Q. Thoughts for the day.

TIGER WOODS: You could be pretty aggressive. Have the ball on the fairway, no water on the ball, be aggressive fire at the flags.

The only thing you have to worry is spinning the ball back too much. Even with 6‑irons and 5‑irons, balls are ripping back and forth. Different have most U.S. Opens.

Q. A lot of opportunities, a lot of them, what do you take with your score?

TIGER WOODS: Unfortunately, my score doesn't reflect how I've been playing. And it is what it is. But you never know. I've got 36 more holes over the next probably three days. (Laughter).

And it's one of those things where if I keep plugging along just like any U.S. Open, just keep plugging along, make a birdie here and there, and we'll see where it ends up.

Q. Right on the record now for 36‑hole comebacks.

TIGER WOODS: I'd like to. There's no doubt. I'm hitting it well enough. I just need to obviously make a few more putts. And get it rolling.

Q. Have you made any adjustments, putting stroke or on the greens, or reading anything between now and when you go?

TIGER WOODS: No. The greens are so bumpy and so slow. They're getting slower and slower. I don't know if we're going to have a chance to roll them or not by the time we go out there this afternoon. But they're there. You don't want to run the ball past the hole, trust me. It's a little tough coming back.

Q. At the fear of asking this question, you struggled a little bit coming in after the Masters and weren't very happy about that. I'm wondering if you could enumerate the frustration you're feeling in having similar finishes.

TIGER WOODS: Today I made a bogey on the last hole. But, still, yesterday was the day that did it. Especially on my half of the draw, I had to finish at even par, 1‑over par at the worse because I think 1‑under par is the best my side of the draw did. That would have been a really good score.

But instead I ended up at 4‑over par, and that was about the mean for the day on my side, which is not what it's going to take to win a U.S. Open. You have to do better than that.

Q. In terms of dealing with the elements and the waiting and all the weather and everything else?

TIGER WOODS: We've done it before. We've played so many years out here on tour, it is what it is. It rains. You're called off. You're pulled pack in. You get ready, go back out. No lightning, I think we'll continue playing.

Q. Tee to green hitting balls like you did, the amount of birdie chances you had you seemed to struggle the most with, the putter on the 9th and clearly gusted that side as well. Could you talk about your putter today?

TIGER WOODS: The putts I hit well didn't go in. And the putts I hit poorly weren't even close.

The frustrating thing is you have to hit the putt so hard; then you don't want to give it a little too much and run it past the hole, because you know how bumpy it is coming back. You want to leave yourself those putts.

It's hard to make yourself hit the putts that hard considering this is a U.S. Open. Generally they're pretty quick. The last time we were out here on Long Island, they were really fast.

But it is one of those things you have to make the adjustments. And as I said, we were playing along today, the greens kept getting slower and slower, and you have to make the adjustments.

Q. From a design architecture standpoint, what do you think of the changes they made to Bethpage between now and 2002?

TIGER WOODS: We haven't really got a chance to play them. They've moved a lot of the tees up. Some of the changes they've made, only significant change was probably 14 that we've been able to play so far. Most of the changes even on 9, today was the first day we played the back. Today we played it up. Yesterday they were hitting over the top of the bunker.

It's just different. We haven't got a chance to really get it all the way back yet. And we probably won't either.

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