right-to-left, that's my favorite wind.

I played a terrible shot off 15 tee and had no chance. Then I got great break 16. Played a terrible shot there. The bunker shot was tough. That bunker was full of shots. I didn't hit a very good shot there. Missed the green left on 17, I felt like, get it up the middle somewhere. Missed it just a smidgen, kicked it to the right and went down there. I made a great decision. I just felt like where he was, he was going to have a hard time making par, and just take your medicine and see if you can get a par.

Q. How much different were the conditions today versus yesterday?

PAUL AZINGER: Completely different today for two hours, I guess, and then all of a sudden we got a good wind -- even on mine, because I was 5-iron -- the course is playing shorter.

Q. You both had good drives on 9?

PAUL AZINGER: Both of those par 5's, I actually skated past him and he had good drives, so I was pretty happy about that. But the wind was a factor there. There's no doubt about it. When it came up, it's like a different mindset. Now you are starting to think about 190, 195 instead of 180. You had to really start thinking.

The back nine, I played solid for 14, 15 holes. I was 6-under par. I was playing great and didn't -- I might have let my guard down a little bit, with a really bad shot off the tee, 16. I made a bad decision on 16 going right at the flag.

I was wondering if I was going to get -- I just tried to not get ahead of myself and just play one shot at a time. I was getting toward-- make one on 17, took my time there -- that was the best decision.

Q. Your next match is a Ryder Cup sort of match-up; do you know much about him?

PAUL AZINGER: I don't know much about him, but his match-play record is pretty good. Once again, match-play, I think you just mind your own business. You can't control the other guy, but you can make decisions based on what the other guy is doing.

Q. Already the papers are writing about what network television wants -- as far as having more match-play events, can you talk about that; that network television would not go for it?

PAUL AZINGER: Yeah, you saw what happened yesterday, the top seed in the world get knocked out. That's not attractive to television. All of the guys in the locker room were commenting like, ABC must be having a heart attack, ESPN is having a heart attack.

But that's the nature of the beast. I don't know what else to say. We play for a lot of money, and down the stretch, everybody who plays in this format, there's that much money on the line and interest no matter who is playing.

Q. Talk about how Davis played today.

PAUL AZINGER: He didn't play great. He made a couple of mistakes early. He really made a bad mistake on the first hole. He had about an 8-footer, 9-footer to win the hole. And he missed it low, rolled about two and a half feet coming by.

End of FastScripts....