U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 30, 1995

Bob Murphy

BOB MURPHY: We said yesterday that -- I said that, to Hale, after a few shots on the golf course and today, today he got them back even though he did not drive the ball well. He is just a little out of sync on his driver and until he can get that back.... Well, I started out well. I hit an 8-iron about 10 feet from the hole knocked it in on the first hole. Made birdie and number 4, I misclubbed and put it down the bunker. Hit a good bunker shot and I missed the putt. Missed about a 4-footer, made bogey there. Sort of parred all the way around and number 10, as opposed to yesterday when I hit it about two feet, I missed it today. I put it about 15, 16 feet and made it up and over a mound and so sometimes when you least expect them. Good birdie putt at the next three or four holes. I really feel like today that I, again, feel like I could have been three or four shots better because the greens today look very good. Early this morning and I hit some very good shots on the back 9 and just didn't make them. Then the 17th, I pulled my drive and it hit on the mound there on the end of the -- sort of in the landing area, but in the rough and bounced out of the rough into the fairway and I had to hit a 4-iron into 17. And put it up on the left-hand side there about 20 feet and darn if I didn't make that going down the hill -- so there was one back. I mean, I really should have been penalized for driving it in the rough; had a very good bounce and made birdie. I capitalized on that particular hole. So not a very exciting day, 3 birdies, one bogey. Good news is I am striking the ball well. I am putting well. I am -- I have not made a lot of putts in these two days, but I am putting well and I am very confident, actually.

BOB MURPHY: Feeling good, yes. Feeling well, and looking forward to the next two days. I think the sun is out now; with any luck at all, we will start to see some drying taking place and if those fairways continue to dry; then we are going to see a lot of balls bouncing from that landing; fairway bounce on into the rough; it is going to make scoring harder and harder. The greens, I don't look for the surface of the greens to change much because they are just -- there is no root structure, so the greens can't really get firm and hard like we know them. So I don't see that changing much. For me, the quizical part is trying to decide what is the ball going to do when it lands because there is no definitive pattern as to what happens when the ball strikes the green surface. Sometimes as it does, it hits and goes that far (indicating about three inches); other times it seems to hit and skid; then, of course, it rolls. You cannot back the ball up. You cannot spin it and I have not played par fives well because I am finding myself just too much old feelings in there throwing the ball up around the hole and working it in my mind; working it and spinning it and it is just not happening because the ball cannot spin on these greens. So that part has been somewhat of a guess for me. But overall, I am very pleased; looking forward to the weekend.

BOB MURPHY: Little dance, I don't know. I seem to have that dance two or three times. Sometimes it is out of frustration and, oh, I don't know, sometimes it is just a thing that you know, people enjoy those kinds of things, so it is an Irish jig from years back.

BOB MURPHY: I thought it was about 391. It went all the way around, didn't it? So luck of the Irish.

BOB MURPHY: Well, on the front side I can think number 9, number 9 for instance I had, oh, six, seven feet right behind the hole. And I missed that. Number 8, I had it at the very outside, six feet at number 8 and I missed that. 7, par 3, I don't remember that one, but 11, I had a very good shot at 11 and missed it. 12, I ran it right over the edge. 13, I hit a shot in there about 5 feet right below the hole, missed that. 14, no, I had a long putt at 14. 15, I had it about 10, 12 feet; missed that. 16, I put it 10 or 12 feet at 16, and missed that. So that is a lot of good birdie opportunities right there.

BOB MURPHY: 11 and 12, yeah, number 11 I had it -- well, I would call it 10 to 12 feet, yeah. See, today, as we said and Hale said, the greens were much better this morning. They probably rolled them last night, would be my guess, because they felt firmer and they weren't as spiked up because we played so early, but they will be rough again this afternoon and that is what we will face tomorrow because we are going to be the last groups out. We are doing something which is not in norm in most tournaments, certainly not USGA events, we are tapping down spike marks as we leave the greens. The USGA officials are going up around the cup and tapping down spike mark as well. I think it is a very fair very equitable thing to do given the condition of the greens and it is something that we do on the Senior Tour. I don't know if they do it on the regular tour or not. But after we finish play, we just sort of tap down stuff that we see and it makes it very equitable for everyone. Much talk always about the spike mark rule and you know, I had a couple of them yesterday and a couple of them today that you look at the putt and you just say, well, if I make this putt it is absolutely lucky because I must hit it right over that spike mark and so if you hit it and it bounced left to right, you missed the putt.

BOB MURPHY: I am confident. I am playing well. This is not going to be a tournament where you have to shoot 18 under to win. The scoring will not be extraordinary as we play the weekend. The golf course should get firmer and so the scoring, it just shouldn't be real good. So I am confident about the way I am playing. I am driving the ball well and as Hale said, you know, you get the ball in the fairway even though he didn't hit it as far as he wanted to because he didn't hit it as solidly as he wanted to, he still had it in the fairway most of the time, and that is going to be key. You know, if I play with Weiskopf tomorrow and he is going to outdrive me 20, 30 yards, on every hole, but that won't make any difference if I am in the fairway and he is not and I -- I win, so...

BOB MURPHY: Yeah, I think that is fair to say. Although, most of the major championships with the exception of Augusta, Augusta was never my cup of tea because at that time when I played, I was playing you know, a low fade and Trevino -- and I will tell you that that is not the way to play Augusta National, so that was not my favorite golf course. The other Majors are played on golf courses that are tight. The greens are firm and you have to drive it straight, so I did my share of losing U.S. Opens and PGA's and whatnot. I finished one shot out of a playoff in 1975 in Medinah. Of course, Orville Moody, gave it away, the Tournament of Champions, that was about what 1970.

BOB MURPHY: '69. And you know, I finished second with Stockton in Tulsa so I have had my chances to win and I didn't do it. So I'd like to capitalize on that. It has been a long time since I won a USGA event. I won the U.S. Amateur in 1965, so you think I would have learned by now how to do it.

BOB MURPHY: There you go.

BOB MURPHY: No, I cannot agree with a spike mark rule and I will tell you why: There will be no such thing as tapping down spike marks. There will be tapping down from the hole all the way to the ball. Everything will be considered a spike mark when in fact that is not true. So there is no way -- in my mind, there is no way you can put that rule into effect without slowing down play minimum of 45 minutes to an hour and to the point of ridiculous -- I played the European Tour for two weeks back in the early '70s when they were playing the tap down the spike mark rule and I will tell you, they started it, if it was a 30-footer they started at their ball and walked all the way to the hole and tapped down everything. I, of course, made a real hit of myself on the European Tour because I asked what is the rule. I thought the rule was spike marks and I said this man is just creating a trough here, so that will not happen in the professional realm, no. It is rubber to green and when the greens are the way these are, then you get a lot more rubs than you want.

BOB MURPHY: Listen, there is spots out here for everyone. Old Murph is not a superstar. I am playing well and I am winning my share of tournaments, but the superstars are the guys who came from the regular Tour with you know, their spectacular record and my record was not that. I won five times. Unfortunately, I finished second a bunch of times, about 20, and lost the playoffs and I did all those things that you know, just one or two shots here or there, you push yourself over that anonymity, but I am enjoying what I am doing. I am playing well. I know that I can beat any of those guys on any day and in any week, and so that is exactly what I intend to do. I think my niche is to play well and to not let myself down. That was my aim when I came out here to watch my patience and I am doing that and when I do that and I strike the ball get old Murph on the greens, I am pretty good.

BOB MURPHY: Thank you, see you tomorrow.