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BUICK INVITATIONAL


February 16, 2003


Brad Faxon


LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

BRAD FAXON: It was a grind. It was tough conditions. Hard pins, hard golf course. I must have had some mud on the ball because I hit a really slidey-looking (ph) 5-iron -- must have hit the cart path, but I was lucky to get my next shot on the green.

Tiger put on the pressure, made a birdie early and never faltered. It looked like he had been playing for weeks in a row. He did everything he had to do. As expected, I guess, from with a we've seen. Every part of his game was on. He drove it fantastic. He putted better. And he hit some great iron shots. The shot he hit into 11 with a 4-iron was beautiful. Then out of the rough on, was it 15, I didn't see the lie, but that was incredible. Great shot.

JOHN BUSH: Let's go through your shot.

BRAD FAXON: No. 1, I missed a 15-footer there.

Birdied the second hole. Hit a sand wedge to 12 feet.

Birdied 6. I hit a good chip from 20 yards short of the green to two feet, three feet.

It was U.S. Open rough this week. I was very surprised to see how thick and hard it was. So I shot even the front and then birdied -- I bogeyed 12, which was a monster, and made some good saves for par the next few holes. And birdied 17 with a good 6-iron to about 18 feet maybe.

Q. Inaudible?

BRAD FAXON: No, I thought about doing that, actually. Somebody -- (Laughter.)-- maybe later in the year I could do that.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: Are you talking about the comments on equipment?

Q. However it was --

BRAD FAXON: Well, you know, I think everybody knows that Phil came to the meeting and made an apology to the players and talked to Tiger and said he messed up, and I think Phil was being sincere.

Tiger was gracious about it, too, the way he accepted the apology. But there were a lot of comments from the crowd, a lot of people saying things. When you play in a situation where you hear a comment on every single hole from a variety of people, from Phil fans and Tiger fans, you've got to be immune to some of the stuff. If you didn't have thick skin, you could be mad.

There were a couple, but Tiger is right there -- inaudible -- I think Tiger probably has the edge on clubhead speed, that would be my guess.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: I loved it. I had a blast. I don't think I was intimidated at all. I actually felt more comfortable than I thought I would. I drove the ball very well on the front nine. And maybe could have made a birdie, I missed a short putt on 5, but thought I played pretty well. Lost a little bit on 12, 13, didn't drive very well on 14.

But it's a hard golf course. I don't know what kind of scores were out there today, but if you shot a couple under par, that was a good round today.

Q. Was there a point on the back nine when you felt like --

BRAD FAXON: Well, 9 was a bad break. I hit a very solid drive. I had been drawing it and it stayed just to the left which is the thickest part of the rough on the whole course. I just got a 7-iron to about 185 yards for a third shot and hit it in the left bunker. That was a bad shot, the worst spot could I have hit it.

I continued to hit some pretty good shots. Yeah, the last few holes, it's hard to get it close to the hole. I had a good putt there on 17, but I was really, I think -- he birdied 11 and I had gone to three back off the ninth hole after I made bogey, and then he was four ahead; and parred 12 and five ahead and should have birdied 13, looked like a beautiful shot there. He didn't just stay comfortable. He played aggressively and played like we've all seen him play.

Q. Was there a fair amount of conversation --

BRAD FAXON: Between Phil and I? He talks about a lot of things. His wife is pregnant, we talked about that, things guys talk about. I mean "good shot" or -- everybody is cordial out there. There was no animosity at all.

Q. Inaudible?

BRAD FAXON: I think both of them were very loose, definitely. Yeah, I don't think there was anybody on edge.

End of FastScripts....

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