U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 24, 1997

Dave Stockton

DAVE STOCKTON: 37, but I beat the other 46 guys. Just couldn't beat my wife. That's all.

DAVE STOCKTON: Well, I'm looking forward to it. It's been a - not too productive of a year so far. Played all right, but had no wins to show for it. I was happy to get here, actually. Congressional two weeks ago, is the first sign that I saw summer coming. We've had miserable weather on the Senior Tour, and I guess, now, we're in the middle of full-blown summer here. This is rather warm. But it's nice to see. I -- you know, obviously, I'm using -- my best golf is played in the warm summer months, and we're in the middle of it. I'm looking forward to defending. This is a great golf course. My wounds from Congressional have healed up for the most part. My wrists that I slit are -- they've all healed over, so I'm ready to go. This is a great test of golf. I don't remember playing when I played here in '71, but this golf course has got everything you want. Probably as tight of an Open as we played in recent years, especially on the back 9. It's got great length coming in on both 16 and 18. If the wind turns around and make the holes a little shorter, it's going to make 15 and 17 play a little longer. So you're going to have some great finishes, plus, you have to keep the ball in the fairway. I made a mistake when I was here at the press conference media day and didn't comment about how the slopes of the greens were, but there's a couple of them that are very interesting. 3, 16, 18 - especially 16. If I was a sadistic sort, and it stays this hot, looks like the grandstands on 16 are well shaded, I think I'd sit there and watch guys really get upset for the most part. That is one really hard hole. I hit a good drive today and had to hit a full 4-wood to get to the green. If you get above the hole, you're just dead. So, it's going to be fun. But, my year, hopefully, it will start right here.

DAVE STOCKTON: I think this has -- Cantebury - coming back from Congressional - I thought Congressional was much longer. Cantebury had a lot of doglegs to it that you couldn't hit drivers on it - I don't care who you were - No. 10, specifically. 12 was another hole that you didn't really drive it on. 14, not many of the guys drove it on. You couldn't hit a driver on 15. This golf course, for the most part, you're going to be hitting drivers. They've got some -- you know, the holes aren't necessarily longer. It's just that, you know, for the most part, they shape up to hit drivers. Some of the longer guys are going to hit some irons, I guess, 3-woods, maybe, off, well, 15 would come to mind right off the bat with a trap down there on the left. There's some other holes. I think, on No. 6, that I hit a wood, a 3-wood off the tee -- no, it's 5, excuse me. But, for the most part, I think the golf courses are similar and they're both old style. And they're not gaining their toughness by solely in length, unlike Congressional, where we were playing two weeks ago, there was 72-plus. Just completely different. The rough around the green is not quite as high as it's been in recent years. About one fourth as high as it was at Congressional two weeks ago. But, the greens, I think, are going to be as fast. I think they're going to mow them down right now. For me, they seem to be rolling not quite as fast as I expect them to be. But I think this is one hell of a golf course. Hale Irwin walked by me in the locker room on the way over here, he was smiling, so was Murphy when he walked by me. It's fun to play this golf course and you know you have to hit quality shots.

DAVE STOCKTON: Well, you know, I've often commented, the only guy that's happy after playing the U.S. Open was the guy who won. I was overjoyed last year at Cantebury, and I'm sure there were some guys that were very unhappy. I think, first of all, the U.S. Open is -- you could have some seniors trying to play, more than the three of us that played at Congressional. I mean, it was really brutal. I thought it was extremely difficult. Then I got here, which was probably to my advantage, to have played the other one. Because this doesn't seem as penial at all, roughwise. But, I think the USGA has changed how they've done the Opens over the years. I mean, I go back to the times when the greens, they were very, very hard and Wednesday's practice round did you no good for what you were going to face on Thursday because the golf course was made that much harder overnight basically. I just see a fair test, and I -- you know, I kind of commend them on the golf courses they've picked. I think Weiskopf was -- would have a tough time defending last year, I thought, at Cantebury because -- I didn't feel Cantebury was a long hitters golf course. There were too many doglegs. This has doglegs, but it's like you can hit any club you want out there. It's not like one that says, okay, you can't hit a driver here. This golf course doesn't do that. Plus it's got some longer holes. It has a par 3, No. 8. It's going to play 235. I hit a 3-wood there today. So as far as setting up -- the USGA setting up for the seniors, I see it as being very fair. I personally have had a much different outlook playing the U.S. Senior Opens than I did the other ones. I would be frustrated along with a lot of group of guys leaving a lot of the Opens I've played in over the years just because I try my best and walk away feeling like I was a fool. I think the quality of shots that they allow us to play, specifically last year at Cantebury, you know, you walk off -- if you haven't won, at least you've given it your best shot and you haven't felt that things have been changed and contrived against you. Believe me, obviously, for our peace of mind, we like the idea that, you know, our merits are going to show. That's what they want. Les was talking to me at press day. The USGA people don't call it a tournament. It's a championship. And, there's a reason for it. If you think about that, that probably makes -- that's why it's elevated above a lot of our other tournaments.

DAVE STOCKTON: Well, to win a National Championship at any level is very special. One reason that I won last year, I think, is, I took a lot from Tom Weiskopf winning at Congressional the year before, and how he felt that had made his career. I was just very impressed how emotional he was. Of course, Jeanne had some health problems and it meant a great deal. Cathy and I having a U.S. Open trophy on our mantel for over 10 months at home looking at it, you feel like you accomplished something. I don't remember how much money first place was. But, having my name on the trophy and being able to say I was there for our championship for the old folks, I mean, it was a hell of a sensation. So, when you come to this tournament, it's a totally different break. First of all, I don't know half the players. And, I am going to attempt to do what I did last year which is have a totally good attitude. I arrived at Cantebury last year having not played for three weeks. I expected to play because of Cathy being injured and I just decided I wasn't going to get frustrated or anything. I was going to have a good time, no matter what happened. That's the kind of attitude I have to bring to the front this week. I mean, it helps that we spent some time in British Columbia fishing last week for five days because, at least, my attitude is where it should be. And that's, you know -- those of us that cover golf, you can tell which one of us are uptight and everything else. Having a positive attitude is a fleeting thing in the game of golf.

DAVE STOCKTON: Well, yeah, in other words, like the wind right now has been blowing pretty good. You look at this -- if we look at those of us especially who played at Congressional, you say, man, I could shoot a good round here. You know, I mean, I teed off at Congressional thinking, "My, God, where am I and what time warp did I get trapped into?" You have to get the ball in the fairway to start with. That's nothing new. You have to get it on the green, and they have to be below the hole. You can't be above it. Some of the time you're hitting 4- or 5-irons or more, so that's hard to do. You are going to have an opportunity to make birdies. I mean, you want to hear something funny. My bag of clubs that I teed off with at Congressional, I took my 9-iron out because I was never going to be using it. I waived my 7-iron up to E2 (sic) because that became my rough club so I could get out of the rough without killing myself so I could at least come here and defend. I put in an extra wood. I carried four woods. I mean, the surest shot I had was par 4 with a 6-iron. I mean, I had a wedge in my hand. I'm going, Oh, my God, is this fun. Look at this. I actually got a wedge to a par 4. Then today the wind blew the other way, and I had to hit a 7-iron, so I should have kept my mouth shut. I don't know. I think this is going to go down as one of the more popular venues as a golf course that you'll have for a U.S. Open. I mean, this is -- the guys that are playing, they're all saying good things. You know you're going to have to play good golf, but if you do, you're going to get rewarded.

DAVE STOCKTON: Well, I would hope they would consider it. You know, there at Congressional, I was disappointed they put that much emphasis on length, and I thought the 6th hole at Congressional was a very pitiful par 4, just -- it was ridiculous. I mean, the first day I played it, I hit a pretty good drive and 225 to the front edge, which is fine if you want to set near the water on the front right edge of the green, you know, that's fine. We could make this par 68 and chop some par 5s and tell the guys they have to get on it in 2. That's it. You can back some of them up probably farther than we have. I'm here to tell you, I still don't think it's the length that makes it. Yeah, they could back it up, but these greens are much tougher, I think, than Congressional's, and the fairways are much tighter than Congressional's with the trees. This reminds me a lot of Medinah. I remember Medinah, you put it in the rough, okay, now to get it out of the rough, you have to get it up, but you're under trees, so you can't get it out of the rough up because you'll hit the trees above your head, so a guy like Hale Irwin ends up winning the tournament. Yeah, I'm sure they could hold the regular Open here but, you know, I don't know how much farther they could move it back, because I don't think they necessarily need to. All they have to do is have tough pins and have the greens slightly faster than what they have them. These are a good 2 mile an hour slower than what they were at Congressional, I promise you.

DAVE STOCKTON: Well, I think everybody shoots for who's ahead. I had a couple years where I was up there and everybody was shooting at me. I think Hale, obviously, is the cream out here right now. You play with him. You don't see many physical mistakes. Probably one of the finest long-iron players we have. Good driver of the golf ball. And, obviously, very strong mentally. Anybody that's won three regular U.S. Opens -- I mean, I saw that last year when I got an 8-shot lead on him and 7 on whoever is second. He gets within a shot of me with three holes to go - the guy can flat play. He's got to look over his shoulder what Gil Morgan is doing because everything I describe of Gil Morgan, other than the fact that he may not putt quite as good as Hale does, he's going to be a factor out here. And, it's going to be interesting to see the rest of the year. I was not surprised to see Hale play the Open. I'm going to be very curious to see if Hale plays the PGA Winged Foot where he won one of his Opens. If he plays enough on the regular Tour and he's playing out here, he's going to have the same scenario he had last year when Colbert beat him down to the wire at the end. You almost have to commit to play this Tour if you're going to be the No. 1 money winner. Obviously, he's averaging 100,000-plus a week. That's not bad. He and I have played a lot together. We were partners in the Diners Club matches, and he and I are about the same length off the tee, but the accuracy - although I'm a lot better than I used to be, I'm not in his class - and he pushes you to another level just like your question initiated. There's a lot of guys out here who can play good, but he's obviously in the top of his game.

DAVE STOCKTON: Well, last year it was a great deal of fun for me because it's only the second time in my life in a major that I was playing flawlessly and felt that I was the one in control. That, I enjoyed. I kept waiting for the birdie putts to fall last year and they did not. Specifically the one finally on 15 that I couldn't believe that I missed, and then walked to 16 and find out that I've only got a 1-shot lead. But, it wasn't like the scrambling Stockton you all wrote about a long time ago. I mean, I was hitting to where I wanted to hit it off the tees, hitting it on the right part of the greens. It was enjoyable. Similar to Southern Hills when I won my first major. That, in itself, gave me peace of mind which I enjoyed. I mean, I won some other stuff, kind of scrambling around here and there. But, the one last year equal to PGA in Southern Hills in Tulsa in '70 from a satisfaction point of view of getting it done physically and not relying on somebody else to go in the tank.

DAVE STOCKTON: Perfect. I hope so. That's what we're here for.