WGC AMERICAN EXPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP

November 4, 1999

Vijay Singh

VIJAY SINGH: It's pretty tough. The wind was all gusty. We have to -- I started making some putts, which helped a lot. I birdied the second hole from pretty close range. And then birdied the 4th and 5th so that settled me down. And I had a good round. I know the golf course, because I played here quite a few times before. So I knew what I needed to do, what clubs to hit most of the time.

VIJAY SINGH: I don't know. I can't remember what I shot the other times. But this seems to be one of the low ones, yes. I'm pleased with that.

VIJAY SINGH: I don't know, maybe I got used to fast greens. But when I did come here on Tuesday, it was a lot slower than I know the greens over here. I don't know what they're rolling, probably 10 and a half or 11. But normally they would be a lot smoother and a lot faster. But I still think they're slower than what I remember them.

VIJAY SINGH: When you play well, you like it. I liked it today. It's a golf course where you need to place the tee shots and iron shots precisely. And with the small greens, if you hit a lot of iron shots toward the middle of the greens, you're going to have short birdie putts. And that's what I remember about the golf course, is you don't need to fire the flags on the front side, and that's what I did very well.

VIJAY SINGH: Most major golf courses have a lot more rough where you need to be on your toes in every type of play, especially this one here. This is a golf course where a lot of trees come into play. You may hit a very good tee shot and then you've got to deal with a tree on the next shot. Like the second hole, you hit it alongside of the tree, you're going to be dealing with the trees. You need to be on your toes, you need to be aware where you have to hit the balls and where everything is. You may have a very short birdie putt on this hole, if you're on the wrong side of the hole it will be very hard to 2-putt. And with the slope and the speed of the greens, it's a very good test of golf, this one is. If you're not playing well, you can shoot a very high score here.

VIJAY SINGH: Yeah, in a way he kind of -- you keep a lookout on what he's doing. But when you're playing well you're not really thinking about what they're scoring. But I'll go back down and see what the rest of the guys are doing later today. But there's scoreboards around the golf course, so you're aware of how people are doing. I think everybody will be more interested in what Monte is shooting, because he's won this tournament quite a few times and played well on this golf course.

VIJAY SINGH: (Inaudible.) I played with him one time in the States. I like playing with him. He's really a nice chap to play with. And we talk a lot, unlike other players who you don't have conversations with. With Sergio you always have something to talk about. Unfortunately he didn't play as well as he wanted to. Yeah, it was a good day.