FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 12, 2002

Howard Twitty

HOWARD TWITTY: Just happy to be here. The course, the wind did not blow as much today so it did play a little bit easier.

You know, it's a tough golf course. It's a tough golf course. I've never had any luck here and it never ceases to amaze me some of the scores the guys shoot here because the greens are firm, quick. There's a lot of trouble lurking out there. It's a tough golf course.

DAVE SENKO: Birdies, starting at No. 5.

HOWARD TWITTY: I parred the first four holes, and then I birdied 5. I hit a 7-iron about three feet from the hole. I hit a real nice shot there.

I birdied the next hole. Hit a sand wedge about 12 feet and made it. Then parred around.

I birdied the 10th hole. I hit it just outside the fairway bunker had a pretty tough shot. I had to carry it over the trap out of the rough. I hit a 9-iron and it stopped about 25 feet right of the hole and made it for birdie.

I had a pretty easy putt for birdie on 11 and missed it.

DAVE SENKO: How far was that?

HOWARD TWITTY: About eight feet. Just kind of a right-center putt, or I thought it was a right-center putt. I might have misread it or pushed it or something.

I hit a bad iron on 12, and, you know, you're left of the green and the pin is back; it's always really a tough up-and-down. I putted with a fairway wood. Lanny got up next after me and tried to chip it and chipped it in back of where he was... He lost about three or four yards on his shot.

But I putted up and got it on the green, and I was fortunate, I made about an 18-footer there for par.

Then I had it just off the edge of the green on the next hole in 2, and hit a bad chip and missed about a seven- or eight-footer.

No. 14, I hit a nice 3-wood -- I actually hit a drive and pushed it. Hit it a little on the neck and pushed it. I had like 233 to the flag and I cut a 3-wood -- hit really a nice shot, probably about ten feet right behind the hole. In fact, left of the hole. Missed it.

Parred 15.

16, I hit the ball in the left rough and had a real nasty lie, hit is just off the front of the green and chipped it and made about a 12-footer for par there and then parred 17 and 18.

DAVE SENKO: So, a crazy round.

HOWARD TWITTY: Yeah, it's a tough golf course. I didn't make that many birdies -- I guess I made some nice putts, but I also didn't make any bogeys. You know, you only make three birdies, you're going to be pleased with 3-under.

Q. How rare was that, to get all the way around without a bogey on this course for you?

HOWARD TWITTY: Well, I'm sure for me it's the first time. I've never had any luck on this golf course. I'm sure I've never had -- I would be shocked if I've ever had a round without a bogey here.

Really, to play any golf course, is pretty tough without a bogey. You can hit a lot of good shots and end up making bogeys on holes, if the wind catches it or you get a little aggressive with a putt or something like that.

You know, I'm very pleased with it. Just hope I can keep from making mistakes the next two days.

Q. Did you have any indication that you could expect this type of score?

HOWARD TWITTY: Yeah, really, one thing about this game is: You know it will change. And I played horrible last week. So I knew it was going to either get better or worse.

No, not really. One thing I did do this week, I switched to a steel shaft in my driver. I'm not driving it quite as far, but I think I'm driving it a lot straighter, and that might -- that's probably helping me out some.

I putted real well all week. Really, I couldn't say there's anything really one thing that I could point to.

Q. How often do you use a fairway wood to chip with?

HOWARD TWITTY: I don't very often. I feel like I chip the ball fairly well, and most of the time, I try to -- either run the ball with a 6-iron or 8-iron, pitching wedge, sand wedge, L-wedge, something like that. But that hole is particularly difficult because you're down quite a bit below the level of the green when the pin is up on top.

And also, for both Lanny's and my shot, we had to really get it up two levels. There was not one level you had to get it up; you had to get it up two levels, because it gets up one level and then the green starts and then it actually goes up another 18 inches to the green level and it goes down away from you and actually toward the water. It would be hard -- I shouldn't say hard to hit it in the water. It's really difficult to judge the pace of it.

The fairway wood off that, it's a lot -- it's a lot more foolproof. You don't hit the bad shot. Lanny tried to hit the ball into the hill with like a sand wedge or L-wedge and he literally lost about three or four yards. The ball rolled back where he was before. With a fairway wood, you usually eliminate the real bad.

Q. It was the lie that dictated --

HOWARD TWITTY: Well, the lie, and just the slope in front of me. You know, I could have hit an L-wedge, but I'd have to really had to play quite a shot to flop it up there and stop it.

The L-wedge is just a lot more -- it's a lot simpler and it's a lot more foolproof.

Q. Do you practice that fairway shot?

HOWARD TWITTY: Yeah, in fact, this week I went over there and I hit some shots, really almost tried to duplicate that exact shot. Maybe I knew how good an iron player I was and knew when that pin was up on top, I would be over there.

I went over there and practiced some shots. That might be another reason why I tried the fairway woods, because I had hit it and I had an idea what to do.

Q. (Inaudible) ?

HOWARD TWITTY: You look at everything differently. You look at everything differently. I don't know how you could -- I don't know. I couldn't -- sometimes you feel like you've glimpsed into hell and it isn't very pretty in there.

Q. (Inaudible.)

HOWARD TWITTY: Oh, yeah. He's a great kid and he loves playing. Sometimes he likes to play too much, though, I think. He likes to hit too many golf balls.

Do you like to hit too many? (Laughs). I swear, if I stacked up golf balls this high down there on that range, if I stand there long enough, he'd hit them all. He'd hit them all. He loves it.

Q. Do you want him to be a golfer?

HOWARD TWITTY: Do I want him to be a golfer? I hope he enjoys the game. To think he's going to play professionally or anything is -- you know, I would never discourage him from doing that, but I think it's a little bit of a pipe dream to hold that in the cards when you consider the odds, of all of the young kids that are playing now.

He certainly loves the game, and I hope he plays well. I think he'll be pretty good. But, you know, pretty good and playing on the Tour, that's a couple big steps. But he's going to do well. He's going to do real well.

Q. Your reaction to that seems like that's a common reaction for golfers, though there are sons of golfers who play. Is this just such a unique way to make a living that very few, if anyone, could really look at that as a realistic goal?

HOWARD TWITTY: Well, I think you can look at it as a goal, but when you consider the odds, there's only -- I don't know how many -- I guess nowadays there's a lot more guys that actually make a living on the regular tour, than, really, when we were coming up. There really were not many people that actually made a living when I started on the Tour. I guess now, maybe there's 150 or 200. Well, you take that, extrapolate it, and it may be six, eight, ten people, new people, a year, get on the Tour and actually earn a living.

Unless you're really one of the Top-100, you don't make a great living. To make a great living, there's only half a dozen guys that actually make it every year. Well, that's pretty long odds.

But he'll be able to play the game and he'll be able to enjoy the game. With his attitude, I think he'll win tournaments and stuff. In this case with a ball, he loves it. He loves it.

Q. When you started, was that in '72?

HOWARD TWITTY: I'm not even sure. My rookie year, it's '75. I graduated from college in 1972 and I didn't turn professional immediately afterwards. I waited about a year. Then I turned pro and I know -- I think it took me like three times to get through the qualifying school. I think my third try, I qualified. Then they actually had two schools a year, but they only gave like 15 or 20 cards each time. It was just different then. So I probably got out about '75 as my first year. Played over in Asia, all over the world for a while before I got on the regular tour.

Q. With that gap, did you look forward to this?

HOWARD TWITTY: Oh, I did sure. I look forward to playing again and a lot of the guys that I knew when I was growing up, moved over to the SENIOR TOUR. And you get to be 45 and 46 years old, you don't know many guys on are the regular tour, it gets kind of spooky out there every year when you walk out on the practice tee and you don't know many people.

Now, really, everyone out there on this tour, most all of them you've played with all your life.

And I knew when -- I turned 50 -- about a month or two after I turned 50, I think David Duval shot 59 out there in Palm Springs on that Palmer course. And I looked in my golf bag, and no place in my golf bag was there a 59 on that golf course. So I knew it was time for me to kind of go back on the SENIOR TOUR.

Q. Do you still approach the game the same way, competitively?

HOWARD TWITTY: Yeah, I do. Since March, it's changed. I guess something like that happens to you, and, you know, you're changed forever. I don't know, I would be shocked if I'm ever the same person that I was before. Maybe I'll be a little better in some respects for it, but, yeah, I'm not the same person I was a few months ago.

Q. You had a pretty good tournament in Grand Rapids. Have you played better --

HOWARD TWITTY: Not really. I didn't play too bad in Grand Rapids. I don't know, it's been a struggle just kind of getting your mind back in things and getting everything going.

Hopefully, we can make some more putts this week and have a good time this week.

Q. Does a round like today make you think, "You know, I can still do this"?

HOWARD TWITTY: Oh, sure. That's the wonderful thing about this game. Like I said before: It's going to change. It's going to get better or worse, one way or the other. There's always days when you come in and hit some good shots, make some putts. If you can get back in a good frame of mind, get some confidence, I feel like I can still play pretty well.

Q. Isn't that pretty much the way life is?

HOWARD TWITTY: Yeah, yeah. It sure does.

Q. Does this game help you heal a little bit or is it harder because you're in public?

HOWARD TWITTY: I don't know. That's a good question.

I don't know anything that helps you through that, really. As I think about it, I don't know of anything. At least nothing I've seen so far.

And it's funny, you know, it doesn't bother me, the questions, and it's probably good for me, the questions; that you can kind of talk about it and kind of get it out and just deal with it. I always -- I guess I have a -- this is a little bit of a confession to make.

I always thought that losing a child, I had talked to other people that lost a child, and I never thought -- they always say that "there's not a day gone by that I haven't thought about them." And I have to say, that I kind of thought, well, you know, that's probably a little exaggeration, and there's no exaggeration at all.

I'm fortunate, I have six other kids and they are all wonderful kids, but there's not a day that goes by. And most days, there's not an hour that goes by that something doesn't remind me again. It's just such a bizarre -- something that you cannot ever imagine happening. You can't imagine happening, you can't imagine dealing with it.

You can't -- I'll never forget the first time someone asked me, and I can't remember if I was playing a Pro-Am or what -- but somebody asked me how many kids I had and all of a sudden I started thinking, you know, how do you answer that question? I remember the first time, I actually said, you know, "Well, I've got six kids." But ever since then; I have seven, he's just not with us now.

But I know one thing, this guy right here loved him.

Q. We've talked about you, but the rest of your family, how are they coping with the situation?

HOWARD TWITTY: I think my older daughter, you know, she struggled with it. The good news is, she's flying to Chicago on Sunday and we are going to travel together for three weeks. So we are going to spend some time together.

She's at Arizona State. She's 21 right now, and she was doing a semester in Florence, Italy, when the accident happened. So she's kind of -- she flew back to Florence to finish out her semester, and she has not been doing much at home. She's going to come out floor three weeks, and that's going to be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to that.

Q. So do you travel with one or so of your children now?

HOWARD TWITTY: You know, I haven't been. The main reason is, most of the kids are all real young. The oldest is 13 -- from 5 to 13, and then Jocelyn is 21.

Mainly, because then you'd have to take them out of school and stuff like that. My oldest was out at Seibel by himself in San Jose. Imagine the other kids will come out one or two -- you know, for a week or two. They are just getting old enough to where they can kind of come out.

William is pretty unusual. For an 8-year-old, he has a great attitude. As far as walking 18 holes, he doesn't get bored. He gets into it. He's watching the scoreboard, trying to figure out how to kick me in the rear and get me going, doing everything. William's doing great.

I think it's pretty unusual to have an 8-year-old to come out by himself and walk around the course and not get bored.

Q. (Inaudible.)

HOWARD TWITTY: No, no, you're just always kind of looking around. You always kind of look around for him.

My caddie's wife was here, and they have a motor home they travel in. Tracy comes out and walks some, but last week, she didn't walk hardly at all. He'll go 18 holes and he's ready -- he's probably ready for me to take him in and feed him so he can hit practice balls.

Q. I would be worried about my 8-year-old digging into the bunker.

HOWARD TWITTY: That's what I mean. He's an unusual kid. He loves to watch, he loves to play, loves everything about it. Of course, I think he's pretty remarkable.

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