Tiger’s Honda Classic press conference: Thursday
Q: You said you put in a lot of work on the greens; how would you assess the result?
TIGER WOODS: I hit a lot of pure putts today. They rolled over a lot of edges. They just didn’t quite go in. But wasn’t disappointed with my lines. A couple bad reads out there. The grain kind of snagged it harder or less than I expected, but overall I hit the ball very good with my putts.
Q: How would you describe your comfort on these greens that you have not played professionally in competition?
TIGER WOODS: They are hard to hit the putts hard enough for me. I find that they look faster than they are putting. I had to get committed to hitting the putts harder and getting past the hole, and when I start doing that, I will make the putts. But consequently, I also 3-putted one, too. I whipped it by there.
Q: What’s your overall assessment today?
TIGER WOODS: I didn’t get a whole lot out of my round. I hit the ball a lot better than I scored and I certainly putted well, and I didn’t hardly get anything out of the round. Hopefully tomorrow it will be better.
Q: The putting, was it not getting it close enough?
TIGER WOODS: I agree with that. I hit good shots and unfortunately I just picked some bad lines. And also, I didn’t get up-and-down, either a couple times, a couple easy up-and-downs; I blew those.
So a round I should have been probably 2- or 3-under par quickly turned into 1-over.
Q: Would you talk about the reception that you got today? It seemed like it was all positive all day?
TIGER WOODS: It was incredible. It’s just pretty neat to be able to play in front of people like this. This is my new hometown. I live here. For everyone to come out and support this event, obviously with the charities involves, the Nicklaus family, it’s a fantastic event.
Q: How is it having a rookie thrown into the mix? Did you know anything about him before you teed off, and did you detect any nerves with him being in that situation?
TIGER WOODS: No, I didn’t know anything about him. Westy and I didn’t know if he played The European Tour or our tour. But he was thrust into a situation I’m sure he’s not really familiar with, and he handled himself great. It’s a tough deal out there. On a golf course where you can be just a little bit off — scores add up quickly.
Q: Do you think you can be aggressive on this golf course?
TIGER WOODS: Well, we can be aggressive, because today was soft; we had ball-in-hand. I know Westy and I took a couple — for me, two times and I think for him, three times, where he actually took a little more off the tee, because his ball is not going to roll anywhere. And also, we get the ball-in-hand. So get down there, put your hand on it and then be aggressive from there.
Q: Strategy for tomorrow?
TIGER WOODS: Obviously I’m going to have to score better than I did today. Hopefully shoot something in the 60s and get myself within touch of the lead.
Q: What was the most frustrating part of the round? Was it putting, some of the chips?
TIGER WOODS: I just didn’t get a lot out of my round. It’s kind of how I went today — I felt like I played a lot better and I putted a lot better. I just didn’t score.
