GENUITY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 28, 2002

Tiger Woods

Q. Are you happy with 5 or do you feel like you could have been better?

TIGER WOODS: It could have been a little bit better but I am not going to be disappointed with 5. I played well today and it was nice making a couple of putts coming in. I felt like if I could shoot up in the 60s it would be a good part of the week.

Q. Are you happy to be in Bermuda?

TIGER WOODS: It's great to actually have the ball roll again. Steve and I were saying that this week, and it is nice to see the ball go in the hole and -- if one of those things work, if you are struggling with your putter on smooth greens, you can always figure it out because you know what the ball is doing. When you're putting on poa annua -- I rip on poa annua. That's the thing, it's kind of hard to figure out what is going on sometimes. Good putts don't go in, bad putts do go in. It is kind of strange to try and figure things out, but this week is nice, the ball is rolling true and the greens are picking up speed with drier air coming from the north and it is quite a test.

Q. How do you like this course with your style of game?

TIGER WOODS: I like it a lot. You get to use your driver quite a bit and there was a different wind out of the north today. I used a lot of 3-woods today because a lot of the holes you would normally hit driver on are now downwind.

Q. Feel good to get off to a good start?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I hit the ball well; made some putts today and didn't put myself in a whole lot of trouble today which was nice.

Q. What was the difference front to back? You seemed to play better after the 7th or 8th hole.

TIGER WOODS: I started feeling a little bit more comfortable, I guess, started building a little bit of momentum. I hit some good shots; made a nice up-and-down on 10, a little pitch up the hill, and little things like that really for some reason they can make you feel pretty good. I gained a little hit of confidence going on from there.

Q. Do you feel you play better with a stronger field knowing that competition is going to be --

TIGER WOODS: In either case, doesn't matter what tournament it is, you are going to have to play well out here now. The fields are so deep and guys are going so low that you just have to try and keep pace.

Q. You talked about peaking for the first major, this is kind of the first step that -- this first round has got to make you feel pretty good the goal getting to where you want to in the next month or so?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, that's obviously where I'd like to be. It's nice, put it together piece by piece and it is starting to fall into place. On the West Coast it happened in spurts. It would happen three, four, five holes where I didn't really miss a shot. Then I'd lose it for two, three holes. Out here with the competition as deep it is, you can't afford to do that.

Q. Looks like at the end of the day you may all be chasing DiMarco. What is going on with that guy?

TIGER WOODS: He's plays beautifully. He's hitting good shots and obviously he's rolling the ball well. There's no substitute for having a lot of confidence and he obviously has a lot of confidence because of the way he has been playing.

Q. Have you ever messed with the claw either in the living room --

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, Calc and I are great friends and he showed it to me and what he was doing and I have tried it but I can't putt that way because I putt so much with my right hand for feel that the claw, what it does, it takes that out. You putt more with your shoulders.

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