Tiger’s Honda Classic press conference: Friday
Q: Kind of an up-and-down round today, can you talk about it a little, please?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I got it going, lost it, got it going, lost it and then got it going. It was a little bit of a fight today. Probably the worst I’ve hit the ball in months.
Q: What did you think about the crowd’s reaction today?
TIGER WOODS: It was incredible, it really is. I mean, this is incredible to play in front of my new hometown, and the people have been absolutely fantastic, so supportive, and really nice, positive things out there.
Q: Five birdies on the round, so what do you take away?
TIGER WOODS: I scored well. But I didn’t swing the club — figured something out at the very end, the last four holes. After the tee shot I hit on 6, unfortunately it took me that long to figure it out. But once I figured it out, I hit some good shots coming in.
Q: Does the cut line creep into your mind at all?
TIGER WOODS: No, I told Joey on the last couple of holes, we go birdie, birdie, we’ll be within seven. And that’s really doable on this golf course. You know, the guys — they don’t really go all that low, so if we post a low one tomorrow, we’ll be right back in it.
Q: Given the conditions, what do you think was out there today?
TIGER WOODS: I think somebody can shoot 65 or 64 today. It was calm in the morning. There’s no wind in the morning. The greens were running absolutely perfect, and you can play the first nine holes relatively benign conditions and get it going, I think some of the guys did today. Unfortunately I wasn’t one of those guys.
Q: How much of a grind was the round today?
TIGER WOODS: It was a grind. As I said, I didn’t really have it today. But I scored. That’s something I can take out of the round. I know I putted a lot better today. Finally got putts to the hole, and that was kind of the goal today was not to leave one putt short, and wasn’t quite successful at it, but that was certainly what I was trying to do.
Q: What’s worse, when you don’t have it or on a day where you hit 16 greens and you don’t make anything?
TIGER WOODS: Well, it’s certainly a lot less stressful if you are striping it all day and 2-putting and making an occasional birdie here and there. Certainly a lot less stressful. But not feeling very good on the shots, how I’m going to manage a score, it puts a little added stress, but it is what it is.
Q: Do you feel like what you were frustrated with today is fixable for tomorrow?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I fixed it the last four holes. After that tee shot on 6, I was wondering, why was I doing what I was doing. Finally figured it out, told Joey going down 6, finally figured it out, but unfortunately it took me about 14 warm-up holes to figure it out and then got it going at the end.
Q: Looked like you tried to work it a bit more down the stretch; that sling-hook on 8 was awesome.
TIGER WOODS: That’s all I had. Where I had the club is basically kind of all I had. I kept moving the ball back, more of a draw. So I just said, just go with it and we’ll fix it on the range and I’ll feel a little bit better going into tomorrow.
Q: What’s the best part of today for you?
TIGER WOODS: Well, obviously the finish. It was nice to get that kind of finish, because I was struggling today a little bit trying to find a motion that was going to get the job done. I made double there at 5 and I made some bad swings today but somehow I managed to score.
Q: Have you fixed the issues with the putting from the Match Play? If you are missing them now, is it not due to that anymore?
TIGER WOODS: Absolutely. I’m hitting good putts again.
We struggled on a few of the reads. I called Joey in on quite a few putts today because we had double-breakers plus a green going two different directions and it’s a little confusing. So he had a little bit of stress today trying to figure out what’s going on.
Q: When you were working with Sean yesterday, what was that?
TIGER WOODS: Just posture and just trying to get everything lined up and when I do, I putt well. Just try to get everything situated. And somehow, my full swing motion crept into my putting, and we had to kind of fix that.
Q: (Inaudible.)
TIGER WOODS: Well, if I can somehow play the last few holes 2-under par, I would be all right. I got two out of them.