U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 26, 1997

Tom Wargo

TOM WARGO: Everybody was going home.

TOM WARGO: Well, it was a nice day to play golf. As it turned out, the weather cooperated and we had a nice time as far as scoring is concerned and it was a good walk in the park today. It was very nice.

TOM WARGO: Well, we bogeyed -- what is it -- the fourth or fifth hole there. I had made a bad tee ball. One of the only bad tee balls I made today. I hit a 1-iron off the tee, and it actually hit that tree on the right and came back on the 4th green, almost. So I had to wedge it up over the trees and get it up-and-down, and I didn't do that. I came right back with a nice birdie on the next hole. Then we made a couple fatal mistakes on 10. I had trouble with 10 in the practice rounds. I can't find the yardage in that field for the hole yet. We made a bogey there and carried over on the next hole and made another bogey, but we stuck with it and played pretty solid coming in.

TOM WARGO: No, that was the bogey. I'm trying to forget that one.

TOM WARGO: The birdie before that?

TOM WARGO: The par 3 was playing about 155 yards. I hit an 8-iron in there about 2 foot.

TOM WARGO: Yeah. You want me to describe every one of these, right?

TOM WARGO: Only the birdies. But, anyway, I actually was striking the ball pretty good. Like I said, we had to stay with it and have patience because this is the U.S. Open, and everybody is going to be making bogeys. You don't like to in any golf course or any tournament you play in, but the U.S. Open, especially, you're going to make a few. So if you can just stay away from a disaster and then maybe make a birdie or two and just hang around for awhile and see what happens come Sunday. So we just kept sticking with it and sticking with it, and then finally, I missed a couple of good opportunities for birdie earlier. But then finally, on No. 16, we hit it in there about 10 foot and made that. Had a good putt uphill, straight up, which is important on these greens. You have to -- like any other -- like I said, in the U.S. Open, you have to put your ball on the green in the right spots if you're going to think about making birdies. That's the way they set it up, and that's the way it should be. On the last hole, I was almost playing a little too cautious, and I hit it to the right of the flag. We had about 155 yards in there, so -- then, I hit it up over the ridge there, and it actually went in the hole from about 30 feet, so that was a good -- a great feeling, you know, to run a putt like that in on your last hole. It gives you a good feeling to go home to dinner on. We birdied that other hole, too, the 15, if you want to know that one. I think it was the par 5, the 13th hole. But, we actually hit a good drive and a 3-iron in front of the green and pitched it up there and about 3 foot, knocked it in.

TOM WARGO: Well, actually the 16th and the 18th hole are downwind a little bit. So that actually helped you out today. Now we've been playing the practice round right into the wind on those holes, so they softened up a little bit with the wind. The only real good hole out there that played the 17th, played a little bit longer than -- I mean, the 17th was in the -- but that actually played a true golf hole, compared to what we've been playing in the practice rounds. But the winds softened them up a little bit. It actually made the longer holes a little softer with that easterly wind they had today.

TOM WARGO: Well, I thought so. I thought somebody would at least do somewhere around 2- or 3-under par today. I thought maybe two or three guys would do that. I actually think, like I said, with that easterly wind, that it made the golf course a little bit softer on some of the holes. On some of the tighter holes, you could actually hit irons off the tee to get it in the fairway. Plus, like I said, the finishing holes were a little softer. So I actually thought somebody could get it under par a little bit better than that, yes, I was surprised about that after watching the board go around.

TOM WARGO: 10:10 or something like that.

TOM WARGO: We'll see. It could be a big plus without the wind. I don't know what the weather predicts. We'll see. The weather is going to make a big difference on this golf course. If it stays like this -- who knows. There's not many guys broke par, but I look for the greens to get a little bit harder as time goes on. They're actually taking a shot in there right now. You can actually kind of hit it at the flag.

TOM WARGO: Oh, I have about a dozen maybe. They wouldn't give me any more passes.

TOM WARGO: Those are my friends. One of them was my wife, though.

TOM WARGO: I hope they stay like that all week. I'll take four of those probably and see what happens on Sunday or let's say it's 3 1/2 and see what we have to do the last 9 holes. But, I don't know, I'm happy any time you get a round under par, especially in the U.S. Open. And the U.S. Open does that to some guys. I mean, they can be very unhappy because you can actually miss a fairway or two by inches and then have no shot at all. But it's a nice day to play golf. It was a perfect day and this -- the U.S. Open Senior or otherwise is a great environment, and it's just nice to be here.

TOM WARGO: Thanks for having me and hope to see you tomorrow.