U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 22, 1998

Gil Morgan

GIL MORGAN: Certainly did.

GIL MORGAN: I think the golf course is in exceptionally good shape. The fairways are fabulous really. They have got tremendous amount of grass on there. Ball sits up very well, and the rough is extremely deep, and that treacherous kikuyu is obviously very difficult to play out of. The green conditions yesterday, I played a few little -- few holes and the greens seem a little stressed late in the afternoon. But today, this morning, they looked a lot better. I don't know what they did. Maybe they watered them. Maybe that is what happened.

GIL MORGAN: (laughs). Oh, yeah, they were terribly fast and hard (laughs). But, overall, I think the golf course is in marvelous shape and ought to be ready to host a very difficult Senior Open.

GIL MORGAN: Well, I think this golf course lends itself -- you have to be able to curve the ball a little bit off some of the tees. You have to be able to position the ball on some of those holes. You have to be able -- maybe get a little more added length or better positioning by being able to curve it to some degree, and then obviously it takes some nice iron-play to get the ball in the right position to have a good putt at the green.

GIL MORGAN: What was that guy's name?

GIL MORGAN: I don't know about that. I think both of us have played this golf course very well in the past when we were on the regular Tour; didn't he win here once? I think he did. I knew he was a lot older than I was. But I think we have both had numerous L.A. Opens that we played in where we were in contention Top 10s and stuff here. So I think both of us are very adept at understanding this golf course to some degree. I think there is a lot of players that -- Larry Nelson's just come off of a great tournament last week at Ameritech. Raymond Floyd, Nicklaus, all have had some success here. So I think there is as far as the SENIOR TOUR players that I know of, we have got quite a few players that have played well here in the past, but it is going to be -- I think it is going to be a very difficult test because -- not only because of its length, but it is going to require keeping the ball in play and everything. And so people that can do that during the week obviously are going to fair a lot better than those that put the ball out of play a lot.

GIL MORGAN: I don't know, 259 (laughs) maybe not that low. I don't know, probably -- par is 284? I would say if you get around 280 you probably got a pretty good shot. I don't know. That is a guess. Don't hold me to that.

GIL MORGAN: That is good. You can quote me.

GIL MORGAN: I think our games are very similar so if it suits one of us, it is going to suit the other one to some degree. I think Hale keeps the ball in play very well, very accomplished player; probably putts a little better than I do. I think both of us feel like this golf course suits our games pretty well, tell you the truth.

GIL MORGAN: I think my ability to score is a lot better today than it even was on the regular Tour. I don't think -- I really don't think I hit the ball as well as I did in the height of my career. But at the same time I think I am scoring better today than I have did. My short game is a little better and my putting has tremendously improved. So that makes you shoot lower scores and I think that is the big factor right there.

GIL MORGAN: I think so.

GIL MORGAN: Well, I have won -- on the regular Tour I won 2 L.A. Opens one here and one at Rancho Park, I guess, and then I have won at Wilshire last two years on the SENIOR TOUR. So, if I could have won at Toshiba, I would have had the whole L.A. basin, I guess. But, it has been -- L.A. Area here has been very good to me in the past, so hopefully maybe that will continue.

GIL MORGAN: Yeah, well retrospect is easier, I think, than hindsight is 20/20. I always thought that I would be fairly successful on the SENIOR TOUR not -- just partly because coming from the regular Tour, I kept my game in pretty good shape and was still somewhat competitive out there. I anticipated making the flop to the SENIOR TOUR and being successful winning tournaments and being able to win quite a bit of prize money. But I think I exceeded somewhat my expectations as more of what I would call the situation where I have -- I have won more tournaments and won more money that I anticipated at this point in time. Does that answer your question?

GIL MORGAN: Amazing, isn't it, that you can do this good. I don't know. Surprised me to some degree. I don't know. I think I attribute most of my success on this Tour to my ability to drive the ball a long ways for one thing, longer in the Top 10 probably have our players, I am pretty good tee-to-green and in that respect and my putting and chipping and putting, I mean, in blasting have also been at a pretty high level. You go down and look at my statistics throughout -- I have been leading all around quite a bit off and on this last year. So, that tells you that most of your statistical categories are pretty high. So I don't know, you know, exactly why other than that that I have been successful. I enjoy competing. I love playing. It is a challenge when we go out there and play a round and try to hit those shots that are hard to hit sometimes and then going back to say -- going back to the regular Tour I think I only had 7 wins on the regular Tour but I had something like 21 2nds and 23 3rds or something. So I had a lot of tournaments where if I had putted -- made two or three more putts a round, you know, my win statistics would probably been up a little bit. I think that since I have gotten to the SENIOR TOUR that I have just -- I have putted at a higher level. I have made a lot of putts; kept the ball in play and I have scored pretty well and that is kind of the name of the game.

GIL MORGAN: It is optometry and I never did. I came out of school in 1972. I played some amateur golf after that. Took my State Board in Oklahoma, passed it, played mini-- went to the Tour school, failed. Played mini-tours for about ten months went back to the Tour school and passed the Tour school. About the second year, '75 or so, took the Florida Board of Optometry and passed it and was licensed in both those states. But to date I have not practiced one day.

GIL MORGAN: Well -- just probably wasn't very good at it.

GIL MORGAN: It is playing exactly where we played it -- I mean at least in the practice round we played the same tees that we play in the L.A. Open or we played in the PGA Championship here. Hardly any difference in the length of the golf course. In this time of year, it plays with the fairways being much more grass plusher, whatever you want to call that. It's playing longer from that respect and then the wind is going to be coming off the ocean. It's going to be in the afternoon, especially. It is playing as long as I remember it playing really overall. And for the Senior players, that is going to make it very difficult because they are going to have a lot of the long iron shots or wood shots to the par 4s. And then the par 5s are going to be long also, but they are not as critical probably. And then the depth of the rough you start putting in that rough you are going to have a lot of work. So it is going to be a tough test. There is no doubt about it.

GIL MORGAN: I think it was similar to the PGA, the way I remember it. Around some of the bunkers I think it was a little more gnarly-looking when we played the PGA here, but and I think they topped it yesterday a little bit in the afternoon inside the ropes. So they have lowered the rough a little bit. I don't know whether that makes it harder or not. They kind of cut it off. Now the ball is sinking in there, that might make it more difficult than it was if they left it long. Some of this grass is so resilient that sometimes the ball will sit up in the rough and you can at least you can hit it. But now when they since they have topped it a little bit, it is allowed the ball sometimes to sink all the way to the bottom. That is very difficult. I have had a couple of those yesterday that I didn't hit from here to that wall. So you can see how tough it is.

GIL MORGAN: Talking about here?

GIL MORGAN: I don't know -- I think for the players that can keep it in play and hit good shots, if you can do that for the week you have got a chance to shoot under par. But for the most part I think it is going to be very difficult to get too far under par, really. I don't know what the win was last year. Anybody know, in Chicago? Well, it may be around that, too. I think this golf course overall is maybe more difficult than we have played last year. The rough situation maybe is more difficult.