What they said: Charlie Wi

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LAURY LIVSEY: We would like to welcome Charlie Wi into the interview room. Charlie, you came up a bit short today. Your fourth runner up finish on the PGA. Your thoughts immediately after today's round.

CHARLIE WI: It's great to finish second on the PGA TOUR any time. But at the same time it's a little bittersweet. I had a 3 shot lead after the first two holes, and I thought I had a pretty good handle on myself in control. But I knew there was a lot of golf to be played ahead and David hit some great iron shots coming down the stretch. There was some really tough pins. He was very precise. I certainly didn't give it to him. He definitely earned it.

I kept it interesting until the last hole, so I'm very pleased with that. You know, I backdoored into finishing second a couple of times. But this was the first time where I was going head to head. So this is going to be an experience that's going to help me out in the future.

LAURY LIVSEY: Questions?

Q. Charlie, two questions. No. 1, how hard is it to play when the entire crowd is cheering for somebody else. They are not cheering against you, but cheering for the other guy.

The second question is, it looks like you made a choice to play very conservatively through the hole round, and continued to do that through the hole round, I wondered about your decision on 15 and 17 to not maybe try to hit more club?

CHARLIE WI: Well, the crowd, that doesn't really bother me. I'm sure if he comes to LA, there will be a lot more people cheering for me than for David Toms. So that doesn't bother me.

On 15, I was in the rough. I'm sure David didn't aim at the flag. I know he pushed it. I didn't ask him that. But, you know, he had a 2 shot or 3 shot lead, and I knew he was going for the middle of the green. But that's a really tough pin to get to because he got about five paces behind it, and if you come up short, it's definitely a bogey. So I wasn't really playing conservatively. I was in the rough and a little uphill lie, and there was pretty strong right to left winds, and the wind actually took the ball to the middle of the green.

Playing conservatively, I'm not really sure because conditions are really difficult. I probably didn't execute like I wanted to. That's probably more like it than playing conservatively.

So to answer that I was trying to stay aggressive today.

Q. Charlie, you have had some other runner up finishes. Two things. One, do you feel this was the case that David really went out and took it as opposed to you handing it to him, sort of like last week David missed a short putt and K.J. won.

Also do you feel like 11 was the momentum swinger with him eagling from out of the fairway?

CHARLIE WI: Well, the momentum, I think started on 10 because I believe I was one shot ahead of him, and I was in the middle of the fairway. We weren't really sure if the wind was into us or just blowing left to right. And we took more club.

I kind of came out of it. I didn't commit to the shot. It was definitely more than one shot, and I had a really difficult chip and I left it 15 feet short and made bogey.

You know, starting the round I was three behind. To be tied with him I'm sure he felt like he he felt like the momentum was swinging, because I felt that way as well.

I hit a good drive and a good second shot to the front of the green, and I really thought I hit a very difficult third shot because the pin was tucked on the right side, and he had a very difficult angle, and I thought if I got it up and down I was going to leave the hole tied with him. But a great player that he is, he holed it from 100 yards. That's golf. More power to him that he did that

Q. Can you run us through the next hole, 12, where you hit the lip on the bunker? What club you had and what your yardage was?

CHARLIE WI: I had 140 yards to the front, 159 to the pin. My caddy said, well, just chip it out and hit a wedge under it. I said, are you kidding me? I'm trying to win this tournament here. Let's get up to the green and then try to get it up and down. The lip was pretty high, and I was trying to hit an 8 iron to the front of the green. I thinned it a little bit. I was annoyed with myself. But I composed myself and made bogey, and I thought that was huge for me.

Q. You guys seem to have a great relationship on the golf course, can you talk a little bit about it?

CHARLIE WI: Yes, Mark and I, we have been together for five years. It's like any relationship. I hate to say like marriage or girlfriend. Sometimes we hate each other. We understand what we need out there. He had to miss a couple of tournaments this year because his brother got married. I really missed him not being there because we have such a good routine when we warm up, and when we practice. It's a relationship that you develop over time. And there are players out here that change caddies every week, and I really don't know how they do that.

Q. You talked about 10 being more the momentum swing than 11, when you see a guy hole out like that, is it hard not to think, hey, maybe destiny is not on my side today? Or did you have to get that out of your mind pretty fast, or did that even run through your mind?

CHARLIE WI: Well, I'm not going to lie to you, I was kind of disappointed that the ball went in. If it was six inches away I think that would have been fine. But it went in. I knew if I made a four on 11, that it was going to be fine. Just one shot, you know, him being one shot ahead with a lot of tough holes coming up.

It didn't really bother me at all. I hit a great bunker shot and got it up and down. The killer was the second shot on 12, or poor drive on 12. I put myself there. I handled myself really well. I want to quote something that Tommy Armour said, he is a good friend of mine, he texted me last night, and he said get comfortable being uncomfortable. And I thought that was great. I fought through that all day.

Q. I just want to ask you about your putting this week. Obviously you had it dialed in all week basically?

CHARLIE WI: Last year the last round at Colonial I shot 78. Or 80, I shot in Wadsworth. But some weeks you just see the lines better than you do than any weeks. I don't know why. If you can get it started on line, and you are able to read the greens really well, you feel you can make a lot of putts. And these greens roll really true. And this week for some reason we saw the lines really well.

And me and Mark, my caddy, we constantly work on getting the ball started on line. If we can read the greens right, we make a lot of putts.

Q. Any nerves on 18, trying to hit that shot and knowing you had to hit it close after David hit his?

CHARLIE WI: Nerves? I saw the leaderboard for the first time on 17 green after I made par. I just wanted to make sure that I was distant away from third, so that I could play freely on 18. Actually, I had 133 yards to the pin from where I was, and my caddy suggested that I hit a gap wedge. And I said, well, I was on a side hill lie with the right to left wind, if this things gets up in the air, I don't know if I can control the ball. I said I think I'm going to hit a control wedge and out of the first cut it jumped out on me. The nerves wasn't really there because each I catch him or not catch him and that was that.

Q. Even though you saw leaderboard for the first time on 17 you knew that when you birdied 16 you were two back?

CHARLIE WI: I was playing with David, so, yes

Q. You knew where you stood in relation to him?

CHARLIE WI: Exactly, I kind of peeked but I knew there was nobody really close. I didn't stare at the board. So I knew that it was just going to be us to coming down the stretch.

Q. Charlie, a day like today where the wind is gusting and it's humid, and you are playing for the win, how much does that benefit a guy like David Toms over yourself?

CHARLIE WI: Well, I'm a pretty good ball striker at the ball. I don't know if you know that. I hit the ball pretty solid. I think all of the results where I have done well, have been courses very difficult, and courses that are very windy.

David, he didn't strike the ball as well yesterday but today he hit some good iron shots. I don't know, he's got a lot more experience. He has won 14 times on TOUR now. So other than that, other than experience, I don't believe he is a better player. But experience goes a long ways out here on the PGA TOUR.

LAURY LIVSEY: Charlie Wi, appreciate your time. Thanks for coming in.