SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP AT GAILLARDIA

October 25, 2002

Gil Morgan

Q. 5 under 67 and no bogeys on the card's pretty good, and right now you're right in the thick of it heading into tomorrow's third round. Some thoughts on your day?

GIL MORGAN: Well, it was pretty cold for starters. I don't know. I came back this morning and felt like -- I wasn't sure how I was going to play, but I was playing really well, which surprised me. I hit a lot of good shots in the morning finish, didn't get much out of it, and then ended up bogeying the last hole to shoot 1 under for yesterday's round and then came back today.

The weather obviously was a little better this afternoon. It didn't -- wasn't quite as cold and the wind didn't blow very much until kind of later toward the end. I got off to a fast start. I birdied the first two holes and I had some more opportunities. I felt like I didn't play quite as well this afternoon as I did earlier this morning. I putted a little bit better, and I still had some opportunities I missed from that standpoint, but at least I didn't bogey the last hole today. I felt better about closing from that standpoint. That's about it.

Once I saw Hale was at 7. Where did he finish?

Q. He's still at 7.

GIL MORGAN: What did he shoot this morning?

Q. He shot 70.

GIL MORGAN: Okay. I just didn't see his score and then all of a sudden he's up on the board, which he does a lot. I just kept trying to not make too many mistakes, kept trying to get the ball where I had an opportunity to putt. I had a couple of goofy looking shots from I think having too many clothes on and not wanting to hit it in a bad spot at the same time, but that's about it in a nutshell.

Q. You just want to take us through your birdies and any good saves you might have had.

GIL MORGAN: Okay. I birdied the first two holes. The first hole I hit a driver and then I hit a pitching wedge in there about 8 feet or so, 10 feet, and made that; and then in the second hole I hit a driver, and I think I hit my sand wedge about 80 yards, 75 yards, and hit it about 8 feet behind the hole and made that one.

Kind of parred on around until I got to the 9th hole and hit the 7-iron from 162, somewhere 160, and hit it about two feet from the hole and made that. I had to line it up pretty hard though. It was pretty tough.

Then I -- let's see, on the back 9, I hit it pretty close to 10 and missed it, probably 8 feet and missed it there. On the 14, the par 5, I hit a driver, 5-wood and a little sand wedge about 8 feet and made that. At 15, I missed the green left and made a save. I was down in that hole over the green with a 4 and pitched it up there about 7 feet and made that putt to save par. At 16, I drop-kicked my drive kind of. I hit behind it about a foot. I don't know what happened. I hit tree within the green. I hit it just left of the green and chipped it up and made that. At 17, I hit driver, gap wedge about 8 feet and made that. Then I lipped one out here on the last hole. I had about 10 feet from the hole and it kind of spun out on me. That was about the size of it.

Q. Overall, nobody likes to play in this weather.

GIL MORGAN: No.

Q. But being from Oklahoma, do you have any advantage?

GIL MORGAN: I usually go out a lot in this weather just so I can practice, get all that practice in. I don't know, you know, obviously we have wind and I think that helps a little bit. When I'm at home obviously I don't play very much, and on days like today or yesterday I probably wouldn't go out of the house. I don't know whether -- you know, obviously when you're in high school and college, you had to play in a lot of conditions that were similar to this, so the problem was that it was so far back I probably can't remember it -- what I did in those situations half the time. We're forced into playing several times a year. We have to play in inclement weather. I think this year they played -- at San Jose, they played in bad weather and at the Tradition a couple years where it was cold and windy. Now, I won two years in a row there. Maybe those conditions favor my game or something. I don't know what the deal is. Crazy, I guess. For some reason I tend to do well sometimes in tough conditions.

Q. Last year you were disappointed in yourself here. Is today the first day you got something out of this course?

GIL MORGAN: I think it was a little better. I still had several opportunities, like I was talking about earlier, I didn't putt very well. I made a couple changes in my putting starting this week which might not be the best idea, but at the same time I was able to make a few putts. So maybe as I go forward here my putting will improve a little bit here. Hopefully it will continue if my -- what I would like to hope for is that I could still keep it or have an opportunity to make some putts. I kept telling my caddy I guess I'll have to hit it closer to the hole, and at 9, finally hit it 2 feet. I guess that was about it.

Q. (Inaudible)?

GIL MORGAN: I don't think it's going to hurt too much. I think having the opportunity to ride the carts a little bit is good. If you had to trudge along in the wet and cold, it probably would have taken its toll on some of us. Having the opportunity to ride is beneficial to a lot of guys. They didn't have to play yesterday, but they had to play a lot more today, so the Super Senior guys, they may have had the best deal. They only had to play about four holes in the rain yesterday. Obviously they're not in the Championship, so I don't know which is the best, to tell you the truth. If you're in good condition, probably like Hale, I don't think the 36 is going to bother you.

Q. Did you put a heat pack on any body part?

GIL MORGAN: I should have. My back was aching when I came in today. I needed one. I didn't have one, but I had so many clothes on, I guess I felt I couldn't turn very efficiently. I kind of lost sight of where my club was a few times today with being bundled up and everything.

Q. (Inaudible)?

GIL MORGAN: I've got four on right here on my chest right now. I have got like a long one with the sleeves cut out and a turtle neck and cashmere sweater and then this Gortex windbreaker kind of thing. That seemed to work pretty good, but I still felt a little tight.

Q. How tough were the greens?

GIL MORGAN: Well, I didn't have a whole lot of real long putts in these two days. I probably only had four or five 30-footers or more. I had it close to the hole, so it wasn't a situation where I had a lot of speed situations, but I think there can be. It seems like they are a little faster than they look like they are. Especially the putting green out here. It was a lot quicker to me than the greens on the course, maybe because of the terrain flow on the hillside. They were soft, so if you could get the ball the right distance, then usually the ball didn't run away too much. I think from that standpoint, it was a bit easier if you had a short enough shot in there to control the distance as well.

Q. When you were going through your rounds, did you miss in the inside 10 feet or is hole number 10 the only time you missed?

GIL MORGAN: No, I missed the last hole. Let me see, one, two, three, four, five. I missed one at 6 that was pretty close, about the inside ten feet. I missed about five or six this morning at least, so there was a bunch of them this morning. I can't remember all of them.

Q. But you didn't seem to think it was that bad?

GIL MORGAN: No, I didn't miss too many greens. I only missed two or three greens. That may have helped a little bit.

Q. Can you talk about what you're changing in your putting?

GIL MORGAN: Well, I just -- I'm trying to move my left arm a little bit closer to my body because of the cold. I wanted to have a little bit more connected feeling. Somehow it's altered my path a little bit. I misdirected a few for a some reason.

Q. Isn't that pretty rare that you guys tinker with your putting?

GIL MORGAN: Some guys do and some don't.

Q. Are you that way?

GIL MORGAN: Some guys change putters. It just depends I guess if they're not putting well, they're always searching for something because it's so significant to putt well out here.

Q. You're not that way?

GIL MORGAN: I don't change putters very often. I have had pretty much the same type of putter. There might be a little minor thing they've done to them at the factory, either changed the lie a little bit, et cetera, but I don't switch from putter to putter. I have putted with this one for three years.

Q. How were the 2 and 3?

GIL MORGAN: They weren't too bad. Mine rolled in on 2 today. Yesterday I had two short putts the first four holes I played, about 7 feet and 8 feet. I missed both of them yesterday morning on both of those greens. I don't know exactly -- what you like to be is not very far from the hole. After you putt your first putt, you really don't want to be very far from the hole to try to keep from having anything bump offline or --

Q. Hale is obviously in good shape. Has his putting sort of been the thing that allowed him to extend the window and play well?

GIL MORGAN: I think overall his -- all of his shot-making and everything is really good. He doesn't have many leaks at all. If anything, it seems to me like he didn't get as much out of his putting as he wanted to. He had a lot of opportunities that he missed. He might miss four or five inside 10 feet himself. Three or four years ago he didn't hardly miss any of those. He's probably left a little bit on the table this year with his putter compared to the previous years, but he must be playing at a higher level. He putted very well in the past years. He chips and does it all well. He doesn't have many leaks, so you better be playing your best if he's at the top.

Q. (Inaudible)?

GIL MORGAN: He asked me about his stocking cap and I gave him some gloves. He came here a little bit unprepared I think.

Q. (Inaudible)?

GIL MORGAN: Nobody did. (Inaudible) asked me if I had another pair of gloves when we first started. I told him I loaned mine out.

Q. Thank you.

GIL MORGAN: Thank you. I appreciate it.

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