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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

November 2, 2004

Tiger Woods

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: You can put it this way: I've said this before when I was asked out on the boat, just because you're married doesn't change your relationship. It changes people's perception of the relationship, but the way Elin and I feel about each other doesn't change at all, just because we've taken another step. I've felt this way about her for a long time, and nothing is going to change that.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: You know, in a sense it is, it really is, because being away and just having so much fun out there, just being by ourselves and diving and just having a great time, it was just something I haven't been able to do that much this year, and certainly all the years I've been on Tour, I've done that, but this year I haven't taken as much time off, so it was nice actually to shut it down for a little bit.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Almost three weeks.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Well, I needed to because my rib was not very good. I couldn't really do much. I don't know how I got through Amex, and then it took me another two weeks after that before it actually settled down, so it took me a while.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Trust me, that thought went through my head a lot of times. I miss competing. I thoroughly enjoyÃ‚Â -- I've always loved competing. I didn't really miss you guys, but I thoroughly enjoy getting out here and mixing it up with these guys. That's what I love to do.

It's going to be a fun week because I haven't done it for four weeks or so.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Oh, he's had a great year. He's played some just unbelievable golf this year. You know, for a person who has really struggled with his putting and gone to belly putter and all that kind of stuff, to make a switch midstream during a season and still play as well as he has is a testament to how hard he works. He's had one of the great years.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: No, physically it's notÃ‚Â -- I mean, you're still playing 18 holes each day. It's not like out there playing the World Match Play in England, 36 a day. The physical drain is not that bad. But being in contention each and every week just wears you out, it really does. I mean, you get tired.

For him to play as much as he does and still maintain that edge, and as much as he practices, it's pretty impressive to do all that. I know that I always shut Monday down and barely do anything on Tuesday, and I was ready to go for the week again, but he's still working very hard on all those days.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: When I looked at it, yeah, in '99, I looked at it as a continuation because I went ahead and played a pretty busy off-season schedule. I played the World Cup that year and did some other things overseas, so I just looked at it as a continuation, so I kept playing. I didn't want to feel like anything changed just because our season ended. It didn't mean my tournament golf ever ended.

That's the way I approached it. Then once December came around I shut it down and got ready for the season all over again.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Just becauseÃ‚Â -- I think just because he's won three major championships in there and the way he's playedÃ‚Â -- Duval had his run when he won, what, 11 times in 13 months or something like that? But Vijay has won nine times just this year and has some close to winning other tournaments, as well. Duval's run, you can't take anything away from his run, but Vijay's run is a little bit better because during that same run that Duval was in, he didn't win a major championship. Probably a year and a half after his run, he won at Royal St.Ã‚Â Anne's.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: He's played some unbelievable golf, and he's gone out there, and if you look at the way he's played on Sunday afternoon, he's gone out there and won the tournament. Guys haven't given it to him, he's gone out there and gotten it done.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: I played through that same stretch. Everybody has a run. I had one, Duval had one, Johnny Miller, Nicklaus, Watson, everyone has their run, just a matter of how long can you continue on that run. Fortunately for me, I lasted five years in my run.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: No, I'm just working on the things I need to work on. I'm excited about the things I've done this year to get everything organized in my game because I took some steps backwards in order to go forward, make some giant leaps forward. That's what I'm really excited about. The way I've played probably over the last few months, I'm very excited about that.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Hey, I'll tell you what, I've said this many times. If it wasn't for Charlie and players like wear Teddy Rhodes, Bill Spiller and others, we wouldn't be here. I certainly wouldn't probably have been introduced to the game of golf because my dad wouldn't have played the game of golf. He wouldn't have had access to the game of golf. Without Charlie's diligence and dedication to knock down the "Caucasian clause," we owe everything to him and to others like him for doing the things they did because I know my dad only played the game because he had access to it, and if Charlie probably wouldn't have done it, who knows, my dad may not have had access to the game and I might not be here.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: I save every letter Charlie writes, every one, without a doubt. He's like my grandfather because my dad's parents died when he was very young, and my mom's parents died when I was very young, so I didn't really know my grandparents. He's as close a thing as I've ever had to a grandparent.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: I think he'll be great. You know, he was one of the spearheads that we had a Valderrama and one of the leaders in the locker room at Brookline, so I think he'll do a great job.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it's been a great year. Off the golf course, a tough year as well as a great year, with my father now things are very positive with my life, with Elin, they're positive, my game is coming around, so everything is kind of going in the right direction.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: I've still got to answer the questions. I'm still doingÃ‚Â -- signing all the autographs, and I guess that hasn't changed. I guess the perception from people and how they look at the World Rankings, that's changed, but I still have the same responsibilities.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Not really. What surprised me is they were looking at Larry Nelson because I thinkÃ‚Â -- I don't knowÃ‚Â -- from what I hear, it's very close between Larry and Tom. That's what I hear. If Larry would have been the captain, I was wondering, when was the last time I actually talked to Larry or have I ever met him, so that would have been very interesting. "Hey, how you doing, pleasure to meet you." But at least Tom is a contemporary of ours, and I've played on all my Ryder Cup teams basically with Tom. He's been my partner actually in Ryder Cup play. I think it's a good choice. Obviously I thought Mark would have had a run at it, as well, but I don't know. PGA committee obviously decided to go with Tom.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: You know, everybody has their own different personality. You know, we've had basically different spectrums. Tom Kite is very conservative, and then we have Hal Sutton and Curtis Strange. I've been under different captains and different philosophies and different personalities, and I think Tom is probably right in the middle. He's not as fiery as Hal is but certainly not as conservative as Tom Kite is personally, but they're all competitive. Hey, he wants to win just as bad as we all do.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: No, I'm not going to play. I didn't qualify.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: That's true. The difference is one person won two majors that year, and the rest of the times that hasn't happened, so I felt it was my right to go with one person winning two majors. This year we had four different winners, last year we had four different winners, so I don't think it's my right to go.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I've been working with him, yes.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: I've been talking to him, I've been working with him, yes.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Working with my dad, yeah, that hasn't changed.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Just my dad has taught me since I was born basically. He's seen the whole evolution of my game. I always call my dad up and see what he thought of my swing that day or my putting or the way I played. That hasn't changed. I've always done that, and I always will continue to do that.

My dad has been everything to me in my game of golf, so I'll never, ever take that for granted.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: I think it's just a different philosophy with the golf swing. I really enjoy the ideas of the golf swing that way. It's certainly been an eye-opening experience to look at the different ways you can swing. I've taken lessons from just about everybody, and certainly his has been very different.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: You know, you wish more golf courses were built like this, the old-school style right in front of you, come-and-get-me kind of golf course. They're still extremely difficult each and every time we play here. All you want is a golf course. They don't have to trick it up. Put it this way, there's no elephant burial grounds out there.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: I only played there for like two tournaments, Amex, one tournament, there you go. I really haven't played that much since I've moved on to No.Ã‚Â 3.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: After this week I'm going to Korea and Japan and playing The Skins Game and then Target World Challenge. It's also one of the reasons why I took time off, because I needed to get charged up for the end of the year. I believe it's three weeks off before Hawaii.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: No, I've never had a rib injury like that before, ever. That was definitely eye-opening. It took a while for it to heal and get where I could actually make a golf swing.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: Probably when I came back. I just decided that I felt like my game when I left was so close to putting it together, just I got that injury at Amex. My practice sessions were so good before I left for Amex. I was so excited when I got over there and I couldn't move. I thought that the way I played in finishing 9th there with very limited ability to play the game, I thought I had a chance to come back and do some pretty good things. Plus when I was on the boat I was actually thinking about my game quite a bit and organizing my to-do list basically, what causes what in the golf swing and basically prioritizing what I needed to work on.

They've done a study where some guys take two months off and shoot foul shots every day versus guys who just think about it and never, ever think about it and another test group never thought about the game at all and they came back and found it was very close between people who shot foul shots every day versus guys who only thought about it.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: End of '02, yeah. I couldn't do much.

Q. (Inaudible).

TIGER WOODS: I hope they do. I don't think it's going to be for this Ryder Cup, but hopefully in the future. I mean, the Europeans have changedÃ‚Â -- ever since I've played, since '97, they've changed just about every year, the criteria. Seve had like five picks in '97 and then they changed to a year and a half and then a year point system. I think they have a right, it should be a year, then you get the hottest players, and that's what you want.

End of FastScripts.

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