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Friday, June 19, 2009
Tiger Woods
Q. How was it out there?
TIGER WOODS: It was a little wet. The course is playing tough, obviously. They moved quite a few tees up, but still, the fairways have dried out just enough where you're getting just a little bit of mud, and the wind is starting to pick up just a little bit. It picks up, dies down, picks up, dies down. Overall the golf course is playing difficult. I had a mud ball about four times today.
Q. I'm sure you were thinking about coming in even.
TIGER WOODS: That was kind of the goal and hit a bad tee shot on 15 but got a great lie there, went for it. Plug it in the face, took a drop. Hit a decent pitch but I didn't think it was going to come all the way back to my feet like that. Blocked the first putt and hit a bad second putt.
16, caught a mud ball there and didn't make the putt. Didn't get up‑and‑down on 18, bad tee shot, led to another bogey.
Q. Seems like in the majors, you save your best for the final two rounds. Does that give you a feeling of confidence going in?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I wasn't playing poorly. You know, that's the thing. I was even par with four to go, and I was right there where I needed to be, and two bad shots and a mud ball later, here we go and I'm at 4‑over par.
Just continue to do what I'm doing and just hopefully clean up the round a little bit, maybe tomorrow, hopefully drive the ball in the fairway and get a couple of breaks and not catch 'em, but we'll see what happens. If it dries out more it will get worse.
Q. Do you feel your swing is as dialed in as it was at Memorial?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I was hitting good shots. I was even par with four to go. It's not like I was hitting it all over the place. Hit a lot of good shots. Unfortunately didn't finish off the round the way I needed to.
Q. Would you rather have the rest of the day off or get right back out there?
TIGER WOODS: As of the way I feel right now, no, I don't want to go back out there right now. Probably would be a few clubs light.
Q. Does it turn out to be a disadvantage to have played any yesterday, as bad as it was?
TIGER WOODS: You know what, you would say yes, automatically, quickly, but no. I think the guys who are playing today and tomorrow morning are going to get more mud balls.
It's only going to get worse, unless we get more rain. If we get more rain we won't catch them again but if it dries out more, this is going to get interesting, because you're going to have to hit ‑‑ you would think you would have to hit low tee shots and run it off but the problem is, the fairways are so soft, it's not going to go anywhere. If you take the chance of carrying the ball out there, you also have a chance of picking up mud on the ball, too.
Q. Were you amazed at the course conditions?
TIGER WOODS: It looked great. The staff did a hell of a job getting the golf course ready. I'm sure they worked all night to try to get this golf course playable, and it was great out there.
Q. What's the proper way to hit a mud ball?
TIGER WOODS: Depends on what side of the ball. It obviously goes opposite directions. The one I had on 16 was on the left side, obviously you know it goes right, so I tried to draw it, which didn't work out, and it started off draw and hit a big slice. Then the mud ball I hit on 13 was the back side of the ball so I never got it in the air. It was just tumbling. I actually got away with that one. That one I thought would end up in the right bunker but ended up in a pretty good spot.
Q. Do you wish they played lift, clean and place?
TIGER WOODS: It's already too late. They may now for the second round but who knows. If we keep it down, it is what it is. It's potluck. You hit good shots and you go play it from there. Everyone has to deal with the same conditions, whether we play ball in hand or ball down, everyone has to play the same conditions.
Q. How was the crowd?
TIGER WOODS: They were great. The crowd was fine. Just unfortunately I didn't shoot the score I needed to shoot.
Q. If it stays as wet as expected will that play into the hands of the long players?
TIGER WOODS: You don't know. They moved quite a few of the tees up today and I mean, not just a little up, you would think on certain holes move it up maybe five, ten yards, but 30 and 40 and 50 yards up.
So it was a little bit different than what we thought it would be. But then again, you know, I think they were taking into account the weather was going to come in yesterday and would have to play through it. But the guys today, certainly hit the ball a lot further than we did yesterday.
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