ENERGIZER SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 9, 1997

Gil Morgan

GIL MORGAN: Thank you very much. It was a long year. This is a court reporter here, Janine, so be careful what you say.

GIL MORGAN: Well, you know, looked like it was going to be a hard day. The wind was blowing quite a bit when we first started and looked like they moved some of the golf course back. The first hole was a little longer. Overall, the conditions were good. I mean, other than the fact that it was a lot of pressure going out there to me. The closing round here, I had a couple of shot lead, but at the same time, that wasn't very much with his -- as you know, as what is it? What is the word I am looking for? -- As deadly, I guess, as Hale can be, he putts the ball so well most of the time, he is just a threat at any point in time. So, I tried to just play as solid as I could early on. And, try to make a few birdies. I felt like if I could make 4, 5, 6 birdies, that would be really good. I didn't quite get there. But, I didn't make too many mistakes until the back 9 and then we got more into kind of a matchplay situation coming down the backside, so, when -- he made the bogey at what was it? 15, I guess, or --

GIL MORGAN: 14, I felt like if I could not make too many mistakes coming down the stretch, I had a pretty good chance of retaining my lead as it was. So, I may have played a little bit too conservative coming down the backside, trying to play real conservative at 15 and ended up making a bogey, 3-putted. I bogeyed the last hole, but I was just trying to survive the last hole a little bit. So that is about it.

GIL MORGAN: Okay, I birdied 8. I hit a driver and a 4-wood into the front bunker and I blasted it out about four feet, made that. 9: Hit 4-iron about, probably, 18 feet, and, made that one. Parred all the way around 'til 15, I guess, and I hit 4-iron off the tee. Then I hit 4-iron up the fairway. Then 9-iron and left it kind of in a bad spot. It was a little bit of a difficult putt because it had so much break in it, was up and over; not the right spot to put it in really. At that point in time, I needed to put it more out in the middle of the green,. And, then I 3-putted; knocked it by, oh, maybe seven feet, I guess. And missed that one coming back. And, then 2-putted 16 and 17. And, then 18, I hit a 4-wood off the tee - tried to hit 4-wood off the tee. Must have teed it a little bit too high, just got under it just a hair; had about 175 yards or so to the pin. I hit 5-iron. Just my goal there was just to get it over the water; make sure I didn't get it where I couldn't play it again. And, I aimed it a little too far right. I thought I might hook with the wind situation and everything, I hit it pretty straight. It ended up out there to the right. Got relief from the grandstands there a little bit, and my concerned then was make sure not leaving it short and then at the same time getting the ball underneath the hole, so that I could putt the ball back uphill. Even if Hale made a birdie, then I could probably still 2-putt and survive.

GIL MORGAN: Yes, I hit 4-iron there. I think we did we both birdie that hole?

GIL MORGAN: I hit it in there about four feet with a 4-iron at the 5th hole, yes. I forgot that one. Good thing I made that.

GIL MORGAN: Yeah, I didn't think either one of us putted very well all day, really. We had some opportunities to make some putts and just couldn't make it. You know, usually he is pretty deadly on the greens. And, so I felt fortunate that maybe he had a little bit of an off-day today, putting the ball.

GIL MORGAN: What do you think? (laughs) That was a question, wasn't it?

GIL MORGAN: I don't know. I think I -- overall I think I putt better - especially this year. I don't know. You know, you never -- it is hard to test yourself since you don't play out there.

GIL MORGAN: I think so. Statistically I am. I don't know what that means, but I guess it would be. I am as long as I ever was out there, so, I know that, off the tee. So, I am not any shorter anyway at this point in time. And, I am putting the ball better, so, I would think that I would play better out there than I did -- than I had been playing last four, five years anyway.

GIL MORGAN: He about wore me out all day. He is a tough competitor, as you know. He has had a spectacular year. I can't speak enough about how well he has played all year with all those wins and everything. And, I think being able to play with him for all four rounds was maybe a plus because it kept us both going a little bit. He made a lot of putts, made a lot of birdies here and there. I am just trying to keep up most of the time, so, it was -- it raised our level of concentration a little bit, I think, to be paired together for that much. And, the way it turned out today, one of us was probably going to win; didn't know exactly what the situation was. He could make so many birdies so quickly at times that, you know, I never really felt too comfortable 'til I got to about 14.

GIL MORGAN: I thought 24 was a good golf course. I mean, it was a big golf course. It had a lot of demanding shots into the green. The greens were well formed in the sense that there was a lot of kind of tricky pin placements so had you had to hit a lot of good shots to get it close to the hole and to be able to putt the ball. And, the purse being what it was; and kind of the closing tournament with all the top players here, seemed like it was a pretty good test for the players. It was something that I was -- I thought it would be a plus to be able to win here; especially at the end of the year getting ready to go into 1998, it will give me a good feeling leaving, you know, 1997, closing out 1997 and be able to go forward for 1998.

GIL MORGAN: I don't know. I can't answer that one. I don't know, really. You know, obviously, you got more knowledge all the time. You are gaining information. I am not sure I am as competitive as I used to be. I don't practice as much as I used to and do all those things from that standpoint. But, at the same time, I feel like I am playing -- overall I am playing better. I can't really answer that other than that --

GIL MORGAN: All those girls (indicating his family) take a lot of money, you know, they want cars and they want - -- no telling what they want.

GIL MORGAN: Well, even though I had a lead, I didn't feel very comfortable with that just the 2-shot lead. It kind of depends. So I was trying to be -- I didn't want to make too many mistakes the way I wanted to start out - If I could get off to a fairly decent start, maybe make a birdie or two and get moving in that direction, didn't really happen very quickly. I didn't make any mistakes; hit the ball pretty well; got it in there pretty close. Didn't make three birdies in the front which really helped. And then, as it got more into matchplay as we went down the backside, I got more and more conservative as I went forward.

GIL MORGAN: Well, it turned out to be very good. I always feel real negative when I end the way I did like today. I don't have -- if I had come on and make a couple birdies coming down the stretch, I would have really felt very -- tremendously good about my finish. But, at the same time, you know, it was a situation when you have a 5-shot lead, I have done that a couple of times earlier in the year, at Ameritech, I had a 5-shot lead with about three players, something like that, and I made two bogeys and another bogey. So, it wasn't the greatest conclusion. But, at the same time, I still survived. And I kind of feel the same way about this ending here a little bit. But, at the same time, it was always nice to win.

GIL MORGAN: Weather has probably been worse this year than last year overall. I think maybe it was the weather.

GIL MORGAN: Oh, yeah, I did have early in the week, I tried to hit driver off the tee the first day and tried to hit it up over the trees and trying to hit it so high, I stayed back real -- flipped -- I kind of flipped at it at the end; hit kind of a hook going up over the trees and caught the trees and dropped down. Then I had to pitch out. That was the first day. And, I pitched out and hit a 9-iron up there on the green about 15 feet; made that for par. And, then today, I tried to do kind of the same thing with 3-wood. I tried to hit it a little too hard and I really hit it solid, but it kind of turned over on me as it went over the trees, but it went way on through the trees almost -- I got down there about 90 yards from the front and then all I had to do was pitch it up. It was kind of -- a little bit difficult because it went downhill and then back uphill to the green. The green was kind of arched like that, so, I -- with the softness of the fairways - some of those fairways are very spongy and stuff - I tried to hit a little shot; ran it through the green. Actually, hit it too hard. Made an excellent pitch, I don't know how, it stayed out. I was over the green about 15 feet, I guess, pitched it with a sand wedge. I landed it just exactly -- it was a little knob right on the front. It just rolled down there and it looked like it was going right of the hole; then in. Then eventually it broke off and ended up about four inches. I hit a tremendous pitch there to make 4. That hole, a couple of times this week, has really been kind to me.

GIL MORGAN: Fourth?

GIL MORGAN: Gosh, I don't know. You know, I think our games are a lot -- are very similar in some respects. We both usually hit the ball pretty well tee-to-green. I feel like I am a little more -- maybe a -- I am a little riskier at times than he is. I go for it a little bit more early on. Like he laid up a lot of times on the par 5s, kind of, which kind of surprised my a couple of times. And, today, like at the 4th hole, he hit driver off the tee and looked like he was debating on whether he ought to go or not and eventually laid it up. I don't know. Our games are very similar in that respect. I think he putts a little bit better than I do. Obviously carries a better record to the SENIOR TOUR than I did. So, you know -- but, I think our games are quite similar in some respects as far as ball hitting, solidness of swing, that type of -- you know, fundamentally, we are both pretty good tee-to-green.

GIL MORGAN: Hale hit it -- he had a bad lie. He had to stand in the bunker; ended up making a bogey on that hole. I pitched up; made a par. So, at that point, I had a 5-shot lead with 4 to play. And, then I hit -- they moved the tee way up on 15 and every day they moved it up 20 yards today from yesterday. So, I probably should have gone ahead and hit driver there because I could have carried all the water and everything, but I thought, well, maybe if I plug it in one of those bunkers or something, so ended up hitting iron off the tee, but probably might have been wiser for me maybe to go ahead and hit driver there. And, then I could have probably -- could have definitely got to the green in two if I would have hit it in play. So, I don't know whether that decision was 100%. Then I ended up making bogey. Then I felt, really, it was the wrong decision, I felt, at this point in time. So -- but --

GIL MORGAN: Maybe. I have done that a couple of times. I did that at Ameritech. I got so concentrated, I just made bogey every hole. That is kind of what I wanted to do, make bogey at the outset, (laughter) you know, kind of like that putt at the last -- I didn't work too hard on that last little putt, you know. I guess it would have been better for -- I wasn't even thinking about a record or anything. So, maybe I was asleep, maybe that is why I hit the bad iron shot.

GIL MORGAN: I hit 5-iron in there yesterday and the wind was similar, but it was still a long ways in there. It was like 190 yards or something like that. So, really, 5-iron wasn't enough club for me with the conditions. So, I decided to go take a 4-iron and play a little bit away from the bunker a little bit and just not try to hit it very hard; just try to hold it on the line is what I was trying to do. Turned out it was exactly the right club the way I hit it. Almost exactly hole high.

GIL MORGAN: Well, I mean, in retrospect, I guess I probably felt like I probably did about twice as well as I thought I was going to. I felt like I could probably win two or three tournaments, you know, if things worked for me all right. And, maybe a million dollars was kind of my goal early on. Since, you know, that is where the leaders, on the SENIOR TOUR, kind of gotten to a million, 1.5 million, pretty much in that -- in the last couple of years, I thought, well, if I had a really good year I might get to 1.5 million. But, I didn't know exactly what my potential was or how it was going to work out. But, then after I kind of got up over that mark, you know, where I got to coming in here last couple of weeks, I felt like maybe I could attain -- $2 million was kind of my goal at that point in time - once I had gotten to that level - so it kind of fluctuated as I went forward.

GIL MORGAN: I guess so. I think we have a lot of good players that play the SENIOR TOUR. I think we try to do a good job in the prime situations. I think the sponsors all like that situation, so I think we had a lot of exciting golf tournaments on TV - a lot of times when it came down to the wire, or in playoff situations. And, so, overall, I think it had to be a pretty good year. I. Think it is going to get better as we go forward with more players coming from the regular TOUR and some names coming out of the school. I think it is going to continue to change. It changes more rapidly than the regular TOUR does. And, we are going to lose some players over time that have been staples out here at times. But, there is going to be new players coming in.

GIL MORGAN: Gosh, I don't know how I can comment on that. I don't know that. I am the right person to comment on that. I guess do you feel like you did a good job? (Laughter)

GIL MORGAN: We just go play and trying to do the best we can and you guys write it up. And, sometimes you do good and sometimes you don't. But, that is the story.

GIL MORGAN: Obviously, that is a tough situation. I think maybe our purses might be a little bit more next year, so, obviously that will help that situation if you can play well. I am going to try to be as good a player as I was this year and hope that I get in contention and be able to win some tournaments like I did this year. You never know. Your time is pretty limited out here, so, barring injuries or whatever that is, I think that, you know, we ought to have a real successful year; going to be, you know, a lot of good players. Hale has kind of set the standard for this year for all of us to try to attain that. We all look at the records from time to time and try to reach out there and maybe that will give us some incentives to go forward.

GIL MORGAN: I think that is good. I kind of -- that is kind of what we are out here for, to try and perform and do the best we can. I just hope I can live up to that billing if that is what it turns out to be.

GIL MORGAN: Sure. What do you got.

GIL MORGAN: Well, you know, I really haven't thought about it too much. For one thing, the Senior Open is going to be played at Riviera.

GIL MORGAN: But, they are going to play off site for that event, so, earlier I thought, well, maybe if they are going to play there I might try to play that, but I think I am still going to focus on playing out here most of the time. Maybe I can win one of the big tournaments, so I can get some sort of invitation into playing one of the major four championships. That will be kind of a goal. Don't they invite like the Senior Open player into the Open?

GIL MORGAN: That sounds like it is more drudgery than it is worth.

GIL MORGAN: That is like (slaps his face) worse thing that can happen to you is get invited to play the US Open - the trauma that you have to go through to play in that. So I don't know. Do they do that with the PGA?

GIL MORGAN: Maybe I can use that as a vehicle to get into one of those events. We always like to try to figure out how we are doing compared to the regular TOUR at this point in time, especially after you just made the transition. I am sure at some point out there I am not going to really think that I can participate very effectively. But, at the same time, right now, I can probably try to get a sponsor exemption that way and I do have a top 50 all-time money where I can initiate that for a year if I wanted to, until I get out of that top 50 on the regular TOUR. But, I don't see any reason to exercise that at this point in time.

GIL MORGAN: Yeah, there is a lot of that. But I just don't know whether I want to do --

GIL MORGAN: Yeah, is it still available?

GIL MORGAN: I don't know, I enjoy playing the golf course. It lended itself to my length a little bit. From some respects I was able to drive the ball where I had shorter clubs than some of the guys. My iron game was on this week quite a bit. I hit a lot of good iron shots real close to the pins, so I think, you know, just the fact that my game was in good shape really was beneficial on top of that. But, at the same time, I think it is still a good golf course for me.