2012 PGA Championship Interview Transcript -- Tiger Woods

TIGER WOODS:  I played well today and anything in the 60s is going to be a good start in a major championship, and I'm right there.

Q.  Given the fact that there's no wind at all  


So it's one of those days where everyone's going to shoot 6 , 7 , 8 under par, but the wind kicked up a little bit and it changed things quite a bit.  If it had stayed pretty benign, I'm sure you would have had to have probably shot 5 under par to be in the Top 10.


Q.  How would you characterize your play on the greens last weekend?

TIGER WOODS:  I putted well on the weekend, made a few adjustments Friday night last week, and felt like I hit a lot of good putts.  Started the ball on my start lines again and I think I made six putts over 20 feet out there or something like that on the weekend, which is good.  Came here with the same thoughts, same feels, and I made a few today.

Q.  Inaudible.

TIGER WOODS:  It was probably just a nice par at 11.  I lost my tee shot to the right there and just had to play out sideways.  Hit a 5 iron and left it in the only spotty thought you could; it was short, and made a nice save there.

Q.  Inaudible.

TIGER WOODS:  Yeah, I was trying to hit a low bullet, and I turned it ever so slightly, it wasn't that bad but I turned it, and I figure if I could    if I turned it, I would get down there to 300, 5 wood I could hit down there to 300 and unfortunately it rode it, and it was gone.

Q.  How was the heat  

TIGER WOODS:  No, I probably lost a little bit of weight today, water weight.  So just have to hydrate and recover and heat, especially after the practice session I'm going to have put in, so it's going to be a good recovery.  Tomorrow I tee off late, so it will be good.

Q.  Inaudible.

TIGER WOODS:  That was nasty.  That was some nasty stuff right there.  Open up with 60 and put a bit of fuel on it.

Q.  Is this the first time  

TIGER WOODS:  Well, I've done it, what you would determine or deem for the week, a waste bunker that looks like a bunker because it's raked up all over the green.  I've done that before but not consistently.  I've done it all week.

Then I get into a tournament and here, pull it left on 13, pull it left over there and Joey reminds me that you can take a practice swing out of there, because I had not done it in a tournament yet.  It felt a little weird to putt my club on the ground.

It just felt weird, it really does, because then it gives a whole different perspective now.  Now it feels like, okay, well, it's from the fairway, but it's not, because the club settles and as you take it back, there's an imprint.

So I didn't do that again.  Just make sure    I took a few practice swings, get a feel, because all of these bunkers are all different.  Some have lot of sand and some have no sand.

Q.  Inaudible.

TIGER WOODS:  I'm not doing that again, no.  I'm just going to have it above.

The shot itself was nasty.  Nasty as in nasty good.  (Laughter).

Q.  What was the lie?

TIGER WOODS:  The lie was downgrain ever so slightly on the downslope.  And because it was downgrain and it was soft, I could play the shot.  If not, I was just going to    if it was into the grain, I would have pitched it to the right 15 feet and tried to make the putt, but because it was sitting downgrain, I could actually try to play that shot up in the air.

Q.  Are you happy with the way you hit it?

TIGER WOODS:  Yeah, I'm going to do a little bit of work on the range, clean a few things up.  I know what to do and just need to do it.

Q.  John Daly had a strong start today, 68, do you guys root for him the way the gallery does?

TIGER WOODS:  Always have.  I played with John for the very first time when I was 13 in the big eye.  So to me, that's    our relationship started there.  Then when I came on TOUR, he was great.  We had lunch, we played practice rounds.  It was just    he's always been great to me over the years.  I have always rooted for him.  I have always been a John Daly fan and a friend.

At the time he was playing that    what was that ball    the ProMax back in the day.  I think it was an Aussie ball (ph) that they had, and he hit a 4  or 5 iron, he playing PINGS at the time, second hole is a par 5 up the hill down the grain, and he hit the shot and he knocked the damn ball out of bound.  He hit it solid right in the middle of the green.

I've never anybody hit the ball that hard.  A flush shot, granted, it's a little balata base, but still, not too often you hit a 4 iron or 5 iron and went right in the middle of the green and took it out of play, roped.

Q.  Where was that?

TIGER WOODS:  Texarkana, Arkansas.

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