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FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 7, 2005

Tom Watson

DEARBORN, MICHIGAN

TOM WATSON: -- 3 iron in the bunker just short of the green, knocked that out about two feet for a birdie.

I hit a 6 iron at No. 15. I hit that about five feet from the hole, made that putt for birdie.

I hit the ball pretty close to the hole all day. I drove the ball well. It was an easy day to score. The wind wasn't blowing. The TPC at Dearborn, when the conditions are soft like this, if you're driving the ball half decently, you're going to do pretty well. If you handle the couple shots out there you need to handle, like at No. 4, you need to handle that. You have to handle a couple other shots out there. As Jack would make these golf courses, you know, the approaches into the greens are a little bit more difficult than sometimes the drives.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: It's still not very good. Honestly, I hit the ball very close to the hole and had a lot of short birdie putts today. But my stroke isn't very good. My pal, Bob Murphy, gave me a couple of tips that I'm trying to work on. It goes kind of south when the heat turns on and I don't know why.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, I can't predict what the future's going to take, what it's going to be. As I said out there, it's always good to be in the lead or close to the lead. You can make some mistakes if you're in the lead or close to the lead and still be in the tournament.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, I played this course pretty well over the years I've played it here. I think it sets up pretty well for me. I'm playing pretty well from tee to green right now. It's a golf course where you have to strike the ball, there's certain critical shots you have to play well. You can get in trouble on this golf course very quickly. You know, my game's in good shape right now.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, 4 is a critical shot. That's one. You have to drive the ball well at 3, the par 5. You can still make up for it. But it's a pretty tight little drive there. You have to drive the ball well at 5.

You know, 10 is a GOOD, critical drive. You can get in trouble at 10 if you're not careful there. Of course, 11 is a tough drive. I played it on the right side today. Hit a beautiful drive. Almost holed the second shot. Again, you play 12, the par 3, you've got that water right on the right side there. Really severely sloping green. It's a tough shot. It's a critical shot on the golf course. Then your shot at 14 over the hazard, that's not an easy one to judge.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: I am. And the British Senior and then the US Senior.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, I'm in pretty good shape. I wish the putter was working a little bit better. Wishing doesn't get it done. I'm going to go out and work on it right now and see if I can find something that will work. My position isn't very good.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, my attitude is still, as I said, I can get a few good punches in. I don't know if I can go a full 15 rounds, but I can get a few good punches in.

Try to pace myself a little bit better this year.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: They will. That's what I'm saying, I'm trying to pace myself a little bit. I played Royal Aberdeen. Probably try to play just a couple practice rounds there, not all three days, but a couple. Get a rest in the middle there. Coming back to the US Senior Open. You know, four weeks in a row is going to be of course, it's not going to be too hot over there. Of course, Jay Haas also said he saw the long range weather forecast for The Open next week. You see 10 days ahead. The first day is torrential rain, then it's rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. There's not a single day where the sun peeks out of the clouds there in the icon, at weather.com. It's all rain. 10 straight days.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: The forecasts over there, they only have two forecasts over there: sunny with periods of showers, and showery with periods of sun. That's it.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, yeah, they have decent weather.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: The whole four weeks. Just trying to pace myself a little bit so I don't wear myself out. I can do that now at 55.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Just try to, you know, probably cut out I may have to cut out two practice rounds at St. Andrews, just have maybe one, see what happens there. Try just to relax the one day before, get my strength back, get on the time zone, get on the time frame there the best I can.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: I've never done that. I've never thought about my previous success, only in the sense where it helps me play the golf course when I'm playing it again.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Or St. Andrews. What shots did I do well? What shots did I not do well? Stay away from the shots I didn't do well. That's the way I look at it. I don't look back on it. I still feel as I said, I still feel like I can compete to a degree. Who knows. The big problem with me is my putting. My putting is not nearly as good as it used to be. Whether it ever will be, whether I ever get that streak back, find something that will work, I don't know.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, the body. You know, my hip is not very good, and I don't have a lot of flexibility down there. I try to keep it pretty strong. These four weeks, it ought to loosen up a little bit. I'm still taking antiinflammates (sic) that help. It helped today. It was a pretty pain free day today, which is fun.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: No, I know how well I'm putting and how well I'm not. The short putts, they're kind of skanky when they go in. They're not solid short putts when they go in. I know. And if I know, that's all that matters. I have to make it happen; I have to do something to change it.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, I don't know. Without the wind, the golf course is giving up a lot of birdies. It should. The golf course is not playing difficultly. They have the tees up at 15, the par 3. That's a pretty easy shot in there today. They didn't use their toughest pins today, that's for sure. A couple tough pins today. As it worked out, the wind was in our favor today for those tough pins.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: If I'm not? I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not leading, no. I would not be surprised because of the conditions.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: My goals are really in the present tense. I don't extrapolate out to the future too much. I basically work to get ready for certain tournaments, and that's basically how I always played. I don't practice nearly as much any more because I can't. I try to make better use of my practice time.

I still practice my putting a lot, but that doesn't help. Maybe a pool cue is what I need.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: I've done it in my golf swing before. I don't see why it can't happen in my putting.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, actually the short stroke is not a very good stroke. The longer strokes are better strokes for me.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, it depends. If the stroke has to go back about that far, then that's not my range. If it has to go back that far, it's better.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Not too much. I did the long putter one time. I hit three putts. One went 20 feet past the whole, the other was about 20 feet short, the other was about five feet right. I don't know. They're better on short putts, the long putters. Not a question on that. I'm a firm believer that I can get it done. I may go to a shorter putter, may go to a shorter grip, something like that. I've experimented with that.

Need to find something that I stick with. It's pretty hard for me to stick with something that I don't get some pretty good feedback from.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: The long putter like this up here? They should not be legal. That's not a stroke. I don't know where you draw the line there as far as the length is concerned. This big old long thing, that's not a stroke.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: This one is the most meaningful, then the British Open, then the British Senior, then the US Senior, in that order. As I said, it's in the present tense. This one is the most important right now.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: As I said, I'm going to take some rest. You know, I may not play on Wednesday at St. Andrews. I may just hit some balls and work around the greens, things like that, practice a little bit. I played St. Andrews a bunch of times. Shouldn't be too tough to go out there and learn how to play again, although we're playing, what, five new tees. I think it's five new tees.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, I played only nine holes on Tuesday. We had a big 4th of July party at my farm on Monday. Kind of worn out on Monday. Got to bed late, up early. So I only played nine holes, then played the practice round yesterday. Actually, the ProAm yesterday.

Yeah, I'll play two practice rounds for sure at Royal Aberdeen because I've only played that golf course once. I don't remember much about that. Since I played St. Andrews a bunch of times, Tony Lema played did he play there without a practice round or did he play with one practice round when he won? Come on, Jerry, you got to remember that history. Went over there, got Tip Anderson, played a nine hole practice round. Didn't play the full 18, did he? I think it was nine holes he played, somehow. Ended up winning. Champagne Tony.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: No, I don't think so.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, it depends on how much energy you have. I find that I'm getting if I get tired, I get tired on Saturday and Sunday. That's not the time to get tired. I can't do anything about it right now, but I can do something about it before the week starts.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: They don't. I don't, I know that. You remember when I played the junior tour, don't you? I practiced more than anybody out there. I was looking for it. I was always searching for it. I didn't find it till about 1992. Then the golf swing said, "Wait a minute." I can kind of go back to that same thought every time, everything is going to work itself out, rather than always thinking, "What's wrong?"

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, there was a story about Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. There was a story that Byron told me. He said a fellow came to Ben, I forget if it was a press writer, I think it was somebody from your business, came up to Byron and said, "You know, Ben Hogan said, Byron, you would be a lot better player if you practiced more." Hogan practiced all the time. Byron's retort was, "I've already learned my golf swing."

There's a certain amount of truth to that. When you go to different golf courses, there's certain key shots you've got to play. Like I said, the fourth hole here, that's a critical shot. It's a real narrow green. Only 30 feet wide. You have 200 yards to go, hit it in 30 feet. You have about 45 feet to the back part of the green. Basically it's about a 35 foot width there. You've got to hit a straight shot with a 4 iron, 5 iron, whatever it is.

Every tournament is like that. There's a critical shot you have to play. The 11th hole at St. Andrews, I know that's a critical shot. It's a par 3 that you've got to play to an exact place on the green. You throw in a 20 mile an hour wind from the wrong direction, and now what do you do? You have to have some imagination to be able to play that. 8th hole, same thing, par 3, downwind. Where do you hit it there? I still haven't figured that hole out, where to hit that ball at.

There are a lot of shots that I have figured out. The 6th hole, how to play that pitch and run up through the gully in front of the green. I know how to play that shot. The 12th hole, how to play that pitch and run up the little bank there, get it up on the tabletop there, part of the top hat. There's critical shots. The 17th hole, you play the shot up to the right center of the green right up there. You practice from off the green, short of the green, and pitch it up the green, try to make a par. That's just a percentage shot. I learned my lesson the hard way.

Every tournament every time I go to a golf tournament, there are critical shots at that golf course that I've got to play. Of course, going to Royal Aberdeen, I'm going to have to figure that out, what shot is the critical shot here? Can I figure it out in two rounds? Sometimes you can't. Sometimes you don't have the right wind to do it. So that's what you practice.

That's what I try to do when I go there, I try to practice those shots on the practice range. When I get out on the golf course, I hope I've hit one good shot in the practice range to kind of give me some feedback.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, you know, Augusta, again, I shake my head. It's too long a golf course for me. I can't even get a good punch in at Augusta. So what am I doing playing there? I don't know.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: What am I doing playing there? Jack said to Hootie about two, three years ago, when they linked it at 300 yards, 270, 300, he said, "Hey, they're already ahead of you because the golf ball already jumped up." They made it 300 yards longer, but it still played short for the longer hitters.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: I agree. I agree with Jack a hundred percent. The golf ball ought to be pulled back. Golf courses are being made too long. Look what they have to do at St. Andrews. They have to go steal land from the existing courses outside of St. Andrews to put tees in like this. Come on. Do something sensible.

The manufacturers beat the USGA and the R&A, they beat them. They made a golf ball that beat them. They hoodwinked them. Now it's time to bring the golf ball back, I think, for everybody. The question is, do you bring it back for everybody? If you look at it, the longer hitters will be affected more by it than the shorter hitters, from the percentage standpoints of how far they hit it. That's what you've got to do.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Yeah, you know, what I meant by the "hoodwink" is I believe the golf ball, once you compress the golf ball, the way they made it in 2001, finally got the technology in that golf ball, if you hit the harder, you got a bigger jump than you would from just a normal straight progression. You got more. And I don't know, they say, "I got it to the inner core." You're going the compress the whole golf ball. I don't buy that.

They made a golf ball that conformed to the USGA and R&A distance standards, but the longer hitter got more of an advantage hitting that golf ball.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: Well, you can't say it like that because that's an obvious. The harder you hit it, the farther it goes. But the harder you hit it, it's not the straight line progression that you should get the harder you hit it. If you look at the graph, the graph will go instead of a straight line, it starts going like this when you get to a certain miles per hour, 115, say, starts going like this.

Q. (No microphone.)

TOM WATSON: I don't know. That's what a lot of believers think. I don't know scientifically whether that's accurate or not. I'm spreading false information probably. From the people who I trust as far as their eyes are concerned, that golf ball, once you compress it a certain amount, that ball starts to really get the benefit of going a lot farther. And these kids can do that.

I don't know where the swing speed is. The USGA has a monitor right now that swings it at 122 miles an hour. Now they've gotten it up there. They've got it up to where now they can test that ball. I don't think you'll be seeing any greater increase in the golf ball, the people that hit it in the last year. I don't think it's going up, if I'm not mistaken. But it sure went up between 2000 and 2004, 2003, really went up.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Tom.

TOM WATSON: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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