Tiger’s Pebble Beach press conference: Sunday
Q: It was like nothing was going your way, does that weigh on you when you’re struggling to work your way through these issues?
TIGER WOODS: What was frustrating is that I had a chance and all I had to do was get off to a good, solid start today and I didn’t do that. I was 1-under through 6, which Phil was 5-under through six, and that was kind of the start I was hoping to get to, 3-under through six or something like that. I didn’t do it and thought I could get it in the middle part of the round, but instead I went the other way.
Q: Was being paired with Phil a factor at all in the way you played today?
TIGER WOODS: No, not at all. I still had to go up and post my numbers and I thought I had to shoot 67 or 66 today was kind of the number going out there. That wouldn’t have been enough, so it was a fun day to be out there, but also in the end it was very frustrating at the same time.
Q: What happened?
TIGER WOODS: Well, as good as I felt on the greens over there, is as bad as I felt today. I could not get comfortable where I could see my lines. I couldn’t get the putter to swing. I just could not get comfortable. It was frustrating, because I was looking to someone getting off to 2- or 3-under par through six, or even through seven was kind of the goal, and you know, Phil got off to that start. He was 5-under through six. I figured I probably would — I had a chance to pick it up through the middle part of the round I thought; instead, I went the other way. I missed a ton of short putts today. I didn’t hit it as bad as the score indicated, that’s for sure, but I missed everything.
Q: Early on, even when you were still in it, body language-wise, you looked just a little off like maybe you could have been ill?
TIGER WOODS: No, it was just slow. So we were walking real slow and we were waiting on every shot, so just take my time. There’s no need to rush. No need to do anything quickly. So I just took my time and unfortunately I had to take my time on a lot more shots than Phil did.
Q: Does this one sting? I know Abu Dhabi, obviously you had a chance, and that was your first time out for the year does this one sting a little more, how it went down today?
TIGER WOODS: No, I had the share of the lead at Abu Dhabi. Here I was four back trailing on a golf course that was playing softer than what it did the first day after the rains. And I figured I needed to shoot 65 or 66 to win the golf tournament, 67 or 66 to win the golf tournament and it ended up being I had to shoot 66 just to get into a playoff with Phil. So I chose the right numbers. Unfortunately I just couldn’t execute to get to it.
Q: Everything okay with the swing today? Was it just the putting?
TIGER WOODS: It was slightly off, but it was better than it was yesterday. But I made everything yesterday. So I felt better over the golf ball today, even though I shot a much higher score, but I made everything yesterday and made nothing today.
Q: Is there more internal pressure to get over the hump — you haven’t won in a couple of years?
TIGER WOODS: People think it’s a couple of years, but I just won a couple months ago. I look at that as a win. And I’m just kind of off to my first start of the year here in the States, and I made some good improvement this week and looking forward to the Match Play.
Q: How much of a setback is this, a round like this, when you’ve played pretty well the last few starts and made a lot of progress with the swing changes?
TIGER WOODS: As I said, I didn’t hit the ball that bad. But I made nothing today. You saw that. I don’t know how many 3-putts I had, but I had a lot. I also missed my share of putts that I hit in there close. I made one par putt there at 10, but so be it. I missed only one putt.
Q: What do you think of the way Phil played?
TIGER WOODS: He played really good today. He was hitting it flush. To hear the sound, his trajectory was really good. And his wedge game was right on the money. I mean, every shot that he had a wedge in there, he hit it inside ten feet and just it’s a little tricky to do it because the greens have so much pitch on it and they are spinning that you’ve got to play for a little bit of roll coming back down the hills. He was doing it great.
Q: Obviously the fans like seeing you guys in the same group, what does that do to you when you’re paired up with him?
TIGER WOODS: I’ve always enjoyed playing with Phil. We have always battled since the first time he went at it was probably ’97 I think head-to-head. We were in a position today that we needed to go get Charlie. We were four back, and had to go get him and Phil did.