FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 11, 1998

Bob Murphy

BOB MURPHY: I am pleasantly surprised as I said Thursday that I was able to go home and get a lesson and come out and put it into effect and be as confident as I am, surprisingly so. Today I hit an awful lot of good shots. I got a little fancy there on 18. I shouldn't have tried to tuck it as much as I did, and I knocked it over the green there. I did make a par, so, just an incredible day of putting. The first day, in my count, I had 26 putts for 67 and Friday I had 31 putts for 72. So it was a difference of five putts. I don't know how many putts I had today. But it certainly wasn't as many as 26, I know that. First hole two putts for par. Second hole, I hit an 8-iron about two feet from the hole. Made birdie. Third hole, I just got a wedge up in the air too much and I knew it. It landed about three feet on the green and then sucked it back and off the green, about a foot off the green. I made it from there. Next hole, I hit a wonderful 4-iron about three and a half feet from the hole and I missed the putt. It broke more than I saw. Next hole, hit a 9-iron about seven feet, made it. Next hole, I hit L-wedge from 81 yards so about, oh, nine or ten feet behind the hole, made that. Next hole, I made it from about 15, 16 feet, right behind the hole. That was a good birdie there. Two putts for par on 8. Two putts for par on 9. 10, we can't figure out what happened on 10. Hit 4-wood off the tee to lay it up short of the bunker which is 255 and the 4-wood went into the bunker. I played it out left and what I thought would be short of the green, it bounced and it went down in this collection area. And in the bottom of it is this huge draining grate and my ball -- the pin is here; my ball is on the downslope of this drainage, little piece of drainage grate. I am not swinging into it, and I am not standing on it. I am pitching into a hill that is straight up this way. I hit this shot and it dribbled up on the green about six feet from the hole. I don't think I could go back there and hit a dozen balls and get it closer - so lucky there to make par. Next hole, I missed it from about twelve feet. 13, hit a wonderful shot and putt from behind the hole, just dribble, dribble, dribble really fast back there. Made that. Next hole I hit a terrific second shot, but it craned off to the right. I landed in a patch of grass even though it is cut as almost fairway but the grain is growing right straight into me, the grain of the grass, and so it is very, very difficult to pitch from there. So, I couldn't pitch. Had to take a wedge, play it back in my stance and chomp down on it. Got it to go all the way up the hill and it stopped and started back down the hill and it came back about 30 feet. And would you believe I made it going back up the hill? So, those were the kinds of things you do when you are shooting a good score. I didn't deserve that. Next hole, I hit what I thought was a good shot. Played it into the left side of the green, landed in the fringe and bounced straight up into the fringe. Didn't figure that bounce at all because of the slope of the hill, caught a real, real bad lie there, made bogey.

BOB MURPHY: Hit 7-wood. I put a 7-wood in my bag for that hole this week. I will tell you why: Because you can really catch some thin lies out there, and that 7-wood will come right out of a thin lie and I only had 191 yards, but I fancied the 7-wood better than the 4-iron. I took my 3-iron out and put the 7-wood in. The shot was good. The result was not. 16, I hit a 3-wood off the tee and wonderful 9-iron about, oh, foot and a half right below the hole. Two feet, maybe. Birdie. And No. 17, I knocked it in there about probably seven, eight feet at the most, right below the hole, just a dead, straight-in putt as you ever want in your life and I made birdie.

BOB MURPHY: That was a sand wedge from 90 -- I had 96 yards.

BOB MURPHY: Hit 8-iron.

BOB MURPHY: To, oh, I'd say 12, 14 feet. It was just off to the left and above the hole.

BOB MURPHY: 18, as I said, I knocked it over the green and -- actually at 18, the way things go, if I don't have the ability to go down and over the green and see my putt, I can see my putt absolutely level, I would have played it on the outside of the right edge to go left and I would have missed it for sure. But from the back of the hole and down at green level, I could see it was just -- looked like a road map. It was absolutely dead straight. Putted it dead straight and it went right in the center. So that's how things go when they are going well - it is fun.

BOB MURPHY: The putt was, oh, say, six, seven feet. Really good pitch. I was proud of that pitch. So nine birdies on this golf course. I never would expect that in one round. I made seven the first day and that is a lot of birdies on this golf course when I can't reach the par 5s like the other guys can. So, my wedges are having to do my talking there and that is a huge disadvantage. I can imagine that Gil, for instance, on that front side No. 7, I could imagine he probably hit 4-, 5-iron into that green. So, it is an advantage as it is on most Nicklaus courses to be able to get that ball out there and take advantage of the par 5s.

BOB MURPHY: Actually, my putting has been reasonably steady. I always trust my putting. That is probably the best way to say it. I trust my putting. I read that article in the paper this morning about Pak yesterday. She and her father were working on her putting. He told her: It is easier than you are making it out to be. I was telling myself that yesterday. I found myself reading putts and reading putts and reading putts and then my speed wasn't as good as it should be. So I went out there today with the firm conviction - I never asked my caddie to read one putt - I just walked in behind it and went with my first read and my best read and my speed was fantastic today. I mean, there were four, five putts, as Mike McCullough, said when the ball was four, five feet from the hole, you knew it was going in. It wasn't going anywhere but in. So, that is fun. And I think that is true, we horribly -- when I was doing television broadcasting, there was one comment I always made sitting there in the booth: Guys overread putts. They overread putts. And most -- most professional golfers - and I will bet you the percentage is incredibly high - miss putts on what would be the high side of the hole, the pro side of the hole. Is that good? No, it is not good. That means you are reading too much break. You then hit a little too hard and the ball doesn't have any more chance to go in from there. Then if it does, it's trickling off the other way. Well, it does in theory, but we overread putts.

BOB MURPHY: I can't remember. I can't remember. Last time I really just ran the table probably have to go all the way back to NFL a couple of years ago when I shot 62 the first round. I have done it in some other rounds when -- you know, when I ended up with a 65 or 66, because I missed other shots, but it was just so much positive today. I mean, I really controlled my ball and that is exactly what I have to do tomorrow. I think, truthfully, unless I miss, my guess, I think I am going to have to shoot probably 66 or better to win the golf tournament. I should end up today two or three shots behind, so, I am going to have to shoot at least 66, I would think. But golf is a funny game. How about the NFL this year, Cadillac NFL? The winner is one shot higher than the lead for the starting the day. Happened in Baltimore also, so, you don't know.

BOB MURPHY: Gee, I hope not. (laughter).

BOB MURPHY: Well, it is there, isn't it? (laughs) It is there. That is right.

BOB MURPHY: Well, there is a lot of trouble there. The pin position at 10 is very, very tight. I mean, you have to play a precision golf shot in there - certainly to make birdie and even to hit the green. A lot of guys are driving it over that bunker and putting it down. And, if they don't get down into the flat down there, then they are standing on a downslope shooting to a pin that is -- you know, you have only got two yards to work with to get it anywhere around the hole. No. 11. Doesn't take much at No. 11 to make a bad mistake. All you have got to do is push it to the right or leave it short of the green surface. No. 12, everything is there at 12. 13, not so much. 14, you can make a 6 on 14 and hardly blink. 15, today a very difficult pin position at 15. Very difficult. 16, you are really charged with putting it in that fairway. What do you do now? You can hit anything 2- or 3-iron all the way to probably 3-wood. But you have to get it in the fairway. If you land it in the middle right one-third of the fairway, boing, it goes over in bunkers or high grass or whatever. You can't get on the green from there. You have got to be very lucky to get on the green. 17, you can driver it in the water. You can hit your second shot in the water. You can hit your third shot in the water. 18, nobody is guaranteed of not driving it a little left there and that is all water. They are just a bunch of trouble. Okay?

BOB MURPHY: That is my personal best in the third round. (laughs) (laughter)