U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 14, 1997

Paul Stankowski

LES UNGER: Paul, thank you very much for being available today. Paul finished his round, was signing his card when this happened. 68 today, is 3-over for the three rounds. And, how about just a little bit on your round today and then any other comments you want to make about conditions of play and what you saw out there, where you were, anything you'd like to talk about, we'd like to hear about.

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Well, thank you very much.

LES UNGER: You've got an open forum.

PAUL STANKOWSKI: I've got the mic, huh? Well, you know, I'm pleased with shooting 2-under today. I'm looking at my stats, and I only hit 8 fairways and 11 greens, hit it a lot better yesterday and shot two strokes worse, so, kind of -- that's strange. But, this rain is going to do so much for this golf course. It's going to play twice as long, and the greens are so soft anyway coming into today, that it's going to be like target practice, dart -- shooting darts out there. So, it will be interesting the next day and a half to see what's going on the golf course. But, what am I, 3-over? I don't know. I want you guys -- I don't feel good about just talking. I can give you a big speech, tell you a story if you want or something.

LES UNGER: We can ask questions.

PAUL STANKOWSKI: That's better.

Q. Paul, were you surprised that this thing came on pretty quick? Should the horn have been sounded a little sooner? Was there enough warning, do you think, for you guys?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Well, I was done, which was great. I thought it was going to rain all day. I'm surprised it waited this long to dump. But, when I finished, I looked off, I guess, to the -- is this coming out of the south? I don't know which direction it was, but it was pretty black. And, I started doing some interviews and it was really black. And, I'm thinking, what's the deal, they still hadn't called it. They probably should have called it a couple minutes earlier. I don't know - how long was it before it raining, after they called it?

Q. Ten minutes.

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Really. That's kind of close.

Q. You talked about the course is going to play long, but the greens are going to be softer. What do you like better?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Yeah, I like it playing long. I figure the longer the better. I feel good with my long game. It's going to be a lot easier for me to hold a 5-iron on the greens than it's going to be for some of the other guys who don't hit it quite as long to pull a 3-iron. So, I'd rather play long. I was hoping we would get a lot of long, wet conditions for the whole week. But, you know, I guess fortunately, for everybody, it dried out the last three days. But, it will be fine. If will be interesting. Obviously, if you're hitting wedges in some of these greens right now, it's doing that pretty good, so, tomorrow is going to be even wetter. It's going to be even harder to get your ball to stick with wedges because they're going to be sucking back so much. The length is going to be a factor. 10 is going to play really long. 6 is going to play long. Any of the holes that are long yardage, you're not going to get any roll. This afternoon -- what are the leaders on 7 right now?

Q. 9?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: So, the rest of the days will play really long for them if they play.

Q. You said if they play, do you know something we don't know, Paul?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: No, I'm just -- I just said that it's kind of wet. It looks like it's raining pretty good. I heard there's a river going down one of the fairways. So, it's 15 to 6. There's only, what, two hours left of daylight? If there is standing water on the golf course, they have to go out there and squeegee the fairways and get that cleared off. If they were to resume play in a half an hour, I don't think that could be possible, actually. So, I don't know. If it stops raining right now, they could probably get the course ready in 45 minutes and go. But, it could take longer. I don't want to speculate.

LES UNGER: We did play until 8:32 last night.

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Well, good.

LES UNGER: It's not that much than you.

PAUL STANKOWSKI: They could play more golf today. They're definitely not going to finish if the guys are on 6 --

Q. 9?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: They're on 9. Well, you never know....

LES UNGER: Was the last group on 9?

Q. Yeah. Paul, I know that no one has control over the weather, but the Open is played at this time of the year every year and almost every year the tournament is fractured by weather delays. Would you like to see the USGA possibly consider moving the tournament to a different time of year?

LES UNGER: That's the best answer. He was silent.

PAUL STANKOWSKI: I don't know if there is a good time of year, because June -- it depends on where you're playing. You know in California we play in June, it's perfect. You really just have to not play where it's going to rain all the time. It would be a bad thing to play the U.S. Open in Ohio this time of year because it's going to rain a bunch. It's hit and miss, really. These storms are in and out. It's not like it's moving all day long. If you moved it earlier in the year you would have constant rain. I think the time of year is perfect, and, shoot, I don't know. I'm not going to battle with the USGA, that's for sure.

LES UNGER: That's who invited you in here, right? Anybody else for Paul?

Q. Would you repeat what you feel or the effect the rain will have on the course one more time as far as the greens are concerned and the fairways, would you repeat that, please?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: The fairways will be very soft. Obviously, you're not going to get any roll. The rough is going to grow, and the greens are going to be very soft. It's going to be easy to hold a 4- or 5-iron into the greens easier than it was today. The green was very soft. You can see a lot of the balls spinning back on the greens . This is not typical U.S. Open conditions. (Paul indicates knocking on wood.) That's U.S. Open conditions. And, that, out here is not, other than the rough.

LES UNGER: My spy just told me the rain has stopped.

Q. Let's assume that the round is resumed, but not everybody finishes, as happened yesterday. What will the effect of coming back at 7 a.m. be like?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Well, I'm going to be sleeping at 7 a.m., so I could care less what they do. I know the guys probably don't want to come back in the morning, but they have to come back any way because tomorrow is Sunday. So, whether they come back at 7 -- I think, from my experience, I've had to do it a couple times, coming back early, the leaders are late, they're going to have to come back at 7 to finish up. Then they're going to have seven hours to sit around again and that's no fun. So, obviously, they're wanting to get it done. They're wanting to get in. And, if it's stopped raining, I mean, heck, they can get this course ready to go in another 30 minutes or so. And, barring any other delays, they might be able to get finished.

LES UNGER: Okay. I know Paul has a few minutes. I hope you have a few minutes. Is that all right? Or are you heading off somewhere.

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Excuse me?

LES UNGER: They'll come up and talk to you now

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