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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 19, 2010

Tiger Woods

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA

Q. Can you assess that round of golf?
TIGER WOODS: That was better, (laughter) yeah. I put it together today. Not the greatest of starts, for sure, 2-over through 3. And that's not where you need to be.
I just kept telling myself all day, you just need to get back to even par for the Tournament. Whatever you do get back to even par for the Tournament and I'll be right back in the ballgame. And I'll be one better.

Q. Watching the second shot on 18, you walking on the fairway, it's clear that you can still excite crowds, unlike almost anybody else like that. What does it mean to you to be out there, especially now?
TIGER WOODS: It's been a while. It's been a while. I hadn't played good enough for anyone to cheer for anything. So it was nice to actually put it together on the back nine and put myself right back in the Championship. And everyone was just so excited and fired up that it was just a great atmosphere for play in front of.

Q. What does it do for your psyche from a Major standpoint, now that you're in such a big tournament and finally doing what you want to do on the course?
TIGER WOODS: It felt good to put it together. As I said this week, it was a process. And I was building, and it was close. And today, you know, I hit shots that the way I know I can hit shots. The putt on 17 was a joke. I'm just trying to get it close and walk out of there. And it happened to go in.

Q. You didn't birdie 9 or 10, but beautiful drives on both of those. Even though you didn't birdie them, did it give you something coming in that you were swinging well?
TIGER WOODS: I was swinging well, but how frustrating to have a sand wedge that lands like four yards on the green, and then the other lands off and spins back almost off the green. Vijay and I were saying that it's two or three inches, whether you land on the brown spot or one of the green spots, what the ball does. It's kind of potluck.
But into the wind it's totally different, you can control it. But downwind it's potluck.

Q. All the tournaments we see you at it's a process. To get to this point today, this round was so magnificent, in a sense it reminds you of the good old days. How did it feel to be out there with the cheers and everything working?
TIGER WOODS: If you had asked me after the third hole I would have given you a different answer than I will now. It felt good for me to turn it around. It being 2-over par, and then through 7 I was 1-under, so I turned it around.
In a U.S. Open I felt great about doing that, even though I dropped a shot at 8. But I just felt good that I turned it around and it gave me a lot of momentum going back. It was such a terrible start, but let's go ahead and get back to even par after the back nine and we were back in the ballgame.

Q. We know Pebble is a completely different golf course in fierce winds. Are you going to change your game plan at all if the weather comes?
TIGER WOODS: It's all fluid out here, because you have to make adjustments. Like today, we were all surprised at the moved the tee up on 3. It's not a tee they said they were going to move the tee up on. We knew the tee was going to move up on 4 one of the days, but definitely not 3. And again, I haven't hit driver there all week, not one. But today it was, hey, you've got to hit driver down there now.

Q. The second shot on 6?
TIGER WOODS: 6 was a good one. It was -- I wanted to hit 4 and ride it into that flag. But, you know, if I get it turning too much it's in the left bunker and I've got no shot. I went with a 3, took something off of it, hold it and it worked out perfectly. Hitting shots like that, even though use quite feel 100 percent comfortable being the shot I wanted to play, but I know it's the proper shot to play, to be able to pull it off is -- it gives you a lot of confidence. It gave me a lot of confidence, anyways.

Q. Was there a time when you said, yeah, I've got it?
TIGER WOODS: Not really, because I hit so many good shots and I was at even par through, what, 11 -- 10 holes. You know, I'm hitting good shots, I'm getting nothing out of this round get. Let's try and get something out of this round.
As I said earlier, just keep getting back to even par for the tournament. I'm hitting it well enough, let's get something out of the round. And all of a sudden it came.

Q. You played in a practice round with Dustin on Monday. Something happens to him when he steps on the course?
TIGER WOODS: Well, he doesn't hit it short (laughter), that's for sure. I mean he hit a shot there, we were playing a practice round, I've been telling all the guys this, on 17, it was into the wind, it was mainly dead into the wind, 226 to the flag and he took out a 4-iron and flew it flag-high. I don't know how many guys have that shot. I don't know if you guys have that shot, but I certainly don't. 226 into the wind and he pulled out a 4-iron. It's just -- it's just what he does. And when he's on, it's pretty fun to watch.

Q. You've had so much confidence your whole life, how do you process that going into tomorrow's round, it's been a while since you've been here, going into the last day, do you flip that switch?
TIGER WOODS: It wasn't that long ago. At the Masters I was right in contention there. So it's -- from one major to the next, I've somehow put my game together at the Major Championships so far.

End of FastScripts

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