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WGC EMC WORLD CUP

December 12, 2002

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to welcome Team Canada, Mike Weird and Ian Leggatt. You're off to another great start, 13-under par after the first round and you were co-leaders and finished tied for sixth last year. You guys obviously make a great pairing. If you could start off with some opening comments about how the day went.

IAN LEGGATT: Yeah, it was pretty good. I think we started off fairly solid. Hit a couple of loose drives at the start and Mike covered me up. From then on out, we played pretty solid. We had two balls in the fairway every hole, and most holes, two opportunities on every hole to make birdie.

A few times we had it in there close and the guy that was outside would make the putt. That's just how best ball works, it just kind of frees you up a little bit and we did a lot of that today.

MIKE WEIR: I totally agree with Ian. It's much easier to free up your putting when your partner is in there close.

When we are both driving as well as we were, you just know that you're going to have lots of opportunities. So I think that was the key. If we can keep driving the ball well, it sets up the rest of the golf course. We did that well today.

Q. The 18th hole was giving some players some problems. Was that a concern for you?

MIKE WEIR: Well, it's a good finishing hole. You have to stand up there and hit a good tee shot, and that's the most important thing, is to get it in the fairway. The green is pretty tricky. The pin was in an easy spot today, but as the week goes on, it will be in a little trickier spots. If that hole was 30 yards longer it might prove a little more difficult. But Ian just absolutely killed a drive down there and had probably only 70 yards or something.

For a finishing hole, you'd probably like to have something that was more, at least 150 or 160 yards in. It's still a pretty good finishing hole.

Q. At 6, I think Ian was in about three or four feet and you got up-and-down from the bunker and then on 7, he's in there about a foot and you putted -- they were both a good roll for you. Did you want to just go ahead and like you say, take a free stroke on those?

MIKE WEIR: I think that probably got my putter started, where I started rolling it better because Ian was in there nice and close and I was able to just keep getting a feel for my putter. The first couple of holes, I didn't hit the greatest of putts, and then starting there, I did hit some nice rolls that kind of carried that the rest of the day.

But as Ian said, it's nice when your partner is in there close and you can just free things up.

Q. Does this course give you the opportunity to take some chances, with the wide fairways, is it a free-swinger's type of course?

MIKE WEIR: It's pretty much in front of you there, straight in front of you. You have to hit the ball where you're looking. But you're not trying to cut any corners and cut really too much off, except maybe on that par 5 No. 7 or eight -- I think 8 that you can knock it over the corner there and get it way down there. But for the most part, you try to just get it in the middle and take what you can get.

Q. Was there any particular shot or hole that got you guys going, got the momentum really rolling or was it just a progression?

MIKE WEIR: I think it was just a steady progression. I made a nice putt for eagle on 10 and then we kind of got it rolling.