Tiger’s World Challenge press conference: Thursday
Q: Mark Rolfing was saying the way you hit the ball you’d probably be happy with 70. Are you?
TIGER WOODS: Definitely. I didn’t hit it very good today. It was nice to scrape out a good score.
Q: You and I have talked about this over the years on the PGA TOUR. Par saves, keeping rounds together are so important. Let’s take a look at your third here at No.4 when you were in a little bit of trouble.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, that was a spicy little spinner in there. I was on the middle of the ball and hit it fat, so that’s not very good, but at least pitched it up there and made it.
Q: Then you go to the 5th, you had a par save here on the green?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, kind of slapped it all around the hole and somehow ended up making that for par.
Q: On the other side of the golf course, on 15 you were in a little bit of trouble.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, that was a terrible shot, up on the hill, just missed my spot by maybe a foot or so, and ended up not making it.
Q: On the 16th would you like to have the third shot back underneath the tree?
TIGER WOODS: No, the second shot, that’s the one I’m still ticked off about because it was about a yard from being perfect.
Q: What is it like out there, playing conditions like this, misting, raining, everybody has been up early and hungry and trying to get it in the house and trying to get the best score possible?
TIGER WOODS: It’s not bad. It didn’t really rain today. It was just kind of overcast. There were some moments when it got a little bit warm actually. Thought about peeling off the sweater because I’m sweating underneath but ended up getting cold if I did, so I kept the sweater on all day. It’s nice. It’s not where it’s really cold and it’s not uncomfortable with the rain. Hopefully this will be the case the rest of the week, and hopefully we can dodge the storms on Sunday.
Q: You made a bunch of eight- and nine-footers out there to kind of keep it going, didn’t you?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I did. I didn’t hit the ball very good today and made a few good par putts to keep the round going. I kept myself in the tournament. Could have easily shot myself out of the tournament but I kept myself in it.
Q: How much had you prepared coming in?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I didn’t touch the clubs for probably a full week, maybe a little bit more, and then gradually started to get back in with putting, chipping, pitching, and worked my way all the way back up to the driver and started playing again. That was over the course of the past week.
Q: A little bit of competitive rust maybe?
TIGER WOODS: No, I was just– I felt a little off. Even warming up I didn’t quite feel it was where I needed to have it. I had it last night when I was hitting golf balls, and I was– that was nice. Unfortunately I just didn’t have it like I did last night. I’ll do some work here and hopefully shore it up for tomorrow.
Q: What are your misses when you feel like you don’t have it?
TIGER WOODS: Well, right now today they were mostly right. We still need to work on that.
Q: Keegan had a funny story today about you giving him a bit of grief on the putting green–
TIGER WOODS: I give him grief every day.
Q: This was special grief, and he said to show you he took your putter and he made three out of four eight- or ten-footers.
TIGER WOODS: Right.
Q: It was all done in jest, but there’s a part of him that he was saying today he feels like he’s got an X on his back because of this anchoring ban. It’s going to be illegal but for three years it’s not. How do his peers– he’s wondering how his peers are going to view all of this. Do you guys think they should stop using them now?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I think it’s probably similar to probably the Ping ruling. We still got the chance to play with the Ping square grooves for a bit of time before they were banned. This is no different. The rules go every four years, and at least they made a decision, and I think that’s the positive way. Either way, either direction they were going to go, whether they banned it or allowed it, make a decision about it, and they did that with obviously three years out.
Q: Did you ever play with the Pings?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I had them for about a year.
Q: At what time of life?
TIGER WOODS: I was 16.
Q: They weren’t the square grooves back then, were they?
TIGER WOODS: They were the pluses, so no.
Q: I wanted to ask you, in terms of where this tournament sits for you coming off Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, is this the end of the year or looking ahead to next one?
TIGER WOODS: End of the year for me because I played quite a bit from basically the British Open through. Obviously I think the longest break I took was two weeks, and that wasn’t until the very end. To me this is ending my year, ending my season, and then take a nice little break over the holidays and then gear back up for next year.
Q: Ball in hand today, are you surprised nobody went a little lower?
TIGER WOODS: No. It’s still difficult out there. The wind is puffing around and it’s all different directions. The greens are soft, and it’s hard to get the ball close. There’s so much pitch on these greens that it’s hard not to rip the ball back. What did I have on 10 today, I had 115 yards, I hit a little 9-iron in there, and I landed it maybe about a foot past and I ended up about 10 feet short. That’s kind of how the greens are out there. They’re just so soft, and they’re tough to get close.
Q: On 16 what kind of shape are you trying to play in there on your second?
TIGER WOODS: I was trying to land it– trying to hit a low fade and land it short of that tree and run it on. And unfortunately it carried just slightly into the tree.
Q: It almost seems like it would set up better for a draw.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I understand, but if I drew it then I’d have the potential to hitting it too hot. I had to take something off that 5-wood a little bit. I couldn’t hit a 3-iron in there. If I could hit a 3-iron, I’d turn it. But with my 5-wood I felt more comfortable hitting it softer so I would land it short and run it on the green.
Q: Better off being farther away from the bunkers in the fairway and were you trying to play more of a cut?
TIGER WOODS: I was trying to play a cut and pulled it.
Q: And then it stayed short?
TIGER WOODS: Ended up being lucky.
Q: The other day you mentioned that in the off-season you have a checklist of things you’re going to work on. Is that a shorter list this year?
TIGER WOODS: Oh, yeah. It’s a lot shorter list.
Q: But obviously you work on everything, but there’s some specific things that you need to–
TIGER WOODS: There are specific things that we are going to work on, but it’s not a laundry list like it was the last couple years.
Q: How good is that to know going into– obviously you’ve made the strides you’ve made in a year.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I’ve already made the big changes. They’re already in. It’s the little tweaks here and there. That’s where the old pattern still comes in every now and again, and just trying to get out of that. But the thing I’m excited about is my short game is back. I’m chipping and putting well again, and that’s something that’s turned around since my ball-striking was better. I didn’t have to spend all the time hitting golf balls and making changes. I could chip and putt for hours, and it paid off for me at the end of the year.
