ADVIL WESTERN OPEN

July 5, 2002

Vijay Singh

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Vijay, thank you for joining us for a couple minutes. 2nd round 67, 5 under par, you've had four top 10s here in your career, so obviously things are going well for you and you must like the golf course.

VIJAY SINGH: Yeah. For some reason I play well when I come over here. I like the golf course, I like the way it's set up, and if you hit decent shots over here -- you have to maneuver the ball a lot over here, and for some reason I do well.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Talk about the conditions today compared to the beginning of yesterday before the rain. It seemed like it softened up quite a bit out there. That's what people are saying.

VIJAY SINGH: Yeah. The first three holes I played it was pretty tough. You have to watch where you land the ball on the green, and it was releasing quite a lot. But after the rain, it was softer than I've ever played it, and I think the scoring has come down 2 shots from -- but that's a disadvantage as well when you can't get into the par 5s, but still I think it plays a lot easier soft like it is now.

Q. Do some courses kind of fit your eye? Is that one of those kinds of courses for you?

VIJAY SINGH: So far. I don't know. I just feel like I'm comfortable with this one right now. And I've played here so many times, I know where not to hit it and where to hit it. It makes a lot of difference when you come to a golf course where you've had good experiences and, you know, so far I've played well over here in the past and I'm playing well again this week, so I just feel like I know the golf course quite well, so that's probably why.

Q. Vijay, do you ever come out with a difference mind-set when you know you have to finish your round and turn around and go right back out?

VIJAY SINGH: We had two holes to go and the only problem was waking up at 4:45. I've never done that before. I already had an early tee time, so it didn't make that much difference.

Q. How difficult was it for you to wake up at 4:45 after playing late?

VIJAY SINGH: It was okay. Once I got going, it was all right. Two cups of coffee got me going.

Q. Did you have someone wake you up or --

VIJAY SINGH: Yeah. I had a wake-up call.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If he could go through your round real quick starting on the front side. You birdied No. 5, the par 5.

VIJAY SINGH: Yeah. I hit a driver, 3-wood just short, chipped up about 3 feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 8?

VIJAY SINGH: 8, I hit a 3-iron, pitching wedge to about 10 feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Then 10 and 11?

VIJAY SINGH: Hit a driver, pitching wedge, about 2 feet. 11, I hit a driver, 5-wood, chipped up about 10 feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: And then 17?

VIJAY SINGH: I hit 3-wood, wedge to about 6 feet. That was it.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Okay. We'll take a couple more questions.

Q. Vijay, a couple of the other guys were saying they think the scores will go even lower today. Do you agree with that?

VIJAY SINGH: I don't know. The wind is blowing out there and the course is going to dry up fast. They've got the pins in not so easy spots. You can spin it quite a way off the pins. Like 9, for instance, 10, if you pitch it anywhere near the pin, it will spin back 15, 20 feet, and most of the holes are like that. You've got to play the shot according to the pins here. If the guys -- if somebody gets hot, they'll probably be able to get low, but it's still pretty tricky out there.

Q. Do you feel like you've left any out there the past couple days or is 9 under about where you --

VIJAY SINGH: Oh, of course. You're always going to feel like you left some out there. I didn't play really, really good. I did everything well. I didn't play fantastically, but I drove the ball decent, not great, hit my iron shots okay and putted okay. The only good thing I did was I scored very well. And if you play half decent and score well, that's where the scores come in. That's why my score is the way it is. Hopefully, over the weekend I can step it up a little bit and hit a lot more good shots.

Q. With the British coming up, are you even thinking about that tournament, do you do anything in these tournaments to practice your shots, get a feel for --

VIJAY SINGH: I'm really focusing on the tournament here. You know, it's in the back of the mind, but you really want to do well here and get some confidence going into the British, and probably that's what I'm doing now is getting some confidence underneath me and have a good week of practice next week. So this week is really focusing on this week.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you.

VIJAY SINGH: Thanks.

End of FastScripts....