U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 28, 2005

Tom Purtzer

RAND JERRIS: We're now joined by Tom Purtzer with an opening round of 65, 6 under par for the championship.

Tom, you got off to a hot start, eagle, birdie on the first two holes.

TOM PURTZER: That always helps. You know, I hadn't played in two weeks and didn't get to practice a whole lot last week. I went to see my teacher middle of the week last week, and that helped a ton.

You know, I really didn't know what to expect, and when you get off to a start like that, it kind of helps get your momentum, get some positive thoughts flowing. So that definitely helped.

RAND JERRIS: Could you take a moment and walk us through the birdies and bogeys on your card.

TOM PURTZER: Okay. We started on 10 and I hit a driver and I guess a 3 wood about 20 feet right underneath the hole. I'm sure as everybody has said, the greens are real slow in spots, and I had it right straight up the hill, so I hit a good putt and it went dead straight right in the middle of the hole, so made eagle there.

Next hole hit a good 3 wood and a pitching wedge about six, seven feet, made that for birdie.

Then 14, I hit a good drive and a gap wedge about ten feet maybe, made that for birdie.

18, I hit a real good drive there and was in between clubs, in between 6 and 7. I hit the 6 iron over the green, and that's dead. Any time you've above these pins, you're dead. I made bogey there.

But then I came right back on 1, hit a real good tee shot and a 7 iron, I don't know, about four feet, five feet, made a birdie there.

Next hole I hit a good 6 iron about 12 feet, made that one.

And then I scrambled the next two holes to make pars. I pulled my tee shot on 3 and had it just over the green in two, chipped down to about two feet, made a good par there.

Then the next hole I was just trying to get it into position in the fairway off the tee shot, and I kind of let it slide to the right into the bunkers, and that's not a good spot over there. Both Jim Thorpe and I were in there, and I was trying to figure out whether to go over there's a tree that you've got to go up over, so I was actually trying to hit it up over the tree, and I hit it underneath the limb, kind of bladed it out of there, all the way well, I had about 40 yards. I was 40 yards past the pin coming back. I made a pretty good pitch shot up over the trees to about, I don't know, eight feet, something like that, and made that one. So that was an adventurous par.

Then the next hole, hit a good drive and a Rescue club, which is like a 4 wood, 5 wood, to the front of the green and three putted that one from about probably 30 feet. But then turned right around, hit a good drive on the next hole and hit the same Rescue club about 12 feet, made eagle there.

Then I pulled my tee shot off of the next hole into the rough and hit it right on the front edge of the green and three putted that one.

You know, it's just hard, you just can't imagine U.S. Open greens being as having to think about hitting the ball. Usually you don't have to think about that here, or at any kind of a USGA event.

You know, with the combination of so much rain we had the last couple days and the slopes in these greens, you know, you've got to force yourself to hit it.

Then 8, I had a decent chance of making a birdie there. I had about 12, 15 feet there, just left it short.

And then on 18, I hit a drive and a 7 iron about 18 feet, something like that, and I just couldn't tell whether it was going to go it was going to be slow in the beginning and then I thought it would kind of go a little quicker once it got over the little ridge, but it was kind of slow and I left it about eight inches short.

All in all, it was a good round, a good way to start. Like I said, I went to see my teacher last week and it helped a ton because I hadn't been hitting it very good the couple weeks before that.

Q. Who is your teacher and what city did you visit?

TOM PURTZER: Butch Harmon and it was in Las Vegas.

Q. And what specifically did he tell you? Did he give you a key or anything?

TOM PURTZER: That's a secret. That's a high level secret.

Q. Was it because he charged you so much that you can't tell us? In layman's terms what were you doing wrong?

TOM PURTZER: There's no better guy in the world than Butch Harmon. No, I just wasn't turning getting back behind the ball, just kind of swinging my hands and my arms instead of turning my body. Once we kind of got that figured out, it made it a lot better.

You know, I was able to get back to getting the ball started on line with some length. I've been hitting it kind of short the last two weeks, so this has helped.

Q. Craig was in here and he said he drove the ball poorly yesterday in his practice round and found out the rough here wasn't any fun to play out of. He indicated that if you keep the ball in the fairway here, you've got a pretty good shot.

TOM PURTZER: You know, USGA events, they're all like that. You sacrifice distance a lot of holes to make sure you're in the fairway. I think I probably hit I probably only hit about maybe six drives, six drivers, maybe seven drivers all day, and we've got 14 holes that we hit that are not par 3s. I hit quite a few 3 woods and Rescue clubs.

Q. Just playing for position?

TOM PURTZER: Yeah, just to get into position. There's some doglegs here that you can cut corners and stuff, but a lot of times it doesn't pay off.

Q. What did you hit at 3 off the tee?

TOM PURTZER: I hit a 3 wood. You know, I think a lot of the guys will tell you with it being so hot the first two days, I mean, you I've only played two rounds here, so you kind of the first round you're still kind of trying to figure out exactly where to go, and that hole, that particular hole, you know, you've got to cut off a little bit more than it looks like. It looks like it's a long ways down there, but the tee is so elevated that the ball travels a long ways there. So you've got to cut off quite a bit.

Q. So you think a lot of people hit 3 wood off that tee?

TOM PURTZER: I would say yeah.

Q. Other than tougher pin placements, do you see the scoring remaining low if there are still damp conditions and keeping the ball in the fairway or what?

TOM PURTZER: I'm sure the golf course is going to dry out. We'll get a couple more days like today, by Saturday and Sunday the golf course will be totally different.

Today, I mean, you could fly it right to the pin and not worry about it going jumping an extra four or five yards. It was kind of a dartboard today, and I'm sure as the week progresses the golf course will get a little harder. The fairways are always the golf course plays more difficult once the fairways get firmer. I don't think we'll see the scores being stay as low as they are, no.

But there's a lot of good players in this field, you know, so somebody usually does play pretty good every day.

Q. You mentioned having to force yourself to hit putts harder than you normally would in a U.S. Open. Seeing the red numbers on the board out there when you were out there today, did you have to maybe force yourself to hit more aggressive shots than you're normally used to hitting in U.S. Open conditions?

TOM PURTZER: For sure, yeah. You know, like I was talking about, with as much rain as we've had, you don't really worry about getting the big bounces on the greens like you normally do in a USGA event. They like those greens as hard and as firm and as fast as they can get them.

But in this instance with as much slope as there is on these greens, I'd hate to see them get real hard and fast. I'm sure that's where they're going to end up by Sunday. That's where they'll be. But these greens are very difficult, a lot of slopes. You've really got to position yourself with your second shot on the par 4s to give yourself a decent putt at a birdie.

A lot of instances you're better off being 15, 20 feet away up the hill rather than a five footer downhill or sidehill. You just have to pay close attention to where you're trying to position the ball on the greens.

Q. On 4, what, if any, influence did you have watching Thorpe come out of the sand and the troubles he had out of the bunkers?

TOM PURTZER: I had really a lot different shot than he did. He had a real hard shot. He was on a downslope trying to hit it up over a tree. I had kind of just a level lie trying to hit a pitching wedge 130 yards up over this tree out of the bunker. So it wasn't really a high percentage shot. I just kind of I don't really know what happened. I made a pretty good dent in the golf ball. I mean, I caught it right in the belly and just kind of skinned it out of there.

Q. Third shot wasn't exactly high percentage, either. Take me through how you decided

TOM PURTZER: No, third shot wasn't. Those kind of shots you just you know, you figure out how far you want to hit it and then make a swing and hopefully it comes off as you envision it, as you want it to. Not too many times do they come off like you want in that long of grass. You really don't know how much resistance you're going to get coming through that ball, and I was real fortunate that it just kind of came out the way I thought it would or hoped it would.

Q. Maybe the conditions had something to do with it, but does it seem a little bit goofy to be talking about two eagles in a single round of a U.S. Open?

TOM PURTZER: Yeah (laughing), it does. The par 5s are reachable for most of us. I mean, you've got to hit two good shots. But the potential is there. I was just fortunate to have two putts that you could be a little bit aggressive with. The 10th green is probably one of the most severe greens out there, and then also the other two par 5s, those greens are a little severe, too. So you can get yourself into even if you knock it on the green in two, a lot of times you'll have difficult putts to make eagle, but I was just fortunate in that I had two pretty good opportunities. One of them was the first one was straight uphill and the next one was not too far away and I just had to get it going on the line that I was trying to because it was a little bit downhill, sidehill, and once I got it going on that line, it was just a matter of hitting it the right distance.

I leave most of that up to my caddie. I've got my son caddying for me this week, so that's a lot of fun, being out there with him.

Q. Name and age?

TOM PURTZER: Eric, 19.

Q. Is there any chance you could remember how many eagles you had in your career in the U.S. Open?

TOM PURTZER: Probably not many (laughter). I'm just trying to think, it's either the USGA or the PGA gives you something for making an eagle, like a little decanter or something, a little crystal thing. I've been trying to clean out some rooms at home and I came across one of those for making an eagle. I don't remember if it was the USGA or the PGA. I can't remember making too many of them. Shoot, I don't make two eagles in a round very often anywhere.

RAND JERRIS: Well, Tom, congratulations on your fine play. Thanks for your time.

TOM PURTZER: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.