IR SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 3, 2000

Leonard Thompson

LEONARD THOMPSON: I think to start with, you'd have to talk about the round yesterday, because I really saved a round yesterday; that without the back nine yesterday, today's round would not have meant nearly as much. Made a bunch of 6- and 8-footers for par that I could have very easily shot 2- or 3-over yesterday instead of 2-under. So from there, today's round was a pretty solid round. I didn't make many mistakes; and when I did make a mistake, it seemed to be in a position that I had a chance to play from. I never put myself completely out of the game in spots that you just would say, you know, "I can make bogey from here, I'm going to be happy." There are some spots on this golf course that that can happen to you, where you get five yards off the fairway and bogey is a good score then. I never did that. It was a reasonably solid round. You never expect -- at least I don't ever expect for a shot like that at 18 to go in. I hit a good shot and I thought probably -- as it hit the ground, I thought it would be three or four feet from the hole, but you never think it is going to go in. And the putt I made at 14 for eagle is probably 40 feet. Everybody says you try to and you do, but when it goes in, you don't really expect that to happen. At least I don't. Maybe some of those guys do.

LEONARD THOMPSON: 3-putted at 4 from about 20 feet. I guess it was -- I can't remember how long the first putt was, but I remember the second one as about two feet, and I just missed it. I aligned it right-center; it went right. You don't make many of those. Then I birdied 6. Driver, 3-wood into the front bunker. Blew it out eight feet and made that. And then the best shot of the day I hit was at No. 9. I hit a 3-wood off that tee. Our group, none of us had figured out how to play that hole, because if you hit driver and it goes right a little bit, it goes in the water. If you hit 3-wood, like I hit, then I've left myself with a 3-iron to the green. That is a very hard hole for me. But I hit 3-iron today about eight feet from the hole, and made that for birdie.

LEONARD THOMPSON: Eagle on 14 with a driver, 4-wood about 25 feet past the hole and made it. 17, 15 feet, I guess behind the hole and made it.

LEONARD THOMPSON: 6-iron. And 18 was a -- whatever you want to call it. It was 70 yards to the hole and it went right to the hole. Second shot I laid up there with a 7-iron. I drove it in the left rough about -- one of those down lies in the left rough. No chance to shoot at the green.

LEONARD THOMPSON: No. It carried about 60 yards and released and went right in the hole. That was a 58-degree wedge.

LEONARD THOMPSON: Not much. I hit a good shot, and it happened to go in the hole. This tournament starts on the 10th tee Sunday. We're all jockeying around to see who is going to be in the tournament. When you get to No. 10 or 11 tee on Sunday, everybody that's standing there that's within two or three or four shots of the lead is probably in the golf tournament. I just happen to be in a position now that if I keep going the way I'm going, I'm going to be there when it comes time to either win or lose; that's when it happens, that last nine on Sunday.

LEONARD THOMPSON: Well, Joe's lived here a year. He don't count. I've lived here 25 years. And two weeks off for me has really helped me. I was almost a vegetable, I think. This is the first time I've ever taken two weeks off before a tournament. You know, I can see how taking a couple weeks a couple times a year can help me.

LEONARD THOMPSON: I tell you how I feel about it. You'll have to ask the other players how they feel. I like the golf course. I think it is still new. It has some growing pains to go through. There's going to be a few changes they will make, I think in width of fairways where the ball ends up. I don't know that we expected the ball to go as far as it is going in the fairways. In my opinion, a couple places get a little too narrow where you have -- where it forces you to play. In general, I think it is a very good golf course. I was pleasantly surprised because I had heard a lot of negative things about this golf course. Some of the people that live here have said that. And I know the ground is hard which makes the ball go further. So if the grounds were a little softer, we probably would be playing a different -- a whole different golf course -- we would be playing a different golf course. But, as it is, in my view, it is a pretty good golf course. You can see some of the influence that Lanny had in different places. Tom Fazzio is a great architect, and Lanny being the type of person that he is, demanding that you hit shots to certain areas would be in his -- you can tell there was some influence there, and I think it was good influence.

LEONARD THOMPSON: I don't know that anyone has thought -- since we hadn't played here, that anyone knew that we could drive the ball that far down there on that side. And there's three trees on the left side over there right on the corner. If they took those three trees out and extend the fairway just a little, that would solve that problem, but you can't take them out right now. We're already here. That's just growing pains, you know.