PNC CHAMPIONSHIP

December 20, 2024

Tiger Woods

The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. How are you feeling after that course and how is your body holding up?

TIGER WOODS: It was good. It was good to be out here. We had a good time today. To be able to play with Carson the first nine was great. He and I go way back to junior golf, so it was good to catch up. It was just a fun day to be out here playing again, and looking forward to the weekend.

Q. Were you able to keep dibs on your son in front?

TIGER WOODS: I was trying as best as I possibly could, looking from a distance. Hopefully we can catch up here, see how he felt, how everything was going. We were able to talk at the turn because there was a little logjam. But he said he was hitting it good, felt good. We were both kind of surprised at how much slower the greens were, than we were expecting.

We hit a lot of putts and I was making sure that he hit a lot of putts on the back nine, so we'll talk through it and be ready for tomorrow.

Q. Luke Leonard said on Golf Channel that he happened to play with you when Charlie beat you for the first time. I was just wondering, that hasn't happened too often in the last 49 years. If you could verify that and what the circumstances were.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, he beat me for nine holes, has yet to beat me for 18 holes yet. That day is coming, I'm just prolonging it as long as I possibly can. But we just have so much fun going out there and competing and playing. That day being out there with Lenny, Charlie, and J.L. and I go way back to junior golf, amateur golf, college golf, and all the teams we made together over the years.

It'll be a fun atmosphere tomorrow, and we're just going to have a blast.

Q. Did it come down to the last putt or was there a little chirping going on?

TIGER WOODS: There's always chirping. There's nonstop banter. That's the fun part. We just have fun and give the needle as much as you possibly can because you're going to have to take it.

Q. What part of each other's games will you and Charlie be leaning on this weekend?

TIGER WOODS: Well, hopefully I don't have to hit any drivers, and so he drives it in play, we go out there, hit iron shots, he makes all the putts, and I just am a good backup.

Q. What's the difference in his game from a year ago?

TIGER WOODS: Just maturity. He's grown so much since last year. I think he's put on three and a half, four inches in height. It's been a moving target. He got stronger, faster, heavier.

He's a typical teenager.

Q. How much of your struggles on the course this year were more back related than leg, and is that really kind of the question now going forward in 2025 is how your back is feeling and your ability to --

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, my leg is what it is. It's still here, and it is what it is.

But this year, I struggled a lot with my back, and that's why I had the procedure done. It's a lot better, but I still have a long way to go.

Q. I wonder, it's probably one of your more underrated rounds, but the second day at the Masters this year when you shot 72 and it was a really hard day at Augusta, one of the hardest we've had recently and you made the cut pretty easily, but then the next day you were struggling, I'm wondering if that's sort of the frustration you face. You see it on a day like that, some of your best, and then can't keep it going?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, hey, I've had a lot of procedures over the course of time. I'm not going to feel what I used to feel. The recovery is going to be the hardest part. I can do it for a day here and there, but over the course of rounds, weeks, months, it gets harder.

Q. What are your conversations like with Charlie, if you have these kind of conversations, regarding his handling expectation and pressure of being Charlie Woods?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I mean, I just am always reminding him, just be you. Charlie is Charlie. Yes, he's my son. He's going to have the last name and he's going to be part of the sport. But I just want him to be himself and just be your own person. That's what we will always focus on. I will always encourage it, for him to carve his own name, carve his own path and have his own journey.

Q. How do you think he's handling it so far?

TIGER WOODS: I think he's doing a great job. In this day and age where you have so many different -- everyone is basically media with all the phones. Being constantly filmed and constantly just -- people watching him, that's just part of his generation, and that's part of the world that he has to maneuver through. I try and do the best job I possibly can as a parent. I'm always here for him.

But at the end of the day, I just want him just to be himself and have his own life.

Q. From a data standpoint, your name came up a lot this year in relation to what Scottie was doing. I just wanted to know what impressed you, what you saw from him and any other thoughts.

TIGER WOODS: I think his consistency over the course of the last couple years. I mean, yes, as I said in the Bahamas, he moves around a lot in his swing, but you watch that ball flight, it doesn't really do a whole lot. He has amazing feel for hitting the ball the right number, and that's just something that is innate.

I think how he's handled the pressure and the expectations with he and his family, I think they've done an unbelievable job. He's just coming into his own. This is the fun part of watching him develop. This is going to be the start of some unbelievable years.

Q. Is a part of what you did so well and similar to him, I guess, is not so much the great shots is the very few bad ones?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I think that it's not making that many mistakes. We can all make birdies. We can all have hot rounds. But how good is your bad? Everyone's good is good out here, but his bad is really, really impressive. He doesn't do a whole lot wrong. He understands how to not compound mistakes. It may not happen over the course of a week, but it happens over the course of big events, months of play at an elite level. It just adds up. Not making mistakes adds up.

You look at what he's done the last couple years, it's really impressive.

Q. You mentioned after your recent surgery that you wished you didn't know the process, but you do know the process in terms of recovery. I'm curious, how do you set those benchmarks now and windows of recovery in preparing for competitive golf?

TIGER WOODS: Preparing for competitive play is different. That takes months, weeks. But it starts with each and every day. You just do the little things correctly, and they add up. From the moment you get up, just do all the little things, the mundane, the things you know you have to do. It adds up, and it compounds over -- you may not see it over a week or a day, but over months, it adds up.

Unfortunately I've gone through this process a number of times. It's frustrating. It's hard. But I have an amazing team, amazing support. But I have to do the little things on a daily basis and away from everybody. It's hard.

Q. TGL, how excited are you to see how this finally unfolds, and what do you expect?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it's going to be great. This is what we've been shooting for. We're trying to bring a new demographic to this game of golf, and it's going to be exciting.

I was blown away at the amount of moving parts there is to this. There's a lot of moving parts, but as a showcase, it's going to be unbelievable on TV. I hope that we can invigorate the game because it definitely needs it right now.

Q. Thinking back to 2000, you're coming up on 25 years since probably your best season in a lot of ways. Just wondering, looking back on it now, how well you played, what was your thought process through that year and the fact that from the '99 PGA until you completed the Slam, I think four guys beat you in majors.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, that was a good stretch. I played well in that stretch. Once I pieced it together in May of '99 is when it started to unfold, getting the PGA in '99, then I won three in that year, in 2000. Yes, I got on a hot run that summer.

But the hard part was the six months that you have to wait between the PGA and Augusta, all that add-up, and every single time I played, all the questions. Winning three in a row real quick, of course that happens over the course of a few months, but the buildup into 2001 was a lot. I think that was the harder part of trying to focus and build that up, and then at the same time preparing for that one moment, that week, and happened to do it.

Q. Can you reflect, going back a little bit further, to this photo in Milwaukee and playing in your TOUR debut with the great Jumbo? Do you remember anything about playing with Jumbo?

TIGER WOODS: Jumbo, no. I just remember how nervous I was that week. I just came off winning the Amateur, so my mind was spinning. I had turned pro. I had seven exemptions to get my card, and hopefully I got off to a quick start. Made the cut and may my hole-in-one I think on Friday or Saturday I think I made a hole-in-one. It was a great start to my career.

Q. How close were you to not playing this week?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I had moments. That was one of the reasons why I had the surgery done earlier, so that hopefully I could give myself the best chance to be with Charlie and be able to play. I'm not competitively good right now, but I just wanted to be able to have the experience again. This has always been one of the bigger highlights of the year for us as a family, and now we get to have that moment together again.

Q. What do you think has kept you guys from winning this event?

TIGER WOODS: All the winners. Yes, we want to win, but it's about the bonding. It's about having the family. It's about us having a father-son moment together. Last year I had Sam on the bag. It was her first time ever carrying. This is a family event.

You look at all the players and their families, the sons, their grandsons, granddaughters, this is what this tournament is about. It's about family.

Q. What do you consider your best year as a professional golfer?

TIGER WOODS: 2000 I would say. I think just that year in general, I had everything working at the same time. I drove it well, hit my irons well. I made everything for a year. But I was able to capitalize on the good play at the same time.

Q. Was that as close to unbeatable as you've felt, or do you even think that way?

TIGER WOODS: I think the way I played in Pebble and St Andrews, I was thinking clearly. I was hitting through every shot. As I was saying earlier about Scottie, I didn't compound many problems. Any foul balls I may have hit, got back on schedule, put the ball in the right spots, and I made everything for those two weeks.

Q. You made a triple and won by 15.

TIGER WOODS: That was a nice balloon ball there. But again, I had one bad hole on 3, but I was able to grind out the round, and I think I shot the second or third lowest round that day. Yes, so one bad hole does not mean it was a bad round. Just had to fight through it.

Q. This morning Rory said that the collapse of the building was a blessing in disguise. How important was that extra year you guys got, and now when you walked in that new venue and saw what a difference it is compared to what you would have had --

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I think it was a blessing in disguise. We were rushing to get it ready. I don't think we've had all the components that we have now, and we certainly didn't have the technology that we're able to have now. It worked out for the best for us as players, for the fans, and I think for everyone watching.

We're going to be able to deliver a better experience, and I think without that storm that would not have happened.

Q. When you first walked in that venue was there kind of a "wow" moment?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I hadn't seen it with everything in it. I had seen the shell, but I hadn't seen it with all the tech in it, and yes, it is incredible, absolutely incredible. The rotating green blew me away. I've never seen a rotating green, so that's a new experience, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun for not just us but also the fan experience.