FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 9, 1997

Hale Irwin

HALE IRWIN: Well, I'm very excited. The Senior Open is a bit of a disappointment in that I didn't get off to the start I had hoped to. So, I hope I get a another chance this week. This is, I think, a tournament that many of us look forward to. It is not only the last of the majors, but I think it's a very important event for us on the Senior TOUR. I had a good year here last year. I feel comfortable on the golf course. Well, I don't know if I feel comfortable, but I feel good on the golf course. I think there are enough holes to give you some discomfort to give it enough of a major championship kind of feeling as you're playing. My game was basically awful today. The ProAm's I try to use as a way to have some fun with some people, generally people I've never met, and enjoy their company. And, I did do that today. I enjoyed it very much. But that is not a good barometer for me as I approach tomorrow. Excuse me for being late, but I was out trying to correct more than a few problems I had today. The first half has been, gosh, a wonderful first half. If I could even come close to duplicating it in the second half, it would be the kind of year that you just never, ever could begin to forget. One of the comments I was making outside when I was putting is that I hit the ball so well the first part of the year that I just never had putts that were any length at all to speak of. The second part or maybe the last couple of months, I haven't hit it quite as closely. So, therefore, I'm back out to some longer putts. And, I have not been putting those putts as well as I'd like to. I can say that my game is not as sharp right now as it was the first quarter. But, I do feel it really starting to come around again. This would be a great week in which to do that. I'm very excited - very, I guess, anxious to get into tomorrow.

HALE IRWIN: Well, two years ago I think the weather was - the heat was the problem. Last year I guess we kind of had some thunder boomers and things that kept it sort of interesting. This year it looks like we are going to have that chamber of commerce kind of weather. That can make the course play differently than we have in the past. Today was, I thought, pretty challenging with the wind coming out of the north as it did, made some of those holes play pretty interestingly. I don't know if we'll have that. I'm sure we'll have some dying winds. You're not going to be able to blame the weather for any poor golf this week, it looks great. I've always felt like weather sometimes added that element that was not just the golf course. There's enough trouble out on this course that - given the wind and the corner in which it's coming - can really give you some problems. For instance, the last hole today, pretty good hole back into that wind. And if we were to have that on Sunday, anybody that's playing the last hole has got quite a chore ahead of them to make a par, if that's what it took to win.

HALE IRWIN: I think they're going to affect the scoring somewhat. I don't know that they're so major that it's going to affect the entire field. But, for instance, the 2nd hole, you just don't kind of hit it out to the right now. There is that trap out there. It is a problem that if you get it in there, you could still get to the green, but it's not an automatic: "I missed the lake, can I bail out to the right?" It's those kinds of things that I think really set the 2nd hole apart from, say, last year. You've always worried about the water on the left, but now you really have to worry about the water on the left because of that bunker. It just takes that touch sometimes, and that could affect the scoring, just that one hole. They have, what, three or four other changes out there? For instance, the new tee at 17, I don't know if that will really affect the play of the hole that much. It could. It's just kind of hard to tell. The new tee at 16, it's going to make your shot over that mound to the left a little longer, but I don't think it's going to change the success or failure of the hole. Rather than it only being 190 yards over that bunker, now it's 200 yards over that -- or that mound. Some of those changes which I think are more -- will affect scoring than some of the others. 2nd hole, for instance, and No. 9 will also have that same effect.

HALE IRWIN: I do, tomorrow. No, you can't look back. I'm not one that looks back. I think you have to keep looking forward. Ray, he won the tournament, purely and simply, he won the tournament. He beat everybody else to the finish. That's the way it is. As to looking to a rematch, no. I hope that I get into a position where I'm contending, and that's all I ever ask for. Hopefully things would work out differently. You can't win them all. You're not going to win them all. You can sure try to win them all.

HALE IRWIN: Yeah, we ought to send -- send Swampy a little note from the immigration service and check out his green card. Swampy is great. He's been a good player for a long time, a superb international player. When Graham played over here on the regular Tour in '78.

HALE IRWIN: '77. We were good friends. He played a lot. He won The Heritage. He showed that he could play on this continent and play well and win. So it's not surprising to see Graham have the last month, he's played superbly. I think it's great. It shows, I think, more, the depth of the players that are out here. It's not just one or two or three. There are others that can come up and play very well. He has certainly added a new dimension at the top of the rung, and he's -- represents not only his country but represents himself very well.

HALE IRWIN: Thank you.