U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 28, 1995

Jim Colbert

JIM COLBERT: Well, it is a very good start to the year. I am going to play in excess of 30 tournaments, so I am not halfway finished yet. If I stay healthy and everything, I am in a good position to achieve some of my goals for the year.

JIM COLBERT: Well, I'd like to be the lead money winner. That I have never done that before. Finished third a couple of times and fifth. I'd like to do that once and, you know, just have a chance. But there is a lot of other guys that want to do the same thing, so there are a lot of stop signs. Here, at Congressional, I mean, the course - I am sure you are all tired of hearing it - just a remarkable job that Rees Jones has done here. It is a terrific golf course. The way it is playing right now would not be the way I'd like it; it is too soft and slow. I think it brings more people into the game, but we are just going to play; we can't control the weather. And I noticed some tees behind us -- when they have The Open here in '97, first of all, the guys are going to be pleasantly surprised in the improvement on the golf course. But then there is going to be a lot of golf course out there for them. There is still slopes in the fairways where if it was firm, you would have to take the ball on the right side of the fairway to keep it in the fairway. Right now, you land anywhere in the fairway the ball stays on the fairway; you land it anywhere on the green, it stays on the green. I don't know what they can do about it because of the weather. It wouldn't be my choice; my choice would be hard and fast. You know, they used to play here -- of course, Venturi winning it, Stockton winning it, and when you played here once and every 10, 15 years guys thought it was just a hard golf course. They didn't have bentgrass on the fairway. They had Fescue and Rye and blue grass and hit a bunch of fliers and you had all these downhill lies and these uphill greens and then they start playing the Kemper Open here. Naturally had trouble getting the field because you had Norman and Couples and Stadler and Bill Glasson, all those great big long hitters that could drive it all the way to the bottom and make even a fraction on the upslope and then everybody else hated the golf course. That has all changed. I don't think there will be a golfer that wouldn't think this -- that this is a great, great golf course. It is going to be a lot easier than I'd like to see it. I mean, it is not easy by any stretch, but if it was hard and fast, it would be all the golf course you want. The greens are tough. The greens are going to keep the scoring down. They are too new, the cups. The cups aren't firm. If you don't put it in at the right speed, it just hits it and just breaks it down and comes right out. So the greens are going to keep the scoring up a little bit even though they are soft, tough to make a lot of putts. Again, when the weather -- nothing they can do about it.

JIM COLBERT: Well, you are going to have to hit a lot -- awful lot of long irons and I don't think even par, if it plays exactly the way it has played the last two days, I think Ray Floyd can break par here, I think Hale Irwin can break par here. I think Jim Albus can break par here. I certainly think Weiskopf, Nicklaus. I don't know, I have a higher opinion of the players maybe.

JIM COLBERT: I certainly feel like I can. If -- it has not been windy, it is not. The weather is not that bad. I mean, it is just soft, but the balls bounce a little bit on the green. It is bouncing a little bit on the fairway. The wind has not been blowing. So you know, they had tougher pins in the-- but actually in the middle of these greens you have some of the toughest pins because they got those -- ridges kind of all come together kind of in the middle. I think we have some quality players that certainly can break par.

JIM COLBERT: Well, I don't know what it would mean to the rest of the world. To me, I have been chasing this elephant for 30 years. It has always been the most important golf tournament to me which was the United States Open. And now it's the United States Senior Open, so the Senior Open is the most important to me. Even though it is a Senior Open, it is the most difficult golf course year in, year out that we play; the way they set it up and the way they challenge the players. And so I think it is a great measure of one's ability and I have gotten closer and closer. I mean, 71, nobody would have remembered Nicklaus and Trevino tied. They played it out and look who finished behind them, that was me. And I mean, Larry -- when we played Silicone Valley, I mean, I beat Nicklaus by a shot; Geiberger by a shot; Player by a shot; Trevino by a shot. I beat every name you every heard of by one shot. Beat about six of them by one stroke. Stockton -- I lost to Laoretti - by myself. He birdied the last hole -- I birdied 17 coming in and it looked like we were two behind and I had just -- I was even with Stockton. I birdied 17 and I mean, it was like a 4, 5-foot curl and I made it and I mean, I had to beat the guy I was looking at, and Laoretti was playing 16 and I mean my ball didn't even hit the bottom of the hole before this roar went up over on 16 and he had birdied 16; then he made a 50 footer on the last hole and all he had to do was 4-putt. But I would like to win this Championship just -- it has just been a personal goal and I don't think it would set the world of golf on its ear just it's important to me.

JIM COLBERT: So far, even though this Tour -- this is the most difficult golf course year in year out, with the way they set it up with the rough, and it usually starts out fairly reasonable the first two days and then if the weather cooperates, it gets hard and fast and it is exciting. It is not as difficult as you saw at the U.S. Open two weeks ago, but it is at our level, at our age, where the balls are bouncing off the green and you do this; we don't play quite as long but you get the same effect - same requirements. I mean, how could Gary Player win all The Majors that he won, the nine Majors, you know, because even though -- I mean, he won on the longest hardest course they ever played I think Bellerive in Saint Louis and what happened you had to chip and putt. You had to be able to get your ball around. Corey Pavin, I mean, that course looked like about the hardest course I ever saw, well, with the exception where they played the Ryder Cup that year over at Keowee. Somebody asked me if I wanted to play in Keowee; we were in that area, I said, no, thank you. But the demands that it puts on your game and the player will be a very well rounded player; being able to do a lot of different things. Even though it is soft, just banging the fairway; banging on the green and the hole, before the weeks out, you are going to have to do more than that if you are going to win.

JIM COLBERT: They always have an advantage. But when it is real soft like that and the greens are soft, then I mean, if they are hitting 7-iron; you are hitting 5-iron, at this level time after time, they probably run you down, you know, unless they are putting horribly or something like that. If you just did that for four days on every hole, at this level, you are in a severe disadvantage. Now if the ball is bouncing off the greens and if it's landing in the fairway and running into the roughs and that kind of stuff -- not that we hit it in the rough less than they do, but other requirements come into play and the rough is heavy enough that there is a lot of our guys just -- there is certain lines nobody can get on.

JIM COLBERT: Right now, we have some guys that can reach the 5th hole -- 6th hole. Albus put it is within 5 yards yesterday. He putt it in the water today trying to do it, so we have this couple that can reach it and it wouldn't take much -- it's been a little bit into the breeze, so it wouldn't take much for some of the guys to reach that hole. I guess somebody put it on 9 during the Kemper or something, but --

JIM COLBERT: I remember reading there was a big deal somebody put it on there, and oh, 10 -- 11 used to be 10 -- 11 is not reachable right now, but if it ever firmed up, but again we probably have a couple of guys that can reach 11, and -- but not 16, that is a whole different hole, 16, than it used to be -- used to be 15, but it was shorter somehow. I even knocked -- reached a couple of times bringing off the old hill they used to have on the right downwind and bouncing it up there, but you can't even get close.

JIM COLBERT: Everyone of them. If you are in the rough, you are in the rough. The odds are-- number one, you can get on the green in the rough. Number 3 probably not going to get on the green. 4 probably not going to get on the green. 5, maybe on the green. 8, yes. 9, you might not get on the green in 3 if either one of the first two shots are in the rough. I drove it in the bunker yesterday at 9 and could only hit it barely hit a 6-iron out of the lip over the tree because there are trees hanging over those babies; had to hit a 3-wood. Then when you get on the back 9, you are not going to get on any of the greens. 12, 14, 15 and 16 into the-- and 17, if you are in the rough, you are probably not going to be on the green. So every hole is a swing hole where the drive is so important. That is why I'd prefer because even though they have leveled out these fairways there are slants to them where the ball can run in the rough. And I think it would require more skills, more different skills. I think Irwin will be really tough. I think he will be really tough. He is a little mad at himself, I think from last week.

JIM COLBERT: No. I don't know -- they are new and they don't have much root structure so I mean, it is real sandy even though they are rolling them and everything, they are still -- not a lot of root structure, so they tear real easy; that stops the ball. But it is unusual for brand new greens to -- there is more poa annua in the greens than there is in the fairway. It is unusual. So when you get the greens if they were up to speed with the poa annua that and everything -- I mean, the toughest combination in the world in fast and bumpy. Don't come tougher than that. And if they get a little more speed in these babies, it you -- just it is little hard to keep the ball on the line with the poa annua that and bent, two different types of grasses and the cups are not very strong, so one way takes some of the break out and hit it harder, but the ball doesn't seem to be staying in the cup.

JIM COLBERT: The rim of the cup, you know, if you have root structures, the roots are going down and it's usually fairly firm. Then of course, they paint them for television.

JIM COLBERT: Yeah, like that. Now, if they paint them, that might firm them up a little bit, but that is the other thing when you get used to putting and painted cups you kind of got to put the ball in the right speed. That is when you see the ball come out so fast on a razor sharp edge, but the opposite of that is if you hit it a little to hard it hits the back, it goes in the hole. Here, if you hit it too hard it hits the back kind of tears it and just keeps right on rolling is what I have seen last couple of days.

JIM COLBERT: Yeah, I mean, the edges break down real easy. Nobody's fault, just new greens..

JIM COLBERT: Thank you. I just promise best efforts.