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VALERO TEXAS OPEN

September 20, 2006

Shaun Micheel

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Thank you Shaun for joining us for a few minutes in the media center, the Valero Texas Open.

You had a great week last week and you've had a lot of great weeks on the PGA Tour starting I guess back with PGA Championship.

So you have to be feeling pretty good about coming in here and playing well.

SHAUN MICHEEL: I am.

You know, I just started working with someone new in May named Matt Killen. I was tinkering around with a few things last year and it kind of got me to get off a little bit and lost quite a bit of confidence so I started working with Matt I guess the week of Charlotte and that week I finished 12th and probably should have finished Top 10 but just had bad conditions on Sunday.

Kind of started right then I started getting a little more confidence back and I think anyone will tell you that that's probably the most important part of the game I think is believing in what you're trying to accomplish out there and actually I had gotten to the point where I think I was playing more golf swing than I was playing the game. Just every time if I miss hit a shot I seemed to be critiquing that and it's hard to get out of that.

I think that's why I've played so much golf this year. I don't know how many tournaments I've played up to this point and I typically do like to play because there were stretches I played 6, 7 weeks in a row dating back to L.A.

I think I played L.A. through the Players Championship which I think is six weeks in a row. That's a big stretch, I think, for anyone. You don't see too many players doing that.

I needed to do that, needed to get back into playing and I owe a lot of that to Matt has been telling me and I certainly have been working hard. Not that I wasn't working hard last year but I think I just got a little bit sidetracked and was kind of working on the wrong things.

Making a few putts lately, I've kind of moved my position over the last few years, I've probably been around 130th, 140th in putting which is usually not very good unless your greens in regulation percentage is very high and it wasn't very high.

So, you know, hitting the ball better along with making a few putts, that's I think that's kind of been the key for me.

Q. Have your practices been different this year, your time on the range? Are you doing anything different, hitting balls differently?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I think last year, last year I was spending a lot of time hitting balls. I would sit out at the TPC course at Southwind and hit balls for four, five hours and never go play.

I've always been someone who just enjoyed playing, be it with my friends or my father and his buddies back home and a lot of that I think has changed due to having a two year old, too. He's almost three now.

I think I've learned to manage my time a little bit better whereas before I might take five hours to practice, maybe not get as much accomplished as I would have liked, I just sitting out there kind of going through the motions, really not knowing what to work on.

It's kind of forced me to take my practice time, be it two hours, three hours or whatever it may be and really work hard for those two, three hours, and that's probably the biggest lesson that I've learned I think this year is time management and trying to balance my time at home with my family to what I do out here for a living.

So, it took me awhile to learn that. But I've gotten better. But as far as any type of mechanical things I work on, I do really work on one, two different things and those are the two things that I really focus on for that timeframe and then the rest I don't really worry about. I just try to get out, work really hard for two, three hours and go home.

Q. Your putting specifically because I think you made some changes early on like in Florida maybe at the Doral. Then you look at your weekend at the PGA, you were making putts, the match play you were making putts. Talk about the evolution of that.

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, at Doral this year there's a guy named Mike Shannon who I've known since I was a little kid. He used to be at Tupelo Country Club. I played one of his junior events back when I was in high school, and so I've known Mike for a long time.

Just over the period of time the last few years I've seen him a lot more out here. He's gotten really into the putting, trying to set the mechanics of people's putting strokes. He's come up with a theory that he thinks works very well and we worked together.

It was Wednesday morning at Doral, we started working on I don't think I was in the ProAm. We spent about two, three hours working on a few mechanical items and I went out that week and it's the best I putt the in a long time.

I quickly moved up in two, three weeks from 140 something in putting to 40s in putting. And then now you'll see I'm about 35 or so in greens in regulation which is usually always been my strong point.

I think three, four years ago I was fourth in greens in regulation on Tour. Tiger was 161st in putting, first in greens in regulation. Those two stats, sometimes not a good gauge on how you're playing. You're obviously hitting a lot more greens, it's a lot easier on you in your rounds to play.

Mike and I worked on that. I'm still working on the same things but I've kind of gotten off a little bit and Matt Killen saw something that I was doing on Monday at the PGA, I changed putters, went to a new putter and then went back to my old

Q. The Monday of the PGA?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Was a brand new putter. I'm not usually one to change. I think I've only used three putters all year.

I just kind of found the old stroke that I was working on with Mike because I hadn't seen Mike in that long or in a while.

You know, just kind of worked wonders. If you're out there and you don't see your teacher for awhile, sometimes you get sidetracked and that's kind of one of my goals now is to spend a little bit more time with Matt as opposed to maybe seeing him just once a month, trying to stay on top of things particularly when you're doing things well.

I think that's probably maybe more important to videotape and do things when you're doing things well than just when you're doing them poorly, because usually when you get them usually when you get going the other way, it takes so much longer to get out of that. You formed a lot of bad habits along the way.

So that's kind of really kind of a goal for me is to try to make time for Matt, be it once every couple weeks or something like that.

Q. A lot of your success in the past has come on really tough golf courses like Oak Hill, Medinah. How does it relate to a course like this where you see

SHAUN MICHEEL: Even in college, I seem to play very well at tough courses. I don't know why. I think maybe because of my ball striking. I always felt really comfortable with my driving and I usually chipped the ball pretty well.

It's very difficult for me to go out and maybe within a tournament at, say, the Bob hope where it requires 29, 30 under although this year I was 17, 18 under which is a great in the whole scheme of things but those are just tough courses for me to play well at.

I think my mental approach to the game is kind of keep the ball in play, keep it around the green to eliminate the big numbers but so the opposite of that is firing at every flag and changing the way that you perceive the way the game should be played.

I think that's why it's so difficult for me to play what I would say easier courses. I just typically play for middles of the greens.

Like I said, I like my greens in regulation percentage to be high but with that, you maybe don't always leave yourself makeable birdie putts so I did play well here a few years ago. I think I finished 4th, 5th.

Again, i have a lot of confidence kind of going into the week. We're coming off a lot of bent grass, we've been playing a lot of golf courses with bent grass, not too much bermuda grass.

It's going to be an adjustment for me. I expect this afternoon I'll spend quite a bit of time out on the practice green trying to get use to reading the grain and getting the feel for the speed.

Q. With your play last week and the Ryder Cup being close not only the calendar but close to the spot where you played last week, your victory over Tiger, because of the circumstances, did it maybe and the way he was playing, did it maybe open some eyes over there that a reminder that Tiger is human?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I suppose so. You know, everybody that was in that field last week, and I was 15th out of 16 players as far as world ranking so I don't think there were a lot of expectations that I was really going to even compete with Tiger the way he's playing.

I said over there that I finished second to him a lot more than he'll ever finish second to me but match play is so different. I think people were kind of excited to see that. I think it was a good match, good match for people to watch.

I think overall, people were really happy for me to have won and I don't know if it's so much to prove that he is human. I think it just shows you that in match play in you're playing well you can compete with anyone.

But it was an exciting victory for me, no doubt. Tiger I thought he played pretty well. I don't think he miss hit hardly any shots. It was just it came down to putting and he didn't have that many really legitimate opportunities with the way the course was set up and as soft as it was playing.

He was spinning the ball back quite a bit and having a lot of long birdie putts.

I just think it was just I don't think I really expected to win but I was playing well enough that if I could just give myself a chance that mentally for me it was just about kind of staying with him and just trying to give myself a chance to beat him because I don't get a chance to do that very often. I haven't played with Tiger in a long time.

Q. Also maybe the fact that Furyk was eliminated after the first round, also. It may have sent up this flag that the American Ryder Cup team, you know, isn't quite where it should be.

SHAUN MICHEEL: I think they really, really enjoyed that over there. That was kind of their story really that all the U.S. Ryder Cup team, their No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world gotten beat in the first round.

Again it just goes back to the style of course that you play in match play. Jim, I think historically he's always played pretty well on difficult golf courses as well. Maybe his strategy is very similar to mine and again, just playing against Tiger, I was focused on what I was doing. I don't even know what he shot over there.

It was certainly a bright spot for the European media, for sure, but might have been a good thing for them to lose and kind of get over to Ireland a little bit early and get ready.

I think Tiger went over there in preparation for a match play event because Tiger hadn't played over there since 1998. He's qualified every single year since then.

I think he really wanted to get over and he certainly wanted to get more than one match under his belt but I'm glad he didn't.

Q. Shaun, over here I guess you come back over here you look at it's almost they played it almost like Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson. The match play kind of gives that kind of atmosphere that you can kind of land a punch and knock somebody out.

As far as your career, do you find it interesting that you beat a guy like Tiger Woods, is there more impact of beating a guy like Tiger than even winning the Texas Open as far as what it means for Shaun Micheel?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I suppose. I was absolutely amazed really, the buzz that was circulating over here because I got a call from ESPN and everyone was kind of running with it. I I don't know. Just being a golfer, I feel like maybe can beat anyone at a given time. I don't play into all the hype, really.

It was exciting for me, don't just that just hard to explain, really. I went out and played a round of golf. That's kind of how I took it. That's kind how I took when I won the PGA, just another tournament.

I was excited to have won and felt very good and very confident but I'm bringing a lot of confidence with me here this week to try to play well because I have a lot of goals yet for myself to try to get back in the winner's circle.

Ben Curtis has worked hard on his game. There was a lot of talk about him for a year or two. He and I were kind of put in the same boat.

Finishing second at the PGA was great. Finishing second last week was great but I still didn't win. I think that's really why we're all out here and just trying to win.

Q. I wonder if you go to the tee box tomorrow do you sense that people will be saying that's the guy that beat Tiger Woods as opposed that's the guy that won the major

SHAUN MICHEEL: It's a good thing for me. I think I'll always kind of be remembered for the PGA. Not so much because I won but maybe the way I finished hitting that shot on the last hole. I think that's probably going to be replayed a long time.

Each and every week I go to a tournament I might be signing something for someone and they'll say, "Who is that, the young person might say who is that?" "That's the person who won the PGA Championship."

It's nice to kind of have something else, you know, to live up to, I suppose.

I would certainly love to win this week. I'd like to try and win each and every week I play. I know that's not possible.

It is a nice feeling to have something other than the PGA Championship from three years ago for people to recognize me for.

Q. Normally you would go to an event that's being played at the same time as the Ryder Cup and they say well, it's maybe that this PGA stop will be a little bit more open, wide open because the Ryder Cup guys are off doing their things.

The Ryder Cup team is being talked about as very green, very inexperienced names over there so maybe over here there are some more experienced players that know how to win.

SHAUN MICHEEL: I've always found that very interesting because I think sometimes people just because they don't know who you are, doesn't mean you're not a great player.

I think what I did in '03 with Ben and what Ben and I had done showed the depth of the field of the PGA Tour. You can go to the Nationwide Tour. How many guys are coming out of there and keeping their cards?

When I first came out on Tour in '04 I was right out of college and out of Tour School and the Tour does keep statistics on percentage of guys keeping their card or winning out of Q School. I.

Think that's why you've seen an increase in the number of spots go up to those guys. Jason Gore did very well last year but, you know, each and every player out here deserves to be out here and it's just a matter of getting some time under your belt and getting some confidence and getting some cuts made and some good finishes but there's a lot been said about just because people don't know who you are doesn't mean you can't play. It's a great field here this week.

I deal with this in Memphis a lot with FedEx, pretty good friends of the tournament director there, and we've talked a lot about strength of field. That's why the report in the media about having a bad field and frustrates the players.

It shows a little disrespect I think and it frustrates and certainly it's disrespectful I think to the sponsors that are putting up all that money because then they're trying to justify to their customers, particularly FedEx, because my dad was a FedEx pilot. I know a lost upper managment, "Why do they keep saying we have a bad field? I have to go back to my Board to try to justify the dollars we're spending."

The media or whoever is writing it to kind of put down the event by saying the players aren't very good.

I think that's why you've seen the FedExCup series next year to try to change that, to try to get more guys playing each and every week, to maybe try to quash some of that reporting.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Anymore questions?

Q. Physically with the travel and format last week, you played several tournaments in a matter of four days. How are you feeling?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Lot of people have asked me that. I pretty much like to honor my commitments to tournaments and certainly one of my goals is to get into the AmEx next week. Those tournaments are very difficult to qualify for and prestigious events.

I did something this week that I really didn't want to do but I felt like I had to do and I explained to Tony by pulling out of ProAm.

We explained to him just with my travel schedule it just really wasn't going to work for me this week. I was a little bit disappointed. I've apologized to a couple people for doing that.

It's not so bad. It was just six hours. Like going to Hawaii or something.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: You and I were talking about playing 36 holes everyday and this course isn't easy to walk.

SHAUN MICHEEL: It's not an easy course to walk. I played 18 hole practice round on Tuesday. I played the ProAm over there on Wednesday. I played 33 holes, 34 holes, 36 holes and I didn't play on Sunday so I only played 28 holes which is okay.

You're right, I basically played two full PGA Tour events in four days. It's very difficult to do because the guys who go to the Ryder Cup a lot has been made about Chris Riley was talking about how he was tired at the last Ryder Cup.

I can somewhat relate to that. You put so much energy into each shot, you play 18 holes and you've given it all and you realize you go to have lunch and try to do it again. It takes a lot out of you.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Anybody else? Thank you, Shaun.

SHAUN MICHEEL: You're welcome.

End of FastScripts.

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