	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 26, 2009

Tim Clark

MARANA, ARIZONA

MARK WILLIAMS: Tim Clark, welcome to the media center. Great victory in round 2 over the No. 1 player in the world 4 & 2. Just what was your assessment of the day, the way you played and of course the match.
TIM CLARK: Yeah, of course I knew having seen the draw about a week ago that getting through the first round I'd probably meet Tiger.
Luckily for me I played him here a couple years ago, so I knew what to expect. I knew how I reacted to it then, and I kind of knew a few things that I had to do differently, just tried to calm myself down.
I knew if I came out and played good I'd always have a chance. I felt pretty relaxed out there. Once I got through the first hole I felt pretty comfortable, until he holed that bunker shot on 13 or 14, whatever that was.
But it was a great match for me.
MARK WILLIAMS: Not that it matters now, but how did you sleep last night and will you sleep any better tonight?
TIM CLARK: It was fun last night. I've played with Tiger a few times, and it's one of those things. You either let it get the best of you or you thrive on it. If you worry about it, it's certainly going to get the best of you.
Luckily I've had the experience of playing with him and I knew I had to treat like another round of golf and go out and play.

Q. What did you learn from the last time? You said you learned some things. Did you do something differently in mindset, anything in particular?
TIM CLARK: Well, I mean, I think a lot of guys playing with Tiger probably try too hard or think about the fact that they're playing with him, and it's really just a case of realizing that it's another round of golf. All you can do is hit your shots and move on and not get too caught up in what he's doing. Today I felt like I did that pretty well.

Q. When he holed out the bunker shot was that the one time it was toughest to settle down?
TIM CLARK: Well, we all watched that last match last year against J.B. Holmes. I figured, well, here we go, it's about to start now.
Again, I still calmed myself down. There's not much you can do. I can't change what Tiger is going to do, I can only try to make pars and birdies out there.
I figured the match was probably going to go to 18, even when I was 3-up with three to play. You fully expect him to do something. I had to go out and play aggressive and obviously try and finish it off as quickly as I could.

Q. You've obviously played with him here and also on the TOUR. Did you feel as good as he was hitting it in spurts that he wasn't somehow getting it in the hole, as he just said to us now, the way he normally does, that he was not really capitalizing on his play that much?
TIM CLARK: He really only missed a couple putts. I guess he expects to make a lot more than the rest of us. He did miss one on the par-3 early on. I can't remember the holes out here. I guess it's 3 or 4 or something.

Q. Third hole.
TIM CLARK: And then obviously the par-5 was big where he didn't get it up-and-down and that putt hit the hole.
Yeah, I can't comment much on his game. He knows how he's playing. But I did feel like he hit some pretty good shots when he needed to. He certainly seems to be swinging at it pretty good.

Q. Talk about the momentum shift on 15. He had obviously just stuck that shot from the sand, and comes out and goes OB on the drive. What's going through your head during that? It seemed like a five-, ten-minute stretch.
TIM CLARK: Tough for me there today because I didn't feel like I could reach the green. If I could reach the green I still would have hit driver, and I ended up putting it in the bunker which was the worst place you could be.
I got fortunate there that his ball was out of bounds. I didn't know it was unplayable. That was obviously a big break for me. Again, he goes back to the tee and hits it about 20 feet. Right there I'm expecting him to halve the hole with me again.
I was fortunate there, and that was -- yeah, obviously to now win that hole and be 3-up with three to play makes it a lot easier.

Q. I was going to ask you when you found out that ball was out of bounds. You never really knew?
TIM CLARK: Well, I knew when I saw him walking back to the tee. It didn't make it easier. I was in a spot where I could have made 5 or 6 myself, so again, I just stayed focused on the shot that I had to hit and not what he was doing.

Q. Could you talk about that bunker shot real quick while we're at it.
TIM CLARK: I wasn't enjoying that one very much. I had about 60 odd yards back to the hole, and I couldn't play it clean, because of the lip, so I had to play it like a full explosion.
When I hit it, I kind of thought I may have hit it a little bit too far, but luckily, again, it stayed on the green and really a fairly easy putt.

Q. We always talk about Tiger putting pressure on other people, but your steady play and more than steady play, I mean, you made a lot of birdies out there, how much do you think that that messed with him as far as just how well you were playing and put the pressure on him?
TIM CLARK: Yeah, again, that's probably a question he needs to answer, but, you know, I was obviously under pressure. Don't get me wrong, I was working really hard to keep myself calm and try and play my own game. Yeah, I put a lot of iron shots pretty close, and I think perhaps he wasn't expecting that or not. But I don't think I'm ever going to intimidate Tiger, let's put it that way.

Q. I don't think most people would expect you to pick up holes on those two par-5s on the back nine. You birdied those three in a row. It seemed like his undoing sort of started when he drove it in the bunker on 11.
TIM CLARK: Yeah.

Q. And you kind of took care of business.
TIM CLARK: Yeah, again, 11 is a good hole for me, because no one can reach that. So that kind of gives me a bit of an advantage again.
But the par-5s where the longer guys are able to reach certainly give them an advantage. You know, there was one there where I had to land my 6-iron four feet on the green just to keep it on the green, whereas he's coming in with a nice high ball.
But again, I just focused on what I could do. I literally hit every shot where I wanted to hit it today, barring a couple tee shots coming in. 14 and 15 didn't quite go where I wanted. But otherwise I felt like I hit a lot of good shots.

Q. You've obviously got a lot of golf left to play, but I'm wondering where you would rank this victory over Tiger in your career.
TIM CLARK: Yeah, obviously it's just the second round. It's obviously a massive victory for me. He doesn't get beaten very often, and to go out in that sort of atmosphere, I mean, it really is a different experience going out with obviously all the media and all the people. There's not too much support for the other guy when we're playing him (laughter), so that's big, but at the end of the day, it still is just the second round.
I have yet to win on TOUR, so hopefully that's going to happen for me one day, and that will be pretty big.

Q. Did you think Tiger was firing on all cylinders today, or is he maybe not quite there yet?
TIM CLARK: Again, I would hate to comment on that. I don't want to get him angry for the next time I play him, so I'm going to leave that one alone (laughter).

Q. You said you were working really hard to keep yourself calm. What were you doing to do that?
TIM CLARK: Well, really I was just trying to worry about the next shot I had to hit. I couldn't get ahead of myself in the terms of, well, I'm 2-up with however many to go, and the fact that I've got a chance to beat Tiger, because we all know what a big deal it is if you do beat him. I was really trying to just take it one shot at a time.

Q. Do you think it's fair to say, if you had to give a list of your assets, that kind of tenacity and consistency would be probably somewhere in the top two or three?
TIM CLARK: Yeah, I mean, I feel I've been pretty consistent.

Q. Kind of wear them down?
TIM CLARK: Yeah, even through my TOUR career thus far. I've been pretty consistent every year. It's just tough out here to win. My stroke average is always pretty good. I don't have patches where I play bad for a long period of time. But this year I felt like I'm playing a little bit better than I have in the last few years.
This isn't a huge surprise to me. I've been playing pretty good this year if you look at my results and how I've scored. My game has been feeling good.

Q. Along the lines of what the question was there, you're a pretty unassuming guy. You even have to wear your ID badge out there. Brendan Jones talked yesterday about kind of getting fired up by the underdog role and people saying, oh, 9 & 8, or what have you. I'm wondering what your mindset was coming in as the underdog. There weren't too many cheers for you out there. Did you kind of feed off that at all?
TIM CLARK: You don't really worry about it too much. I think the fact that helped me out more probably in yesterday's match against Retief, I kind of came out with the mindset like do I really want to win this match and play Tiger tomorrow (laughter). I was probably a lot calmer yesterday than I normally would have been, because I don't know if I really wanted to win the match.
Once I knew that I was going to play Tiger, I knew I'd be an underdog, and it's good to look at it that way because it takes the pressure off. It certainly does. That's the reason why I think it's so amazing what he does because he goes out every week as the favorite and he has to perform, so hat's off to what he does.

Q. Could you give an example of something you felt you did wrong in '07 in your approach to playing him that you did not do wrong this time?
TIM CLARK: Well, also in '07 I hadn't played golf for about three months when I came to the tournament. I was never supposed to win my first round. If anything I was really rusty and just not prepared to play him. You know, if you don't feel good about your game, you certainly aren't mentally going to be able to handle playing with Tiger. My game just wasn't very good in '07.

Q. You had a lot of great shots today. Could you pick one that -- one on the par-5, the shot out of the rough where it looked like you almost jumped out of your shoes, it gets up on the green and very nearly ran down by the hole.
TIM CLARK: Yeah, I mean, again, it was just -- I had to go for it. I knew I was in a good position at 3-up, and there was no point in me playing safe at that stage. I took a 5-iron there and tried to skirt it up the front of the green and the shot came off. It seemed like every time I tried to hit a shot today I pulled it off, which was nice.
MARK WILLIAMS: Given that it's a Presidents Cup year, do you expect a phone call from Captain Norman asking to put you out first, now that you've beaten Tiger.
TIM CLARK: I hope not (laughter). Yeah, that's been a goal of mine this year to make The Presidents Cup. I hope to make the team on merit and enough points, but this certainly will help my cause.
MARK WILLIAMS: Thank you for your time, and all the best tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297