FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 12, 1998

Gil Morgan

GIL MORGAN: Thanks. Thanks very much. I appreciate it.

GIL MORGAN: Rundown. I am still running. Really, when I started, my goal was, I guess, to get -- like 20-under was where I wanted to try to make it to. And I achieved that by the 9th hole, so it kind of skewed my thinking a little bit to some degree. Then I turned around to birdie 10 to get 6-under, but then played pretty much even par all the way in, I guess. So I guess the first thing that really happened I birdied the first hole. Hit it in there really tight about a foot and made that one. Then I think at --

GIL MORGAN: It was a pitching wedge. It was intermediate wedge, about 100-yard wedge. I hit and skipped it back in there a little bit and ended up about maybe a foot short of the hole. I made a par at 2. 3, I hit a really good shot in there with a 4-iron. I hit driver, 4-iron. The pin was in the back kind of right area and I tried to turn it in there with a 4-iron and did very good job. I don't know how -- very fortunate, it got in there about ten or twelve feet, I guess. I made a very weak putt, but made 4. I think Hale made his, too. Then the 4th hole was where -- it kind of turned around. I hit it in the bunker. Hale hit it in there really close. He probably told you about it. It looked like it was going to be a 2-shot swing. I blasted it out about 20 feet past the hole, then I made the putt. Then Hale 3-putted. So, really, I went in there after we got on the green thinking that I was going to be in trouble here, was going to be a two-shot margin variation and ended up, I came out a shot ahead. So that was a real plus for me at that point in time. I birdied 6. I hit 3-wood off the tee. Then I hit a 7-iron in there about 6 -- no, 6 I hit 3-iron off the tee. Then I hit a pitching wedge in there about eight feet, I guess. Made that. Hale hit it stiff pretty much. And then at the par 5 I hit driver, 3-wood on the front part of the green and hit kind of a funny putt; went over kind of a little hill and back down in there and I ran it by about seven feet, I guess, made that coming back. Then at 8, I hit a 7-iron just off the right edge of the green and made that putt from about 15 feet, I guess, for birdie. 9, missed the green hit. I hit it in the right rough. The wind was really blowing across, and I tried to hit a little bit of a cut with a driver, I didn't want to get away. I aimed it left. It came out a little bit right, ended up in the right rough, not a good lie. Had 128 yards and tried to hit pitching wedge, flew on me a little bit and went through the green, then up on the bank. Then I chipped it down there about three feet, made that. Which was a save. Then at 10, I hit a great drive at 10. I tried to turn a driver down through the -- started in the right and turned. It went way in there -- I don't know what they hit off the tee. I can't remember. My ball went down there. Only had 100 yards, a little over 100 yards to the pin. I hit pitching wedge in there and then made that putt.

GIL MORGAN: 483 feet. (laughter). It was probably about ten feet, twelve feet, maybe. Played 11 kind of conservative. Miss-hit my driver a little bit; still went down there. The ball landed about hole-high. It went through the green. I chipped down there about three feet, made that. Then -- then at 12 I made par there. I hit it up on the plateau, 2-putted from about 20 feet. 13, I hit a driver out to the right. I thought it might go in that bunker. Hale's was going in the bunker. He hit a pretty good shot with an iron out of that bunker. He had a really long putt, but hit a great shot. Barely on the front right. I didn't know what to do with mine. I was in the short rough. I tried to sling a 5-iron in there, had 186 to the front. I don't know what I had to the pin. Probably another 30 or something, but, I turned it over a little too much and went in the bunker. Then I made a bad blast and it pitched out there and ran it by about four feet; made that coming back. Hale 3-putted. So he kind of hit me out of another trap. Then 14, I just played -- hit a little 3-wood, 6-iron back there about 25 feet past the hole and 2-putted. Par 3, hit 5-iron just through the green on the fringe and putted it down. I was only about probably 15 feet or so. 16 feet and 2-putted that. Then at 16, I hit a 4-wood off the tee, put it in the fairway. Tried to hit kind of -- I had 124 to the front, I think, then 134 to the hole. So, I tried to hit it a little knockdown-9-iron. Didn't hit as quite as well as I wanted to. Kind of landed on the hump, bounced up there. Hale hit it pretty close. I left it short. Hale made his. He made a birdie. At the par 5, I tried to hit 4-wood off the tee. I didn't know what to hit. It was 282 to the water on the left side. I sure didn't want to go there and I didn't want to put it in those bunkers. We talked about whether to hit a 3-wood or 4-wood off the tee and decided to hit 4-wood. Didn't hit it really well, kind of looped it a little bit left. It ended up in kind of a collection area where they were getting some water, so the grass was a lot longer and greener there. The ball was really sitting down. Tried to chop an 8-iron out. Had 178 yards to the pin; hit 7-iron, rolled in about 20 feet, 25 feet behind the hole; 2-putted that. Knocked it about -- Hale put it in the bunker, obviously came out and made a birdie there. So then I had a 2-shot margin with one hole to play and then Hale let me out, kind of eased the tension a little bit by hitting it in the hazard for me. I am sure he was upset with that. Then I hit 3-wood, 4-iron just off the edge and chipped up about two feet, made that.

GIL MORGAN: Yeah, there was a lot of tension. The whole hole was pretty tense because I knew that he had hit a good drive where he can get to the green. I thought it looked like he hit it down there where he could have gotten there yesterday. And so I knew he was going to try to do that. I mean, I felt like that is what I would have tried to do is hit it in there where I would have gotten home in 2. Because that is -- that was the best opportunity he had was to try to make 3 - 3 there, and then hope for some sort of disaster at the last hole. But, I kind of gave him an out because I didn't hit a very good drive and, you know, I had 170 yards coming in there -- a long ways. So I don't know the lie was so deep that I just couldn't -- I didn't feel very confident hitting anything but something way out to the right and let it -- hopefully it would run down the fairway a little ways. I could have a shorter shot in there as I possibly could. And I knew 8-iron wasn't going to put me way down there, but it was about the only club that I felt like I could effectively get out of that deep of rough. And I just had to take whatever came with that one. So talked about 6-iron or 7-iron and I decided I was kind of keyed up a little bit. I decided to go with the 7 and played out to the right - trying to hit the hill, let it come down. I carried it a little bit further than I thought it was going to carry up on the plateau. And it didn't go forward much; then it went down the hill and rolled down there, about hole-high left -- to the right, about 25 feet away. Bad part, Hale placed out of the bunker, almost made it, looked like it had a chance to go in. Then I hit my putt and I ended -- stupid, kind of -- I putted it about this far past where his coin was. Then I had to putt first (indicating three inches), then it wasn't the best thing. I thought: Well, if I miss this, I am really going to be in trouble. But I -- fortunately I made it. Then he made his. The last hole, after he hit his drive in the hazard, you know, pretty much history at that point in time.

GIL MORGAN: I certainly was. (laughter). Too perceptive for me. I will tell you that. (laughter). I was still trying to make some putts and I was still trying to make, you know, I didn't want to just play so conservative, it's hard. But at the same time, any time I had a chance to miss it, I tried to miss it in the spot where I could still play, whether that was long or right or left, or whatever. I just -- I didn't want to miss it where I, you know, had a terrible opportunity. I wanted to be able to -- like to give myself an opportunity to putt at a birdie, but I wasn't trying to knock down the pins or anything.

GIL MORGAN: Tired. It's been kind of a long week. It is a lot of tension out there, a lot. There is a lot of disaster areas that you can get into if you can't control your golf ball a lot of times. So, you know, last couple of days, you know, were probably more tense than you know, being a major championship. And playing, Hale and I were kind of head-to-head all day yesterday and today he just didn't putt as well as he would like, and he hit some pretty good shots most of the time. But he just -- none of those putts went in for him today like he normally makes. So I was very fortunate.

GIL MORGAN: I putted pretty good. I had two days where I didn't -- first day and yesterday I didn't putt as well as I like. The second day, I hit the ball close enough I didn't have to putt very many times -- I mean, I didn't have -- I had so many short putts, but I made the birdies that way. Today, I made a few, you know, made a lot of good putts today. None of putts were very far away most of the time. I missed -- miscued a couple of times, but I made all of them coming back pretty much.

GIL MORGAN: Well, thank you.

GIL MORGAN: Oh, I don't know.

GIL MORGAN: This is probably the best I have played in. I don't know, I played pretty good at the Tradition the first year.

GIL MORGAN: I probably made less mistakes that week than I did this week. I putted very well then. Last year at the Tradition, I didn't play quite as well as I did the year before. Conditions were a little tougher. They toughened the course up a little bit for one thing. This year I think the fact that the course was a little bit softer helped everybody to some degree. I was very fortunate. I did hit some good shots pretty much all week. I didn't hit many foul balls this week so that really helped.

GIL MORGAN: I hope he is. (laughs) Gosh, I don't know. I think overall my game is better than it was. I feel like I am as long as I ever was, maybe longer at this point in time. I don't think that in my prime on the regular Tour I was a better ball-striker than I am today, but I never putted and played around the greens on the regular Tour as well as I have done on the SENIOR TOUR, so that is the differences to me. If that makes me a better player, yes; if not, I don't know.

GIL MORGAN: Well, it is different. The first one at the Tradition was very exciting for me. The second win, I kind of came from behind, Tom was in the lead all the time. I was glad to be able to play head-to-head coming down the stretch and be able to play well enough to kind of steal that one away. And this week I have just -- I played pretty well all week. Wasn't really far away at any point in time this week. Maybe the first round, I was a little bit behind, but after Friday's round, I was right there in the thick of it all the time. Just depended on what happened with the rest of the players, Hale or Aoki or Nicklaus or Murphy. We just -- we have got a lot of good players. This course is just -- it is tough to stay on top of it all the time. There is too many disaster places out there unless you just got great control, and with the wind blowing around a little bit it was a tough test, I thought. I was very fortunate to play as well as I did. I am very pleased with this win. It is nice to have another major championship win under my belt now at this point in time for the SENIOR TOUR, and I am just looking forward to playing next week. I am defending at the Ameritech. Week after that I am playing at Riviera for the Senior Open; it is a course that I have won on and I feel very confident going back there. I feel like my chances are good there, if my game holds together. Just all boils down to how well you keep it in play and how well you putt.

GIL MORGAN: Hale is a very tough competitor. He is always tough. Any time you beat him, you know, in a tournament where he is at the top of the leaderboard, you feel like you have been very successful, very -- had to play very well because he is always such a tough competitor. He is always hanging around no matter whether he is winning or not, you know, I just -- just like at the PGA he just ran off sometimes, so he is a very accomplished player and very tough competitor. Always trying to win. He never quits, very rarely. He is just a great player, so, it is nice to be able to say that I was able to survive this week and win and kind of in kind of tough conditions, golf course was in great shape, and Hale played at a pretty high level. He was, what, 19 -- 18-under now? He finished 18-under? Bogeyed the last hole. You weren't out there.

GIL MORGAN: I think a lot of people left early. They didn't know it was going to get that tight.

GIL MORGAN: Sure. I mean, basically, I am pretty farsighted for one thing and I have got a lot of difference in the powers of my two eyes which is called anisometropia which is a term that means variance -- some of it -- it is like this eye is about plus 257, this eye is plus 550. So there is two, what, 250, 275 difference there or something. I can't remember. But what it does is it causes unequal image sizes at the retina level and then when those images are taken back to the cortex for processing the difference in the sizes, they won't -- usually that is how you have stereopsis is trying to put those two slightly varied images together that gives you a sense of depth and with that situation the image sizes were so different that the brain couldn't do that, so what it actually did for me, as I got worse and worse and worse, as I grew up, it actually shut off one image, so that is called a suppression. And so I suppressed centrally in my left eye. At the time my right eye being my dominant eye, so when you do that, then you lose some of that depth perception, so had a real hard time. I always played a lot of shots, I was either short or long. A lot of times I was on line, but come down 10 yards short, 15 yards long, and not really knowing why. Then as I played more and started using yardage books and stuff that enhanced that ability to -- even though I couldn't see or feel that distance, then I could visually say, hey, it is 150 or even though it didn't look that maybe -- so then I learned to play by feel from yardages and then as you introduce other conditions, wind, uphill downhill, cold, grass, fliers, you have to plug all that stuff in the computer. Once I started doing that, even though I wasn't as adapt to be able to perceive that myself, I could still find it on the books and that really helped me a lot. Where I really got into trouble was around the greens; shoulder shots were -- you didn't use yardages as much or where there were more feel-type shots where there were full standard shots, I was all right. Especially where I couldn't see to the level of the greens, so even though I could see the pin, I couldn't -- with nothing in the background a lot of times I didn't have any sense of depth and I had a hard time pitching, chipping in and doing that. Then it affected me with breaks, reading putts, everything looked fairly flat to me. So missed a lot of putts low, missed a lot of putts and I was tentative on top of that. Being not very aggressive and not reading enough break I missed almost all my putts on the low side, so, once I started reading more break and trying to understand more break really helped me with my putting. I just started doing that about, oh, two years ago. A little over that, maybe. Worked on my technique, on my path, angle, where I am better at mechanically repeating my stroke and now I am able to when I start reading -- I get a feel for reading better putts and I have good putting rounds and other days I don't. That is kind of it in a nutshell. Is that too long, Mike?

GIL MORGAN: Did you write all that down? Good.

GIL MORGAN: Thanks very much for your time.