WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 20, 2002

Niclas Fasth

Q. General comment on your match?

NICLAS FASTH: It was good, I would say. I'm not used to playing match-play, and probably not what you expected -- he is a great player and I didn't expect to get anything for free. At the beginning we swapped holes all the time. We parred our first hole and we were both playing well. I felt it was a very steady game today.

Q. Only one or two bogeys?

NICLAS FASTH: I got the lead pretty much after 12, I was 2-up, I think. Really, he never really managed to get me under pressure after that. So, I had a fairly easy time in front there, just making pars all the time. Even made one bogey and got away with it, but I played very well. It was steady and it was good.

Q. Do you change your strategy when you're ahead?

NICLAS FASTH: Not really. Suddenly, you'll get a birdie in your face if you start making pars; you just keep trying. This course is fine if you're playing well, but if you miss a couple of shots, it's not forgiving. So you just have to go as hard as you can out there, and that's what I did.

Q. This will be a good practice for the Ryder Cup come September.

NICLAS FASTH: Yes, I think so. I have to play more match-play before September, but this is a really good way to start practicing match-play, and also give me a chance to get going this year and hopefully start a great season again.

I like the idea of match-play. I think it's more intense than stroke-play. There's certainly room for a few match-play tournaments a year. There could be more. I would probably be better at stroke-play -- that's just a guess, but I like match-play, nevertheless.

Q. Birdies on 11 and 12, which I assume was the turning point in the match.

NICLAS FASTH: We were even up until then. 11, I hit a 7-iron five meters short of the hole, 50 feet or so, and knocked that in. He might have made bogey, but I knocked it in.

On and then 12, the par 5, we both missed our tee shots. I hit a wedge up to four meters maybe, four or five meters again, and knocked that in -- four meters, I would say, and he just made par out of the bunker. So he never really got me under pressure there. But I did make a birdie and I did get ahead.

So after that, he didn't really play at his best. He made pars, but didn't really get any pressure. I did knock in one big putt, a two-meter downhiller on 15. It was just a big putt for the match, I would say. That was for par after a bad chip shot.

16, we halved in a bogey; so that was the one I really got away with. That was really the only one in the tournament where I really missed shots.

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