BUICK INVITATIONAL

February 16, 2003

Carl Pettersson

JOHN BUSH: Do you feel this is a good turnaround for you?

CARL PETTERSSON: Yeah, I was disappointed. I flew all the way out to Hawaii; and my caddie is from England, he flew from the mainland. Usually when you are first alternate you get in, but we didn't get in. But I used the good weather to practice and try out some new equipment. All in all, it wasn't a bad week.

JOHN BUSH: And obviously a great week here, 12-under par, you feel like you're going to finish at least in the top or second place. Just your thoughts on the entire week.

CARL PETTERSSON: It's been good. Obviously it was a bit of a struggle early in the week with the weather, and I've played in Europe the last couple of years. We get that at least seven, eight times a year, so I'm used to it, but the weather was fantastic.

JOHN BUSH: Can you take us through your round, and then we'll open it up for questions, starting with the bogey on 2.

CARL PETTERSSON: Yeah, I think I had only 110 yards to the pin and hit a wedge and just pulled it long of the green. Had an uphill lie and chipped it up and 2-putted.

6 was a driver, 3-wood just short of the green. I made a good flop shot to about six or seven feet.

No. 7, I had a good drive again, middle of the fairway, 147 to the pin and I had a good 9-iron about 12, 15 feet and made the putt.

11, I had 231 to the pin. I hit a good 3-iron to about five feet and made the putt.

On the last hole, I laid up with a 5-iron and then hit a pitching wedge in there to about 16 meters.

Q. Are we going to see more and more young European players like yourself playing on this tournament every year?

CARL PETTERSSON: On this tour or this tournament? I think you'll see a lot more European players coming over to try and play on the PGA TOUR. I'm not sure, a few might come over and play this course. I think already a lot of good young European players right now, Justin Rose, Paul Casey, that they may come to America and play a little bit.

Q. Inaudible?

CARL PETTERSSON: Oh, it feels great. I'm still exempt in Europe till 2004 and last week was only my first tournament. I was watching Ernie Els winning all of those tournament and was looking forward to playing and playing last week, but just had an off week and I played myself --

Q. Inaudible?

CARL PETTERSSON: -- Raleigh, North Carolina. And I was looking forward to this week to improve, and I played well.

Q. What part of your game did you like the most?

CARL PETTERSSON: I putted real good this week. I hit it pretty good off the tee, also hit some bad ones, but I chipped and putted really well this week. Any time you finish well in the tournament, you also chip and putt well.

Q. You're new on TOUR?

CARL PETTERSSON: Yeah, this is my first year. I'm Swedish.

Q. What do you think so far?

CARL PETTERSSON: It's good. It's a lot different from the European Tour. It's a lot more professional, I think, the way things are run. Also the European Tour I think is a lot more friendly tour. But I've met some friends out here that I went to college with, and there's three other Swedish guys out here.

I've only played two tournaments, too, so I can't tell you too much about it. So far, I like it over here, but I also enjoy playing over in Europe.

Q. Seeing a player like Woods in the lead, is it almost insurmountable you're going to reach that level in a tournament?

CARL PETTERSSON: Yeah, I didn't look at one scoreboard today until I hit my third shot on 18 and I asked my caddie what place we were in, and he told me second, so I knew the putt on the last was pretty big.

I was just concentrating on my own game today. I knew Tiger was going to play well, and I just played my own game. I figured that -- to shoot under par was my goal today.

Q. Are you surprised you're in second place?

CARL PETTERSSON: No. The course is playing pretty difficult. I heard some roars early on from the group behind me but then they got quieted down a little bit. I was pleasantly surprised.

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