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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AM


February 10, 2012


Tiger Woods


PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA

Q.  It's obviously pretty tough with a day like yesterday, beautiful, perfect conditions.  Now after five or six holes you've got to deal with this.  How is the transition?
TIGER WOODS:  The transition wasn't that bad.  The hard part was leaving myself the right looks.  The greens getting like this, I had to be below the hole.  Downhill putts aren't just going to go in.  They're bobbling a little bit too much for that.
So I didn't put myself in the easier spots.  I had some bigger breaking putts or downhill putts and consequently I just couldn't be aggressive.

Q.  Tiger, did you tweak your wrist or your hand?
TIGER WOODS:  Yeah, it hurt like hell when I did it.

Q.  Did you feel it the like few holes as well?
TIGER WOODS:  No, just that one shot.  Once I popped it back in, it was good.  It was just a joint.  No big deal.  The problem was I was in a divot.  So I was in a divot on an uphill slope, and it was a tough combo.

Q.  You only missed two fairways and two greens.  Did you like your ball striking?
TIGER WOODS:  I did.  I hit it well.  I just didn't give myself the exact right looks today.  As I said, I was above the hole or had some downhill breaking putts.  I just needed to leave myself below the hole.  With the greens getting bumpy like this, you just have to be aggressive on these things and take out some of the movement, and I just didn't do that.

Q.  How would you assess your putting today?
TIGER WOODS:  It was good.  Unfortunately, I just wasn't in the right spots.  I had to put myself in better spots than I did.

Q.  You said you had to pop it back in.  What was it that you popped back in?
TIGER WOODS:  Just my wrist.

Q.  Have you had trouble just putting it all together on the same day?  You have these great ball striking, fairways, greens and don't make putts.  And the last round of Abu Dhabi, you didn't hit it as well.  How frustrating is that?
TIGER WOODS:  Yeah, it's very close.  I got my ball striking to where I feel very comfortable hitting the shots.  I just need to make a couple putts to get on a roll.  But today was different.  Today was just a spot where I didn't hit the ball in the correct spots to give myself these looks.  Today, especially with the greens getting soft like this, you just can't be above the hole and try and dime in there.

Q.  Did you have the explosiveness that you felt you had the last few rounds?
TIGER WOODS:  I've had it for a while, yeah.

Q.  The rain, other than how it affected the greens, did it impact you in terms of you didn't have a jacket or umbrella?
TIGER WOODS:  My dad always said, you only do that once.

Q.  At Pebble tomorrow, what are you looking at?  I think you're going to be six back maybe of Charlie?
TIGER WOODS:  Yeah, I'm going to have to shoot a low one tomorrow because some of the guys will be coming over here and playing here.  So looking for some of those guys shooting five, six, seven, eight under.  So I'm going to have to shoot a low one tomorrow to give myself a chance going into Sunday.

Q.  Did you think that was the number here today maybe not these conditions, but the score?
TIGER WOODS:  Yeah, you could still shoot 6 or 7‑under par here.  If you drive it well here, you're going to have a lot of wedges into these greens.  Two or three of the par‑5s are reachable, so you definitely can post a good one here.

Q.  Do you think it's just that little smidge off putting that's holding you back at this point?
TIGER WOODS:  No, because I'm hitting good putts.  I'm not displeased with my putting at all.  I just didn't hit the ball in the right spots to give myself the right looks.  If we were putting smooth greens, it would be a totally different deal.  I know I can put those in all day.  But when you're putting on these, you have to put the ball below the hole to try to be aggressive and take out some of the movement.

Q.  Can you talk about the comfort level today?
TIGER WOODS:  I've played here before.  I've been around this property before, so no big deal.

Q.  (No microphone) you know going in, there is nothing you can do about it?
TIGER WOODS:  Nothing you can do about it.  It's just going to be slow.  We walk slow, and just try to do everything at a little slower pace.  We were kind of joking.  We were joking about it today, what if you play like this for three days and then we pair down to twosomes on Sunday.  You feel like you just couldn't play fast enough.  The brain probably wouldn't work as fast.
But it is the nature of this event and we just take our time and just try to shoot some good numbers.

Q.  Is there any extra juice for you going to Pebble no matter when it is or what the circumstances are?  Does it feel different than most golf courses that you go to?
TIGER WOODS:  It is different because it's how it's set up, that's the thing.  You could ask me the same thing about Torrey.  Going back to Torrey.  Yeah, I've got good feelings about it, but I've played it on two different scenarios.  We play there in January versus playing there in June,  two totally different golf tournaments.
The same thing here.  These are some of the hardest greens to try to hit during the summer.  You come out here and hit 12 greens during the summer, it's a hell of a task.  You come out here and hit 12 greens, it's like no big deal this time of year.
But from what I hear‑‑ I didn't play a practice round this year‑‑ but from what I hear, it was firm.  But now it's been a little light dusting of rain that's going to be different tomorrow.

Q.  When you were at the U.S. Open in 2010, you had a close round.  Will you try to draw on that?
TIGER WOODS:  I had a good back nine.  It was fun.  I've had some good moments over there.  I remember in '97, I had a good weekend.  Came back and almost beat Mo.  I shot 63 and 64 over the weekend.  I've had some good rounds over there.  So I'm looking forward to posting one of those tomorrow.

Q.  Are we correct in you saying that you only practiced this course once and then played it today?  Do you think in retrospect that if you had played it a couple more times that you would have solved it a little more?
TIGER WOODS:  No, that wasn't the case.  I knew where to hit it.  We took our time playing on Monday.  I normally play nine holes in a practice round, but I played all 18.
I started Wednesday, made sure I played all 18 to really understand how to play it, and did a lot of charting.  Which I don't normally do because I know most of the golf courses we play.  The golf courses I don't know, then obviously I have to do a little more homework.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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