U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 13, 2001

Kemp Richardson

KEMP RICHARDSON: Well, I mean, you know he meant everything to me. He introduced me to the game, and taught me the game. Hey, I don't know. I can't put it in words, really. It can't get any better. The only thing I could say to get better: Too bad it wasn't a Mid-Amateur or an Amateur or something like that, okay, instead of an old farts tournament.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I got what he had. My dad died a year later, and he could hit it. I mean, he was 66 years old, I guess. If he won in '87, he won it when he was 67 years old. He was 66. He would have been 67 in a couple months, okay. So he would have hit it as far as I would have. I've got his strength or whatever -- I'm not strong, but I can still move the ball.

KEMP RICHARDSON: It seems like you kind of -- I look at them, I know I'm their age, but I just feel, like, am I that old, you know what I mean? Bill was a very good player. I just could hit it by too far. They have got this course up only 6,500 yards. If they had it 6,800, it would be even more to my advantage.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I shot about even par. That was probably the worst round I played all week, except for the second round, that nine holes where I whacked it around and shot 41, but I shot 76. Otherwise, I don't think I was over par, that I can remember. And that's not taking from the front of the green. The guys had ten and they would give me -- it was a real walk around the park, so I did play well.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Yeah, playing pretty well -- I won the British Senior and I finished, I told you second in the Southern Cal Mid-Am at Lakeside. I shot 210 there.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Well, I do during a round a little bit sometimes. (Laughs). I worked on my game a little bit this year from a friend in Australia that helped me. Yeah, I think it's finally -- it's pretty good, I think. My game is pretty good right now.

KEMP RICHARDSON: He would have given me a hug. As I say, I don't think he was -- he wasn't a big talker like I am, so he just said, you know, "Great."

KEMP RICHARDSON: He just stopped making blood. He had acute anemia or something.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Oh, yeah. He won the California State Amateur. He's won the Southern Cal Amateur. He probably didn't play as much golf as I play. I mean, you know, at my age, you know, he never went over to like the British Amateur or anything like that. I don't even know if he tried to play, and I know the U.S. Mid-Amateur wasn't even around. So I think you just see people playing more golf now than they used to play, I think.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I've played in about two Ams and I've played in about eight Mid-Ams and I played in one Senior Am and I played in three Senior Opens. Those are probably as much fun as any, because you call those a production. They are not like any amateur tournaments you ever see. You wander around here and you see 200 or 300 people. You see two or three trillion at those. It's quite something. Des Moines, I wasn't even leading the last day on the 18th fairway and it's wall to wall people.

KEMP RICHARDSON: That's great. I played in the last two -- I missed the cut by one this year and I had great pairings this last year.

KEMP RICHARDSON: No. I didn't give any thought to the regular tour and I didn't give any thought the Senior Tour. Personally, I don't like to travel that much. I traveled more lately because of what I've done, but I think the only way I would do it is if I had my own personal jet. It's too much trouble traveling, I think.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I just fool around the garden. I like to keep things going. And I try to keep in shape. I do aerobics about three days a week. That's about it. If I don't play in a tournament, I play probably twice a week.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Yeah, that just drove me nuts. Some of the guys hear say, you know, because we can use the cart, we are going to use them.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I don't like them. I mean, I don't use them at home. I carry my bag at home, because we don't have caddies. As long as I can stay out of them, I'll stay out of them. That's my feeling.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I haven't played -- the last time I played and I kind of wilted was the Western Amateur, 1968 and got beat in the finals. You just play and play and play, and I kind of succumbed.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Rick Massengale (ph).

KEMP RICHARDSON: No, I don't. Hopefully it's not in front of me, but you've got to face the facts of life. They have got a dilemma, you know what I mean? The British Senior, they play 54 holes with no carts -- they would not have enough carts, anyway, so you just walk. That's one solution. But, I mean, I know the USGA likes to play match play, so it's more of an endurance thing. But, I mean, if you want to eliminate the carts, I know they have them -- the only thing, I don't care about the carts; that didn't bother me because I don't like to play that way. The only thing I can't understand is why only the player can drive a cart. If I had to say one thing, that doesn't make sense to me at all.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Yeah, I've got the normal little things you get as you get older, your elbow and those things, take a little Bioxin and that will cure it a little bit.

KEMP RICHARDSON: In college, I think I was fairly long, but I mean it's so hard to -- when you think about long, you think of these kids now. I mean, they bomb the thing.

KEMP RICHARDSON: The standards of the day, I guess in college I would be considered fairly long, but not -- I think I'm probably a little longer now compared to the seniors, via what I was in college, okay.

KEMP RICHARDSON: USC, University of Southern California.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Anybody that did anything? A couple good players, but I was after Geiberger and Stockton, before Stadler and Simpson. So I was right in there. None of them -- no, none of them did -- you know what I mean. I made the All-American team twice, but that's so long ago. (Laughs).

KEMP RICHARDSON: Roger was there. I know Roger very well. But Roger didn't -- he just didn't play much. I've known Roger since I've been ten years old.

KEMP RICHARDSON: No, I played a lot of golf, like Hale Irwin and all these guys, but I guess I tried my senior year of school, I played all the Western, the Eastern and all those things and said, nah. I went into business and that's been good. Been a broker for 32 years and, if anything, that affords you to play a little golf.

KEMP RICHARDSON: No, it doesn't bother me, okay. I mean, it's been good for me. You're going to have your ups and downs.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I hit a really good drive on 15. I thought I hit a better second shot than I did. It just hit; backed up two feet.

KEMP RICHARDSON: 5-wood. I hit a mediocre chip. I knew it was uphill so I goosed it a little bit and it got there. I thought I could make the putt. I thought I had it read right. I hit a good putt and it went in. On 16, I hit a pretty good drive. I didn't try to hit it hard because I knew I could hit it through the fairway.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Yeah, that was a driver. I hit a very mediocre second shot. Kind of an atrocious third. Hit a bad chip. The lie, I don't know if it was that bad or he kind of -- you know -- I thought I could make the putt. The only thing I wasn't sure was if I hit it hard enough. After I hit it I raised up, because I tell you, it's hard, going uphill here, you have to think about hitting. It wasn't like doing your normal stroke. Hit it. They didn't go uphill as easy as they went down, but it went right in.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Oh, I hit a 4-iron. I killed it. I hit a four-plus off the tee, and I -- since I carry four wedges, I try to either carry a 3- or 4-iron, depending on what I thought I was going to hit on 7. That 4-iron seemed to be the club. I just changed today. I was hitting a 3-iron and that came up. The guy told me it was 200 yards to the front.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Well, it all depends where I'm playing. I went to four wedges about -- just after the Senior Open, and so that kind of confuses me sometimes. Sometimes two 4-irons, sometimes just a 5-iron, or I throw the 5-wood out.

KEMP RICHARDSON: (Laughs) Surrendered to age -- well, I work at it. I mean, as I told you, I do aerobics three days a week. If I had a choice, I would play basketball, but every time I go to do a lay-up now, I have to think about jumping so I know that's not very good. That's not a good sign. (Laughs). I try to keep in shape. I carry my clubs at home. You my feet are not the best. I've got a couple frozen toes. Do you want to hear all that? Basically, I'm in pretty good shape. I don't have any complaints.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Probably five or six years ago. I used to care a 1-iron, but a 1-iron is -- I don't think there's probably many 1-irons even on the regular tour much. I have a 2-iron that I can hit it -- I really like, and if it's a windy course, I take the 2-iron and throw the 5-wood away. This place, 5-wood, because I have one like off the third tee with a 5-wood and I can go into the second hole with a 5-wood and I can go in -- sometimes the eighth hole with a 5-wood. I can go into the 15th hole with a 5-wood.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Well, I used to be 6'2. 6'2, 195.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I don't know. I mean it's hard to say. When they -- I've only been, at the first Senior Open, I was fourth. At the second one, I wasn't fourth because I hit it terrible. I guess I can hit my 4-Plus I know roughly 260. So I assume I can hit my driver, 275, 280, 290, somewhere in there, if I want.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I don't know, they just call it 4-Plus. It's a Callaway. But it's -- I hit it farther than I used to when I hit my 3-wood.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Cleveland -- Roger, told me to get the 4-Plus, so I got the 4-Plus. So I have a 4-Plus and I have a Callaway shaft and a Titleist driver, and I make my own irons, or I try to.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I have a son that's a good player. He's 27. He's a pro, though, right now, struggling to do that, but he's a very good player.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Scott.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Oh, he's just fledging in the Tours and teaches a little bit, okay. But he's a good player.

KEMP RICHARDSON: He's played the Canadian Tour. He's a strong player.

KEMP RICHARDSON: He played there and Minnesota.

KEMP RICHARDSON: (Laughs). He can blow it by me a long way.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I've got the 17th. I've got my dad's from Saucon Valley. I gave it to my son and we have it in the house.

KEMP RICHARDSON: My mom is still alive. So she still has it.

KEMP RICHARDSON: He was a great man, and in my opinion -- it's great that I can do the same thing that he did.

KEMP RICHARDSON: It's sort of an office/den.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I've known him for a long time because I go done there and play in a tournament down there. He put me on video and they have really gone pretty -- the reason they got so many good players down there is because they have all of these institutes and they are -- I mean, for a small nation of 20 million people, they have got a boatload of players, I'm telling you. I have never seen my swing too much on video. I was taught the old method, you know, get your hips through there. You guys remember Johnny Miller, I know John I, the big "C" move, and the modern method is not really that way. So I've tried to go a little more modern in my old age. I just think I'm probably more consistent. I would never have hit that 8-iron I hit on 17 the old way.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Not many. I don't see many match-play events. I played in the Cal Senior.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Yeah.

KEMP RICHARDSON: Poppy Hills. It's playing like 7,200 yards. I was kind of trying to work on my new method, and I drove it fine, but I hit a few little funny short irons.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I haven't played it in four or five years. It's going on right now. It's always going on, the Mid-Am or something like that. I haven't played in four or five years. Last time, I won it. I was going to play. They had senior champ, but they had the white tees, so I didn't want somebody to beat me from the white tees.

KEMP RICHARDSON: I'm supposed to try to qualify Monday.

KEMP RICHARDSON: No, he wouldn't let me in. I don't know. Depends if I even get back, and it's a 3 1/2 hour drive from where I live and I have to come back -- I don't know.