U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 4, 1996

Bill Tindall

KAYE KESSLER: We have Bill Tindall from Seattle, Washington who was the first alternate and you got in because Mr. Aoki won at Cincinnati, right?

BILL TINDALL: Explain to me how that works. I didn't know.

BILL TINDALL: Monday afternoon. I was at my club. As a matter of fact, I had gone to work at 5:30 that morning to get a lot of paperwork done. I wasn't planning on playing that week. As a matter of fact, I had my clubs in a box ready to go UPS to get some new shafts put in them. And I was up on the putting green and my assistant yelled at me, he said, "there is someone from the USGA wants you down here. I think you are going to the Seniors." And my member said, "I have never seen you run that fast to the phone. " I ran down there and found out and got a plane that evening and flew all night and got here Tuesday morning.

BILL TINDALL: Played Tuesday afternoon and yesterday.

BILL TINDALL: It is.

BILL TINDALL: I was aware that I wasn't making a bogey because I relish those rounds. I don't make a lot of them. At home I have a few, and 16th hole I hit a driver in the rough, hit my second shot in the rough, and hit my third shot over the green in the rough. It wasn't looking very good there. I hit it 20 feet past the hole and it was the day meant to be where I wasn't going to have a bogey because the ball went right in the hole.

BILL TINDALL: Yeah, fourth hole, wind was blowing pretty hard; pulled my driver a little bit; went in the bunker real close to the edge. I was standing on the grass and the ball was in the bunker and just said well, let us just get it up somewhere to the right side of the green; let it roll somewhere close to the front of green; caught it a little better than I guess I felt could and it happened to roll five feet into the hole; just playing to get it close to the front edge; got it there. And the other hole was the 13th hole, where I hit 5-iron just over the back edge; hit real good chip about three feet, four feet, I guess, and made that.

BILL TINDALL: I am sure there must have been. 9th hole hit my second shot in the bunker short of pin; hit it other the green; got it up-and-down there. 15, I was three or four feet off the green, about 25 feet from the hole; chipped it up about a foot from the hole; then 16. 17 and 18 had about 20-footers and 2-putted them happily.

BILL TINDALL: Yeah.

BILL TINDALL: About four feet. Looked a little longer than that, though.

BILL TINDALL: From Seattle, grew up in Seattle. My father was a golf professional in Seattle. I am the golf pro at the Broadmoor Golf Club where the National Senior Women's Amateur is going to be this year. We had two women national amateurs there. Been there 19 years. Used to caddie there when I was a kid. It is wonderful membership, a great club. I been there -- my golf in the Northwest has been, how shall I say, modestly okay. I won the Oregon Open a couple of years ago which is really my only major win in the Northwest. We have a lot of good players, Rick Ackin (phonetic) who I am sorry is not playing in this tournament. Good friend of mine; very good player; has won a lot of tournaments there. But I played all right there and certainly have not been a star. I think a lot of people in the Northwest- I think they will be pleased to see I had a nice round today.

BILL TINDALL: Well, I am not planning to win it. I would just like to hold it together and make my friends proud of me; that I can hold my composure and take one shot at time and if it turns out to be 70 tomorrow or 68 or 78, I am going to take one shot at a time and try to be just as good a playing companion as I can be with the fellows I am playing with.

BILL TINDALL: My wife is here.

BILL TINDALL: No sweating it out behind the ropes.

BILL TINDALL: I will be 53 in July.

BILL TINDALL: My first Senior Open. No, I have played in the Seattle Senior Tour event I played three times there on a sponsor's exemption. I played in the Napa one last year. I went down tried to four spot qualifier and dunked a full 4-iron and got in that tournament and I played in the PGA Senior Championship at West Palm Beach this year.

BILL TINDALL: No, I lost. We had local qualifying in Seattle, 39 of us and Mike Miller and myself tied and he won the first playoff. He birdied the first playoff hole. I was really disappointed that I wasn't coming at that point in time, so, you know, been playing better than -- I actually, modestly speaking, I am playing better than I ever played in my life. That doesn't mean that I am playing great golf. It would be fun just to see what I can do. I got the chance and I did all right today.

BILL TINDALL: I love this golf course, I mean -- no, I hate it, it is terrible. I love it. To me, it just doesn't require that you have to hit the ball 5,000 miles and I think that is to my advantage.

BILL TINDALL: I had no idea. I mean, I had my fairway woods in a box ready to be shipped to get reshafted.

BILL TINDALL: Did I watch it Sunday?

BILL TINDALL: No, I didn't. I was very busy at the club teaching and starting. .

BILL TINDALL: Yes, sure, I am surprised. If someone said, Bill, you go out there, we will give you a 76, I'd probably bought it. Just because I don't want to embarrass myself-- I don't know -- I don't know that I would have taken a 76. No, sure, I am surprised because -- I am surprised not making a bogey that surprises me. I think I am capable of parring every hole out here but not to make a bogey on any of them is-- that has even got -- I suspect even Charles is surprised he didn't make a bogey.

BILL TINDALL: Guys around here, I have known a lot of these fellows for years. I played the Tour for nine months 5,000 years ago, so did all these guys and I know a lot of fellows, Don Bies is a real good friend of mine. He has made me feel very comfortable. I feel real comfortable. Guys have made me feel real comfortable. I don't feel like an alien. I do feel like, sort of like a guest. Rick Ackin had a good line, you know, he said I just sort of feel like a guest out here right now. I don't know. I feel comfortable. The guys have not made me feel uncomfortable. Harry Toscano and my other playing partner today were tremendous.

BILL TINDALL: I have got a little case of Alzheimers, "sometimers", my wife calls it. I don't know what the position was, what my best finish was, but I think my best check was 3,600, 3,800.

BILL TINDALL: No. No.

BILL TINDALL: 6-iron.

BILL TINDALL: No. Sure didn't. No.

BILL TINDALL: My practice rounds weren't very confident inspiring, that is for sure. I didn't play exceptionally well. As a matter of fact, I woke up Tuesday, I was like a zombie, so tired, but as I had about three hours sleep on the plane and walked up to the first tee, Tom Weiskopf and David Graham were there and I said, mind if I join you guys, they were really nice and I joined them; played nine holes with them. They were really great. I actually played that 9 pretty well. I am still trying to stick to my routine and do what I have to do play well for being here and it worked today. Thanks, fellows.