WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 20, 2002

Jose Maria Olazabal

SCOTT CROCKETT: Thank you very much for coming in. You said yesterday you expected a close match. You got one but you must be pleased to come through on top.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Yes, I'm pleased I managed to win the match today. We had a shaky start, both of us and then started to play better golf. The only disappointment for me has been the way I drive the ball. It has not been as consistent and as good as it has been the last few weeks, and that's the only shame on my part.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Are you starting to wonder what else he can do to you on the 17th green?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: He really did the same thing on No. 10.

He is the kind of player that, you know, he's a fighter. He has a great short game and he proved that many, many times. He made a couple good putts, he made the chip on 10. Even though it's difficult to make that chip on that situation, at the same time, whenever you put a player like him under the pressure, knowing that the only thing that counts is making that chip, the chances of him making that chip increase.

So, obviously, being very difficult to make it, but it's always a possibility.

Q. At any stage did you think back to Brookline?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: No, not at all, no. It was a close match, but I never had that in mind. I was just trying to play the round, playing The Match Play, and that was all my focus.

Q. What were you saying to each other over those first five holes, the five shots that you dropped together over the first six holes?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: We never talked much to each other. I think both of us were quite ashamed of the way we were playing at that time. As I said, you know, it was a very shaky start for both of us. There is not much to say when you are playing that kind of golf.

Q. How would you rank Justin Leonard's short game, in world materials?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I think he's one of the best around the greens, and on the greens. You know, he's not especially long off the tee, and to compensate that, I guess to be competitive in this tour or around the world, you need to have a very good short game, and I think his short game is very good -- when his short game is at his level, at the level he can play. I think he's one of the best.

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