U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 4, 1996

Bob Charles

BOB CHARLES: Well, I am very pleased with my round. Obviously, I have been playing consistently well of late. I have been in the top 10, I don't know, the last three or four tournaments I have played in, but I have been having a lot of -- well, not a lot, but been having double bogeys, rounds with double bogeys and 3-putts, and bogeys, but today was pretty much a perfect round of golf in that I hit most of the fairways. I think I missed maybe two, I don't know, my mind is not good at the statistics that well, but I know I missed two fairways but they were just off the edge and I had reasonable shots. I think I hit 16 greens, so it was a good ball-striking round. I didn't make any mistakes. I was swinging very solidly; hitting the ball solidly, and of course, five nice birdie putts, the 6 was a 2-putt, on what, 12 or 13 -- 13 I think it was. So I was very happy with my round today. It is a solid round of golf as I played in a long time.

BOB CHARLES: I can't remember the golf course. I can't see without my glasses on, so you will have to tell me.

BOB CHARLES: I had no bogeys, just the birdies. You don't want a blow-by-blow description? I have got the time if you have got it.

BOB CHARLES: First hole I birdied was number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - 6, which hole is that? Is that the par 5?

BOB CHARLES: Yes, well I hit a good tee shot there had 200 and, oh, 30 to the hole, 230, 240, I think, and I hit a 3-iron which I was just trying to kind of get in the gap in the front of the green. Came off it a little and it finished through a bunker, short left. From there I pitched it on 15 feet from the hole and made the putt. Oh, next hole, I hit 5-iron, which finished 15 feet again, above the hole and I managed to make that. Then we get around to -- you don't even want to hear the up-and-downs?

BOB CHARLES: Who said that?

BOB CHARLES: You want to do as he says or do I --

BOB CHARLES: Well, first hole, I have to take my glasses off. I hit 3-wood in the middle of the fairway, hit a 7-iron 25 feet and 2-putted. The second hole I hit a 3-wood and a 9-iron to 30 feet and 2-putted. The third hole I hit 8-iron which came up just short of the green in the thick stuff; made good pitch shot to two feet; made par. The fourth hole, I hit a drive and a 6-iron about 35 feet, two putts. The next hole is number 5, I hit a drive and a 5-iron to ten feet and 2-putted. Now, that would get to where I started with the par 5, made birdie, par 3, -- 7, I made birdie, the 8th hole hit 3-wood on the fairway, I hit a 9-iron to ten feet and 2-putted. The 9th hole I hit a drive and a 3-iron and a sand wedge to about 35 feet, 2-putted. 10th hole I hit 3-wood -- no, no, I can't remember the holes. 10th hole is down the hill; isn't it? Hit 3-iron off the tee and a sand wedge from about 90 yards. I hit it over the back of the green. And I came out of the long rough to, I suppose, ten feet and I made that for par. 11th hole I hit an 8-iron to 20 feet, two putts. The 12th hole, I hit a 3-wood and an 8-iron to 25 feet and made that for a birdie. 13, I hit a drive in the right rough and a 5-iron about 30 feet from the hole and 2-putted for birdie. 14, I hit a 3-iron and an 8-iron just on the back edge of the green, putted it actually about ten feet past and holed a 10-footer coming back up the hill. 15: I hit 3-wood in the right rough. Hit 9-iron on the green about 35 feet and holed it. 16: I hit a drive in the right edge of the right rough, hit 3-iron down the fairway, hit 9-iron on about 25 feet and 2-putted. 17, I hit a 3-iron, 15 feet, and holed the putt. 18, I hit a drive and a 7-iron to 9 feet and 2-putted. Wow, you are lucky I can remember all that.

BOB CHARLES: Well, yeah, it was just good ball-striking and good putting. The combination works. You have that occasionally, don't you?

BOB CHARLES: You strike the ball well; you putt well; you come up with good numbers.

BOB CHARLES: No questions, okay.

BOB CHARLES: I agree with Dave Stockton. (LAUGHTER)

BOB CHARLES: Today was my second practice round. I had a practice round on Tuesday and I hate practice rounds. I mean, you can waste a lot of good shots out there in practice rounds, so I didn't want to play Wednesday. I decided to go in the fitness trailor work out and watch Wimbledon, the tennis, and just generally relax, so today was my second practice round which I am very happy with, and normally it's Pro Am day today, so I am sorry I missed that with all those amateurs to play with today. This is the four-round tournament, I understand. I am not used to those. We only used to three-round tournaments.

BOB CHARLES: No, but as I say, I have been finishing in the top 10 the last three or four -- well, certainly the last three tournaments.

BOB CHARLES: Bermingham -- I don't know whether that was four tournaments ago. So I have been hitting a lot of solid shots, but I have been hitting a lot of bad shots, as I said, last week, I had in three rounds and Cincinnati I had two double bogeys and two bogeys and I finished 6-under par. That speaks for itself.

BOB CHARLES: Just like I did today.

BOB CHARLES: My philosophy is trying to keep the ball in play; trying to keep hitting the fairways and greens and not to 3-putt. This is a great golf course. I would rate it very highly. I am actually, for those of you who don't know, I am on the Golf Magazine panel that rates golf courses and I would -- it is in the top 100 in the United States?

BOB CHARLES: It is. Okay. Well, I would say they should keep it there, at least. So it is a great golf course. It is -- who designed it? I have no idea who designed it?

BOB CHARLES: Never heard of him. Anyway, he must have been a good one. He did Saucon Valley too? Another great golf course. It is kind of golf course you can't get away with with tee shots and you can't get away with missing the greens and also, if you are not positioning the ball on the greens, you are not going to get away with that either because there is considerable slopes from back to front. So my philosophy, if you want to call it, as you asked, is to kind of keep the ball below the hole, so that I am not putting downhill all week. I just like to have uphill putts for the rest of the week. Not easy to do, but that is what I am aiming for anyway.

BOB CHARLES: What time is it? (LAUGHTER) I want to get to watch Wimbledon. How is Steffi Graf doing?

BOB CHARLES: So I have got plenty of time not missing a shot. Right, that question had a lot of other built-in questions. Why are there not more lefthanders around? Is that basically your question?

BOB CHARLES: All right, for starters, I am righthanded. I am not lefthanded. Have you got that down? Yeah, here we go. See what this is. This is a righthanded glove. And I stand on the right side of the ball. And I hit the ball to my right. Strangely enough. Johnny Miller wears a lefthanded glove. He stands on the left-hand side of the ball and he hits it to the his left. Are we making any progress here? (LAUGHTER) Are you confused? I am going to confuse you before I get confused. No, lefthandedness is interesting. Phil Mickelson, of course, is right-handed like myself. I would be playing double-handed backhand if I was a tennis player; I would be a right-hand forehand and I would have a double two-handed backhand which is lefthanded in golf. Am I going too fast for you? It is -- I suppose statistically it should be -- if you look at tennis, cricket, baseball, ice hockey, whatever, statistically there should be at least 25% of your golfers out there playing from the right side of the ball and hitting it to their right with a righthanded glove, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But there is not. So the question is why? Well, I guess it is a matter of economics originally and probably still is in that the manufacturers don't make as many lefthanded golf clubs as they make righthanded golf clubs and you don't see that many lefthanded golf clubs in professional shops as you should see. He is good, this guy. He can catch up.

BOB CHARLES: So availability of equipment is a problem. When I was growing up 50, 60 years ago, well, more like 55 years ago, equipment was not really available. Now it is available. Of course, Callaway are doing a wonderful job of trying to rectify the problem. They are putting the odd lefthanded golf club in pro shops, so anyway, the bottom line is that I would love to see more golfers playing lefthanded. There is no reason in the world why they shouldn't because they are certainly not at any disadvantage.

BOB CHARLES: That is no. That is a fallacy in my opinion. Only golf course that favors right-to-left players, natural right-to-left players, whether you are lefthanded or righthanded, is Augusta National. All the holes -- well, not all the holes. The great majority of the holes should be played from right-to-left. I played there once upon a time when I was younger. And as a right -- as a left-to-right player, in my younger days, I was at a huge disadvantage because you are hitting into the sides of the hills; you are not going with the hills. And the reason why you never saw Lee Trevino win Augusta National because he was a left-to-right player and at his peak -- that is the only golf course that comes to mind that favors righthanded golfers. I have never played another golf course that didn't have an equal number of holes going left-to-right as right-to-left, so it didn't favor any one type of player.

BOB CHARLES: Did I answer that man's question? Excuse me, you interrupted. I am sorry. (LAUGHTER)

BOB CHARLES: Well, the -- no. No. Because -- well understand the advantage of being a left-handed batter in baseball is that you are one step closer to first base. You don't have that advantage in cricket. I would say there is probably almost an equal percentage of lefthanded batsmen to righthanded batsmen. I would -- certainly in excess of 30 percent of your cricketers batsmen, which are hitters in baseball, would be lefthanded. Some of the greats of all time have been lefthanded batsmen, so it certainly, again, no advantage or disadvantage. Sorry, sir.

BOB CHARLES: Well, yes. I was a little disappointed on my putt on the last. That was probably the shortest one that I felt like I had a good chance of making and missed. That was about 9 or 10 feet. Well, maybe it was longer. I don't know, but all the putts seemed short today. But no, there was nothing short that I missed.

BOB CHARLES: No, I am not that -- I don't play ahead of myself, and I try not to play behind myself either. I like to just play for -- hole-by-hole, so to speak, and I knew that it was going to be -- a tough day and it was a day to be striking the ball with precision, which I was able to do today. But as I said, I just play one hole at a time and you don't want to get too far ahead thinking that, wow, this is going to be my day. I am not that type of a player.

BOB CHARLES: No. No. Not at all. Not at all. No.

BOB CHARLES: Putting now you are talking?

BOB CHARLES: Well, let us go back to Las Vegas which was a couple of months ago and I managed to 3-putt the last hole to lose the tournament. Well, I 3-putted to -- I had to 2-putt from about 30 feet to win the tournament. I 3-putted got in the playoff and 3-putted again and Jim Colbert won the tournament. I was obviously very disappointed. It was a great opportunity to win and I felt like my putter let me down. It wasn't me letting my putter down. It was the putter letting me down. Notice the difference? (LAUGHTER) So, I took it out of my bag and I put -- I didn't put it in the closet to gather dust and cobwebs, but I took it out of my bag and replaced it with the putter which Nick Faldo won the Masters with. I thought it was good enough for Nick Faldo to use Odyssey Rossie II Ultra, so I used that for a few weeks, and then I tried a different Bulls Eye, and I was experimenting. I arrived at one tournament with six putters, and without my old Bulls Eye which had let me down. And just last week in Cincinnati I decided to pull it back out of hibernation, and it felt good again and so I decided that I'd use it last week and -- I have kept it in the bag and made a little bit of adjustment to my stroke and -- it felt good today. I was getting keeping them on line and the putts were virtually going where I wanted them to go. My problem is -- has been and I suppose most people have the problem is directing the ball on the line, what you see, and I kind of lost that ability. Today I was reading the greens good, and getting the ball started and progressing on the line I wanted it to. So well, it is a Bulls Eye which I have used throughout my whole career, 35 years or more.

BOB CHARLES: Very good. (LAUGHTER)