Tiger Woods On Rory, Playing The European Tour, Belly Putters And More

The current world number two was speaking to the press ahead of defending his title at the annual Chevron World Challenge in late November.

Tiger on Rory McIlroy

“I think it’s fun for us because we’re the top two players in the world right now, and we get to compete against one another.  I’ve been in this conversation before when I played against Duval for a number of years and Phil for a number of years, and obviously Vijay, as well. 

“It’s nice to be a part of that conversation, there’s no doubt.  Hopefully I can be a part of that conversation for a very long time and win my share of tournaments along the way. But as far as Rory is concerned, he’s a great kid.  We have fun out there and we both like to compete.”

Tiger on his swing

“As far as things I’m working on, it’s the same things. I’m getting a little bit more comfortable with it, and it’s nice to actually start to putt well again.  My short game has been solid.  I’ve made a few changes there, and that’s been very nice to see the progress I’ve made there.”

Tiger on his off-season coaching

“We have an off‑season practice schedule, and some of the details we want to work on, but now is not the time because we don’t have the time for that, so we’re just going to continue doing the same things that we’ve worked on basically all summer long and just try and get more proficient at it through these next two events.  But we do have an off‑season program in which we want to do some work and how we want to do it, and then I’ll start really focusing on next year and my preparation and lead‑up to Augusta.”

Tiger on his 2013 schedule

“Right now I’m really focused on playing in Malaysia and playing in the World Challenge. After that I’m going to sit down over my off‑season and before the new year for sure and plan out everything and see how many events I’m going to play in and whether this year was a good amount, or whether I can play more, I can play less, travel more, travel less, and really get a good balance and really analyse what I need to do and what I want to do.

Tiger on keeping fit

“It was nice to be able – other than one setback at Doral this year – to be healthy enough where I have the opportunity to play as much or as little as I want. I wasn’t forced to sit on the sidelines, forced to rehab and try and get myself back into a position where I can compete, I was able to compete and play as many tournaments as I wanted to.  So that was a positive.”

Tiger on playing on the European Tour

“They asked me the question whether or not I would entertain it, and I said, yeah, I entertained it early on in my career, there’s no doubt, because at the time there was only 11 events, and I believe it was eight cross‑overs, and I played once or twice in Europe, and that put me at nine or 10, usually at 10 because I played in Asia and I played as well in Germany for all those years. So I was only one event away. 

“Now it’s at 13.  13 is a little bit more difficult to get to, but that’s one of the reasons why I think they implemented the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup as events that count towards that number.  I certainly can see the benefits and also see the negatives of playing that much golf.  But going forward, I don’t know.”

Tiger on belly putters 

“I believe it [the rules change] should be the game across the board. I think it should be a global rules change is how I look at it.”

Tiger on defending his Chevron title

“[winning the Chevron World Challenge last year] gave me a lot of confidence, the way I did it and who I beat.  To go head‑to‑head with Zach Johnson like that, being one down with two to go, and birdieing the last two holes, that gave me just a huge shot of confidence going into this year. You know, one of the reasons why I think I was able to win early in the year, in March, is because of that.”

Tiger on his charity work

“It’s nice to win golf tournaments but that’s just my own personal satisfaction.  But helping these kids go off and accomplish things that they never even dreamt of and to be able to now lead and give back and teach what they’ve learned, how they did it, and to see the confidence that they exude in themselves and the confidence they can instil in others, that to me far outweighs any tournaments that I’ve won, and as you and I have talked about, that’s ultimately the greatest satisfaction in the world is to be able to help others.”