U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 26, 1997

Kermit Zarley

KERMIT ZARLEY: Yeah, sure. I birdied the first two holes so I got off to a good start. The first hole par 5. I hit it in front of the green, had about a 30-yard shot to the green, and pitched it up about, oh, 3 feet, made birdie. The next hole, I hit a 3-iron just off of the green and about 4-feet off of the green and had about a 25, 30-foot shot, and I chipped in, so I birdied the 2nd hole. Third hole, I had a makeable birdie putt, hit a 3-iron to that green and 2-putted. The next hole, I had a closer birdie putt, had about a 12-foot putt there for birdie and missed it. Same thing with the following hole. So that would be the fifth hole, had about a 10, 12-foot putt, missed that. The 6th hole, par 3, I birdied from about 6 feet, 7-iron. Let's see, the 7th hole -- where did I hit my second shot? -- played a good shot, but I don't remember how far my putt was there, I 2-putted. The 8th hole is a 233 yard shot, par 3, hit a 2-iron about 20 feet, and frankly, I was struggling with my putting out there a lot. And this is not a place you want that to happen. So, I'm having a hard time with the speed of my stroke with the distance on the putts, and on the 7th hole I had left a 15-foot putt about 5-feet short. So on the next hole, on the 8th hole, I said I had about a 20, 25-foot putt and I knocked that thing way past the hole about 7 or 8 feet, and then made it coming back downhill. So, you know, that's struggling with your putting. The 9th hole -- let's see, what kind of hole is the 9th hole? -- yeah, I was in the bunker, and played a crazy shot out of there that goes up there about 8 feet from the hole and just missed that putt. The 10th hole, hit a 2-iron off the tee into the -- through the fairway, short of the green on my second shot, chipped up about good 3 1/2 feet, had a hard breaking putt and just slipped that in. The 11th hole, I hit a 6-iron about 12 feet from the hole, almost made that. Pretty big break on it. Then the next hole, No. 12, I hit a good -- best drive of the day there. Hit an iron, not a good iron, and I was in the fringe and had about a 25-foot putt. I hit a poor putt about 4-feet short to the right and then hit a miserable second putt that went uphill 4-feet past the hole, and I made that. Well, it was almost 4 feet. 3 1/2 feet. I hit it almost as far as I was. So that was a bad 3-putt there. Let's see. The 13th hole is a par 5. I hit two wood shots down there, played a good pitch, and had a birdie putt that I almost made. Then the next hole is a 3 par, 14th hole. Played a 6-iron down there, a good shot about 15 feet and didn't make the putt. The 16th -- let's see the 15th hole, what kind of hole was 15? Yeah, I only played the back 9 yesterday. I can't think of the hole right now. The 16th hole, I hit a bad drive, horrible drive. That was the only bad drive I had hit for the day, and I had to chip out and wound up making a bogey. The 17th hole, I put it in the right bunker off the tee. Played a real good 3-iron out of the bunker to about 15 feet or less and 2-putted. And the 18th hole, I drove real good, but the hole was playing kind of shorter and two of us hit -- Gil Morgan and I hit our approach irons way past the hole and made a good 2-putt.

KERMIT ZARLEY: Well, it is especially because I haven't been playing very well and then I was struggling with my putting out there today. My ball hitting came around, better today, so I was pleased about that. And I did have a lot of birdie putts. Yes, I did. But I'm happy to shoot 69.

KERMIT ZARLEY: Yesterday was the first time I played the back 9.

KERMIT ZARLEY: Well, I don't know if I should go into it. I didn't come here until Tuesday, which there's nothing wrong with that, but I expected to play an 18-hole practice round and then I was just too tired, got here kind of late for different reasons. And so I just got in 9 holes and decided, hey, it's better to go rest.

KERMIT ZARLEY: Well, the first time I saw the course -- I'm talking about this week -- I thought it was a difficult golf course. I mean, if you would have asked me, would you take even par for the tournament, are you kidding? I'd say, "you're darn right I would." This is a good golf course here.

KERMIT ZARLEY: Well, yeah, you're right. I haven't looked to see how the scores are, but, yeah, I guess you would say nobody got real hot, you know. I mean somebody still could go around this place and shoot 65 or 66, I think, but they'll have to play some mighty fine golf.

KERMIT ZARLEY: The wind did not blow strong certainly. It was a pretty day, nice day, but it swirled around a little bit. On the front 9, we were a little confused a few times as to where the wind was blowing. When you've got big trees like that out there and the wind is not blowing very much and you've just had a front come through here awhile ago, the wind can be like that.

KERMIT ZARLEY: Say that again.

KERMIT ZARLEY: The last -- the finishing holes.

KERMIT ZARLEY: How difficult they are? Well, 18 was a drive and a wedge -- I mean, I hit a good drive and I should have hit a wedge. I hit a 9-iron and it was too much club. 17, I hit a bad drive. Now, Gil Morgan hit a real good drive and I don't think he had more than about a, oh, goodness, probably a 7 or 8-iron to the green. But that's a pretty long drive. I would just say those holes have length and the greens have some slope. Other than that, there's not that much to them. There's some fairway bunkers out there, certainly.

KERMIT ZARLEY: I would say it was, yeah. I would say it was somewhat of a bad putting day. I mean, I was -- I didn't have confidence putting the ball. And, that was true in the practice round. I mean, I haven't been having a good year. I'm something like 40-something on the money list, so I haven't been playing any good. I haven't been, you know, putting well. I've been struggling a bit with my putting this year. Last year, I probably putted my best I've putted on the Senior Tour. I mean, after all, I finished, I think, 13th on the money list. That's my best finish. But, I'm going to go out and practice my putting after we finish here.

KERMIT ZARLEY: Yeah, that's the main thing about the course, I would say. Some of these greens have severe slopes because of the speed of the greens. A lot of the greens slope downhill from back to front, and you do not want to get the ball above the hole. In other words, past the hole on some of these greens. And there's just -- you know, they can have severe pin placements all over the place out there because of those slopes. This is an old golf course. It wasn't designed so that you have specific pin placements on different spots on the greens. A lot of places on the greens, you're going to have a breaking putt on a 3-foot putt. We're not used to that on the senior -- actually on either the regular Tour or Senior Tour. PGA Tour tries to place pins so you have a straight in putt on a 3-foot putt. But, on these greens, that's kind of hard to find some places like that out there, but I don't think the USGA probably is looking for them anyway.

KERMIT ZARLEY: All right. Thank you.