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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 10, 2014

Marco Dawson

EDMOND, OKLAHOMA

MIKE TROSTEL: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming into the Media Center at the 2014 U.S. Senior Open at Oak Tree National. We are pleased to be joined my Marco Dawson, a 5-under 66 here in the 1st round today. Marco great round, 7 birdies, 2 bogies in your first U.S. Senior Open. Can you just take us through your card a little bit. You started on 10 after a little bit of a weather delay because of the rain. Four straight pars and birdied the par 5, 14th.

MARCO DAWSON: Yeah. I hit a good drive, not a good second shot. I was in the fairway bunker, 70 yards from the pin and hit a pretty decent shot out. Again, I was just trying to get it on the green and I made the putt. So, you know, I kind of stole one there, I felt like. Then the next hole I hit two really good shots. I think it was about a 12-foot putt and made that one.

MIKE TROSTEL: You made a few pars coming in and turned in 34. Then started with another birdie on the 1st hole.

MARCO DAWSON: I hit two good shots there.

MIKE TROSTEL: What did you hit?

MARCO DAWSON: Driver and little chip 9-iron. No. 2, I thought -- you know, the wind was playing kind of funny out there. I thought I hit a good shot there and it just went straight and went in the rough and on the second hole it's really penalizing because the green is so elevated. But I did have a good chance to chip it close and I didn't and I missed the putt. Then the 3rd hole I thought I hit a pretty good drive. The wind took that one and I had a good chance to make a 6 or 7-foot par putt and I missed it. Then the next hole hit a good shot. I think it was about 6 or 8 feet.

MIKE TROSTEL: The par 3, the 4th hole.

MARCO DAWSON: Then the 5th hole, you know, played okay, par, and then 6th hole I made a good saving putt for par. My tee shot hit it in the right rough, short of the green on, short of the green on the second shot and chipped it past the hole and made about a 15-footer.

MIKE TROSTEL: For par and then birdied the last 3.

MARCO DAWSON: Right. That's kind of the -- 3-under was a pretty good score at the time. No, 2-under was pretty good at the time and I thought, okay, I'll play, give myself a chance to birdie these last three holes and I hit a good chip on 7. Made that putt. Then 8, I got it on the green. I was just trying to get it a little right of the hole there, pin high. The club selection there was kind of tough because trying to figure out if the wind was hurting or helping or not and, you know, the club selection was kind of tough there for me. So I was just trying to hit middle of the green and I hit it pin high and made about a 30-footer.

MIKE TROSTEL: On the 9th hole hit a great approach shot coming.

MARCO DAWSON: Kind of pulled my drive in the left rough. Had a decent lie and, again, there, I was just trying to hit the green, just get out of there with a two-putt and hit it really good, you know, then it's up to the bounce. Landed in a good spot and rolled right down to the pole about two feet.

MIKE TROSTEL: Tapped in it. Do you know what you had coming in there, what club?

MARCO DAWSON: I had a pitching wedge. I had 131 yards but the number that I was concerned with was the 116 to the front. I was just trying to get it 120.

MIKE TROSTEL: Very good round today and you've had a lot of success in these Champions Tour Majors so far. This is the 4th one you've played in. First three, tied for 9th, tied for 9th, tied for 15th. What has it been about these 72 hole Major Championships that has you playing really well?

MARCO DAWSON: Might be the four rounds. I know, I hate to say it but lot of these guys get tired because of their age. They get tired after three rounds, you know, especially after a practice round and all the walking. So, you know, being that I'm 50, I guess I'm the rookie out here. So, I've been walking for the last 20 years on the regular Tour and I've been trying to stay in shape. So I walked, I played the Nationwide last year or the Web.com last year, walked four rounds, played practice rounds, played Pro-Ams. So, it was all walking. So I'm used to it. I live in Florida so I'm used to the heat. I think that has a little bit to do with it. Some of these guys get tired and I think some of these guys withdraw before the tournament even starts knowing they're not going to be able to make those four rounds plus a practice round. That might have something to do with it. Plus, you know, I still have a little bit of length. For the last five, six years I've been driving the ball extremely well. Not so great today but I've been driving the ball extremely well. So, I noticed just by looking at the stats recently I was -- I think I was 2nd in total driving and that's something early on in my career that I never did well but in the last five, six years I've been driving the ball really well. So, I think that helped out here, especially on those Majors where the rough is a little bit higher. So, I think all those things are contributing to better play, better finishes on those tournaments versus, let's say, some of the -- the three day events where you can ride and not much rough.

MIKE TROSTEL: Certainly a very good start today. We'll open it up to questions now. If you want to raise your hand.

Q. Marco, I was just looking at your results this year and obviously abbreviated Champions Tour season so far but your three best finishes coming in here were in the Senior Majors. Can you maybe talk about playing your best at the hardest venues or tournaments?
MARCO DAWSON: Well, like I said, when you're driving the ball well, it doesn't matter really where you play. You just look out there and you pick a spot and you hit it there and that's what I'm doing nowadays is I'm -- I pick a spot and within five yards of it, either side of it lately. So, it's fun to play like that when you're in the fairway all the time. The one thing about hitting a lot of fairways is you are never going to score high. You're never going to shoot 80 or 78. The guys that miss a lot of fairways are the ones shooting the high scores. You can have a bad putting day and drive it well and shoot 72 or 3 and get away with a bad putting day there. You're always going to be on the offensive when you're driving the ball in the fairway. If you're in the rough all the time you're always playing defense. So, it really helps to drive the ball well. You know, the first couple of events it was kind of like stepping into time for me when I first came out, all these same guys were out here playing the regular Tour when I was a rookie out there so it was nice to see those same faces and -- those guys were, you know, great players then and it's just too bad that they're -- you have to get old (laughter).

Q. Follow-up, if I may. I'm wondering when the last time in a regular Tour event were you leading or around the lead or had a chance to win? Do you remember the last time?
MARCO DAWSON: You know, that was two years ago, I think at Sea Island. It was after the 1st round. I think I had a 64 in the 1st round. That was about as close as I got in that one.

Q. Would you say that this is the best round you've played on the Champions Tour given the difficulty of the course and why or why not?
MARCO DAWSON: It is probably the second best round. May be the first best round. The 64 I had, I think it was a 64 at the Senior PGA in Michigan on Saturday, I had two bogies also in that round but I think I had 9 birdies that day. But that was in the 3rd round. This is the 1st round. This is a little bit different, you know. You know, you're just going out and shooting at all the pins. But in that 3rd round you're trying to make up ground. I guess the mindset is a little bit different in the 3rd round there but that was an extremely good day. But today also was a really good day. It just seemed to happen, you know, birdie, birdie, birdie the last three holes so I ended up 5-under, you know. I could have, you know, shot 2-under and still would have been a good round, you know. But that day, everything was going right.

Q. Marco, what were you doing during the hour and a half rain delay? Did it screw up your momentum going into the opening round?
MARCO DAWSON: No. Only because I hadn't started yet. I was just warming up so it was just kind of another warm up after the delay and just kind of went back through my routine. Went to the range, hit for 20 minutes and went to the putting green and then we teed off. No, it didn't have any effect.

Q. What did you think about Oak Tree and the environment out here today? Seemed like a pretty good fan turn out.
MARCO DAWSON: Yeah, for a 1st round, yeah, this is huge. There was a lot of people out here yesterday following us. I thought the rain might scare them off but apparently not. I'm guessing there's more and more people showing up now but it's getting hot out there.

Q. Marco, you played here at Oak Tree in the 1984 U.S. Amateur; is that correct?
MARCO DAWSON: That's correct.

Q. Do you have any particular memories from that experience? Does the golf course seem a lot different or very similar?
MARCO DAWSON: You know, it was funny because I thought when I get out there I'll start to remember some of the holes and I could not remember a hole. I guess it was that long ago. I just couldn't remember any of the holes. So, I don't know what to tell you. I just couldn't remember. I tried but I couldn't remember any of the holes.

MIKE TROSTEL: Didn't seem like it hurt you today. Any other questions for Marco?

Q. Marco, as you entered, say, your mid-40s and you're trying to play the regular Tour and also playing on the Web.com Tour, et cetera, how much of an incentive was it for you to get to age 50 knowing that that opportunity might be out there for you as well? I mean does it keep you pushing, does it keep you working as hard or even harder than you might have otherwise?
MARCO DAWSON: Yeah. I kind of got a little disappointed or I don't know if it was disappointed is the right word but, you know, those courses on the regular Tour and Web.com Tour are getting so long, it's just no fun to play anymore when -- I've got some length but not like these young kids do anymore. It's just no fun when you're playing a 520-yard par 4 and 650-yard par 5s and 240-yard par-3s. You don't feel like you can score. You come out on a course like this and you feel like you can score although the scores really don't reflect it, at least you have the mindset, I can birdie this hole. If I hit a good tee shot I can put a scoring iron in my hand but out there I felt like even if I hit a good tee shot I've got a 3-iron or utility in my hand. That's not a scoring club. That's just trying to make par club. So, it just wasn't fun anymore. And when I started playing out here, I started to notice this is what the Tour was like 30 years ago. We played a lot of courses like this where, you know, lot of excitement. You felt like you could score.

MIKE TROSTEL: Very good. All right, Marco Dawson, 5-under 66 in the 1st round today. Best of luck the rest of the championship.

MARCO DAWSON: Thanks
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