U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 27, 2003

Bruce Lietzke

RAND JERRIS: Pleasure to be joined by Bruce Lietzke, Bruce a 71 to follow up on your 69 yesterday. If you can take a moment to talk about your playing conditions this afternoon particularly after yesterday's rain.

BRUCE LIETZKE: The fairways were a little wetter, the golf ball was not my golf ball. I hit a real high shot, so my tee shots were not really releasing in the fairways like they had been this week. I played with Gil Morgan and Larry Nelson and they have a lower ball flight and their balls were chasing on out there pretty good, but from a high-ball standpoint my tee shots weren't going as far, the greens maybe were a little softer, and I didn't think the green speed had changed very much. I think they were very similar to yesterday morning. But that was about it. There was more wind today than we had yesterday morning. That was -- probably the biggest factor was the heavier winds that we had to work with today.

But all in all it was a much nicer day temperature-wise and easier to get around the golf course. And it seemed very playable. I don't think -- whatever amount of rain they had just didn't seem to affect the playability too, too much. I would say the only guys that were really affected were the ones that hit the ball high like I do.

RAND JERRIS: Can you walk us through birdies and bogeys.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yes, started off on the back nine. My first birdie of the day came on No. 12 and I hit a 7-iron about ten feet from the hole. I made that for a birdie.

I parred around until 17. And I missed the green to the right. The second shot with a 4-iron, missed the green to the right. I chipped to probably 14 feet pin-high and I left my first putt about a foot short and I tapped in for bogey there. So I believe that's an even par. No? Was that for birdie? That was even par.

RAND JERRIS: Yes.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Okay. I didn't miss anything.

Most of the excitement happened on the front 9. No. 1, my 10th hole, I hit a 7-iron to about six feet from the hole. I made that for birdie.

No. 3, I hit a 5-iron to ten feet, made that for a birdie.

No. 4, I hit a driver off the tee, my first driver of the day and I hit a 3-iron to about 12 feet from the hole. I made that for birdie.

No. 5, a tee shot in the fairway then I put a 6-iron into the creek just short of the green, chipped up close to the hole. At one time it was about three feet from the hole and then it came back off the green and I 2-putted from the fringe for a double bogey ^ 6. Actually I 1-putted; I putted from the fringe.

I was in the fringe in 4. Putted from the fringe a foot up from the hole and tapped in for a double bogey.

And I parred the next three holes and No. 9 missed the fairway with a tee shot. My 3-wood off the tee ended up in the right rough. I hit an 8-iron second shot that found the right rough near the green and I chipped poorly to 14 feet and I 2-putted from 14 feet for a closing bogey.

RAND JERRIS: Thank you. Take some questions out here, please.

Q. First off on No. 5 how far did you come back to drop there?

BRUCE LIETZKE: 70 yards.

Q. 70 yards. And everybody, a lot of the players earlier in the week were talking about if it rains everything changes out here. You mentioned the greens really didn't change; did that surprise you much that they maintained their speed after a half inch of rain in like two hours or whatever it was?

BRUCE LIETZKE: See that's the surprising thing; I didn't know how much rain there was. At my hotel --

Q. Between 4/10ths and a half inch they say?

BRUCE LIETZKE: That's more than I expected. But the way, the USGA really had the golf course very dry when we came in here on Monday or Tuesday and I think they were expecting that or that maybe they were going to add some water if these rains didn't come. I think the golf course was ready to soak up some water. The greens had been very dry. At least from Monday, I didn't play Monday but I heard the guys say they were very dry and fast then. I would say the golf course was ready to take on some water and it must have soaked up that half inch pretty quickly. And it did affect some of my iron shots into the green. I spun the ball off the green today and that was not the case and probably not possible yesterday. But you know, there was no sign of any extra moisture or anything like that.

Like I say, I thought they putted about the same. So that's really more rain than I thought that they had received.

Q. If you were to have two par rounds and you were to end up at 2-under do you think that would be good enough to win right now?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Not knowing what the weather is going to be I would say no.

RAND JERRIS: Any other questions?

Q. I heard you mention in the flash area about putting some chips in your pocket and having to spend them. In an open course is it easy for you not to get to excited about birdies because you know what can happen? I mean does it keep you on an even keel?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yes, and I am not very excitable anyway but I know going into a USGA event or Senior PGA or any of the real extremely tough setups that bogeys happen whether you've hit perfect golf shots or beautiful golf shots or your strategy has been exactly the way you wanted it. Bogeys still show up on these kind of golf courses when the golf courses are set up this way. I'm a very even-keel person all the time and especially here I know, I just want to make sure I get my share of the birdies because I know I'm going to make my share of bogeys and everybody else is going to make their share of bogeys, you definitely try to avoid the doubles and triple and quadruple bogeys that can really knock you out of a golf tournament. But there is nobody in the field that is going to go -- nobody in the field will go this weekend without making at least five bogeys. Everybody in the field will make at least that much. So I just wanted to get my share of birdies to offset those mistakes.

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