Mercer Island resident Johnie Freatman, a senior at The Bear Creek School in Redmond, was one of three youth reporters at the 2009 World Golf Championships in Doral, Fla., through the CA Course Reporters Program and The First Tee’s National Scholar program. During his time at the championships last week, Freatman joined a pool of reporters and got to ask Tiger Woods a question.

Question (Freatman): Good to have you back. Just wondering in terms of preparation for the Masters, how Doral sets up to Augusta, what the playing conditions are like and what you can take from Doral and apply to Augusta?

Tiger Woods: All you can do is just play well. That’s the only [way] — they are two totally different golf courses. You know, here, the wind obviously tends to blow. There’s no swirling winds here. Augusta, that’s all we’ve got. Uneven lies; not a lot of hills in Florida.

So it is two totally different venues. But the whole idea is to make sure you are controlling your ball flight, and here or at Augusta, obviously that’s prevalent to distance control — to hit the ball on the right trajectory, and here, if the wind blows, it hasn’t. I don’t think the forecast is for wind, but if it does come up, you still have to control your ball.

Freatman’s duties included everything from interviewing the on-site meteorologist to re-gripping golf clubs.

Freatman is a member of The First Tee of Seattle and plays an active role at The Bear Creek School in the athletics department, playing on the golf team as well as winning league championships on the tennis team.