Tiger Wood remarks on his bogey free first round at the US Masters 2020.
US Masters 2020: Tiger Woods Interview
Q. That was a pretty good start today; can you just talk about the whole day and how you felt?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I did everything well. I drove it well, hit my irons well, putted well. The only real bad shot I hit today was I think 8. I had a perfect number with a 60 degree sand wedge and I hit it on the wrong shelf. Other than that, I just did everything well. The only thing I could say is that I wish I could have made a couple more putts. I missed everything on the high side. Putts just aren’t moving, so it’s just different with as slow as they are and then with the weather delay, the amount of rain they’ve had. The golf course is going to change a lot. You hear all the SubAir is on, so it’ll change over the next few days.
Q. What about the rough; it’s higher than ever, right?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, they haven’t been able to put mowers on it, and yeah, it is high. The guys that drive the ball in the rough, if you have a down grain lie, yeah, you can get to the green, maybe even control it, but you’ve got to when the grain is sitting down, there’s really no chance, so you’re going to have to rely on short game and angles.
Q. Was it weird starting on 10 or how did that factor into the round?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, there were a lot of differences today, playing on 1 and 10 today. This morning I was on the putting green putting and getting ready for my round, and when they were introducing Gary, we were on the putting green and we couldn’t hear them. There was a drone flying over the putting green. Down 1 today you could hear the drone over there. You don’t hear drones here. There’s no patrons, no roars. Yes, as the camera guys would say, where did the ball end up, because we just don’t know. That’s very different. A lot of firsts today. That’s kind of the way this entire year has been. The fact that we’re able to compete for a Masters this year, considering all that’s been going on, it’s a great opportunity for all of us.
Q. What is the satisfaction level of a fast start at a place where you always haven’t had fast starts?
TIGER WOODS: Well, yeah. I got off to a fast start today, which is good, but I think everyone is. Everyone is going low out there today. With these conditions, you have to. You have to be aggressive. There’s no reason why you can’t fire at a lot of the flags. Like today on 5, I hit a little squeezer off the tee and had 227 to the hole, hit a 4 iron to the back edge and it only rolled out a foot. That doesn’t happen here.
There are balls wedges that are ripping back, that you have to watch spin. That’s probably not the case, you’re trying to find spin around here. But this is the way the golf course is going to play for the next couple days. As I said, you can hear all the SubAir is on, so it’ll be a little bit different.
Q. Did you surprise yourself out there today, even what you knew about your game coming in?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I think that understanding how to play this golf course is so important. I was saying there that I’ve been lucky enough to have so many practice rounds throughout my career with so many past champions, and I was able to win this event early in my career and build myself up for the understanding that I’m going to come here each and every year, and the fact that this tournament is played on the same venue each and every year, you have to (indiscernible) every time. So understanding how to play it is a big factor, and it’s one of the reasons why early in my career that I saw Jack contending a lot, I saw Raymond contending late in his career, now Bernhard and Freddy always contend here late in their careers. Just understanding how to play this golf course was a big part of it.
Q. You mentioned the lack of roars. Was that something that had an impact on you? Did you have to get used to not hearing
TIGER WOODS: Well, we’re trying to get used to that this entire year. It’s so different. Shane was telling me today that it was pretty exciting last week to have the energy level of 200 people out there following his group. We haven’t had that this entire year. It’s been very different. This world that we live in is not what we’ve had the last throughout my career, and that’s something we’re going to have to get used to for some time.