FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 10, 1997

Dave Stockton

DAVE STOCKTON: Try not to give you my flu or whatever I got. I was very pleased. I bogeyed the first two holes starting out, which is obviously not the way you want to start out. I had a very good attitude - basically, last week Ronnie caddied for me, I had a whole bunch of physical things I had to fix, but his parting shot was that my attitude has gone downhill for a year and a half. So, talking with Deborah Graham here -- I just went out, this is probably the finest round I played this year mentally. Certainly, not physically. But, mentally it was. One, I missed the green by about three feet, right up the center of the green. I chipped about six foot, five foot, missed it, made bogey. Perfect drive at 2. Had 7-iron to the green. Pushed it just to the right into the bunker, blasted out about five feet, missed that for bogey. Didn't birdie 3. I missed the green with a wedge from about 90 yards. Got it up-and-down, made par. Parred the par 3, made a great par out of the right bunker. Had no green to work with. Put it about five feet, made par. Missed my first green to the right on 5, just by the bunker and made my first birdie. I hit a good 7-iron, about 35 feet or so below the hole, and made that from 35 feet. Parred 6, hit the fairway and green. That was an interesting pin today. I'll be amazed if somebody doesn't discuss this No. 6 pin position. If somebody thinks they put the pins easy on the SENIOR TOUR, just walk over and look at 6 today. 7, the par five, hit a good drive with a 3-wood about six feet short of the green, chipped it about a foot and made a birdie. Hit a 6-iron to the right of the pin and 3-putted on 8 to arrive back to 1-over-par again. Missed about a 3-footer for my second putt. 9, I hit a good drive. Hit a 9-iron to about two and a half, three feet, made for that birdie. Missed makeable birdie putts on 10 and 11. Maybe a 12-footer at 10. Maybe a 12-footer at 11. Then I got my stretch. 12, I missed the green to the left. Had about 40 feet up over one of those knobs that Jack built, trying to figure out whether to chip it or putt it. I putted. I 4-putted on 14 yesterday so I'm a little leery of some of those humps. I putted and I go, "Oh, at least I got it up the hump this far. Going to go too far right. About the time I think it is going to end up rolling around the hole, it starts breaking the other way to the left. And, it goes right in the hole and I'm sitting there going, "This is unbelievable." I missed the ones I thought I would make and then I got totally lucky on the other. I birdied that. Hit a bad drive at 13 up to right, right by the cart path. Then hit a great 3-wood to the right of the green about 15 feet to the green, almost pin-high. Again, I had tri-moguls that I had to go over. Tried to chip it into it and chipped it a little strong. Pretty good shot, but it rolled about 15, 18 feet past the pin just off the green. I holed that. And, then 14 was a good 3-wood just short of the hazard. 7-iron to about five feet, knocked it in. Feeling pretty cocky at that point having a 3 on that hole. I had four putts on it yesterday, so I figured I was ahead of the game. Great 6-iron at 15. That's the one I thought I made. And, I just missed the putt from about nine or ten feet. Made par. Tee shot about an inch in rough on the right on 15 -- 16, rather. Left it short of the green, chipped it about four feet, made par at 16. That's where the board had me wrong. I guess my score didn't count on the chip. I parred it, didn't birdie it. Birdied the 17. Hit a driver off the tee, 3-wood down the middle, and a wedge to about, I'd say, 18 feet. Made it out of the board and showing me at 4-under already, so I figured it was no problem, might as well get what they already told me I had. Then what I saw 18, 5-under, I thought might as well get this one, too. Didn't work out that way. I hit a good tee shot. Driver off the tee. Tried to hit a little 6-iron, pushed it to the right, missed the green by about six or seven feet, chipped it about two feet, made par. But, much better round. Much better thinking round. I wasn't tough on myself. Was very patient.

DAVE STOCKTON: Yeah. I just, you know, I mean, you know, Deborah asked me what my attitude's been. You know, I've had a pretty brutal last month between playing both Opens, Congressional I played okay, but, you know, didn't show for it. That was kind of tough. Then, of course, throwing my back out at Olympia Fields - I was very impressed with that golf course - and I was highly embarrassed to miss the cut there. So, you know, I'm tough on myself anyway. And, you know, that's with Ronnie -- by the time Ronnie -- he caddied for me last week in Cincinnati and by the time he got through, I had so many things to work on, so many parts of my game, but then my back goes out so I can't spend that much time and it is frustrating. Today, with this head cold, everybody's had head colds, your equilibrium doesn't feel good, just kind of going along. But I had a good attitude. I was very pleased with the concentration I showed. I mean, I bogeyed the first two. I might as well have birdied it for the attitude I had.And, obviously birdie-ing 12, 13, 14, I know certainly I haven't done that in the past. I mean, those are some tough holes. 13 is a birdie hole, but 12 and 14 certainly aren't. There wasn't any indications. It's just that I was very pleased to see the leaderboard that nobody -- you know, people were getting up there and then they were falling back. So, it was -- I was very pleased to jump up in there.

DAVE STOCKTON: Just, you know, give me different keys to keep myself focused mentally. She asked me what I thought last week, you know, mentally what I thought as I played the round on a scale of one to ten, ten being good, one being bad. I said it was about a three. Which I don't know if she's ever heard me say less than seven, because I am pretty good mentally. So she said, "Go out and try to be at least an eight." Based on that, I think I was a ten. I took what I had coming to me and I never changed.

DAVE STOCKTON: I don't think there was any. You do different things. Here is Ronnie trying to hit me. I hit a shot. I don't want to show that I'm mad. Instead of handing him a club, discussing it and forgetting it, I walk to the other side of the tee, not showing any emotion, but inside I'm, A, thinking what I'm doing wrong.

DAVE STOCKTON: Not burning up. Thinking what I'm doing wrong, overanalyzing, how many Chinese don't care what I shoot today, forget about it. So, it's easy to say and it's hard to do, especially on a golf course like this. I mean, this golf course is easy for me from the point of view there's no shot that you hit that you don't have a pretty good picture of what kind of shot you want to hit. I mean, on an easier golf course, flat greens, I'll hit it out here, I'll hit it on the green. You don't do that on this golf course. This ledge over here, you have to come off this ledge onto that one. Every shot you've got to be planning something. So That kind of played into what I was doing anyway. I was trying to stay more focused today to begin with so that kind of played into what I was doing.

DAVE STOCKTON: He said actually two years, but I'm just kind of cutting it down because I can't believe I have been that bad for that long.

DAVE STOCKTON: Yeah, you know. But, can't argue with Ronnie because he's, A, my teacher, and B, a psychology major, so I just shut up. Thought about it, boy, better call Deborah, find out what's going on here.

DAVE STOCKTON: It's still with me.

DAVE STOCKTON: Well, I mean, I was okay on Friday. Not fine, it was tender and sore, and I was wearing the magnets on Friday. If I hadn't had the brace on Thursday, I couldn't have played. But I had no excuses Friday. I mean, I would play with my back feeling like that a lot. You know, so, by Kroger, I had no excuse whatsoever. I really basically had no excuse on Friday at Chicago, except I was just a little bit sore from it. But, no, I mean, I've had my back all the time. I know how to relate to it. Of course, that's the other side. Between the mental and physical striking the ball, the other thing is I'm trying to start to limp back to the exercise trailer, which is where I should be anyway. I think maybe I've let that slip in two years as much as I did, supposedly, the mental.

DAVE STOCKTON: Yeah, but the other 27 million didn't.

DAVE STOCKTON: I don't know. I mean, you go through stages. I, personally, this year - what I think has happened to me this year is I never expected to be any force on The TOUR because I knew Cathy was facing her surgery. When she did, I was going to miss two to three months. I think subconsciously, I never really worked out that hard, I never really -- this was going to be basically an off year. I was going to play, but at some point when she got the call, I was going to be off for two months anyway. So now she's doing much better and I got to play and I got no excuses. I found this out, what, right after Vegas. So now it's a total different outlook. I mean, she's going to be out every week. I've got to jump-start what I'm doing, striking the ball, exercising, getting in better shape, then mentally -- I mean, I got three different things to attack, which I am doing.