(PHOTO LATINO SPORTS NETWORK FARMERS CUP LA JOLLA)
LATINO SPORTS NETWORK
BY MIKE ROJAS
LA JOLLA CA 1/29/18
Q. Your description yesterday for the round was “gross.” What’s today?
TIGER WOODS: Today I played a lot better today, I played a lot better. It’s tough
conditions out there, it’s tough scoring. I really wanted to shoot something probably around 65, I thought that may be a playoff number, but these guys are — they’ve got some par 5s ahead of them and they’re playing well, so I was trying to post early and see what might happen.
Q. If you had to give yourself an overall grade for the week, what would it be?
TIGER WOODS: Very pleased. After not playing for a couple years and coming out here
on the Tour, playing, you know, a solid four days, I fought hard for these scores. They
weren’t like drive down the middle, hit it on the green, two putt, one of those yawners. This was a lot of fight.
Q. Two weeks before you play again, what’s the list of priorities for improvement?
TIGER WOODS: Everything, everything. Just like it was after I played in the Bahamas,
have to work on everything. We’re going to do the same thing here and I’m excited to get
this one under my belt, though.
Q. Tiger, you posted a round of 72 in the most difficult conditions of the week. How
would you assess your play today?
TIGER WOODS: I was pleased today. I feel like I played a lot better today. These
conditions, they were tough. I was telling Dottie, I was trying to shoot 65, maybe get to 10
and post, thought that might be a good playoff number. But there are too many guys up
there, they’ve gone past — they’ve gone past 10 and gone to 11 and 12 and there’s a bunch
of them up there. So it would have been nice to post it, just see what happens, hang around for a couple hours, but I’ll take 72, though.
Q. You told us earlier in the week you tempered your expectations because you
haven’t played a schedule since 2015. Overall, what’s the satisfaction level with this
week?
TIGER WOODS: Very pleased. I fought hard for these scores. These weren’t yawners,
down the middle, on the green, two-putt and one-hand all your second putts in the hole.
These were fighting, I had to fight for every score on every hole and sometimes those are
more pleasing than the boring rounds. It showed that I had heart. I fought my tail off and it was good stuff.
Q. You learnt valuable lessons playing in the Bahamas, you said you thought you
would learn greater lessons here. What have you learned that you can take into the
weeks to come?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I can hit shots, shots that I hadn’t — wasn’t able to hit in the
Bahamas because we didn’t have rough, be able to take cuts out like I did, hit out of weird lies, I put myself in bad spots. But to be able to hit shots that hard shaping it both ways, it’s something that I didn’t know that 100 I could do yet because there’s really no rough in Florida right now, so it was nice to get out here and do it in competition.
Q. Tiger, talk about today. When you got it to 5 under I saw a little fire, I thought
maybe you were pushing the pedal down pretty hard, you were trying to go low,
weren’t you?
TIGER WOODS: I was, I was trying to get to probably 6 or 7. I was telling Dottie at the
beginning of the day I thought if I shot 65, get it to 10, it might be a good playoff number,
especially with the wind. Forecast was supposed to be pretty tough. It was tough for a little bit, now it’s laying down just a touch, or it’s becoming more steady instead of blustery. But I didn’t shoot the number I wanted to, but still overall it was a good, solid day.
Q. Solid week, a top 25, you played four rounds, it was a grind all four days. You’ve
got to be pleased.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, these weren’t yawners. Yeah, these weren’t down the middle, on
the green, hit the first putt, one-hand the second one. These were tough, tough scores. I
had to fight for each and every one, and that’s very pleasing. I can grind it out with the best of them.
Q. I saw length off the tee, swing speed is terrific. I mean, you’ve got to work on
accuracy obviously.
TIGER WOODS: Totally. I’m going to go back and work on a bunch of things. I can feel
some of the things I’m doing wrong in my swing, so we’re going to go back to work. It’s nice to have two weeks off, but it’s more important that I got this tournament under my belt where I can feel some of the things I need to work on because, you know, hometown speed versus game speed is two totally different things. As much as we try to simulate it at home, it’s never the same.
Q. Tiger, what surprised you — did anything surprise you about the week, positive or
negative?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I think overall it was very positive. The big concern was playing out
of the rough. I hadn’t played out of rye grass since last year, it’s about been 12 full months, what was I able to do. I hit some shots this week, hit some really good ones out of there. Unfortunately, I put myself in there in the first place.
Q. Tiger, if you had —
TIGER WOODS: Overall, I’m very happy the way I was able to fight out the scores. I
was telling Dottie over there, these weren’t yawners, down the middle, on the green,
miss the first one, one-hand the second one. These were grinds and I fought hard
and it was nice to see that I’m able to still grind.
Q. If you had a checklist of things you wanted to accomplish this week, what are the
boxes that you checked off, and other than not winning, what boxes might have been
left unchecked?
TIGER WOODS: I think it’s just overall still to be able to play four rounds like this under the heat again on a totally different grass than I have at home. One year at home I putted on bermuda. Now I come out here and put on poa, I haven’t putted on poa since I was here last time. I haven’t hit out of rye grass since I was here last time. These are all unknowns. There’s nowhere in Florida to test all that, so I had to test it here in game time, which is not exactly easy. On top of that it was dry greens, they’re hard. It was difficult this week and I thought I did well.
Q. Are there any questions left unanswered, just as a follow-up for you?
TIGER WOODS: I think I need to obviously work on my game just like I did after the
Bahamas, I need to work on some things and I’ll have two weeks to do it.
Q. (Inaudible) prove that at a course like Torrey Pines where you’ve had so much
success, so many good memories, does that add a little bit extra, too?
TIGER WOODS: I think coming here, it’s always fun to come here. This is like near and
dear to my heart, just like home. I was born and raised about 40 minutes from here. To see some of my friends from high school are out here, things like that, and the people are
absolutely fantastic all week. They were loud, they were excited, but they were very
respectful. It was nice to play in front of the people like that, and overall I thought I did pretty well this week.
Q. You confirmed to play the Genesis up in L.A., which is your own tournament of
course, but are you playing any other tournaments before —
TIGER WOODS: I haven’t built up my schedule yet.
Q. When will you make that decision?
TIGER WOODS: I think as the weeks go on. We want to see, you know, how I swing after
one tournament, you know, go back home, kind of reassess where I’m at and keep doing
that. These are things that I honestly can’t tell you, yeah, I’m going to play five tournaments in a row. I don’t know what my body can do yet, I’m still learning it.
Q. Tiger, are the driver issues things you just need to get home and get on the range
and figure it out, or do you think it’s something that you’re just going to need more
tournaments to work out?
TIGER WOODS: Both, both. Unfortunately, it’s both because game time speed is very
different than hometown speed. These are some of the narrowest fairways on the whole
Tour, so when I’m — I don’t have my best stuff, and on top of that these are narrow fairways, now it’s windy. It just compounded it. It made it very difficult for me anyways. I don’t know about the rest of the guys, but it was tough for me.
Q. Did you take note of Roger Federer’s 20th, and what do you look at when you see
that kind of thing, do you get a lift, does it give you a little boost?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, he’s young, he’s 36. I guess it’s all relative. In that sport he’s very
old, but in our sport, I’m only 42, that’s not that old. Davis won when he was in his 50s, Vijay did well all throughout his 40s, so it’s very possible out here for us. But to do what he did at his — with his schedule, the way he’s done it at 36 years old, very smart.
Q. Tiger, did your body hold up as well as you could have possibly expected in your
wildest dreams this week?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it did.
Q. Give it a grade.
TIGER WOODS: It really did, it was nice. You know, some of the shots I had to hit out of
the rough, out of the trees, shaping them both ways, and a few times I had to jack up the
speed and had no issues at all.
Q. You said at the beginning of the week that these guys are seasoned and you’re not
from lack of play. Can you explain maybe in what areas this week you felt
unseasoned?
TIGER WOODS: Just my feel of hitting the ball the right number. You know, you look at a
shot, you see what the wind’s doing and automatically you say, okay, I’m going to hit this ball three yards further, I’m going to put this ball 15 feet left and take two yards off, things of that nature and they’re easy to do. When I’ve been playing, a lot those are things I don’t have to think about. Right now I’m still thinking about it, especially with these conditions, they were a little bit more challenging for me.
Q. Short game throughout the week was — I mean, it’s not one of these cases where
you say, gee, I could have been two or three better, it seems like you got the most out
of it?
TIGER WOODS: I did, I got a lot out of my rounds. The short game wasn’t something I was
worried about coming this week. I knew what I could do, what I’ve been doing at home.
That wasn’t going to be the issue. It was going to be can I shoot low scores. I didn’t, but I
grinded out some good rounds.
Q. Eagles or Patriots?
TIGER WOODS: Raiders.