CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

October 26, 2003

Jim Thorpe

PHIL STAMBAUGH: You predicted shooting 20-under would win, and that's what you ended up with. Congratulations on winning the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

JIM THORPE: I never really thought about it. I never really thought about it until late last night and I was watching a movie on TV last night. For some reason I thought about golf, and normally I can leave it at the golf course. I kept saying to myself, anybody but Tom Watson. I know everybody here are good players, but there's something about Tom Watson and Hale Irwin that seem to linger. For some reason I got to the golf course this morning, I had that nervous thing. I went to the putting green, and I still felt it. I went back inside and had a bite to eat and came back out, and by the time I got to the first tee I was ready to go. I hit a great drive and wedge shot and of course I missed the putt. Another bad read from Tony.

Then 2, I played absolutely perfect. Drove it in the right rough. We decided to lay-up. I hit another good wedge shot. Another bad read from Tony.

3, I had about a 15-footer for birdie, and he read about a 12-footer for birdie. He read it straight, and it breaks to the right. At this point it's okay, Tom birdied the first hole, but he's four shots back. I wasn't too concerned at that point.

Then 4, I think it's 4, the par 3, I hit a beautiful 4-iron, a little hook, a great bounce, eight feet from the cup. He said hit the left edge. And I kind of trust his read. We've made a lot of putts trusting his read, so I hit it left edge and it breaks a little left. Now I'm starting to get tense.

5, made a nice routine putt on 5, I believe, right edge and it didn't go in.

The dreaded 3-putt on No. 7. I need something like that to shake me a little bit, to wake me, you have to still play golf.

I came back and birdied 8, after 3-putting 7, which was a good up-and-down from the bunker, about a 6-footer for birdie.

Q. How far was the 3-putt on 7?

JIM THORPE: The 3-putt on 7 was 30 feet, 35 feet. It was a good putt but I missed a short second putt. Those are the putts we want to stay away from, two, three-footers downhill. I was too aggressive then, but I realized that.

Then I come back to 9, hit 3-wood off the tee and we talked about. I had 83 yards and it was playing like 90 yards. It's kind of like shooting to a backstop there. I hit a gorgeous sand wedge. I thought it was perfect. Then I have this 30-footer downhill breaking right and I know I can't 2-putt it to save my life. I got lucky there to 2-putt that. I putted about 16 inches from the cup. It actually had a chance to go in.

10, another decent drive, a wedge shot about eight feet left of the hole and I missed that too. I'm thinking to himself, if Tom starts making birdies I'm in trouble because I can't make a putt.

11, I hit the wrong club there. I hit a driver, about 55 yards to the flag, I played a lob-wedge shot about four feet and made that for birdie. That helped.

Watson came back on the next hole, then Tom goes birdie birdie on 12 and 13. Tom missed a short birdie putt on 11. And of course I didn't make birdie on the par 5. I missed -- I hit a very, very nice putt, just left it short on 12 for birdie.

13, a par 5, we played that wrong. I drove it down the fairway, I drove it on the hardpan, so I didn't want to take a chance to miss the green on the left because that would be a very difficult third shot. I laid up with a 4-iron and pulled it in the left rough so I still have a difficult third shot, so I should have hit a 3-wood. I put it on the green and took my 2-putt. Tom makes the putt and so now it's a one-shot tournament.

We both 2-putted 14, the par 3, we both 2-putted there from probably 30 to 32 feet.

And then we both drove the ball just in the left rough on 15. They were good drives. There again, you can call them routine two putts from 30 feet again.

16 was a turning point. I finally hit the fairway, but I didn't catch the drive solid. Now I know I can't get it home. I need to keep it left. I hit a 3-wood. I came up about a yard short of the green. Tom Jenkins was in the left rough and Tom Watson was just behind me in the left rough, so I got two nice reads from their chip shots. Jenkins played a better chip shot, because Watson went about eight feet past the hole. Jenkins showed me what I needed to see.

Putting like that, you want to lag it up. I didn't think Tom would make the eight-footer. I hit a putt there, perfect line, perfect speed, and it went in. That kind of put me in a position, not at the point because I hadn't seen the pin placement, I knew the yardage on 17. Once I walked up to the 17 tee and seen the tees were up and the pin was on the right side of the green, it couldn't have been better for me. I had perfect yardage 137, so I knew I could max my 9-iron out to 140. I had a backstop there. I hit 10 or 12 putts there during the practice round and I hit a perfect 9-iron, just left of the flag, a little bit of a cut about 10 feet behind the hole.

Watson hit a beautiful putt there. It just didn't go in. And Jenkins' putt was almost on my line, so he gave me a perfect read. I put two and a half to three inches dead center. That was the shot there. The put on 17 was just as big as the putt on 16. It put me in a position on 18, where I could hit a 3-iron off the tee, and hit a five- or six-iron to the middle of the green and that's the way we played the hole.

We talk about it all the time. You guys think we don't get nervous out there. You can feel it out there, believe me. We have done it so many times. And to be playing with a guy like Tom Watson, I played the second shot on 18, I waited for him to walk up together, he said Thorpe you hung in there, the balls didn't fall early for you, but you made it when you had to and it was a great plan.

Coming from a player that's won 39 times on the PGA Tour, and 8 majors and 6 times on the Champions Tour, and 2 majors this year, that's pretty good advice. He didn't have to say that. The type of guy Tom is, he wasn't teed off, because Tom played beautiful. I think he shot 67 today. He played the type of round, I think if it was any other golf course but this one -- I like poa annua greens. I like firm fairways. I felt like if my putter really kicked in today like it was kicking in all week, I could have gotten out of reach early. People said it was great it came down to the wire. Oh shit. I wanted to tee off No. 10 with a 14-shot lead and go from there. You know what I mean. I don't like that close stuff.

Q. You didn't quite get the money title. Talk about what this wins means to you.

JIM THORPE: Let me just say in my life, in my case -- I just talked to my 14-year-old daughter. She said God is good all the time. I enjoy smelling the roses. To be 54 years old and making more money than I ever dreamed -- my dad is probably rolling over in his grave, and he's been dead for ten years. He's wondering what's going on out here. Being born and raised the 9th of 12 kids and to live the life that I've lived, the places I've been, the people I've played golf with, I'm one of the luckiest people walking.

Tim Finchem and his staff have done a magnificent job getting sponsors and corporate sponsors. We're playing beautiful venues all over the country. We're dressing pretty neat. We drive new Mercedes and new Cadillacs every week. We get pissed off if we have to pay for a meal. I'm telling you, man, just stop and think about it.

I think about my childhood and I remember running around swinging a stick that my dad made from a Dogwood tree and hitting little acorns. We used to ball up aluminum foil and we used to make golf balls and we had little holes out in the sand in the yard that we used to hit to and play to and all that sort of stuff. Later on, once we got better, some members gave us golf clubs from the course. It was actually like four boys, my oldest brother was in the Army, and one of us would take a 7, one took an 8, and one took a 6, we had one putter between us. We ran around the golf course trying to play as many holes as we could play, changing clubs every shot.

Looking at the rest of my brothers, I was the only one that shouldn't have made it in golf. They all had golf swings and they looked the part. I was all big and bulky and had a funny swing and that kind of stuff, but I had a heart, I had a very big heart. I just didn't get that from hustling golf.

I just finished talking to someone a few minutes ago, actually Tony. He said you finished second on the Charles Schwab and I didn't really know that. He said can you imagine making $940,000. It doesn't mean that much to me. Believe me, we live in a world where it takes money to live, but the thing that means something to me is being able to come out here and being able to play with the best golfers in the world and beat the best golfers in the world, not just come out and play with them, but to come here and play with the Top-30 Senior Tour players on the Champions Tour in the world, guys like Watson, Irwin, Kite, Morgan, Nelson, Quigley, Doyle, just right on down the line, and playing in golf tournaments of this importance and leading from box to wire, it's hard to explain. I think this week I probably pushed myself to the absolutely limit. I don't think I could play any harder.

I think the only thing I could do different is make a putt or two more. I missed a lot of putts, but I felt like I made the putt on 16 and 17, when I just felt like I had to make it. Tony asked me at one point on the golf course today, How do you feel? I said I feel like we need to make some birdies, because Watson was getting into his groove there.

But we are so lucky. It's just very, very hard to explain. I talked to my daughter -- I have four daughters, two daughters from an earlier marriage in Baltimore, Monica and Darlene, and I also have two daughters at home. When I talk to them about the things I went through as a young man, as a kid, they can't comprehend that. They don't think I ever worked. They don't think I was ever broke. I had to wear tennis shoes with worn out bottoms and hand-me-downs. They look at me and they say, not you, dad. Now I get my pants made. And I like Bobby Jones, I order 6 or 7 dozen shirts. They say, dad, there's no way you grew up that way. They have no idea. They cannot comprehend.

My daughter, she said, God is good all the time. And they knew I was going to beat those suckers. I kind of wish I knew it. Kids say they look at it totally different. Someone asked me a question a couple of days ago, why don't we have more African American players out here. I thought about that since the question has come out. Golf is a very, very hard game. It requires a lot of work. You can work for years and years and years and you never get anything out of it.

I watched this whole week. I played very close attention to Tom Kite. Tom has been a consistent player throughout his entire career. At this particular point, his putting is a little suspect and we have a good break -- actually we have two breaks. One break that Tom Watson only plays 12 or 14 times, and another break that Tom Kite is a little week with the putter right now. We all go through it. I think these two players would absolutely dominant. Between Watson, Kite, and Irwin, you can probably add Morgan and Nelson in that crew.

I think these guys would dominant if things went their way. If Tom Kite was just a mediocre putter, if he putted 29, 30 putts per round, and Tom Watson isn't playing that much anymore, so we have another break there, he's going to play 14 events. He played 14 events and he leads the money list. I end up playing 30. I probably play in half a dozen, but I went to 30. I had to leave Mexico in a hurry. My boys had the same idea that I had.

We are very, very lucky. I am very lucky, believe me, because there were times even when I left home to go to school, there were other ways I could have went. Hell, I knew guys that hustled drugs on the street corners. I thank God that I had a mother and father who were strong enough that my daddy would break your jaw if you didn't do the right thing. I took those things to heart.

I could have worked harder on my golf game. I could have stayed away from the casinos, stayed away from the race tracks, but I wouldn't have had near the fun. I have no regrets. I feel I'm one of the luckiest guys to walk in and to be able to come in and win. This is my biggest payday. Counting the $500,000 from Charles Schwab, that's about $940,000, I can play a lot of craps with that money. And all the stuff about giving it to charity, I am.

Q. We were watching, it seemed like 16 was it. You said 16 was in your head. It didn't sit up well, but then it ended up being the hole, talk about how you conquered 16.

JIM THORPE: Tony said keep it slow. I don't play with a slow tempo. I said that's why I keep missing this fairway because I'm trying to keep it slow. I was concentrating on keeping the club back and straight down the line. I knew at that particular point I had to make birdie because Tom Watson made birdie. The hole had beat me all week long, as far as the tee shot is concerned. Today I got very, very lucky with it. I hit the tee shot solid. The fairway seemed to be patchy in certain spots. You can land 10 yards to the left and go another 50 yards, or land two yards to the right and it goes sideways. That's basically what happened.

I knew I hit a pretty good second shot, but also I knew I was almost on the green. Because I hit it solid, and only had 239 or 237 to the front edge. I knew I was very close, against the wind. Tom got quick with his swing. He hit it kind of fat. So I feel I got a little break there. When he chipped the ball long -- if he had hit that chip shot up there two or three feet from the hole, my putt would have been tougher. He ran it past the hole eight or nine feet and that freed me up a bit. I didn't think he would make the putt. It was a difficult putt to read. It shows what type of player he is and how much I know about his game.

It turned out, when I hit the putt, I knew I had nice speed on it. And it was running from the right edge of the hole and I could see this thing shaping on the left. It's like I seen it going in before it got there. To me, that was a big putt because I definitely needed a stroke.

The 18th hole was a lot easier walking up there with a 3-shot lead. The putt on 17 was just as big as the one on 16. Tom hit a magnificent putt on 17. I walked up there and I told him, he's just not going to die. I got a good read from his putt and a great read off Tom Jenkins putt. I managed to get the right speed on it and cut it.

The funny thing on 18, I hit an iron off the tee. I had 191 to the flag. Tony said it was 6-iron. I said, Tony, I can hit a 5-iron. He said 6-iron. He wanted to get it over with. I mean I can understand that. I think the one thing about me is I can shut the club down. I know my 6-iron is normally a 175-yard club. I can hit it 190 if I have to. I just don't like to do that. Normally I hook it a little bit, and this went straight. I flew it almost pin-high there.

It's funny, I couldn't see if land. I said where is it? Is it on the green. He takes off because he can't see it very well. When he got up there, I had a put that I knew I could 2-putt or 3-putt or 4-putt and still be victorious and I was very happy about that.

Q. What do you think it says about Tom and Bruce that Tom gave his million dollar annuity to charity?

JIM THORPE: I knew it was coming. Tom and Bruce are very, very close. So I knew that was coming. Basically what I do is I get home and talk to the wife a little bit. Here lately we've been spending a lot of money, so from a serious standpoint, I'm sure the money we make from Charles Schwab will probably go to the Boys and Girls Club or inner city program. It will go to help somebody versus writing Uncle Sam a check for half a million dollars when I could give it to somebody else to use.

Tom gives it to ALS. I don't know yet. I kind of leave that up to the wife. She might want to leave it to the Carol Thorpe fund. I'm not sure yet. I'll talk to her about it and we'll make that decision. It basically shows how big Tom Watson's heart is. I think we knew it was coming. Tom and Bruce are very, very close. I told you yesterday, I spoke to Tom walking down the 11th fairway, I said how is Bruce doing. I hit a little spot with him I wasn't trying to hit. I kind of heard it in his voice, so I quickly left it alone. Hopefully they can find some type of cure so Bruce can be with us for many many more years to come. Sometimes a 3-putt on a green, a bad shot just isn't the worst thing in the world.

Q. He didn't want to answer it?

JIM THORPE: It wasn't that he didn't want to answer. Tom will talk all day about it. We were just making conversation, you know what I mean. The way we've been talking all day, his voice had a little different tone. It just wasn't the same jolly voice. When Tom is playing bad or good or in between, Tom is the same guy at all times. I just felt that might have hit home a little bit, so I quickly changed the next question to football and that sort of stuff, versus putting -- I'm kind of cold blooded on the golf course and I will do something to put a little pressure, but I won't go there.

Q. With the putt at 16, I know it's obviously hindsight now, would your thinking have been any different if you had to hit first instead of last?

JIM THORPE: I'm glad it happened when it happened. Actually, I was happy when I walked about 100 yards and saw my ball was about a yard short of the green. I knew I had an easy up-and-down. I don't think I missed a green today, so I hadn't chipped anything, so I was hoping it was close enough I could putt it. And I had perfect read, perfect line. My putt was a good putt at that point to go 19-under. The putt Tom Watson made to go 17-under was just as good because it kept him in the game. The putt on 17 was major, I don't think I would have made my putt on 17. I think I probably would have been easing it down to the hole.

But then 18, I felt good about 18 because I looked at 18 early this morning before I teed off and I knew the pin was back left, so I new driver was out of the question as far as me driving the ball. Let's put it this way, if I came to 18 with a one-shot lead versus a three-shot lead I would have hit my driver down the right side. If it goes, it goes. I would rather be there with a 9-iron than 5 or 6-iron.

Q. They're talking about this event being here permanently. I was wondering what you thought of the course and how you felt if they kept it here?

JIM THORPE: I think the golf course is just going to get better. I understand they're going to do a new clubhouse. I don't know how much room they've got here to make the golf course longer, but the golf course does play short for us. We hit a lot of wedges out there. I'm quite sure they'll change the irrigation system a little bit. There are places where the sprinklers aren't hitting right now. If they can get every fairway out there to be like 16, it will be a hell of a golf course. The course will play much longer. And we got very, very lucky this week. There was no wind to speak of. We had perfect weather conditions, as far as scoring. I think some of the tougher holes, the greens were very, very soft. I think the pin placement, I think yesterday the pins were much tougher than today. The officials did a super l job. They gave us pins we couldn't shoot to, they gave us pins we could attack. They did a great job this week. As long as Charles Schwab is going to continue to put up the money, we'll want to continue to play.

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