ENERGIZER SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 5, 1998

Bruce Summerhays

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: It was terrific. I didn't really struggle too much on the front. I hit one bad shot on No. 2 that created a bogey, and then I basically 3-putted and missed on 7. Hit a pitching wedge in there, still couldn't make par, and made bogey. But ended up 1-over. And then on the back side, when I got to 14, you know, I hit a ball about, what, less than four or five inches. And that was the key, that 9-iron. I hit the ball way down there and hit a 9-iron about four, five inches. But the next hole was the real key. I just skanked a drive. I was just trying to hit a nice soft little drive down there, because you can't get home there today. It was a little difficult. And I hit a fat one over the top of the trees and stuff, and I knew it was going to be okay. I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be the water and then Isao snaps back off the tree and hooks back in the fairway, and Jim hits it in the water. And we're just laughing all the way down the hole. And then I skank another shot. I hit it in the rough up there on the right on my second shot. And Isao, I'm laughing with him. We're just laughing, because we're just hitting so far on this hole. I said to Isao: "I'm going to make a 4." And I just hit a 6 in there and he canned 2. So we had a lot of fun out there. And then after that, I knocked another shot in there close on 16. I hit about a four-footer. But it was good driving -- to the right putt. I almost hit Isao's ball. I hit a pitching wedge in there. And then about four feet, and I made that for birdie. And then I hit a 7-iron on 17; in there about four or five feet, just right under the hole on the left side, and I made that. So those were four in a row that were great. And then I made an all-world par on the last hole. I hit a ball to the right and hit a flyer out there. And I wanted to hit it into the stands or up against the stands. But this thing flew into the stands, hit a post, and then hit the railing and came down just behind the green and ended up making par. So I made an all-world par.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: It was so funny on those two holes. There were two holes that were so funny. But the great thing is we were laughing about the bad things that were happening. So it made things better. But everybody has -- I'm sure everybody has those stories today, except Hale Irwin, he may not have any of those stories.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: This is as tough as it's been here. However, the greens were softer. So it was a little easier to play. In the past, when it's been like this, greens have been firm, and it's been -- that is really a headache. The greens are a little softer. But regardless, the holes are so good out there, every one of them. But with wind like this -- I'm so happy to be 3-under par, and with Hale at 5-under, it's probably no surprise. But still, it's a great score.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: I have two of my boys, my son Joseph and his wife Michelle, and their two kids will be here today. And then Brian and his wife Shawna back here and their two children are here. And that's all we have here. Like I told Phil, I tried to get all 8 of them to come, and they each could caddie nine holes.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: That's about right. Except at the Tradition, we have just about everybody there. And there's only two tournaments a year where we'll have everybody there. But that's the caddy council we call that. We have -- we council as caddies and sit down and go over what we're going to do and what we shouldn't be doing, so it's great.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: That's really true. Caroline, my wife, has commented several times this year that we'll go to a golf course that we've been to before, and we'll go to a hole that's been scary in the past, and it's not scary anymore, for one reason or another. You just keep getting better and better, and you look at the hole and you say it doesn't seem to be as hard as it is in the past. But I have all the respect in the world for a golf hole because it will eat my lunch. But you're right, that's happened. My game is getting better. I'm hitting the ball a little bit better, doing everything in my game a little bit better. It's sort of multiplying into a real nice year this year for sure.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: I hope so. I hope that I would do that. That's the way I feel about the golf game. I know I'm going to hit some bad shots and have some bad holes, and I hope I would approach it that way. If I were trying to go for the top 31, and I was 31 on the left and I need to play well, and I started doing something like that. The one thing you have to realize and I do realize is that everybody else is doing the same thing during a round of golf, everybody. They all hit weak shots, bad shots and if you can't laugh about yours, and if you think you're the only one that's hitting the bad shots, then you're in the wrong game, I think. Because everybody goes through that in a round of golf so that's how I feel.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: I've been known as a bad-weather good player. I play really decent in bad weather. But I'm telling you, I'm 54 years old and the aches and pains are there and with weather like this, you feel it. But the challenge is there. Once again, hopefully I would look at it as a challenge and not a disparaging thing, and it's just another challenge and you go about it and do as well as you can. But when I was an assistant at the Olympic Club and the low person on the totem pole, the only time I could practice was when it was raining or nasty weather. You know, they say, well, you don't -- I just say: Hey, you guys are sitting here in the pro shop, is it okay if I go out and practice? And it's just powering out there. I go out there and practice in the rain under those cypress trees and just hit shots.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: Oh, yeah, so I practiced in real horrible weather a lot. So I got sort of used to being able to do that and it made a difference.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: Yeah, especially in the winter. When that grass appears in the winter time, we're going to go play, we don't care what the weather is like. If we can see the grass and this they will let us on the golf course, we'll go play. But generally for Utah -- you've got to go to Oklahoma, someplace like that or Texas to get some bad weather if you want bad weather.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: Once again, it depends on the attitude of the person. You know, if he immediately says : I don't like this weather; I don't play well in this weather, well immediately, he's going to come down. But if it's another challenge, you play as good as you can. It is going to get you. I don't think anybody can go through 72 holes -- if it stayed this way for 72 holes, I don't think anybody can maintain 3-, 4-, 5-under par every day. It's just not going to hand. It's proven that way. If you look at the scores, everybody has got a 72 or 75 laced in with whatever they have done before. So I think the course wins out course wins out in weather like this.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: I saw 36 and 37 as lows or something. That's pretty low. But 60 without wind would be very pleasant -- or with a little wind. This was -- you got to the 9th hole today and, I've never played 10 like that. I hit a 6-iron into 10 today and hit a good drive. Jim Colbert -- did he make that birdie? Did he make that putt? He left it short, that's right. He hit the best shot I've seen, you know, where that pin was, front left, sort of, middle left, he hit a wood in there, perfect, short of the hole.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: Some type of wedge, either sand wedge or pitching wedge.

BRUCE SUMMERHAYS: Both.