On Wednesday afternoon and evening, these players contributed the most during their pressers: Martin Kaymer, Tiger Woods, David Toms, Rory McIlroy, Steve Stricker and Dustin Johnson. Here are their words.

Kaymer, on the Champions Dinner that he hosted:
“And then I called up obviously two past champions, which was the tradition. And I called out David Toms. He’s a past champion here in Atlanta Athletic Club. So he told a nice story about the way or how he won here, and that he played with Phil in the last round. It was a funny story, because David was telling about a girl who was — yeah, the last round, 90 percent of the spectators were for Phil, a bunch, a little group of people were for David. And he said, a crazy girl, she always screamed that Phil should win. David said she was so annoying, and almost when you walked off the green to the next tee box, she was screaming at him; “Phil will get you, Phil will get you.” And he went to his caddie, and said, “Hey, next hole, you’re going to take her out with the umbrella. I just don’t want to see her anymore.” (Laughter.) It was a very fun night. Phil was telling a story, he was my second pick, he told a story about David Toms playing The Ryder Cup with him. It’s been a long story, it will probably take a while, so you should ask him when you are going to see him.”

David Toms, On percentages and laying up on long par fours over water:
“It’s an uncomfortable hole to begin with, so it’s normally a par 5. And if you’re standing out in the light rough or you’re 235 yards out over water and you don’t feel comfortable and it’s a par 5, you would lay up. And so you put that pressure on yourself of saying, oh, I’ve got to hit this green or I’ve got to go for it in two, or whatever. Just my whole career, I haven’t been able to play that way. I’ve always tried to play the percentages. Just when you’re not a power player, you have to play that way. So that decision was made early in the week. I always said that if I didn’t feel comfortable with my second shot there, I was going to try and lay up and make four that way. It’s the same this week; the hole is longer, tighter. It’s a tough hole. So I’m going to play it the best — however I can to make that four. So whatever that is. If I feel very comfortable with my second shot and you’ve got the right yardage, then we’ll go for it. If not, we’ll lay up and try and get up-and-down.”
[Editor’s Note: Dustin Johnson, on playing #18, Toms’ famous lay-up-to-win hole: “Well, I hit driver on Monday, and I think I hit like 9-iron in with a driver.”

Tiger Woods, answering the victory=success? question:
“It would be nice. I mean, that’s the goal is to win every tournament I play in, so that’s not going to change, but I think the first thing is I had to get healthy in order to get back to that level. I hadn’t been able to practice, hadn’t been able to work on my game with Sean. I’ve been sidelined for a long time. It all started with being healthy first, and now I can start playing again. ”

Rory McIlroy, countering the notion that Chubby Chandler is embarrassed by Chubby Slam talk:
“No, he’s not. (Raucous laughter.)”

David Toms, on USA developmental system versus rest of world:
“I talked to Miguel Jiménez about it last night, and he said he turned pro at — not last night, last week. He said he turn pro at 18, but he was a caddie. He went from being a caddie to a professional, and that just doesn’t happen over here. We have the college system over here which all of these kids want to get their education and have something to fall back on. So these guys are playing college golf for four years or more depending on if they red shirt, and then they get out as a professional and they’re starting all over again, playing against guys and having to manage their life and playing against the older guys and guys they’ve watched on television their whole life instead of the foreign players that are turning pro at a young age and getting seasoned on another tour somewhere around the world. It’s just, it’s different.”

Steve Stricker, on caddies:
“You know, caddies play a pretty vital role. When I won the John Deere a month ago, my caddie, Jimmy Johnson, it really wasn’t so much the club that he picked but it was the things he kept saying coming down the stretch. He’s like, “Keep hanging in there. We’ve got two more holes to play; if we can birdie 17, you never know what can happen on 18.” You know, he kept saying that. He said it two or three times. And you know, he was right. We hung in there. We ended up birdieing 17, and we flipped it on 18, and it was a two-shot swing. Stuff like that. It’s not necessarily pulling the club sometimes, but it’s what they say during the course of a round that can actually change your attitude or how you perceive things during that course of the round.”

Dustin Johnson, on what he needs to learn to improve:
“You know, my game, I mean, I need to — obviously I’ve got some places I can improve, and I work hard on my wedges and short game. I think I pitch it and putt it pretty well, but bunkers is probably one of my — I would say one of my weaknesses. To me it’s almost like the harder the shot, the better I am at it, you know, the easy little straightforward bunker shots I tend to not do very well on for some reason. I don’t know whether it’s a focus or I just don’t concentrate as hard. I don’t know. It drives me crazy. You know, over the last year I’ve definitely learned that especially in situations where I’m in the lead or around the lead that I just really need to be patient, and I think I’ve done a very good job of that over the last year.“