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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 11, 2014Gene SauersEDMOND, OKLAHOMA Q. Do you feel better? GENE SAUERS: I feel better today. Yesterday, I was pretty bad yesterday. I got a lot of sleep. Went to Chick-Fil-A and went right to bed. Feel better today. Today went well. I made a few stupid bogies but I came back and made some birdies and I made an eagle on 7 and then birdied 8. So, I finished up strong so I like my position. Q. Club selection on 7? GENE SAUERS: Hit a driver little left over by the tree and I had 231 to the hole and hit hybrid in there probably 15 feet behind the hole. Q. That works? GENE SAUERS: That will work. Q. Can you talk about how the course is drying out maybe a little more challenging today when you got a breeze? GENE SAUERS: I played this morning so it was still a little -- you could still kind of fly it to the holes a little bit. You had to protect yourself a little bit but they're starting to dry out now. Might be a little tougher this afternoon. Q. Generally the case. GENE SAUERS: Yeah. Q. Were there any shots you hit today where you could tell the course was firming up a little bit or maybe a place where the ball ran out in the fairway? GENE SAUERS: In the fairways they are dried out. You do get some run off the tees and your second shot is going into some par-5s, you got opportunities to try to maybe get on the -- some of these long hitters, they can get home on some of the par-5s. I couldn't. I'm just a little old five-eight guy. I got to play smart. Q. How about the fact that as it stands now you're close to the lead after two days at the Senior Open? What does that say? GENE SAUERS: I took seven years off before -- I got sick and it's awesome to be back here and playing with all my friends again but, you know, I've always been a great ball striker. I think my worse part of my game has probably been my putting. I've been putting fairly well this week so if I just keep that going, things will be okay. But, you know, playing in a Major -- I haven't won one yet. I got close to the PGA when Nick Price won in '92. But, you know, I consider myself a good player, a great player. Just a matter of fact of getting the putts to drop for me, I think I compete every week with these guys. Bernhard, he plays good every dad-gone week. I hit it just as good as he does but he makes more putts than I do. I guess that's where it all falls into, you know. Q. Are you playing as good as in recent memory or better? GENE SAUERS: Probably playing better. You know, those seven years I took off, you know, I didn't miss the game. I missed the competition but didn't miss the game. As I was in the hospital for those seven weeks all I did in my brain, closed my eyes and pictured the golf swing. I came back last year, finished 19th on the money list. Had a pretty good year. It's amazing what the mind can do. It can make you or break you, you know, so, the body, too. I've watched this thing go south and then come back. I'm just proud to be here. Q. What happened? GENE SAUERS: Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. I got burned from the inside out, both my arms and legs from medication and drug interaction. They thought I had rheumatoid arthritis which I never did. They misdiagnosed me and next thing you know, six months taking all the medication I get burned from the inside out. About killed me. I had a 75 percent chance of not making it. So, just glad to be here. Bogey doesn't matter that much anymore. Q. What did they do to arrest that situation and then make you better? What did that take? GENE SAUERS: Like I say, I didn't have any kind of suits or anything. I'm just glad to be living but they had -- all this turn black (indicating), that and on my legs. Had to debride me. Cheese grade me, basically, you know. Had to wait seven weeks in order for my skin to bud up and took skin graphs from my upper thighs, patched me up. If I had been infected or any kind of blood clots I would have been gone. Thank God I'm still here. Q. When did you get out? GENE SAUERS: June 1st, 2011. Wasn't that long ago. Q. Were you in for eight weeks? GENE SAUERS: Seven weeks in the hospital on my back the whole time. When I got out of the hospital I was walking like this (indicating). I couldn't hit a pitching wedge to hit the cameras. I couldn't -- that's about as far as I could bring it back (indicating). It was awful. Here I am getting ready to turn 50, I'm not even going to have a chance to go play. Everything worked out. Just glad to be here FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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