Ten minutes with Tiger

It's mine: Tiger with the FedEx Cup

Tiger Woods duly mopped up another outstanding season when he claimed the Fed-Ex Cup with a runaway seven shot victory in the Tour Championship at East Lake. After his win he talked about the improvements in his game, what his success means to the kids and getting back to his family.

Here are some extracts from his press conference:

Not to dwell too much on the money, but $11.26 million just got deposited into someplace with your name on it. Is that even jaw-dropping to you, given your endorsements and all that? That's a pretty healthy chunk of change and accomplishment.

TIGER WOODS: I don't look at what the purse is or prize money. You play, and when you play, you play to win, period. That's how my dad raised me. You go out there and win. If you win, everything will take care of itself. You take great pride in what you do on the golf course, and when you're able to win events, that's when you can go home and be very proud of what you've done.

Can you talk about your putting this week?

TW: (Laughing) you know, I don't know how many amazing putts I made this week, I really don't. Like I told Stevie [Williams] early in the week, I really tried to make it feel as if I was back in junior golf because the greens were basically this speed in junior golf, a little bit bumpy, and you have the same mentality, get up there and just whack it, make sure you get it to the hole.

Because they were so much slower than we're used to, we didn't have to play as much break and you didn't have to feed them into the holes. So it was a lot of low lines. It took me a little bit to get accustomed to seeing putts on the low lines because I've been accustomed to seeing putts on the high side and trying to feed the ball to the hole. That's what made this week so different than before.

Best putting week as a pro?

TW: No.

Off the top of your head, what was best putting week as a pro?

TW: I putted pretty good in '97 at Augusta.

Where would you say your confidence level is right now? Have you seen it grown over these last two years? Was there evera turning point?

TW: Well, I think the last couple years has been. I've made a bunch of changes obviously on my swing. But last year as we all know, I think the Western in the second round I really played well. Finally I went back to just playing golf again. I got over all the things that happened earlier, including my dad passing, and I finally got back to just playing golf again; I felt I was back in my rhythm again. And from then on, if you look at my results, it's been pretty good.

You've gone 1, 1, 2, 1, 1 in recent tournaments

TW: Right. I think my driving has gotbetter. I feel as if I'm able to shape the ball in there and actually work the golf ball better both ways than I did early in the year. My trajectory control has been about the same, been pretty good, but being able to shape the ball both ways and being able to land the ball on the number has been good.

When are you going to go home and tell Sam what daddy did today? TW: Well, I'm going to probably get home tonight and stay up a little bit. I can't wait until that point in time when she's able to understand what her dad does and when she looks back on it and says, you know, he was actually halfway decent at one time.

You've won 61 Tour titles. Do you think you've reached your prime? TW: I don't think so. Well, I don't know when it's going to be (laughter). What do you want me to tell you, it's like January 5 of such-and-such a year? I mean, you don't know. The whole idea is to try and keep improving. When all is said and done, when you rack the cue and go home and retire, you can honestly say these were my best years, when I was at my peak. But when you're in it, you're always trying to improve that a little bit to get to the next level.

'Avin a laugh: Tiger at the mike

You mentioned junior golf earlier. Is that possibly the last time that you walked away from a golf tournament with two trophies?

TW: I don't ever remember doing it.

Play up a flight maybe, win your age group?

TW: There you go, yeah. It's just very interesting. Normally awards aren't given out until later in the year. Player of the Year, money title, all those things.

Does one mean more than the other? TW: I think winning this week is pretty special. Winning the FedExCup is one thing, but I think as a player you always want to win the Tour Championship. There's history involved, and the players who have won it, these are basically the 30 hottest players for this year, and you know you're going to have your hands full coming into this week.

side from winning the Tour Championship and the FedExCup, how would you assess winning the first FedExCup?

TW: Overall the FedExCup was a success. I think that there need to be tweaks,but overall it provided a lot of drama towards the end of the season, especially post-PGA Championship when most of the guys shut down. Post-PGA it's either Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup and that's basically all anyone ever talks about.

When you were just starting as a pro, what did you envision as a successful career at this stage?

TW: Well, I think that if you have gone through your 20s with just a few majors, it would be a huge success. Most golfers reach their prime in their 30s. Hopefully you can carry that momentum from your 30s into your 40s, especially now that guys are working out and their longevity and their standard of play is longer than it used to be, you feel like you can carry it into your 40s. I didn't see winning this many times in my 20s and now in my 30s. I never would have foreseen that.

Do you have any comments on what tweaks you would consider to make the tournament better? And what's it like, the final tournament for you this year, to go out with such a big bang?

TW: I think that when you have 125 exempt players on Tour and your first event is 144 guys, I thought a playoff was to play all year for a smaller field. You're supposed to narrow it up, not have more players. When you have 10 percent over what you do on the exempt player list starting off the first event, I think that's too many.

You've driven the ball beautifully over the last month or so. Do you think that is the main key to this nice run of four wins and a second? Was there a time when you felt that the driver really kicked in because of the swing change or whatever?

TW: Well, not necessarily, because I didn't really drive it very good at the British Open. I think it's just that I was able to shape the golf ball both ways and still hit the ball the number I wanted to hit it. I think that's where I needed to make some improvement, and obviously when you start feeling confident and are able to work the golf ball either way, off the tee, into the greens, and you're able to land the ball wherever you want to land it, you start feeding off that.

Cold front: Tiger at Carnoustie

Zach [Johnson] said that dangling any more carrots in front of you was bad news for the rest of the guys. Do all of these things when you add them all together, Player of the Year, Money List, FedExCup, majors, do all those little carrots add up in your head? Does it drive you even more to win them all?

TW: I think once you experience it, you want to have it again. It's like winning a major championship. It feels so good, you want to get another one. And plus, once you do, you understand how to do it. Probably the most important thing, is that you understand how to do it. To win Player of the Year, how do you that? Well, it's about consistency. I remember coming here in '98, I had a chance to win the scoring title and Nick Price birdied a couple holes on the back nine to edge me out. Well, you learn from that. It's about playing well all year. You can't have a bad round or a bad couple of rounds or bad tournaments to win the scoring title. You live and learn from those experiences.

After The Presidents Cup, you've got an extended break and some quality time with your wife and daughter. Is there anything in particular you were really looking forward to doing?

TW: Yeah, putting the clubs away, not picking them up, not swinging a club, just getting away from it. Like Steve Stricker said, he can't wait to go hunting. For me, I'm the same way, I can't wait to hop in the water and go driving.

Anything special about your daughter you've missed in recent weeks?

TW: I miss not seeing her every day and helping Elin. We don't have nannies, we don't have any other help, she's just doing it on her own. And when I'm there, I can help. But when I'm not there, she's being a complete stud about it and doing it all on her own. You feel guilty for not being there, not helping out. We want to do it ourselves. We don't want anyone helping raise our child because it's our child.

As you look forward to next year, you're defending champion of BMW and here, and Deutsche Bank supports your foundation. Do you see any way around playing four in a row next year?

TW: Yeah, it's going to be extremely hard, hard on the body and hard on the mind. We'll see what happens. First of all, I've got to qualify (laughter).

For the Ryder Cup or for the Playoffs? TW: For the Playoffs (laughter).

What do you think about the example that you're projecting to the children all over the world, not only in the States but around the world with your example, playing golf?

TW: As athletes we have a responsibility, and I think it's pretty neat to see kids out there following us and watching us play, and I think that hopefully we can inspire many more youths not only to pick up the game of golf but actually to live better lives and challenge them to push themselves to have a better future. That's what we try and do with our foundation. There's numerous other foundations that players are involved in to help out the youths and that the Tour is involved in, as well. We're all trying to do our part and trying to make society better.

Have you decided how Stevie [Williams] is going to get his cut of the bonus money?(Players are not elligible to receive their winnings until they reach the age of 45) TW: No (smiling).

Any thoughts about the Presidents Cup in Canada?

TW:The players understand it and want to make that team. It helps who our captain is and you want to play for him. We all want to be on Jack's team.

What kind of quality play do you anticipate in Montreal?

TW: Very high. Any time you go to team events, if you notice, being in a team atmosphere, especially when you have a partner, guys pull off shots that they normally don't by themselves. That's the beauty of having a teammate there. We don't play with teammates week after week, so we can be more aggressive. You can do things that you normally don't get a chance to because you're always playing pretty conservative out here.