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FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 13, 2006

Ron Streck

DEARBORN, MICHIGAN

DAVE SENKO: Ron, thanks for joining us. Maybe just get us started, kind of an interesting start and then a great finish. You bogeyed 1 and finished with five straight birdies from 13 to 17, and then about a 12 and a half foot save at 18.

RON STRECK: Yes, it was a good day after the start. Actually, I thought I hit a pretty good shot on 1, just hit it a little too far. The pin was tucked back and I had no chip shot. I had to cut it around the big tree there on 1 because I was on the right side of the fairway, didn't hit a very good chip and made bogey.

Hit it close on the next hole, missed that putt. Actually hit it pretty close most of the next several holes but didn't make any putts. And finally made a putt on 7 from about four or five feet for birdie.

I think I only missed two or three greens. I was pretty close most of the greens I hit. I made a good long putt on I 2 putted from just on the edge of 13 for birdie, up the hill.

14, I hit it in the middle of the green. J.J. was about 40 feet and I was probably 35 or so, and he made his and I made mine. We just kind of laughed at each other. He said we won this hole. The guys in front of the us I think made double or triple and a bogey, I know, because we stood there and watched them.

I hit it pretty close on let's see, 15, I hit it about 12, 14 feet, something like that, made a real good putt. I cut a 5 iron in there and probably messed J.J. up, because I think he hit 7 iron, and I cut a 5 iron.

The next hole I hit a real good drive and hit a 7 iron just right of the hole, maybe 18 feet or so, and made a real good putt and it went in.

I hit it close on 17. 17, I hit it in there three feet or so with a sand wedge.

18 was a good driving hole for me. I hit it on the right side of the fairway. I had to cut it around the big tree and didn't cut it far enough and made it into the bunker. I didn't hit a real good bunker shot but I made about a 12, 14 footer, something like that. I just didn't want to ruin the round to have that putt on the last hole. I looked at it and thought, Don't mess this up by bogeying the last hole. So I was lucky to make that.

I played good here the first round last year. I won the week before this tournament last year and came here a little overexcited, I think, and made three or four bogeys the first round and shot like 66, I think. And today I only made one bogey on the first hole.

I like the golf course. I'm sorry we're not going to play here anymore. This is only my second year to play here, but I like the golf course. I think there is just enough difficult shots to make the golf course go one way or the other as far as the scores. There are a couple of difficult holes you need to not get too aggressive on. And I was lucky enough to birdie one of them, 14.

I thought 12 was playing, where the pin, I cut a little 6 iron in there and hit it about 10, 12 feet. I thought I was going to make birdie and missed that putt.

That kind of got me going, because I hit the next shot on the green on the next hole. I was trying to force it a little bit and was able to make a few putts and ended up making five birdies in a row.

Q. What was your length of putt on No. 9?

RON STRECK: About eight feet. I had about an 8 footer.

Q. How about at No. 3?

RON STRECK: 3, I had about a 10, 12 footer. I didn't birdie that hole, did I? I birdied No. 3? Okay, I don't remember. That's right, the par 5.

Q. How different is the course going to play this weekend as it dries out a little more? Will it be different tomorrow than it was today?

RON STRECK: I noticed it was a lot softer this year than last year, because several places I drove it, I was a whole lot further last year than this year. My drives were only rolling three or four feet. You could see that from the divots in the fairway. Has it been raining? See, I don't even know.

Yes, it will be a different golf course. I assumed they were watering the fairways because they played so fast last year. I guess not. I didn't get here until yesterday. I didn't talk to anybody. This is the first time since I've been out here I didn't have to play in the Pro Am. I felt, Wow, this is great.

Q. You missed the cut last week. Did you go home and work on something or just get away for a break?

RON STRECK: I went home and put siding on my garage for two days, 8 hours on Saturday and 10 hours on Sunday. It's been sitting there for two years. The only shot I saw from the weekend was Bruce Lietzke making a putt on the last hole. I just happened to walk through to wash my hands. I didn't watch any of the rest of it.

I played actually really well last week and shot 9 over par. I was messing around with I've been messing around with equipment and stuff and bringing too many clubs to tournaments and deciding 20 minutes before I played which clubs I was putting in my bag. This week I decided to bring 14 clubs and that's what I was going to play with, and one golf ball and that's it. If I played poorly, fine.

I hit a couple of shots too long. The second hole I hit it in a bush. I was ten feet from the hole, but I was in a bush. I tried to hit it out. It went right back in the bush. Then I chipped it over the green. The pin was in the back. I chipped it all the way up to the hole and then it rolled all the way back at me. I made triple.

I was talking with Jim Culvert. He said, "Ron, you're just playing too good. Don't let it bother you." I said, It just felt like I'm in the Pro Am and I'm one of the amateurs.

Q. Did you see a round like this coming or was it out of the blue?

RON STRECK: I've hit the ball close, closer than this year, and shot 70 or 71, 72. I'd make four or five bogeys when I would make five or six birdies. I was really just trying to focus on hitting the greens.

Because I've had issues with ball distance. I would have a 7 iron from 152 yards or something in my hand and I might hit it flush and hit it 165 and I'm dead. The oak tree was a perfect example. I was even par. The guy in front of me, I can't remember who I was playing with, but hit an 8 iron on the par 5 there, the third hole, and hit it in the middle of the green. I was thinking 7 iron. And I'm on an uphill lie. I take a 6 iron and I punch it. I hit it through the wind. I'm 20 yards short of the green. I hit it 111 yards. You can't play golf that way. That, to me, was an issue, the way the ball responded.

I grew up playing in the wind, so I'm not used to that. They don't make the ball I won with last year anymore, so I was trying to play the ball that they make that's different. I just had to get away from it. Hopefully this is a sign that I made the right decision.

Q. When did you start playing with the ball you are playing with now?

RON STRECK: Actually, two weeks ago in Kansas City. In Kansas City, I started this ball. I used a different ball at the Open. I used a different version of the same ball. I hit some shots I had never hit before so I decided to go back to the ball. I made 10 or 11 birdies in Kansas City and shot like 1 or 2 under for the tournament.

The bogeys I made, most of them were bad shots. I made a double bogey on one hole. I can't remember the where I sucked it back in the water. I actually hit the green, sucked it in the water and made double there. A lot of it is just getting confidence and used to how far it's going to fly. I'm getting a little more confidence with this. This is about the third week I've used the new golf ball and I'm trying to make it work.

Q. What are you using?

RON STRECK: I'm just using a Titleist. I'm not blaming anything on the golf ball. Certain golf balls are made for certain players, and I was probably using a ball that wasn't made for me.

Q. Why didn't you continue to use the ball you used last year?

RON STRECK: Actually, I think it's the ball that John Daly made. It's a Maxfli. It's the older version of the Maxfli. They told me at the first of the year they weren't going to make that ball anymore, that they had a lot of them but they weren't going to make it. So I tried to play the other ball. I probably played 12 or 13 too many tournaments with it, for me.

But it's not a ball issue. A lot of it was mental. The ball is obviously not made for me, for my type of golf game, and I didn't recognize it until I got away from it. It's a good golf ball. There are a lot of guys playing it. Several guys playing it.

I had the mindset that they weren't going to make the ball anymore, so what if I went out and played real well this year and then I don't have a golf ball to play with anymore. That was my thinking. It was the wrong direction to go, but that was part of it.

End of FastScripts.

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