Today Tony said to me, my caddie said to me this morning we have to play below the pins, so that's a good tip, keep the ball under the hole where you're putting kind of aggressive. That worked out. We started out the first hole this morning, I hit a beautiful drive. I didn't think it was in the rough, but unfortunately it was in the rough and had a nice lie and hit it over the green about a yard and I putted up about four feet short and made that putt. So that was a good sign for me. I felt that the putt had some movement to it and I hit it just perfect to make it and that happened.
I went right to 2 and missed an easy putt. We played the left edge about six and a half seven feet, and it went left. I hit a hell of a chip shot. It went in the cup, maybe it was a little firm -- if it touched the flag it's very, very possible that putt is only a couple of feet from the hole.
3, I don't remember 3. I don't remember the golf course.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: You made birdie.
JIM THORPE: I made birdie on 3, yes. I hit -- how long was the putt? (Laughter.) I think I hit it about 10, 12 feet, let's say 12 feet. I remember that putt. I remember that putt now because I thought it was short. (Laughter.)
Q. The short hole.
JIM THORPE: I hit driver, 9-iron, yes or maybe 3-wood 9-iron.
Anyway, the next hole the par 3, probably the best shot I hit all day long, 3-iron about 216 yards and that's about 12 feet right of the hole, and there's a hole there where if you miss the green left just put down the bullet but you are not going to get it up-and-down. I absolutely dogged a putt there, but I was happy with 3.
We had No. 5, did we have 5, fairly long par 4. I hit a good birdie putt there if I remember correctly from about 25 feet that was I really good birdie putt. Hale had a putt just outside me, we both thought we made it.
Then the next hole, routine par, to make a long story short. I missed one green today where I had to chip. So everything else, I either made birdie des or pretty much routine pars.
I went to No. 8 was probably the turning point 6 the round, I was still under par --
PHIL STAMBAUGH: You birdied 7.
JIM THORPE: Forgot that about that one. Actually the par 3 played short. I think we all hit 7-irons there today. Irwin hit it about four or five feet , Kite hit about six or seven feet. I hit it first and I hit it about 12, 14 feet and I made my putt and they missed, which was good.
Then the next hole was probably the par 5, is that 8? That was probably the turning point there. I hit a big drive there and kind of skanked a 3-wood, just didn't hit it solid trying to run it because I knew I couldn't carry it on to the green. I was just trying to run it, basically you have to see the hole. The last 20 yards to the green is kind of a little upslope this way. And 20 yards short of that is on the downslope. So I'm trying to hit a low 3-wood to get on the downslope to carry it to the green and missed it just a little bit. I caught a perfect lie just in the shallow rough.
And it was funny because Tony said to me when I walked on the green to look at the chip shot where I went to land the ball I squatted down and -- well, I made one all year long so I got luck and I chipped it in. My chip shot I carried it 25 yards and probably released and rolled another eight, nine yards, so that's basic, I paced back 25 yards where I wanted to drop the ball and that's what happened.
9, hit a perfect tee shot and a beautiful second shot about six and a half feet I guess, six feet. Kind of hit a putt left edge of the hole and it moved left. That was a putt I really thought we had made but I hit it -- 10, I hit a beautiful drive, lob wedge I made it five yards, about two feet.
11 hit another good drive down the right side. I hit a sand wedge about a foot and a half. Putts are easy to make when there's no pressure.
Par 5, 13, I hit a bad drive there. That's probably the only bad drive I hit all day. I pushed it way right but we waited probably 10, 12 minutes on that tee to hit. But I had a perfect lie from over there just hit a bad 3-iron shot hit it in the bunker blasted out about four or five feet and made that for birdie.
The next hole, 14, the par 3, we had 208 to the flag -- I'm sorry 206 to the flag. We were between 4-iron and 5-iron and we choose to hit a high 4-iron. I pulled it right over the green, nothing long, just probably length of this room we are sitting in from the flag. It was one of those times I probably said go ahead and take your bogey and go to the next hole. I chip about ten feet and made it for par. That was a good turnaround there.
Next hole I hit a beautiful drive, I think it's the toughest par 4 on the golf course, is that 15? I think that's the toughest par 4 on the golf course. I hit a beautiful drive and a 6-iron from 168 uphill against the wind, right over the top of the flag or maybe just a little left of it. I left the putt just on the lip of the cup there, just was breaking a little bit left, maybe an eighth of an inch short of the hole there. That was a good putt.
16 the par 5, I hit a good drive that went no place. I had 265 to the hole and basically what happened we all hit good drivers. He hit his down the left side and I hit mine dead center. Irwin hit his right center -- Irwin was 50 yards in front of me and Kite had to be close to 100 yards in front me. My ball must have hit a wet spot, went sideways and went no place. Hit it to 15, 16 feet, had a pretty makeable eagle putt, just left it short about 12, 13 inches but that was a good birdie.
17, I hit a good looking 9-iron shot that last the just short in the fringe and stayed there but I had an easy putt. It's funny yesterday I hit probably four or five putts yesterday from that position to that pin. And today the only thing I had to do was put the right speed on it and I hit it a little easy but it still went in, just perfect line and in the hole, I guess it was perfect speed. Then 18 I hit another good drive --
PHIL STAMBAUGH: How long was your putt there?
JIM THORPE: 17, 10 to 12 feet long I guess.
18 I hit a beautiful 9-iron from 140, just left of the flag probably eight, nine feet and we absolutely misread it. We thought the putt was going to break right because everything here we feel runs a little bit southeast, and we hit exactly what we read it but we just didn't make that. That's one we just have to chalk up to a bad read.
Today the golf course was set up for low scoring. I think the receipt of the week is going to be more low because we are going to learn more about the greens. It's probably going to be third or fourth time around the golf course for a lot of us. If they keep the greens as soft as they did today and the weather conditions stay the way it was today, I think we'll have a low score.
Q. What is it about northern California, you're the king of northern California, Napa, Sacramento -- great start here?
JIM THORPE: Actually I spent 22 years if Buffalo, New York and basically up that's all you play is poa annua greens. So I'm one of those guys that likes poa but I don't like it when it gets firm. Today I had a short birdie putt on No. 10, 11. I'm talking a foot and a half but I had a heel print where the ball could have -- but I like poa annua greens. I like the way the fairways release the ball here and here we kind of playing on kind of like Napa Valley, we're playing on not necessarily hard-panned fairways but the fairways are nice and firm. You can hit a lot of golf shots on poa annua greens if you can spin the ball, control the ball.
Northern California, I never did well in northern California on the regular tour, but the Senior Tour I seem to have grown up a little bit more. I take it a little bit more seriously than I did before.
Q. Watching you hit the ball at 2, you almost holed out from the front of the fairway there, and unfortunately you 2-putted for the 5 and got par, how did your focus change from that point?
JIM THORPE: You know what basically what happens, we get into a zone last week where we finished playing in Texas, once we see the tee time, ones I knew I was playing with Irwin who I think is the toughest player out here, most definitely proved himself to be the best player out here on a scale from 1 to 10 as far as enough toughness, he's most definitely a 10. So you get paired with guys like Irwin, Watson, Stadler these guys they seem to lift your game, they seem to take it to another notch.
I remember last year talking to a couple reporters, they asked me because I've had four beautiful years on the Senior Tour, this is my fifth year and they asked me about goals. This year I came out to try and push myself as hard and as high as I could really push, and this is probably the first time I think Tony and I talked about it. If you win the golf tournament you have a chance to win money title which is something I've never done, I think it would be a great accomplishment with the level of competition we have out here. We have a chance to do well and finish Top-5 in the Charles Schwab, probably the first couple of spots locked up, but there's room for 3,4 and 5.
I made my mind up, yesterday I had a choice to ride down to the casinos and play blackjack or stay on the green and work on my putting. So I chose to stay on the putting green. It seemed to work today. Tomorrow might go out and I might not make a putt, but it wasn't because I'm not trying. This week I'm going to go push myself to the limit and see how far -- just ask yourself how low I can shoot. I don't want to go out there and play stupid, but I won't run from any flags. My goal this week is to shoot 2-under par, if I have to go out and shoot 20-under par, I have a hell of a chance to win it.
Q. Where do you play blackjack?
JIM THORPE: There has to be a casino someplace around here.
I'm not going to lie, we did go late last night. What's it called River -- River Rock. We went down to River Rock. We got lost. (Laughter.)
End of FastScripts.
