SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

October 28, 2001

Doug Tewell

DOUG TEWELL: I think my memory is blown. It felt like it was just going to be a day where you had to keep the ball down and you have to hit a lot of fairways so you can at least have some reasonable chance to hit the green. When you get wind conditions like this, you have to really trust the golf ball you are playing and trust your swing. And I started right off and hit a 9-iron just a little bit hot right over the first green and not exactly the way you want to start. You think you might on this golf course, you can par the first two, three holes, before you get anything tough. I kind of dug a small hole right off the bat. I bogeyed the first hole and just kind of got in a nice rhythm 2, 3, 4, 5, made pars on all those holes, fairways, hit the greens, 2-putted. Then the par 5, 6 I birdied and really -- that was as much local knowledge as anything because I could reach the green easily but I chose not to reach the green. I said, you know, you can't fly it on the green so we're trying to put the ball on the front right. I practiced it in practice rounds just dropping the ball short of that green and had a little pitch shot. As it turned out I could actually putt it. I putted it up within a foot of the hole. 7, which I don't know if it played the hardest hole today but certainly had to be one of the hardest. Beautiful tee shot and got the ball on the green, made par there. Then on 7 I 2-putted for par. 8, one of the holes you think you could birdie but I hit a bad poor second shot, pulled it up about 40 feet short of the hole with a sand wedge. That was the first of some very long putts I made. Knocked that in for a 3. Then from about 40 feet. Then the 9th hole, that wind was brutally coming left right there. 4-iron aimed 10, 12 yards left of the green, put it about, oh, maybe five yards right of the flag and just off the green and 2-putted for par. 10, another tough hole, driver and 3-iron, 2-putts for par. 11 and 12 I don't know if you look it up, I just trouble on those holes this week. They are not that hard a hole. I bogeyed 11 again. Tee shot solid, too far right, got the ball in the bunker; didn't get it on the green; didn't get it very close. 12, again I hit a nice 7-iron landed right in the middle of the green, rolled off clear off the back of the green into the kind of some deep rough; didn't get that up-and-down. Then we got in what you are feeling right now, on the par 3, hole playing 205 yards long, you are hitting a 7-iron and I kind of ballooned it up, got it on the green probably 50 feet from the hole, and I hit the front and I honestly -- I said, geez, I pulled it about a foot. It just kept rolling and rolling and Tom Kite said the wind blew it in from five feet away. He said, I guarantee you, I can't tell what you else he said, but (laughter) he said the wind blew that ball in the hole. Then all of a sudden I thought well okay, we're get a good tee shot off the hole maybe make 3. 5-iron bounced it up there 30 feet from the hole, probably best putt, centercut for the hole for an eagle (inaudible).

DOUG TEWELL: About 30 feet. 15, the par 3, I hit a 7-iron beautiful shot, ran about 12 feet behind the hole. I left that one about four inches short. That was putting back into the wind. I was really kind of disgusted with myself. 16, gosh, super tough hole, good tee shot, took a 3-iron out, hit it about two feet off the ground really just tried to run the ball all the way up there. Left it about five feet off the green and then had a hard, hard lip-out. Thought we had holed it. 17, hit the green, 2-putted from about 40 feet. Didn't hit a very good 5-iron. 5-iron second shot there. 18, I didn't look at the board really. I was trying to stay focused. I looked at my caddie. I said, what do we have to do. He said, we have got a 4-shot cushion from anybody behind us. He said, let's just play all the way. I said, well, let's don't use the word play. I don't play with anything. I said, I will just hit my straight tee shot, how's that. He said, okay. I did. I didn't catch it real solid but I just hit it dead straight frozen rope down there, and had a 7-iron and I said, I don't care where the hazard is, I am looking at that flag. Beautiful 7-iron from 205 yards, and that was to the front of the green, excuse me, and the ball landed about a foot on which is -- I thought would be perfect. I guess it jumped forward, kind of backed up a little bit. So I think I hit the only soft spot that might have been on the golf course today, but I hadn't birdied 18 all week. So I left myself a pretty good one from about three and a half feet. I just -- I felt so confident with that putt. I said you haven't birdied it all week, it's your day, and just was at peace, knocked it right in. I kept asking what is my son-in-law doing; what is my son-in-law doing. (Laughs).

DOUG TEWELL: I don't know if I said it to you, but I did say it to someone yesterday, I said if I lose the golf tournament it's because I got too far (inaudible) after two rounds. That's exactly what happened. I just -- I lost the tournament in that dead calm day on Friday when you only post 2-under par. But I don't really -- I don't really feel like I lost. I really played four good rounds of golf. They are all pretty steady. On a lot of different conditions, we got to see this golf course from every direction this week.

DOUG TEWELL: Well, I don't know if it is an advantage. I am used to the wind because you know, if you are going to practice at all in Oklahoma you have got to get out sometimes in the wind. The only thing I thought is if -- that I could have a better chance if the conditions were tough that if I can go out and play a flawless round of golf and the leaders slipped a little bit that I might have a chance to win the golf tournament but that was a pretty tall order and I think that you know, Bob played very consistently obviously, and I just -- I didn't really watch the board per se, so I don't really know what the rest of the guys did. I don't know what Bruce shot. All of a sudden said you are second. I thought I was going to finish third. I tried to stay in the present, not worry about what the others were doing. I just want to say that I think the SENIOR TOUR you can see the players starting to play better now with Bruce coming out and Bob playing so well, this is going to become a very competitive Tour again. I think we're going to roll over here and wake up and find out that we're going to have some very exciting finishes week in, week out.

DOUG TEWELL: I think it held up. I think 13-under par you know for this type of Championship is a very respectable score. I think when we played the PGA at Oak Tree 12-under won, that's certainly -- when you have players of this caliber, and you get conditions like we had on Friday where they just tore it apart, you know, I'd say the golf course kept everything in check today. I will give you Friday but I am going to take it back today, it said. Thank you all.