U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 7, 2006

Allen Doyle

CRAIG SMITH: Allen Doyle at 3 under par for two rounds of the championship, a 68 today.

Q. Can you talk about playing in the morning today compared to the afternoon yesterday. The conditions of the course.

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, I thought it played very similar to yesterday when we played. We got up on I kind of felt the greens will be a little softer, but we teed off on 10 and I hit an 8 iron there and I thought that was going to be on the green there and it caught that left dip or whatever and ran off the green. So I'm not so sure they were.

Then on 11 I had like 159 with a 9 iron that I went long on. That took a huge bounce there. So it got me thinking it was playing the way it did in the afternoon yesterday.

Q. How about birdie on 13? Would you go through your birdies?

ALLEN DOYLE: 13, I was in the left side of the fairway, I think we had 187. I hit a 5 iron in the back fringe about 12 feet coming down the hill and made that.

Then we birdied 1. I had 144 and I hit it about 8 feet and made that.

Then we birdied 6, I hit it about two feet there. 9 iron from about 142.

Then we bogeyed 9. We hit it in the left rough about three inches and we hacked it out about 40 yards, hit a pretty good shot in there, hit a pretty good putt, but it broke a little more than I thought.

Actually on 8 too I hit a good shot in there about the same distance and it seemed that they hadn't been breaking quite as much as they looked. And so I kind of played them left center and they both broke a little bit.

Q. You would like to keep that last one, not give it away, but before you left it did you think 68 would be pretty good?

ALLEN DOYLE: Sure, it is. Yeah. You don't like to end on that note. But you have to look back, although I hit the, I missed the first four greens, I hit some pretty good shots into them, but then from there on out that may have been the only green I missed, nine there. So I kept it in the fairway and kept it on or around the greens. So, yeah, when you come to the halfway point and they're not out of sight, you feel pretty good.

Q. How gratifying is it to follow up what you did last year in this tournament and be right there again this year?

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, I've always, you know, I can only think of one year I didn't play pretty good in one of these. So I come here and I figure if I play like I'm capable and if there's a premium on the fairways, hitting fairways, and being a little crafty around the greens and that kind of fits my game. So, but it's nice to come back and it would have been certainly wouldn't have been as nice if I shoot 75, 75 and was ordering the plane early. That wouldn't have sat quite as well. But, no, it's a good feeling. I'm playing pretty good.

Q. How would you compare this rough to Winged Foot's rough?

ALLEN DOYLE: I think it's worse. I would say it's I don't think that you could say that it was any less severe than there. I think it's more severe. If you have seen some guys try to whack out of it, I mean it seems like it plays more severe.

We might have a few more yards on each fairway, maybe. But I think the rough is playing worse.

Q. Does that get you mentally kind of ready for accepting a bogey when you otherwise wouldn't?

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, yeah. When you get a pretty good day going you like to get through it without a bogey. But there isn't anything you can do about it. As I say, I hit the ball good, so we're happy.

Q. How tough is nine playing?

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, it's playing tough.

Q. And eight and nine too?

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, 8 has got that, the wind cross there, which is you don't want to get it right there. So you kind of hug the left there. But nine's the one which the wind is coming more in your face and you're trying to hit it hard. And when I try and hit it hard I get a little more hook there. And I thought I had it played, but I didn't. But nine's playing pretty good. We had 190 even, if I was in the fairway, so, nine's playing pretty good.

Q. Following Watson's group maybe, were you behind him or a couple behind him?

ALLEN DOYLE: Yeah, was he the slow one?

Q. Well, eight and nine took quite awhile. But the big crowds following him and the cheers and all that, does that break a guy's concentration?

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, no, not really. If you were playing with him tomorrow or Sunday, I think that it will, it could get distracting, because everybody forgets about the other guy he's playing with and they just are worried about Tom. And you got to expect that. You just kind of, when I say you hope you don't get paired with him, I think it would be better for whoever to be paired with someone more mortal than Tom in Kansas.

Q. Where would you play at for an opponent to say that about you?

ALLEN DOYLE: I don't know if I have a place. They all lick their chops when they see me coming. I don't know I have a place. At the Legion in LaGrange, I guess would be my advantage.

Q. Have you felt like that you've gotten stronger as the year's gone on, given having the knee operation last year?

ALLEN DOYLE: Yeah, I feel my feet are sore now, you know, but it's not as bad. Each week it seems to get a little better. So that's a good thing. And that's a plus. And I actually feel now at the end of the day that I don't know if I'll practice today, because the wind is, I don't like to practice with that same wind. But I feel okay and each week is getting better and I feel okay.

Q. The wind affect you guys at all last half of your round or not?

ALLEN DOYLE: Oh, yeah. It picked up there at the end. And it actually played, it made five play real tough and real long. It made you're playing six with a hard cross wind. Eight with a hard cross wind and nine with a hard against cross wind. So when it picked up, it changed it a little.

Q. Was playing at Winged Foot, even though you narrowly missed the cut, you obviously had to scramble there. Any kind of a confidence boost from playing there where you have to do the same thing?

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, it would be if I was scrambling, but I'm hitting the ball a little bit better. But absolutely, if you get in there you know it's not a lost cause, as you approach your ball you got something to fall back on.

Q. Talk about last year and people that may not have, I mean they knew about Allen Doyle, but you came from so far back and had again one of the greatest rounds in Senior Open if not Major history, you're not sneaking up on people this year, but you're right there and in the hunt and it has to make you feel good.

ALLEN DOYLE: Oh, absolutely it does. But I was in the hunt in Salem when Fleisher won there. I was in the hunt in Toledo. So when I come here, I got pretty high expectations.

Q. I was wondering if you could give me kind of a recap of your round?

ALLEN DOYLE: I birdied 13 from about 15 feet behind the hole.

Birdied one hitting an 8 iron from 144 about eight feet and made that.

I hit a 9 iron from 142 on six about two feet and made that.

Then made five on nine.

Q. Talk a little bit about pin placements yesterday and how some of them were pretty intense. How were they today in the second round?

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, I didn't really focus in too much on the pin positions. I think that when you had something like one, for instance, which was one you could be, if you're in the fairway, be aggressive on, I tried to be aggressive. Two was a hard one, so you don't even think about trying to get it close. I think you just went out there with the mindset of try to get it in the fairway and then when you could be aggressive, be aggressive. And when you couldn't, realize that par was going to be a good score.

End of FastScripts.