Q. Inaudible -- how do we learn before you if you don't talk to us?
VIJAY SINGH: Well, if you talk to me and write what I say, it's an easier way of communicating. If I talk to you and you don't write what I say, I can't have that. You've got to quote what I say. That's the bottom line.
Q. We talked to Tiger earlier about responsibility as a player out here and how they are more than just between the ropes, what do you feel your responsibilities are as a player to not only the media, but to the TOUR and to the tournament itself?
VIJAY SINGH: I think the Tour loves me and I love the Tour. I think I get along very well with the TOUR. I think the fans out there are very supportive of me playing the way I've been playing. I have not had that much problems with fans all my life. With the media, that's another story. I think the media thinks they all control the field and the fan rides on that. You just have to go back and see a few months ago. Everything was fine until the controversy came on and then the media kind of gets into the play. It's those things, kind of hurt me. If it hurts me, it hurts you guys, too, because I will not talk to you guys if that's the case.
Over time I will get comfortable and start talking again, right like now, I'm comfortable. I've never been uncomfortable in the media room, but now I'm very uncomfortable talking to media guys separately because I just cannot trust what you're going to write. It's been going on forever, it's not only with me, but it's with other sports. And you keep reading it over and over again what the media writes is not what the people say and that's it. That's what I've got to say about that.
Q. -- assigning yourself as one of the better players of your era, how important is that to you?
VIJAY SINGH: Well, when I retire, I would like people to know that at the turn of the century I was one of the better players out here. It's a great feeling to have that because you know, you work all your life and there's a lot of people out there that support you and it's good to be known as one of the best players in the game in your time. I think now I can rest peacefully to know that.
Q. You said a little earlier but hope you didn't wake up from a dream, back a long time ago when you were at the lowest, when you were a club pro and didn't know where you were going to be headed could you ever have dreamed this, could you ever allow yourself to think that you might one day reach this level?
VIJAY SINGH: Well, if I start thinking that far back I'll probably wake up from this dream.
I don't know, it's I can't say -- you put me in that situation, gosh, I was thinking about the next day, not really thinking about what's going to happen in two, three ten years from then. I was starting to think how I'm going to hit next day or how many lessons you are going to have the next day.
It's so far away, and I don't wish anybody to be in that position, especially myself. A lot of times I wake up or think about the times that I was back there, it's really, it's like a dream come true. I don't wish anybody to be in that position, especially not me anymore anyway. I just would rather not think about that and think about what's happening right now and go from there.
Q. Do you worry about what your image is or do you wish you had a different image?
VIJAY SINGH: No. I'm very comfortable with my image. I'd like to have a little bit better relationship with the media. But it's just that I may be haven't given a chance to get comfortable with you and if I do get comfortable if something else happens. My image I'm comfortable. I'm playing the best golf of my life. I have a lot of fans, family that really support me more than you can ever think about. I have a great family, a great team of people working with me and I'm No. 1 on the Money List right now. I'm very comfortable with myself. It's just that I don't think the media is comfortable with me and you're not giving me a chance to get comfortable with you. If you do that, I don't know, it's -- time will tell.
Q. When did you first have Davy on the bag?
VIJAY SINGH: U.S. Open first week.
Q. You said that you were playing well before then and obviously you're playing well now. What was the reason for the change?
VIJAY SINGH: I just wasn't getting along with my caddie. We just had some problems. We just weren't communicating good enough, and it came to, it was time for a change really. Now, if you can't communicate with your caddie, it just wasn't clicking. And outside of the golf course, we were fine. Outside of the golf course we were not a team anymore and so it's time for a change. It was a positive exchange. He's a good guy. He's a great friend of mine still. We just couldn't work together.
Q. You said you wouldn't feel like No. 1 unless you were No. 1, obviously your goal is to win the money title, is it your goal in the next three years to be the No. 1 player in the world?
VIJAY SINGH: I think so. It's out there. If I keep playing the way I am, I can do that. I give myself another five years -- from five years until now, to see how I stand. It's going to be really hard to get Tiger from the No. 1 spot; he's playing so well every week. I just have to match and play better than that, I feel like in the next few years. We'll have to wait and see.
Q. Enough about the money title. You've got four wins now, TOUR championship. Player of the Year thing is not exactly a slam dunk.
VIJAY SINGH: It's not up to me to decide. I feel like if I win the money title, I have a good chance of winning the Player of the Year. If I don't win the money title, then I have no chance. That's the way I feel. But the players have to decide that. It's a matter of time to see what happens in the next two weeks.
Q. You mentioned earlier that being more physically fit than you have in the past, maybe is one of the reasons why you're playing as well as you are right now. What do you think if Tiger had not come out that way that you would not have spent as much time as you have been in the gym?
VIJAY SINGH: I think so. Obviously Tiger, he raised the bar for everybody. He started shooting scores, unheard of and he was hitting the ball a long, long ways at that time. I think that it was a time for a change. I think the change has come with Tiger. Guys have been going to the gym and working on the physical side more and more and Tiger just kind of came on at the right time and just promoted all that -- man, I've been working before Tiger came on TOUR but not as physically as I'm doing right now. But a lot of guys you just have to go into the gyms to find out who is working and who is not doing it. The young generation of guys that's coming out of colleges, they look like they are ready to take anybody on.
I think it's just a change. In a matter of time there will be is guys 6'7 playing golf and hitting the ball forever. You see Michael Jordan out there hitting balls, guys like that, I think maybe bigger guys and stronger guys. Fifteen years from now they are going to laugh at how long we hit it now because it's just a change. Technology and physically stronger athletes are going to come on TOUR and play.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can we go through your birdies and bogeys starting on 2?
VIJAY SINGH: 2, I hit a driver, sand wedge about 15 feet.
5, I hit driver, 7-iron just left of the green and chipped in from about 25 foot.
8, I hit a driver, 3-iron, sand wedge about 30 feet.
10, I hit driver, 7-iron about 30 feet and 2-putted.
12, I hit a 7-iron about 40 feet.
13, I hit a 5-wood, L-wedge and tried to blast out about eight feet and missed it.
14, I hit driver, 5-iron, sand wedge about four feet.
16, driver, pitching wedge over the green, chipped it about 15 foot.
18, I hit driver, pitching wedge about -- what was that, about 30 feet, 35 feet.
Q. You've won $5 million or whatever it is now, you're leading the Money List, is there one story that you tell about way back when with you were in Borneo where you literally had no money?
VIJAY SINGH: Yeah, there's a lot of stories. Oh, man, I don't know if I want to go through that again, it's been published so many times.
Q. Is there one point in your career that you can point to where you said your own mind, "I've arrived, I'm in the upper echelon," European Tour, PGA TOUR, and from there you pulled yourself?
VIJAY SINGH: I think when I won the first tournament over here in the States. I mean I got my tour card and I was just getting on, and when I won Westchester for the first time I really felt, "this is it." This is where I wanted to play and I won, and I can improve on that.
I was always worried about keeping my card over here. I won that event, and like you said: This is it, I have two years exemption and I can go out and play and be myself and play comfortable golf, which I've done and I just -- I think that was the start of my, I would say, my career over here.
Q. Did you have a number in mind this morning that you thought you needed to shoot to have a decent chance today; and at the end of the day you finished 23-under, 67, are you surprised you won by four?
VIJAY SINGH: Very much. Yesterday I was surprised that so many guys shot low numbers yesterday. And going out today the wind was kind of -- pretty much nothing out there. I was -- I started out slow and I was surprised that had nobody else was doing anything. Furyk was 6-under through nine and I said, "Well, there's one guy that's taking the course apart."
Apart from that, nobody else did anything and I think Tiger had a late run. I just said go, out there and play consistent. Don't make any mistakes and see what happens. I think after the 10th hole, my 12th hole, I looked up and I said I have a three-shot lead and that was -- I was really surprised that I had a three-shot lead at that time. And then I played steady from there on and the winning score I thought was going to be around 24, 25.
Q. Do you practice as much as you do because you enjoy it or is that just a necessary evil to play at the level you're at?
VIJAY SINGH: Kind of both. A lot of times I go out there and I practice because I need to practice and a lot of times, I go out there because I just feel like I want to practice and it's what I enjoy doing. It kind of happens together. I don't practice as much as I used to if I go out there and start hitting balls for two hours and hit it well, there's no point in staying out there and start hitting badly. So you kind of get comfortable with what you're doing and it feels good, you leave and go to the next part of your game.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Vijay, for joining us and congratulations.
End of FastScripts.
