“I Believe I Can Still Win” | Tiger Woods Press Conference | The 152nd Open at Royal Troon

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well I’m delighted to Welcome to the interview our three-time open Champion Tiger Woods um tiger great to see you back here at the open competing once again how much are you looking forward to this test at Royal TR I’m really looking forward to it I I didn’t get a chance to play it last time I was here and um looking forward to the the challenges I know they’ve I’ve gone around here a couple times and lengthened quite a few holes um it’s a lot longer golf course and a few added bunkers here and there but overall it’s uh one of those courses where it’s you’re you’re going to get it on one of the nines U you know it’s either going out it’s going to be downwind or coming home it’s going to be in the wind or vice versa so uh half the hole is going to play be playing really difficult and the other ones are are definitely getable okay well thank you we’ll take some questions from the floor we’ll get a microphone to you we’ll start in the center here hey tiger yeah man um you spoke about how it’s hard for you because you you can’t practice as much and and it’s you have to pick your battles what have you been able to do in the last month um that leads you to believe that that this week will be different than the ones so far this year I’ve been training a lot better uh we’ve been we’ve been busting it pretty hard in the gym which has been good uh body’s been feeling better to be able to do such things and it translates I’m able to hit the ball better um can’t quite stay out there on on during practice sessions as long as I’d like but I’m able to do some things that I haven’t done all year which is nice okay next question mark at the front hey tiger um could you take us through uh your decision not to do the Ridder cup captaincy uh this go round and uh what your input to Keegan has been and how and what kind of a captain do you think he’ll be well the the decision was was very difficult for me to make I I my my my time has been so loaded with the with the tour and everything we’re trying to accomplish um I’m on so many different subcommittees that um it just takes so much time in the day and I’m always on call and I just I felt I told told Seth that I just didn’t feel like I could do the job properly um I couldn’t devote the time I I barely had enough time to do what I’m doing right now and add in tgl starts next year as well as um the rouer cup and you add all that together um and then with our negotiations with the piff uh all that concurrently going on exactly the same time um there’s only so many hours in that today and I feel like I would be doing the captaincy or the players in Team USA Justice is if I was the captain with everything that I have to do and then with Keegan I think Keegan’s yeah Keegan is going to be great leader uh he’s very passionate about what he does uh he’s very passionate about the event uh I think that this is going to be probably a turnover year for us as uh for the captaincies uh whether it’s the captain itself and his vice captains uh I think this is the natural progression uh we’ve been looking forward to and I think it’s uh it’s that year okay next question for our left over here please hi tiger over there yeah um always a lot of talk about your future in the game um hypothetically if if someone ever did advise you to quit what would you say to them in response and how would you explain why you keep putting yourself through the pain to play well I’ll play as long as I can play and I feel like I can still win the event and has that belief wavered at all in the in the last two years that you can still win no okay next question Craig at the back right here T just to almost follow up on that you’ve given so much to this game you’ve given so much to this Championship but you know there was comments you know last week from Colin Montgomery who said why is he here he should retire there’s no point to this do you feel that’s a hopeful and you’ve earned the right to you make the decision when you decide well as a past Champion I’m exempt on 60 um Colin’s not he’s not a past Champion so he’s not exempt so he doesn’t get the opportunity to make that decision I do that’s me you you’ve earned that you’ve deserved it you so when I get to baby at his age I still make that decision well he doesn’t next question here number one yeah hi tiger um I wonder if you could perhaps just talk to us a little bit about uh playing golf back in Scotland some of your best memories of playing here and perhaps uh something about playing golf in front of Scottish fans well I think that anytime I get a chance to play not just in Scotland but just in the UK in general um it’s it’s different different golf Link’s golf is very different um the heaviness of the air is just different the ball doesn’t travel as far um and using the ground sometimes as an ally sometimes is a deterrent and these pots are not unlike any bunkers that we see at home so these are very they’re they penalty areas so you go in them you’re probably going sideways or backwards or somewhere not very far so um it’s imperative to stay out of them uh there’s a way of of using the ground to your advantage and and hitting shots and shaping it correctly um you look at some of the past champions that they’ve been artists and how they’ve been able to maneuver the golf ball and use the ground um this golf course allows you to do that and there are our few Force carries in which we have to send it a little bit but um it’s very fair and very very open right now next question on the right here number four tiger how do you feel about your your short game and your putting you’ve talked about the lack of reps harming it where do you feel you’re at right now yeah I’d like to tighten up my short game just a little bit um the I hadn’t seen anything this firm at home um hot Florida you know Bermuda grass is not quite like this so uh I need to get some some more reps chipping around this rescue and and and how fast that ball how fast my blades going to the ground it’s it’s going through pretty quickly so I got to get a little bit of work done today and tomorrow and uh be ready to come Thursday go Matt back left number two there tiger back here uh could you describe for perhaps some of the holes that you said are kind of green light go holes and maybe a couple that you want to be more cautious on well the first couple holes are starting out they’re pretty pretty simple straightforward um uh seven is one of those holes I think you can you can go for it if you want to you can drive it down there with the you get the right wind you can almost drive it on a green um then you get then coming home coming home is no joke I mean you got some some tough t- shots coming home and uh you got to hit some good shots uh but overall I I think there are some gable holes some the par fivs the the well the two par FS on the front uh depends what 16’s doing with the wind um you can get was into the wind it’s a three shot hole no matter what or if wind lays down yeah you can get there in two you just got to be careful with the burn coming across the across the Fairway but um other than that you’ll see a lot of the guys left to certain the same spots U there will be occasional areas where with the right wind conditions guys can be aggressive especially some of the longer hitters they can be aggressive it does allow for that um but in general if we get the winds we’re forecasted I think that we’re going to be playing for about about the same areas okay microphone number one left here yeah I tag I just um on the holes can you um the postage stamp is one of the most iconic cut holes on on on the open can you just give us your insight into playing it and the challenge that it present and yeah it’s just a it’s a simple I hit nine iron in pitching wedge the last two times I played it um I’ve hit as much as a seven iron um but it’s a very simple hole just hit the ball in green that’s it green good Miss green bat okay it doesn’t get any more simpler than that and uh you don’t need a 240 yard par three for it to be hard ball at the front right here tiger you’ve always embraced Link’s golf almost from the beginning it seems um does it present your best opportunity going forward whether it’s this week or next year into the future to win again or or to be competitive just because of the style and maybe it it it doesn’t require some things that are harder for you now well I think that the the older you get the less you can carry the golf ball uh but over here you can run the golf ball 100 yards if you get the right wind um in the right trajectory so uh it negates somewhat of of the high high launch conditions that most of the times you see on on um on the tour nowadays that populate the world um here it’s a little bit differently a little bit different you can play on the ground you can you can you can burn it on the ground with a with a one iron two iron 3-wood whatever even drivers and just flight it and get a bunch of run and that’s I think that’s one of the reasons why you see older Champions are up there up on the board is that you know they they’re not forced to have to carry the ball 320 yards anymore know it’s been 20 years but since you were last here but um does this one rate highly for you uh I’ve always loved playing her I’ve only played her twice I played her 97 and 04 um I love them I love them both I got a chance to play with uh Tom Weiss cof in his last practice round uh that was neat for him to take me back to his um his his some of his holes and how he played them and and I was give him some some stick and like he was giving me stick like we always do an entire time and we had a great time playing just a wonderful practice round okay Len at the front here on the right um tiger when you’re doing all this um subcommittees and committees and everything and the homework that goes with it are you wishing you were out on the practice ground or or are you beginning to enjoy it I never would have foreseen myself doing this no uh it’s a lot of work uh it’s it it’s enjoyable in the in the essence in in the sense that I’m able to help the tour and I’m able to help the next generation of players you know now we have the the players that are coming up now they have equity in the tour that’s never been done in any major sport history in history so uh it’s a way of me giving back to the game and different way of just than just playing but yes there are days when in which I had a sandwich and I had a had a driver out and I was out hting golf balls um instead of sitting in a three-hour subcommittee meeting um sometimes I I some of these gentlemen that I I work with they’re they’re just incredible uh the the knowledge the breath the breath of knowledge and the endurance the mental endurance that it takes to do this and they do it every day um I can only understand it from golf I used to do this every day um but these guys just never get never seem to get tired okay Phil number two at the back tiger um Rory revealed recently that um Michael Jordan and rafhael Nadal were two of the people who reached out to him after what he went through at Piner I was just wondering if you’d spoken to him about that or if you offered any advice of how you get over such a a tough loss I just s him nice text that was it um I waited a week before I sen it I just wanted to to calm let it calm down and I didn’t want to be didn’t want him I know he was being besieged by a lot of different things going going on um and just let let it cool down for a week then I said my nice text um and that’s it and then I think he played last week and he’s playing this week are you able to share with us sort of roughly what you what you said to him not just basically here I’m I’m as you know I’m I’m your friend and I know this is a difficult moment we’ve all been there as as champions We all lose um unfortunately it just happened uh and the raw emotion of it it’s still there and it’s going to be there for I’m sure some time and the faster he’s able to get back on the horse and get back into contention like he did last week um the better it is for him okay in the center here tiger I know you just ran us through why you’re battling not enough time to be a Ridder Cup captain would you embrace the idea of being a Vice Captain if Keegan would ask you he hasn’t asked me okay microphone number one back left there uh hi tiger um in regards to this week it’s obviously a lot different to what the guys play uh week and week out how have you adapted your setup within your bag have you changed any particular clubs or have you added more weight or less weight to particular club uh let’s see uh I monkeying around with the with the bounce on my 60 um I got a couple of 60s I’m kind of experimenting right now one with a little bit less bounce for the chipping areas but also I need I like the I like the way my older 60 is going through the bunkers and getting out it’s not digging so I got to make a call on that um I just bit my 3 Aon yesterday one degree stronger just to be able to hit it off the deck and get that thing down and flight and running and and I added lead tape to my putter just because the greens are so slow Brian the left here number three yeah tiger uh Keegan Bradley’s only just been appointed but there’s really a lot of speculation about who might Captain the United States in in Ireland in 207 27 just given your you know relationship with JP and your friendship there and if the US uh the PJ of America were to to ask you what would be your feelings on on being a c yeah I me whether JP is um I know it’s near and dear to his heart that uh he wants me there for the event and I hope he is there obviously the conditions that he’s he’s going through and I hope he’s there and I hope he’s he’s healthy and and happy um as I said I I’ll put my hat in there in the ring again um when I have more time and I feel like I can devote myself to uh a Ridder cup as of right now I got so many different things I’m juggling and trying to get right at the same time for all the players that are part part of the PGA Tour and it’s one of those things where you just can’t get it wrong just given your experiences in Ireland over the years what do you imagine that rer cup might be like uh we played there the we played at the k club um hopefully it won’t be as wet as it was there and um hopefully uh M CAD doesn’t drop a nine in the water uh so it was we had a fun week as a team unfortunately we did we lost and I I played the first match out uh against Darren after he just lost Heather and so that was very emotional uh Darren I have been very close and uh it was it was tough to lose um that match but I was I couldn’t have been more happy and and tearful of myself for him um for what that match meant and what the Irish crowd meant to him um and the energy they brought to him during that difficult period you going to the right hand side John the righted there tiger in your role as a negotiator or being involved in the negotiations uh can you tell us whether you think the light at the end of the tunnel is any nearer than it was well I can tell you we’re making progress I I can’t tell you more than that just because we’re not going to negotiate on on the outside we got to keep everything at at a high level and private uh but things are moving and things are changing um it’s evolving each and every day there’s emails and chains and texts and things that we kind of ideas that we bounce back and forth from both sides so there’s a there’s a good interchange of ideas and thoughts of of how the game could look like going forward and it’s just a matter of putting that all together um legally um obviously we have the the doj with oversight and looking into that as well and making sure that we don’t um do anything improperly there as well but also making sure that um that every all the players benefit from this and as well as everyone who’s involved they want to make money as well they want to make make that return we’re now in into not just terrible Endeavors uh we’re into a um a for-profit model so we have to make returns and would you say you’re happy with the way things are going yes I am okay we’re going to close with three question question we’ve got we’ll start with number two at the back please uh sorry uh do you feel like with where your Bud’s at right now getting the lifetime exemption into the signature events that you can kind of feel like you’re in a position where you can play more this season or next season in those events well that was nice of them to do that and I I I told them that if I was going to get that exemption I wasn’t going to take away the last player spot um if it happened to be let’s hypothetically say it’s 72 players in a field uh at each one of the Signature Events and there if I want to play I’ll Be the 73rd player there’ll be an odd man and be toome out and whatever I I’m not going to take another another person’s spot even though it’s nice to them to do that and and asks me to play more often and and have that ability to play Signature Events um but these guys have earned their spots and I’m not going to take that spot away but if I can be included somehow that’d be great it is nice being be able to be included but but I’m not going to take any one’s spot okay then number one in the middle here tiger uh Rory said I think the word he used was discomfort um was what he was feeling when he was standing over the putt on the 16th hole at the US Open just wondering is someone who’s been in the lead late at a lot of tournaments have you ever experienced that emotion yeah lots of times there’s a lot of times I felt discomfort yes absolutely um nervous shaky um uncomfortable yeah that’s all of it it’s part of it that’s why you love it that’s why we practice to be able to put ourselves in that one uncomfortable situation and and bury it how do you handle that practice yeah I I I work I work hard at it and I’ve done it my entire life I’ve worked hard put myself there and you look at you looked at the highlights I’ve missed plenty of putts I’ve missed plenty of shots um it’s like Jordan when they said how many shots have you taken you know you see all the gamewinner shots but also he’s missed a ton of game-winning shots too but the thing is you you still take the game-winning shot and I still want the last part okay a final question Doug on the right here just wanted to follow real quickly how many in a perfect world how many Signature Events would you like to play next year you know Doug I I don’t know cuz I haven’t looked at the schedule I I don’t know how many they’re going to be we I don’t know what the or the Cadence is going to be next year anyways so uh once I find out in a few months you’ll be the first to know I wanted to ask you too tiger what do you what do you consider the most uh crushing loss you’ve had in your career and and how how and how long did it take you to to process it uh probably the the hardest loss to to get over was the the Y Yang loss um because I I had the lead um I had never lost a major championship while leading um that was that was a first and um you know that that took a little bit of a little bit of time to get over that because uh I had made some pretty stupid mistakes in the middle part of the round I made a huge rally at the end but it too late I I made too many mistakes in the middle and um you can’t afford to make the mistakes that I made and expect to win tournaments and I I know better than that well tiger thank you very much and best of luck this week thank you appreciate it