Tiger: "It's funner in a different way."

A few highlights from Tiger's press conference at Augusta today. This sounded like Tod Leonard asking the question, but I'm not sure:

Q. Given the changes to the course, is it not as fun to play the course as it was before to go after birdies and to go after things more? Is it just not the same experience?

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's certainly not the same experience, no. It's funner in a different way. You know, when I first played here, good drives would leave you short irons. Balls, you could hit tee shots that were pretty far off-line, but you did it on purpose. I remember Raymond telling me to hit the ball as far right as you possibly can at 9 so you can fire at the green. Now you have to hug the trees because there's no stand of trees down the right-hand side.

The golf course has changed quite a bit. You know, your strategy has changed. You don't go out there looking to shoot super-low rounds because they are not out there anymore, especially with these conditions that we have the last two years. If it calms down, and I'm sure you can probably shoot one of those good numbers, but there's going to be a different way of doing it.

You know, the golf course is just -- we didn't have rough when I first came here. They used to cut the fairways downgrain, and now they cut it into the grain, and then they went half and half. Inside the doglegs were all downgrain so it forced you to try to hug the corner to get more distance out of it and if you bailed out you would be paying the price of getting the ball to the green. Over the years, the course has changed, but it's just a different score.

This was interesting...

Q. When is the last time you watched the final round of '97, and what were your thoughts going through?

TIGER WOODS: Last time I watched it, I think probably around my birthday this year. I think the GOLF CHANNEL had some kind of birthday week or, I don't know, birthday day, something like that. It was on there. It was kind of funny to obviously watch my swing then versus now.
But the coolest thing in the world is obviously seeing my dad there, which I don't have that anymore. So every time I see that, I get a little weak thinking about that moment, because it was a very important moment in my life to have him there, because obviously everyone knows the story, him having a heart attack the year before and him having the heart surgery and the doctor telling him not to go. But he came and gave me a putting lesson, and I putted well that week.

Q. Is that like a great movie where you stop when you're flipping through?
TIGER WOODS: Sometimes. Sometimes I look back on it thinking, I wish I could swing that hard again. (Laughter).

And this, following up on some questions about his time off.

Q. Did you take stock in your future in golf, and how much time you have left?

TIGER WOODS: No. No, I didn't look at it that way, no. I just looked at the fact that it would have been nice to be able to actually make a swing like those guys were making at the time.
At the time I was on the couch elevated with ice.

And this got the biggest laugh out of Tiger I've ever seen: