Tiger at the Open: The exit interview

Q. Tiger, just trouble again with the greens?
TIGER WOODS: I didn't execute properly today. I didn't drive the ball all that great, didn't hit my irons well and didn't have the speed again, so not a good combo.

Q. Tell us what your emotional state is right now.
TIGER WOODS: Pissed. That pretty much sums it up right there. I thought I was playing well enough to shoot an under par round today, and I didn't do that.

Q. Was it rust?
TIGER WOODS: No, not rust. Unfortunately I just didn't put it together at the right time. I just didn't execute properly, and consequently, I shot 6 over.

Q. Was there a moment today where (inaudible).
TIGER WOODS: No.

Q. You thought as you kept grinding, you still thought you were going to turn it around?
TIGER WOODS: You've always got to feel that way. I felt like if I just kept going, kept plodding along, I could have turned it around any time with one putt or one shot. And I made two good saves there on 18 and 1 and thought that that would be pretty good. Then made a good par there on 3. All in all, I thought I could have turned it around there.

Q. This is kind of a tough tournament and a tough venue to come back. Talk about that.
TIGER WOODS: It is. It's playing really hard. The golf course is very difficult. The wind is up now, just like it was yesterday afternoon. Marginal shots are just going to get killed here; it's just the nature of this golf course. Any U.S. Open, but more so on this golf course, but any U.S. Open venue that we play, any marginal shot here just gets penalized more so than any other Open.

Q. You've never missed a cut in a major. Can you talk about that?
TIGER WOODS: It's not something you want to have happen. I've gone, I guess, a while without missing one. Unfortunately I missed this one, and hopefully I can win the British.

Q. (Inaudible).
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I knew if I made one birdie coming in and a couple pars, the ten shot rule would get me in.

Q. 20/20 hindsight, would you have (inaudible).
TIGER WOODS: No, I was not ready to play golf.

Q. What's next?
TIGER WOODS: Practice.

Q. Will you play before the British?
TIGER WOODS: Probably the Western.

Q. You said coming into this you felt really good about where your game was. How shocking is this to you?
TIGER WOODS: More frustrating than anything else because I was hitting the ball really well. I struggled all week with getting the speed of these things because they were slower the mindset of a U.S. Open is really slick greens, and these aren't. I struggled all week trying to hit the putts hard enough, and then yesterday it bit me right at the start.

Once I adjusted, as I said yesterday, it was too late. Then today they were nice; they were a little bit faster but still on the slow side. Uphill putts are really slow, and downhill putts just don't quite run out. You have to make the adjustment, and I didn't do that.

Q. Considering what you've had to deal with off the golf course, did it help you to maybe deal with disappointment in tournament play in a major when things don't work out? Is there any way that you've changed or matured with respect to your game and your results?
TIGER WOODS: When you don't execute, you're not going to be happy either way. What's transpired off the golf course, I don't know if it gives you a different type of perspective. But I don't care if you had what transpired in my life of recent or not, but poor execution is never going to feel very good.