CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

October 26, 2006

Tom Kite

THE MODERATOR: Tom, maybe just get us started.

TOM KITE: Yeah. Obviously played good. The score 6 under that's a really good score. Just a strange round the way it happened. I hit the ball very, very well. I think I hit 17 greens in regulation today. And you know, just hit it really well. But wasn't really having much happen. And then all of a sudden couple hall outs and hit it close in ten and a 3 hole stretch to go 5 under par after playing the first 8 even par and then feeling like I was giving away a few there.

And to finish up that round, that 3 hole stretch kind of made the round. It was one of those that I probably should have shot somewhere close it that 67 that I did shoot but it probably been that way. Probably should have made a few more putts.

THE MODERATOR: If you give us a shot sequence.

TOM KITE: I had hit a driver off nine, had 57 to the hole. Scott Simpson had just played a beautiful shot up there. It was past the hole and spun back and hit the cup. Almost went in. Low and behold from just a little bit inside him I played it almost the same way and spun it back in the hole.

So he had one that was maybe four or five inches from the hole and mine went in. So we played that pretty quickly.

Q. What did you hit?

TOM KITE: L wedge.

Q. And then on ten?

TOM KITE: 10, I hit pitching wedge from 119. About 2 feet.

Then on 11 I had 98, hit sand wedge. Landed even with the hole. Jumped a little past and spun back in the hole.

THE MODERATOR: 12.

TOM KITE: 12 was I guess I missed two fairways today. 12 was the first one. Couldn't reach the green to put it pretty nice bunker shot out about six feet but had one of those big breaking putts on these greens. I'm sure you heard the greens are tough. Didn't hit a very good putt there. Made Bogey.

17, birdied 17. Hit 9 iron left of the hole and made a long putt; made about a 30 footer 25, 30 footer.

Q. I wasn't that far away when you eagled 11. I could see it a couple holes later. I could hear the roar. Given what you did on 9 and 10, when you hear the roar what were your

TOM KITE: When you play those three holes and you have one putt and the one putt is a two footer, that's kind of strange. You know, that doesn't happen very often. It was very, very enjoyable for that stretch.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TOM KITE: You know, sometimes the greens are hard to read. It's just tough to read these greens.

Q. The players generally really like this golf course, don't they?

A. It's a nice golf course. It really is. And they've got it in great shape right now. It's conditions are absolutely perfect day and the golf course is in great shape. And you know, you're still you see a couple good scores but you're in the seeing many people pushing. Not seeing many people light it up. You know, one or 2 under seems to be where most of the people are.

And obviously everyone is playing well or they wouldn't be in this tournament. So it's a good golf course. It stands up, and you know, it is in very good shape. But I tell you what, these greens are really quick. They're certainly as quick or quicker than anything we've played all year. And probably as quick as anything they've played on the PGA Tour this year. They really got some speed and a few have some break, some slope to them. If you're on the wrong side of the hole it's not fun. You got it really pay attention out there.

Q. Does the course lend itself to a variety of styles. Seemed like Jim Thorpe kind of overpowered some holes.

TOM KITE: I did not play the par fives well today, but mainly because I just didn't make the putts. I had it right there just off the edge of green on every one of them and was not able to do it.

But yeah, you need to try to take advantage of well, three of the par fives are reachable. 8 for the bombers many they might be able to get there. Most of us can't. But, you know, you'd need to take advantage of those things, and if you do that, you should have a pretty good round.

But you better drive it straight because you're not going hit the greens out of rough and you better putt good. Those are the two things that keep popping up from I'm sure everybody in here today said that.

Q. And yesterday and the day before.

TOM KITE: Yeah. The golf course is pretty, you know, unforgiving off the tee. If you're crooked you're going to have a long day.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TOM KITE: Yeah. You know, this is the it's just over seeded rye. The condition of this golf course has improved significantly over the four years that we've been here, but they still have a limited irrigation system that doesn't allow them to get a whole lot of coverage out into the rough areas. And because of that, basically what they have is just winter rye that you throw down and put a little bit of water on it. Heck, I can grow that. It's not tough.

But, to get it it doesn't really have any substance to it. It's just long and it lays over. And because it's almost flimsy, the ball seems to sink right to the bottom. It doesn't have any strength to hold the ball up, so the ball goes to the bottom and then that grass lays over. So with the length that it is, it's tough. You know, if you when you think about it, a USGA golf course, obviously they've gone in there years in advance and made all the improvements, so the rough is really substantial. It's long and it's much healthier.

Q. As this season draws to a close how would you assess the health of this Tour?

TOM KITE: Well, regardless of what you I read in the paper this morning I think it's pretty darn good. I saw a pretty derogatory article this morning in the paper. I think, you know, everything kind of goes in cycles. There's no question about it. And you know, for a number of years pre 1997, if you will, pre Tiger, the Champions Tour was more popular than the PGA Tour.

You have a lot of stuff going on there and some of the personalities that were playing out here. And everyone was sitting there complaining about the lack of personalities on the PGA Tour. Things run in cycles, and, you know, we have a number of really good players out here that are really good guys, have a lot of credibility. I think they represent the game very well.

You know, the two that were singled out this morning in that article, Loren and Jay, those are really class guys. You know, they do a lot for the game and the community. They give a lot back. You know, it's good stuff.

You know, not everything had can be Lee Trevino or Pete Jacobsen. That's good. It gives you good, diverse personalities out here. When Peter gets healthy and gets back out here we'll be happy to have him out here.

It's just you know, right now, do we have the jokesters out here? Maybe not the jokesters, but I really think the health of Champions Tour is it is good right now. It's getting better; it's moving in the right direction. There was a time probably a few years that we were on CNBC, I hate to label that out it's not a golf network or a sports network. People couldn't find us. And no matter how good the argument to go to that network sounded at the time, it turned out to be a disaster and it hurt us.

And so we kind of sunk down and people couldn't find us. Now we're on a network that, you know, people associate with golf, obviously, and they know where to find us. I think I hope that that's what's happening with the golf channel next year with the PGA getting a lot of their coverage there will help us. I'm very, very optimistic about what's going on out here on the Champions Tour.

I think it's a wonderful show for the sponsors that are that stuck with us. They are a hundred percent ecstatic. We give a lot. The guys bust their butts out here to put on a good show, to do all the sponsor stuff that we need to do that they probably don't do as well on the PGA Tour.

So I think it's very healthy right now. I really do. That was a long answer. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ramble on that long. I apologize for that.

End of FastScripts.