2/3/03
CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA
SCOTT CROCKETT: How do you find the day?
ADAM SCOTT: I thought it was an interesting day, because I was cruising, and then couldn't do a thing right. I'm pretty happy to be here. I should have finished it off a lot earlier. I had to struggle off the tee today, and it got me in trouble today.
SCOTT CROCKETT: You must have felt it slipping away. Did you think you were going to go down an extra hole?
ADAM SCOTT: No, I honestly thought I could just run him out of holes. But I wasn't hitting my shots. I kept driving it in the rough, so I couldn't get on the green and put any pressure on him. So I was always playing from behind basically.
Q. Could you sum up the week you've had here?
ADAM SCOTT: I really didn't -- it's tough to expect anything in match play, because you can go out and shoot 6-under and lose in the first day. I didn't expect much this week. I thought just take what you get. And I had a great week. I think I really stepped it up a level this week, especially after yesterday afternoon, playing so well against Tiger, that was a big experience for me.
Q. How tough was it coming back today after playing yesterday? How tough was it to come back?
ADAM SCOTT: Well, I felt like playing another round of golf. But on the other hand, I felt I'd lost, and my chance to win was gone. So I felt I was playing well, and I wanted to come back and play. Even though it's kind of a consolation match, you still want to win the match. So I'm pretty happy there.
Q. Have you had a chance to look at yesterday's play on TV?
ADAM SCOTT: Yes.
Q. What did you make of the replay?
ADAM SCOTT: It made it clear to me, halfway there it just died left. It was rolling on the inside of the hole, taking off, and the stroke looked all right, and it just -- the putt broke hard left, and I didn't see that, it hit something, I don't know.
Q. Do you feel when you were up, six up through eight holes, did you feel at that point that this was over or did you lose any momentum or did you just -- did he just get you going the wrong direction at some point?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, it was, I think everything turned in his favor on the 11th. We were both up next to the green, and he was in for four, and I had a chip for eagle and I blew it way past, missed the putt and lost the hole. And all of a sudden I couldn't do anything right. He made pars. I made a couple of bogeys, he made a couple of birdies, and it falls away pretty quick. I couldn't put myself in position to put any pressure on him, so he was having a free shot at everything.
Q. Does it matter to you being first off the tee in match play?
ADAM SCOTT: I think it's an advantage. If you can get it in play, then that's a huge advantage, and neither of us really drove it that well today, but even early on I wasn't getting it in play early, and I was somehow getting it on the green, and he was making all the mistakes. It's a funny game, match play, because it turned around so dramatically today.
Q. What do you rank yesterday's performance in the scheme of the rounds you've played, not just because it's Tiger, but as far as the quality of your golf?
ADAM SCOTT: It was pretty good. It's certainly not the best I've played. There were a few scratchy holes out there I thought I played, and I missed a few putts, but it certainly under the pressure of a semifinal match, it was pretty high. Because I think this is a very tough golf course now, and with the lengthened holes, especially the first nine, I think we shot 5-under for the match, so I think that's pretty high quality golf.
Q. Now that you've played when it matters with Tiger, what, if anything, did you see in his game that you think you need to do to get to his level?
ADAM SCOTT: Well, I saw a huge difference yesterday when Tiger didn't miss a putt inside eight feet. And I think I missed four. So that's the big difference in the game. I mean, obviously, he does a lot of other things better than me, as well, but I think the clear difference was I missed four putts inside six feet and he didn't miss a putt inside eight feet. So that's a big difference.
Q. Your confidence coming into this week versus what it's going to be going out of this week, and in two weeks I'm assuming you'll be at Qatar.
ADAM SCOTT: Well, I'm actually playing Honda in two weeks.
Q. Just talk about the difference between your confidence coming into this week and where it is now.
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I'm very confident at the moment. I think if I can go away and still work on my swing and do the right things there, just my mental confidence and everything will be a lot higher this week, especially after yesterday afternoon gave me a lot of confidence to play like that and really make Tiger earn his win. And that was surprising, because I felt most comfortable out there yesterday afternoon, even more so than today.
Q. Can you talk about Tiger holing those putts and you weren't happy with your putting at the end of last year? How has it been this week overall and do you feel that that's the part of your game that you have to work on most?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, it improved this week, for sure. There's some tough greens to putt on, these greens out here, with the poa growing in, and I think I still missed a lot of putts that I should have made, and I think that hurt me a little bit. I could have closed a few matches out sooner, because I missed a few short ones. But I'm stroking the putter better, and I think now I'm hitting the ball better. I've got to read the greens differently than when you're lagging them around, when you can put a firm, confident stroke, the ball rolls on line, and you don't have to allow so much for breaks. It was a lot better. I holed a lot more long putts this week, which was important for me.
Courtesy of ASAP Sports
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