BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 17, 2002

John Senden

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: John, this is Joel Schuchmann, I'm a PGA TOUR media official. We have John Senden here, shot 65 today, he is our current leader in the clubhouse at 15-under par. John, do you want to go ahead and start with your birdies and bogeys, starting on No. 2.

JOHN SENDEN: Yes, birdied No. 2. Do you want to know the details of the birdies?

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If possible, club selection, and maybe how long your putt was.

JOHN SENDEN: On the second hole it was a 2-iron off the tee, a wedge to about maybe 12 feet.

And then on No. 5 was the par-5, I hit driver, and a 5-iron into the right bunker, and then chipped out to about maybe ten feet and holed that.

On the next par-3 was a 9-iron through to about 3 feet, and holed that.

The next one was the -- No. 8 was the par-5, hit driver, 4-iron just short and chipped up to about three or four inches and tapped it in.

No. 12 was the par-4, it was a 3-wood off the tee and then it was a sand iron from about maybe a hundred yards and about 80, 90 yards, and knocked in about a three-and-a-half-foot putt.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We also have the eagle on 18.

JOHN SENDEN: Yeah, the eagle on 18 was the hole of the day. It was a driver and a 4-iron, and it just snuck into the trap on the right side. And I was about pin-high right. And I just splashed it out and it dropped right in the middle. I was a happy man.

Q. Obviously even though this is just your second tournament you must feel pretty comfortable on these golf courses. Did you have any expectations coming in, knowing the reputation of this tournament, that you have to make a lot of birdies?

JOHN SENDEN: Yeah, well that's the way the golf courses are pretty much set up for scoring. With the amateurs involved, it allows you to shoot low scores, basically on the condition of the course. It's fantastic. I've played PGA West and Indian Wells now, and the greens are probably one of the best conditioned greens I've ever putted on in my life. Getting comfortable on the greens and holing a few, it becomes -- not easy, but once you knock a few in, it becomes easy, I guess.

Q. The other part of that is you've got two courses left. Have you seen either of these two courses you're going to play the next two days?

JOHN SENDEN: Yeah, I've had two practice rounds on each of those, one on each, and the golf courses are still -- those particular courses are still very good scoring golf courses. So it's a matter of me, now, to say -- start from tomorrow, start from scratch and just play the new course. It's a new day and go out there and relax and just play my own game, rather than worrying about what everyone else is doing.

I'm looking forward to the next two days.

Q. Since most of us aren't that familiar with your game, John, could you kind of describe your strengths, your weaknesses, how you play the game?

JOHN SENDEN: Yeah, my ball-striking is probably the best part of my game. I've been playing the last four years in Europe, and that's possibly why my ball-striking has always been there, but never really had many good scores on the board.

But the last 12 months or 18 months I've really improved my putting, and that's given me a better consistency and better scoring.

Q. Could you tell us exactly what you did to improve your putting, was it instruction or technique or different putters?

JOHN SENDEN: Mainly a little bit better mental work, just basically getting better feel, getting better thoughts going on, believing in my putting a little better, getting myself to get out there and just trust what I see, rather than being -- be positive with my putting, rather than protecting all the time.

So I think that once I -- I've always -- you get to 3- and 4-under and protect the score, now I'm letting myself go and just let the putter and let the mental work carry it right through. And I've been out to work it to get the best results.

That's possibly been the best part of my putting routine has just been the mental approach into the putt, just looking, feeling, and just running it off.

Q. Can you tell us about the last four years in Europe and what that was like and what it did for you?

JOHN SENDEN: Yeah, well, in my career, I started in -- I went to the qualifying tournament in 1997, the European Tour, and qualified -- missed out like 1 or 2 shots from getting on the main tour. But I challenged Tour ranking, and that got me through to -- that got me about probably 10 starts on the Challenge Tour. And I got one start on the main Tour.

So from the Challenge Tour I won two tournaments, won the tournament called the Interlaken Open in Switzerland and another one calls the Alliance Open in France. And that basically got me on to the main Tour.

So I played the last -- I qualified 9th on the Challenge Tour, so I got on the Tour and played the last three years on the main Tour. So in 1999 was my first year I finished I think it was 71st. And then the year 2000, I finished 69th on the Order of Merit, and then the year 2001, I finished 81st. So I've been sort of consistent in those areas, but it hasn't been fantastic. That's been sort of the run of the European Tour.

Q. How much of a goal was it to get to America and to play here?

JOHN SENDEN: One of the big issues was obviously setting my goals to get to America, but having to go through all three stages to get to the Tour. So basically, at that time on the Tour school it was the time of September 11, and there were a lot of guys -- especially from Australia -- pulled out because of that reason. And I sort of said to myself, "You cannot hold yourself back from that sort of incident. You do what you do, you travel for your living and you've got to fly to get to these places."

So I was with my wife, Jackie, and we said we might as well go together. If something is going to happen, it might as well be together. So we went to the qualifying school and I got through the three stages and it was a hell of a grind, but the goal was there. So now that I'm here I'm going to have to work twice as hard to stay here.

Q. You're not exactly a household name on the PGA TOUR yet. Have you had any instance this week of guys, marshals or anything double checking your credential?

JOHN SENDEN: No, not really. Basically I've been new on the Tour -- there's not too many guys that know me. I've tried to make an effort to meet most of the guys here, and the guys you run into on the range or especially the officials, starting to get to know those guys.

And we had that day and a half of the new members program after the Tour school. And the staff at the PGA TOUR were very, very informative. They were sort of giving us what to expect and what not to do and what to do out there. And it was a good learning experience those couple of days.

And it's a matter of just coming out here and learning who's who and trying to meet everybody out here. The more people you meet the more you get to know the Tour, so the more relaxed you feel.

Q. I know a lot of guys the first year on tour there's a certain amount of time it takes to acclimate themselves to the tour. Do you think you're going to have to go through that?

JOHN SENDEN: Well, it's one of those things where you've just got to be table to learn who's who and that is be able to just be able to get recognized as the guy that you or the player who you are. So you respect the other people around you and be able to basically be nice and be respectful and thank all the people that are involved. And I'm sure that you'll get through the Tour.

Q. A lot of guys have to learn new golf courses. You have to learn an entirely new country. Have you had to -- any trouble acclimating or is it a little easier because you are Australian and the language is not a problem or anything like that?

JOHN SENDEN: No, no, I find the people are very, very good here. They are very helpful. American people go out of their way to help everyone, I feel. That's how I've felt the last few weeks that I've been here. Plus I've spent a bit of time here back in like '94, '95, playing a few of the Lone Star Tour in Texas, a few of the Long Beach Opens, Queen Mary. There was one that was the Oklahoma State Open -- those are the pay entry and you play.

So I spent a little bit of time here, it's not a totally strange area. It's been a few trips on a couple of holidays maybe and then basically playing golf with friends and then playing a little bit on the local tours. So you get to know sort of the people and you get to know how they feel. I feel like I'm not having too much trouble out here.

Q. What's your schedule going to break down like? How much are you going to play here, how much are you going to play in Europe, have you decided that?

JOHN SENDEN: I think I'm going to possibly play probably two tournaments, maybe three, that would be the European Open, the Loch Lomond, the Scottish Open in Loch Lomond and possibly the qualifying for the British Open. So with all going well here in the U.S., i think that we'll be making a trip over there in July and then playing those three events and then -- because they're the premiere events on the European Tour, I guess, leading up to the Open. And then also coming back here for the second half of the year. I'm looking forward to seeing old friends back in Europe again, plus making new friends in America.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Appreciate your help and good luck the rest of the week.

End of FastScripts....