U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 31, 2004

Gil Morgan

Q. Walk through your birdies and bogeys for us, please.

GIL MORGAN: Okay. Birdies and bogeys. What do you guys want to know, anything?

Q. How long was it playing?

GIL MORGAN: It was playing a little longer today just because of the rain and everything. I think yesterday the longest club I hit was a 6-iron. Today a hit a couple of 5-irons, except for the 16th hole. It's always a long hole. I hit two 5-woods there. Overall I think it played maybe a club or two longer in places. Depends obviously on where you drove it, which side of the fairway or in the rough. If you drove it in the rough, you were really in trouble. The rough was pretty wet and pretty thick most of the time. If you happened to catch a good lie, it wasn't too bad, but there's some deep stuff out there in places.

Q. (Inaudible).

GIL MORGAN: They moved them up a yard or two, but nothing significant. It looked like to me most of the tees were pretty much in the same areas as they were yesterday.

Q. I think I'm more concerned about tomorrow, playing 36 holes?

GIL MORGAN: You and me both. I'm not sure I can survive that. It's going to be hot and humid. It's going to be a long day obviously. I think stamina-wise I can do that. I don't feel like that's a tremendous thing. I've got a couple of problems that are bugging me a little bit. My feet are bothering me a little bit. I'm not sure how I'm going to fare in the soft conditions all day, but everybody is going to be hot and sweaty and pretty tired at times.

Q. When is the last time you played 36 holes?

GIL MORGAN: I don't know. I did a whole bunch of goofy stuff at Valhalla this year. It was kind of different. Prior to that, I'm not sure. We did the Open once before when J.J. won, wasn't it?

Q. That was real cool weather, though.

GIL MORGAN: It's going to be about 75 here tomorrow, isn't it (laughter)? That's the low.

Q. Does the zoysia and the moisture make it harder to walk?

GIL MORGAN: Yeah, I think it makes it a little more difficult to walk at times. It's kind of spongy, springy kind of stuff. The situation just -- the ball sits up most of the time today. There was a few wet spots out there in the fairway, but most of them were not in the fairway. I think we had a couple of drops today, but nothing significant there, either.

Q. It's going to be tough for some of the caddies?

GIL MORGAN: I think some of the caddies, yeah, are going to have a hard time. We've got guys here that are caddying that haven't caddied before or in a long time, so some of those guys are going to be a little stressed. I think everybody will be stressed a little bit. I think it's going to be hard for Peter. He's playing well, but he's just coming back from his hip surgery. Mike Pritchard, another guy who will have difficulty, I think.

I'm sure there will be a lot of us that have some old injuries or some nagging problems right now that will accentuate that somewhat.

Q. Would you project that somebody could go really low tomorrow?

GIL MORGAN: I think any time you play 36 holes that's a possibility. If you happen to have a hot hand at that point in time, playing well and putting well, then you can make up a lot of ground in a relatively short period of time.

Q. Did you hit more drivers today than Thursday?

GIL MORGAN: I hit a couple more drivers today than I did Thursday, and I moved up sometimes -- instead of hitting 5-wood, I hit 3-wood a couple holes. I'd say maybe two or three times is all. Most of the time I hit the same club but had a little bit longer shot into the green is what happened.

Q. Can you talk about what a good season you've had this year and how much you'd like to see that pay off in a major championship?

GIL MORGAN: Well, that's always the case, I think. You know, most of the year I played at a pretty high level. I've had a lot of Top 10s, haven't been in contention 100 percent of those times, but I've had two or three times I was playing really well, and then to come here, obviously I haven't won the Senior Open and the haven't won the Senior PGA, so those are two tournaments I'd really like to win.

So, from that standpoint, I'm probably geared up a little bit to try to do that. It's just hardest, especially when you get to a situation where you have to play 36 holes one day, it may or may not take it away from that standpoint. I don't know, it's sad that -- the PGA was really goofy this year with all the weather situations, it didn't give you a great opportunity to concentrate and get your game plan going, and this will be the same way a little bit. Everybody is kind of in the same boat, so it's a situation where we just have to go out and gut it out and see who can hit the ball the best and who can roll her in there and not make too many mistakes. Same scenario, just a little more critical this week.

Q. Does your mental approach change at all knowing you're going to be a couple strokes back heading into 36 holes?

GIL MORGAN: Peter was at 8 early and then he went all the way to 5 just that quick. You know, I'm just trying to be patient here and play my game. I made too many mistakes today. I made one dumb play and then a couple bad shots, so other than that, I'm going to try to be patient, hit some good, decent shots, play a little conservatively most of the time and go forward.

Q. Since you've turned onto the Champions Tour, how many times would you say you've played 36 holes?

GIL MORGAN: Maybe a half dozen, something like that.

Q. (Inaudible).

GIL MORGAN: I can't answer that question. I know I played almost 36 at the PGA. I think I played 11 and then 18, I think, or something like that. I can't remember for sure. A couple of years ago at Aronimink, we did that. It happens, it's just not something you want to do every weekend.

Q. Do you feel like there's anything in your game, especially this year? When you look at the Money List, even though you say you haven't been in contention, you've been in contention a lot. Is there something you're doing better this year?

GIL MORGAN: I think I'm more focused than I have been in the past. I've had some opportunities. I hadn't played as many times early when I first turned -- joined the Champions' Tour, I didn't play as many tournaments as I liked. Now that they've cut the schedule back I feel like I'm playing a better percentage of those tournaments, so I think that's a significant factor for me.

You know, I've been close with Hale a couple times, close to the money title and stuff. If I'd have gone on and played, I'd had an opportunity to do that. I'm off to a good start, might as well give it a good shot this year and play quite a bit and see how it falls out, so I tried to prepare a little better coming into the start of the season and then just keep working on my game when I'm at home. A lot of times I don't do that as much as I'd like to, so I've kind of focused a little bit more on trying to keep my game in shape and being ready to play when I get here.

Q. Other than the 5 and a couple of 3s there weren't a lot of guys going low today. Do you think there was an advantage to playing this morning as compared to this afternoon?

GIL MORGAN: I don't know, it looked like all the low scores from the first day were in the afternoon, the lower scores. I don't know whether that's right or not.

I don't know whether that's an advantage or not. It was a little bit soft out there this morning. The greens spun back a little bit more than I anticipated at times. They'll probably dry out a little bit more this afternoon than they were. I don't expect a lot but a little bit. Unless the wind comes up, I don't think there's going to be much advantage either way.

All right, thank you.

End of FastScripts.