U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 26, 1997

Gil Morgan

GIL MORGAN: Oh, yeah, I'm pleased with where I am in the field at this point in time. I didn't feel like I played as well as I would have liked to have. But at the same time, it was a good number for today it looked like. I had to scramble a lot more than I really wanted to, so from that standpoint, I didn't play very well. I missed more greens than I'd like, had to pitch and putt and blast to save par, basically.

GIL MORGAN: Okay. I had four birdies and three bogeys.

GIL MORGAN: Oh, I see. Okay. Well, I started off with the first hole, I hit driver, 3-wood, then I had a little pitch, pitched it up to about 3 feet and made that for birdie. Then on the 2nd hole, hit driver, 4-iron about, oh, maybe, 10 feet and made that for birdie. Then I got a little bit too aggressive, I guess, tried to hit it at the next hole, missed the green with a 7-iron and didn't get it up-and-down, so I made bogey there. Then at the 7th hole, I made another bogey. I don't even know what that hole is. That was -- oh, I hit a good drive there, and I hit a -- it was a 3-putt for me. I 3-putted from about, oh, I hit a pitching wedge and then put it about 35 feet behind the hole and 3-putted. Knocked it by about 8 feet, missed it coming back. Then at 11, par 3, I hit a 6-iron to the right, and it went on, just missed the green and I kind of chipped it by about 7 feet, made that coming back for bogey, which was really neat at the time, because it was a pretty difficult play, and had to make that for bogey. I was pretty glad at that point. Then the par 5, I hit a driver and a 3-wood and a wedge about 3 feet, made that. And to 17, I hit a driver, 6-iron about, oh, about 18 feet and made that.

GIL MORGAN: No, not really. It seemed like I found a few places I hadn't seen in the practice rounds, which there were a few hazards and stuff that I -- closer to the fairway than I had anticipated. At least, I hadn't seen, maybe. Because of the wind switch, they weren't as evident.

GIL MORGAN: It was a little bit of both. I made some good chips and some good recoveries with the wedges, and then I made some fairly good putts, you know, from 5, 6 feet, 7 feet to save par a lot of times. See if I've got it. I don't know whether I've got it or not. Let's see what it looks like. I'm having a hard time with the course. I missed about at least 7 greens, and I got I guess all but two of them up-and-down. So, of 7 greens, I made two bogeys and 5 pars which was -- and then I made a bogey with a 3-putt, so there probably is some more in there. I was just too scared to write them down.

GIL MORGAN: Well, I'm sure, yeah, anybody could run away with it if they shoot low enough. But I don't think anybody is going to run away at this point in time. Obviously, it could happen. I'm sure the field is going to become more and more separated as time goes forward, but I was kind of expecting scores, you know, 1- or 2- or 3-under par to 1- or 2-over par. So it was pretty much along the lines that I was thinking early on.

GIL MORGAN: Overall, it felt a little better. This morning when I got up, it was a little tight, but I came in and got some heat on it. And it bugged me a little bit as I was going around, but it seemed to diminish as I went forward a little bit.

GIL MORGAN: You're going to have to bear with me here. Let's see. 27, I think. Yeah, that's better than I normally do.

GIL MORGAN: Has it stuck with me?

GIL MORGAN: Does it bother you?

GIL MORGAN: Yeah.

GIL MORGAN: That's about as much as it bothers me, I guess.

GIL MORGAN: Yeah. Well, obviously, you would like to win. You'd like to be working for The New York Times, maybe, but we're not, some of us. Same type of deal.

GIL MORGAN: I thought the pins were pretty tough. That was the big thing. They put a lot of pins like downwind on the front or just up on top of the slopes. I thought the pins were kind of, overall, pretty -- more difficult than what I had anticipated for the first round, yeah. I thought this was more like weekend pins to me, maybe even Sunday pins. If they get harder than this, I'm going to be upset, I guess.

GIL MORGAN: Maybe. It may be a situation where I may not show up. I might get scared I can't win. But that's part of the deal, I guess.