| |
 Tiger bares his teeth at PGA Woods proves he can win with somebody chasing him
Posted: Tuesday August 17, 1999 09:45 PM
MEDINAH, Ill. (CNN/SI) -- Everybody knew Tiger Woods could run away with a major championship as evidenced by his 1997 Masters blowout. But could he win with somebody breathing down his neck? Consider it done at the 1999 PGA Championship. Johnny Phelps of CNN/SI and Bobby Clampett of CBS caught up with Tiger in the wake of his second major victory. Johnny Phelps: We are pleased to welcome the 1999 PGA Championship winner, Tiger Woods. How does that sound? Pretty good, I bet. Tiger Woods: I'm not against it. JP: Thanks for the drama today. There was a lot of it out there. TW: That's not the way I intended it to happen but, unfortunately, it did happen. But, fortunately, I was able to finish somehow and get in the clubhouse. JP: You said Saturday that you love a challenge. What did you view as the challenge today? TW: Well, today, being tied for the lead obviously you want to go out and prove a point early and get off to a positive start and hopefully put the tournament out of reach. I was able to do that with a four-shot lead at one point and then it got to five when I birdied No. 11. I felt that if I could somehow just play the next few holes through the par-5 at 1-under I'd be all right. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. Bobby Clampett: What were you thinking about on 13? No. 13 is such a difficult hole. All week long it's been the most difficult par-3 and the club selection there with the varying winds is such a difficult shot. You are standing on the tee and you actually got to see Sergio (Garcia) make birdie there, I believe. What was your thinking because it's not a hole you can play defensively. But then again, it's such a difficult hole under any circumstances. TW: Well, I tried to play along and use the slope behind the hole to bring the ball back. If I had hit the ball 5 yards shorter, it's perfect. It wasn't that I missed the shot by a lot. I did miss it by enough ... or I couldn't use the bank to roll the ball back by about 15 feet. Instead I put myself in a pretty precarious position. JP: So, as you point out, you built a big lead and then you are on the tee at No. 13 when Sergio provides a little drama. TW: Well, you've got to expect your opponent to make shots and I expected him to make that putt like he made on No. 2. And he made a wonderful birdie there and, unfortunately, he couldn't make the putt on No. 15. But you've always got to expect the best out of your opponent. JP: On the No. 13 green, you missed a putt from about 15 feet. TW: That was a ball outside the hole. I hit it a little too hard. If I hit it a little softer it goes right in there. Even though I had all that debacle, I still had the lead. JP: On No. 16 you ran into trouble by hitting the trap and then your shot to the green went past the pin. TW: Yeah, I tried to play the center of the green. Unfortunately, I hit it on the toe. I hit it a little thin on the toe. It was just a weak shot. The ball just died out there and went into the bunker and I blasted out and two-putted for a bogey. JP: And the putt on No. 17 set it up. TW: Just stay committed to your line, stay steady and release the blade. And it fell right in there. I felt so good to stay committed on a putt and execute it. BC: You weren't putting well on the back nine. You weren't hitting your best putts. TW: I was not hitting good putts. To be able to step up there and make one when I actually needed one and be able to make it. JP: Your approach shot at No. 18 ... knowing that Sergio had missed his birdie opportunity? TW: All I wanted to do was carry it over 124 yards and carry the bunker. I just wanted to put it at the TV tower, hopefully pin high to the right of the hole and go ahead and take my two-putt and move on ... hopefully to the victory circle. JP: Tiger, I want to take you back to Thursday because you were sort of just getting around the course until you birdied No. 17 and 18 and ended up with a 70. And then on Friday you had a really good front nine, a great start, and you talked about how the last four or five holes in the downpour, you were really proud of that. TW: I think I really won the tournament that day because it's very easy for me to make a few bogeys and put myself out of it. I worked so hard to get into contention and with all the rain and the swirling winds, I could have easily hit a couple of loose shots, made a couple of bogeys and even a double and fallen right out of it. But I played those holes even par which gave me so much confidence going into Saturday and I was able to carry that all the way through the entire weekend. BC: What is your emotional feeling right now? TW: I'm pretty spent and I'm tired. It was a long, hard day. I didn't realize how much this Championship would take out of me. I knew it was going to be a tough day emotionally, physically and to be able to go out there and execute the shots under all that pressure and block out everything, I finally understand what Nick Faldo was saying at Muirfield when he said he had to play the best four holes of his life. To come and do that, I had to play the best two holes of my life. As I was saying: Step up there and play the best two holes of my life and I will win the championship. And I was able to do that. JP: Tiger, with all that swirled around here this week, can everyone focus their energies now on Brookline and the Ryder Cup? TW: I think so. I think we made our point. We don't want to get paid. It's not about getting paid. It's about giving money to charity. That's what I've said all along. And hopefully, the PGA of America will give us the funds so we allocate it to our charities. We have wonderful local charities that we work with. I work with a hospital. Mark O' Meara does the same and there are other foundations around the country that we're involved in and hopefully we'll be able to do that.
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
