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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 25, 2006

Peter Jacobsen

EDMOND, OKLAHOMA

KELLY ELBIN: Peter Jacobsen, ladies and gentlemen, in with a 4 under par round of 67, one shot out of the lead here at the Senior PGA Championship. Peter, some thoughts on your play today and if you would go there through your scorecard, please.

PETER JACOBSEN: Yeah, very impressed with the way the course played. The greens are in perfect shape.

My hat is off to the superintendent. I know it was difficult in, we're not in the summer months yet, but it's starting to get hot. I think it reached 99 today, a record, they broke the record of '93. So they were syringing the greens, they were absolutely perfect. I'm very impressed with the teeing grounds, the fairways, and the greens. And nobody likes the rough. So I'll just tell you that I found the rough to be terrible.

Overall, I played well. I drove the ball well. I hit a lot of greens. I'm trying to think of how many greens I missed. I think I missed maybe two. Got those both up and down. My only bogey on number 14 was a 3 putt. Had a good drive and a 9 iron in there about 25 feet short. I putted it past about four feet, missed it. So that was my only slip of the day.

Q. What were the length of the putts on the birdies?

PETER JACOBSEN: Yeah, let's run through the card. The fifth hole, par 5, I hit a driver and a 7 iron layup. And then I hit a sand wedge to about three feet. Made the birdie there.

Number 6, I hit a driver and a pitching wedge to about four inches. Tapped that in. Those are always enjoyable.

Number 7, I hit a good drive down the right side and hit a pitching wedge to about 25 feet. And I made that.

No. 12, the downhill dogleg to the left par 4, hit a good drive and a 7 iron to about 15 feet. I made birdie there.

3 putted 14 as I told you.

No. 16, I hit a very good drive and a 5 wood to about 15 feet and the crew had just come out before us and syringed the greens. And I hit a beautiful putt and it stopped just on the front edge. So I wasn't that happens. They were trying to save the greens and I just misjudged the speed. So I tapped that in for birdie there.

KELLY ELBIN: Questions?

Q. For an Oregon guy you do a pretty good job in this Midwestern heat. Obviously two years you won and it was about this not St. Louis. I guess if you could sort of talk about that and then also look at this leaderboard, it's really a who's who at least in the first round.

PETER JACOBSEN: I've been a resident in Florida for the last few years and even though I'm from the State of Oregon, having played professional golf for 30 years now, I'm pretty used to playing in hot weather. But it's we were all commenting, I played with Gil Morgan and Bruce Fleisher, we were all commenting out there that with the absence of the breeze we felt like it was pretty hot. And Gil kept saying it was unseasonably hot. So for it to reach 99, that was quite a, it kind of confirms what we were thinking out there.

To me, playing in weather like this it's all about pacing yourself and being patient. When I say pacing yourself, knowing what you can and can't do. There's no reason to try to bust every tee shot, no reason to try to go at every pin. This golf course is difficult for that very reason.

There are some hole locations you just don't go at. You just put the ball on the green and you take your 2 putt par and you go. You might make a 20 footer and you might make a 40 footer. But there are only a few holes you can attack. And I think that when you point out the names on the leaderboard, I think those are the players that have learned how to manage their game. Obviously guys like Gil Morgan and Tom Watson and Jay Haas, Curtis Strange, guys that have won Major championships in their career, they know the pins to go at and they know which ones to lay off of.

Q. After that last statement, what's the difference between this set up this week and a U. S. Open?

PETER JACOBSEN: Very similar. This is a U. S. Open type golf course. That's why I think that when we play a Senior PGA, Senior Open, Senior British, it's pretty exciting to be able to come to the venues we have played before. Obviously we all played here in '88 at the PGA Championship. I just played Prairie Dunes last Sunday, which is going to be the site of the Senior Open, and I counted about five holes on my card that you can actually attack. There are five holes that you can attack. When I say attack, I mean take your second shot directly at the pin. So this golf course is very similar to a U. S. Open setup, a PGA setup, and any Major championship setup. This is the kind of golf course that will produce it's had a great history of producing great champions through its history.

Q. You played with Gil, wondering if playing with someone whose also playing well, do you, particularly on a good golf course, do you feed off that, does it help in any way?

PETER JACOBSEN: Absolutely. Gil Morgan and I have played a lot together. Which is good for me, because he's always near the top of the leaderboard, which means I must be somewhere near there as well. I think the last three rounds I played with Gil, I played the last round at Mastercard with him and you can check the book, but I think he shot 61 or, what did he shoot the last round there? 10 under? And then I played we were battling for second behind Kite there. What did he shoot, 62 or 63 there? So we have some pretty good rounds together. He's one of the best players I've played with in my career. For him to he's in every week. He's a great ball striker, great putter, great manager of the game.

Q. With that being said about Gil Morgan and stuff, does it make him even more dangerous on his home course?

PETER JACOBSEN: Absolutely. Absolutely. Whenever you I picked that either Doug Tewell, David Edwards or Gil Morgan was going to win this week. Simply because of the familiarity they have. We're always looking for, when you come here and you don't play a golf course like they do as their home course, when you get a change of wind, you don't really know your line. You don't know the line you want to take. But Gil gets up and it's inherent in his computer, he knows that if the wind is into his face off 11, he's going to aim here. If it's down off the left on 12 he's going to aim here. He got up and hit a few shots off the tees this today that really surprised me. He hit 3 wood off 12. Which I never thought that would be a 3 wood hole. And so I just did what Gil did. I hit the club he hit.

Q. Did I read recently that you may still have a few more surgeries in your future and what's can you give us the short recap of what have you had and what is next and when you get the bionic parts.

PETER JACOBSEN: Well, I've had, I had hip surgery in 2002 and 2004. And I had two right knee surgeries in 2005. And I saw the doctor last week and he took an X ray of both my knee and my hip and he looked at my knee and he said your knee is bad and your hip is worse. And he said, you've had a very good all I can say is you've had a great career. Congratulations. I said what does that mean? He goes, that means I'm not sure how much longer you'll be able to play on those two joints.

So, I'm thinking about the hip replacement first. If and when that happens. I'm pretty sore all the time. I'm limping around out there. But I'm gutty. I'm going to hang in there as long as I can.

Q. Is he talking replacement for hip and knee?

PETER JACOBSEN: Total replacement for the hip and the knee, yeah.

Q. Do you feel an urgency in that sense to play well while you still can?

PETER JACOBSEN: Maybe there's a sense back in here (Indicating), but I don't consciously think about that. I just love playing golf. I love coming to great venues like this and playing in Major championships and I've always, I just, I love playing the Champions Tour, I loved playing on the PGA TOUR when I have a chance to do that. And I've been very fortunate in my career. I've had some great wins and some great finishes and been very fortunate. I got a lot, I have had a lot of great bounces in my career, so I'm just enjoying it.

Q. Do you recall much of this course from the PGA and did it help you or were you just copying Gil Morgan?

PETER JACOBSEN: No, no, I did remember. Having prior experience always helps. I knew the golf course pretty well. There are a few holes that I forgot, but the golf course is very difficult. It's a modern golf course. It's all forced carry. If you miss the ball into the trees and into the rough, it's not a links type course where you can bump and run the ball up on the green. That's why driving your ball is so important here. You've got to have the ball in the fairway and you've got to be clear of tree limbs, so you can carry it on the green. But, yeah, my prior experience here from '88 helped. Helps.

KELLY ELBIN: Peter's best round at the '88 PGA Championship was a 68 in the second round.

PETER JACOBSEN: So 67 would be better than that.

KELLY ELBIN: That's correct. Even with the new math.

PETER JACOBSEN: Man. But add in technology and superior strength at 52, you know, it's probably the same.

Q. You just mentioned a little earlier that you played Prairie Dunes pretty recently, I just wonder if you can talk a little bit about that course that's coming up in another month and a half, how that sets up as a Senior Open venue?

PETER JACOBSEN: It's a fantastic golf course. I was shocked at how difficult it was. It's not long, it's probably 66, maybe 6,700 yards. And I really didn't have a chance to get a full, gauge the difficulty of each hole because we were playing the opposite wind, the prevailing wind was normally out of the south. But the golf course Ben Crenshaw and Jim Hardy. Jim Hardy is my design partner and also my swing coach, he grew up there. And he brags about it and so does Ben Crenshaw. And they didn't oversell it. They sold exactly what it is. It's a difficult course. From what I understand Allen Doyle said at the press day that 15 under will win the championship. I would agree with that. 15 under will win. Whoever gets there, will win at 15 under. I found it to be an exacting, yet very fair test of golf. You can put the ball on the ground, you don't have to put the ball in the air like you do here. You can put it down, put it under the wind and bump it in. And the thing that I really like about what I understand the setup's going to be, the USGA has said if the greens get too quick, we're going to lose them. They're going to be out of control fast and you'll see guys putting balls off greens. Again, the greens are Augusta like. And you can't have Augusta speed, nor will they have Augusta speed there. Because it's silly.

Q. I thought you were going to say they can't wait to lose them there. You always played, your game's always been well suited to difficult courses, difficult scoring conditions, Bellerive is a good example. This week would seem to fall in that category. Did you feel that way this week and do you still feel that way?

PETER JACOBSEN: Yeah, I, again, this feels like a Major championship venue, whether it's a Champions Tour venue or a PGA TOUR venue, it feels like it's big golf. It feels like it's Major golf. And I get I think I get jacked up for that. I think a lot of the players do.

Q. What's worse the wind or the heat?

PETER JACOBSEN: Here? The heat would be worse. The wind we can deal with. But, boy, you can it gets hot out there. It's tough on us senior fellows.

KELLY ELBIN: In with 67 Peter Jacobsen. Peter, thank you.

PETER JACOBSEN: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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