Q: Tiger, you've defended your championship very successfully. How do you feel at this stage? How do you feel now?
TIGER WOODS: Wow, I don't know where to begin. I just excited, worn out, just so many different emotions to describe right now because I guess it all came out on 18.
But overall it was such a if you're looking at it just from a golf standpoint, it was such a difficult week, with the fairways and greens being as hard and fast, and Chris playing just beautiful golf today. He just kept putting the pressure on me in the group behind. I just had to continue to try to be patient, make birdies whenever I could, but just whatever I do, just don't drop a shot and give him any momentum.
And it didn't quite work out that way. I bogeyed 14 and I believe I bogeyed 12 and he birdied 13. So two shot swing right there. I guess it just then I got hot there at 14, 15, 16, which was nice to give myself a little bit of a cushion playing 17 and 18, because obviously anything can happen on 18. I was able to play it basically stress free.
Q. Can you talk about the emotion on 18, with Stevie there? Did that surprise you that you let it out, let loose like that?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I've never done that. You know me. So it's just I guess all the things that we've gone through of late and I guess I'm kind of the one who bottles things up a little bit and moves on, tries to deal with things in my own way.
But at that moment it just came pouring out and of all the things that my father has meant to me and the game of golf, and I just wish he could have seen it one more time. I was pretty bummed out after not winning The Masters, because I knew that was the last major he was ever going to see. So that one was that one hurt a little bit. And finally to get this one, and it's just unfortunate that he wasn't here to see it.
Q. Do you think the U.S. Open was an unfair test, and after that because you had not played for so long, did you think, I have to prove something to anybody or even to yourself?
TIGER WOODS: Well, the U.S. Open was not an unfair test. That is the hardest Open venue we play. It's just hard.
Q. I didn't mean that so much as the fact that you had no time to really get ready for it.
TIGER WOODS: No, I had plenty of time, nine weeks. I had plenty of time to get ready for it; I just did not execute and I did not play well and subsequently I was only there for two days.
But this week coming into this week I played well at the Western, and I almost won the Western. And I knew that my game was pretty close to where I needed to have it for a major championship, and to come in here this week, my practice rounds, everything was really, I guess, getting better each and every day. And I developed a strategy to play this golf course that I thought suited me and I felt comfortable with it, and I went out there and executed my game plan.
It's just one of those things where you develop a game plan and stick with it and there's times when you need to adjust, but I stuck with it the entire week. I adjusted clubs off the tees, just because the wind conditions kept changing, but as far as the overall game plan, I never deviated.
Q. Chris talked about what he called your uncanny knack of turning it up, doing what you needed to do when somebody is chasing you. One, could you talk about that, and also could you talk about Chris's knack of giving you the best fight all the time?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, as far as what Chris said, I don't intend to do it on purpose; that's not one of those things where I can turn on the switch. I believe in the way I play golf that you turn the switch on the first hole and you have it on the entire time. And you don't try any harder on each and every shot. You have the same effort level, you give it everything you have on every shot.
And for some reason in my past I've seemed to pull things off at the end and I think that's just due to I feel comfortable being there. I've been there enough times. I've had enough success that I feel comfortable being in that situation, and I kept telling myself today that basically only Ernie and I had won this Championship. We're the only ones who have basically won majors on that board. Sergio hasn't done it yet and I'm sure he will soon. Chris hasn't done it and he's come so close the last couple of years.
And I just think that there's certain calmness that comes about being able to say with honesty that I've done this before. And I'm out there and that's the calmness that I feel coming down the stretch.
Q. In light of your emotions at the moment and what you've said regarding your late father, will your celebrations differ in any way or is there anything special you might do given the situation and the circumstances?
TIGER WOODS: This jug will be filled up, I'll tell you that (laughter).
Q. With what?
TIGER WOODS: Beverage of my choice (laughter), and not just once.
Q. May I ask what the beverage of your choice is?
TIGER WOODS: No (laughter). Yes, you can; you just asked. Will I answer? No.
Q. Can you talk about the genesis of your strategy to not hit driver this week? You had said that you didn't know much about this course. Did you read about it on the flight over?
TIGER WOODS: Nope.
Q. It was just when you first got here. Was there a moment when it happened?
TIGER WOODS: No. As I was playing the golf course, I would hit a couple of drives, and the driver would go 350, 370 yards. How can you control that out here? You can't control that. The fairways become they're hard enough to hit as it is, and you add driver and they go that far, now how hard is it to hit? So I just felt in the end if you stayed out of the bunkers this entire week and had just a decent week on the greens, I felt that I would be in contention on the back nine.
And I hit the ball well the entire week and I felt like I had wonderful touch on the greens, except for the last nine holes yesterday. Other than that, I felt that my strategy was sound. It was going to keep me out of trouble.
Guys who were trying to hit the ball over the bunkers, they're going to have shorter clubs on the greens, no doubt about that, but a lot of these flags you can't attack with wedges. On 4, I had I'm aiming 30 feet left of the hole, and I couldn't keep it on the greens. That's the nature of the golf course and the way it was playing this week.
I felt the conservative approach was the way to go. And it lent itself to that this week, especially with four par 5s. And you figure if you just handle the par 5s, that's 16 under par right there. You sprinkle in a few more here and there around the golf course and you're looking pretty good.
Q. Has Hoylake stood the test of time and should The Open come back here, and if so, why?
TIGER WOODS: I think it's a fantastic test. With the golf course being this fast, it lent itself to just amazing creativity. Granted, if you would have had easier pins I'm sure it would have gone lower. These are the most difficult pins I've ever seen at an Open Championship. And a couple of times you feel like if you hit a putt too hard you'll actually putt it right off the green, and you never have that feeling at an Open. But this week it certainly was the case.
And I think because the yardage played short, in some cases, because it was so fast, you hit 3 wood, driver, hitting it 380 yards down there, you're going to have a lot of short irons in there. The only defense they had was pin locations and hard, dry conditions. And we couldn't really go all that low.
Q. Should it come back here?
TIGER WOODS: Yes.
Q. It didn't even look like you missed shot in your round. By your count how many did you miss and is this the best week you've had?
TIGER WOODS: I didn't mis hit any shots today. I may have started a ball left a couple of times or hit a couple to the right, but they were hit flush, and that's a pretty neat feeling when you're able to do that, to never really mis hit a golf shot, to hit it flush. I started off on line, but at least it's hit correctly and you can always make adjustments for that, and that's easy.
Q. Best long irons?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I have to say because I've never played a golf course like this, either, where you've had to hit so many. I hit quite a few off the tee, obviously, but I don't think I've ever hit this many into the greens, 3 and 4 irons and 5 irons on par 4s. But the golf course allowed itself to run the ball up on basically every hole. You had an opportunity to run the ball on the ground, run the ball into the green. So I just took advantage of that.
Q. Given what you learned from your dad about how to think about golf, the mental approach, what would you think about how you went through this tournament?
TIGER WOODS: He would have been very proud, very proud. He was always on my case about thinking my way around the golf course and not letting emotions get the better of you, because it's so very easy to do in this sport. And just use your mind to plot your way around the golf course and if you had to deviate from the game plan make sure it is the right decision to do that. He was very adamant I play like that my entire playing career.
Q. You're used to cameras following you and clicking off, as well. It seemed like there were a lot of distractions today, perhaps every hole. How did you deal with that, especially on the 12th fairway?
TIGER WOODS: It wasn't the 12th fairway, we had it every hole. We've never seen anything like this before. It wasn't the professional photographers, it was the gallery. They would either bring cameras or camera phones. They kept going off while we were over the shot or preparing to hit the shot or even hitting the golf shot, they were going off. And it was very, very frustrating for Sergio and I because because of all the undue delays that we've had with our caddies and the marshals and trying to get a situation where we can play, we got put on the clock. And it wasn't our fault. But that's just the way it was.
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