FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 16, 2000

Dana Quigley

DANA QUIGLEY: Why do you have to focus on those? I want to go through the first six. (Laughs). No, I played all right. I think I parred the first six, and I birdied 7 and 8. I really was playing pretty well. Tom Kite was not as good as he was yesterday, and, of course, I wasn't, either; so I guess that's to be expected. You know, I just kept making pars. I didn't make any mistakes, and then I really got kind of a bad break on 14. I played that shot way out to the right to go straight. My ball bounces so hard, I just thought it would come off that hill right and just go right down to the hole, and it got stuck up in the right rough and I made bogey there. I came right back with just a great 4-iron shot on 16 to about eight, ten feet and made it for 2. And I think at that point I went back to a two-shot lead, I'm not sure. Then I started getting a little bit quick. I think I was choking a little bit, feeling the pressure. I got real quick with a 7-wood tee shot on 16. Kind of toe-shanked it off the tee, and I just made a great 4 there. I played it out to the left on purpose so I would have a pitch across the green. And pitched it a little too far by, about seven or eight feet and made it. Still feeling really good about it. 17, you know, I didn't think I could go for the pin because the ball would not stop, and I put it really where I wanted to go. I was aiming at that right bunker; went in it. So it was really a pretty good wood shot to hit it there. And again, I think I was feeling the pressure. I could see the water behind the hole, and I kind of chunked a sand wedge. You know, a par there was great because I still had a one-shot lead. Really, the unfortunate part of it all was before I hit my tee shot on 18 was we heard the crowd on 18; so Raymond had made the putt before I hit my tee shot, and I just tried to put a little extra on it to get it way down there, and I wanted to make birdie and I got quick and hit it left. I made a great shot out of the hazard, you know, 30, 40 yards short of the hole onto the green. I pulled a calf muscle on that shot and I could just barely walk at this point. You know, I had a really hard up-and-down and just didn't hit it hard enough. So it was a near miss. I held them off for 17 holes. Actually for 71 holes, I should say. So that was good.

DANA QUIGLEY: Probably 25 feet. Up over a ridge. The ridge was the thing I was worried about with a chip shot, and I ended up having to deal with the putt, too; so it was not very good.

DANA QUIGLEY: 7, I hit it in the green-side bunker. Hit it out about six feet and made it. And 8, the pin was on the back left, and I hit it just on the back fringe. Hit a great 7-iron right by the hole and I chipped it in. That was probably, at the most, 12 feet, 15 feet.

DANA QUIGLEY: Yeah, made two great saves. I made a great save on 1 and on 4. I was dead on 4. I mean, the pin is right up against that little shelf and it's rock hard. I tried to play the sandshot out and hopefully make the putt and that's what happened.

DANA QUIGLEY: Well, actually, I thought I was okay. I thought I was -- a two-shot lead by the time I got to 16th green, but I guess Raymond had birdied it and that cut it to one, and that was a little disconcerting. And then Larry putts it in with a 3-iron on No. 17 for eagle. You know, it's like you say, I felt all those guys charging at me. You know, they are all taking their shots, and when you're leading, that's what happens. It tends to motivate the guys behind you. It's just too bad that the guys behind you are of such a pedigree that I've got to try to ward them off. They should have given me a partner for best ball out there the last few holes with those cats shooting at me.

DANA QUIGLEY: I hit a 7-iron.

DANA QUIGLEY: Yeah, admittedly, I was feeling it. After I made the bogey on 14 was really the first time I could feel like -- you know, it was really the first mistake, the first bogey I made in 50 holes. I have not made a bogey since Friday or since Thursday, I should say. That was the first time I felt that I was giving -- you know, I think I had a good enough -- I was in good enough position to try to make them come to me, but then when you give one back, it tends to upset your momentum. And I felt it for the first time there. But then I came right back with a great iron shot on 15, and from there on in, they just kept making birdies, and I didn't make a whole lot of great swings coming in.