U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 8, 2006

Tom Watson

PETE KOWALSKI: Coming to the podium now will be Mr. Tom Watson, leader in the championship, and we're going to keep the questions here short and to the point. He has agreed to come and visit us in the media center, so quick quizzing here and then the media center. Thank you.

TOM WATSON: All right. Let's see. What do you want to know?

Q. (Inaudible.)

TOM WATSON: It's some sort of pulled muscle right here. I just made a swing and it's an interior rotation. You have to ask a fellow in the trailer. But it does it doesn't bother me too much now. It did bother me for a couple shots after I did it, but it seemed to loosen up as the day went on.

So it may be a little stiff tomorrow, but we'll just see what happens. It's not debilitating at all. It's just a nuisance. That's what happens when you get 57 years old. You know. What else can I say?

Q. Talk about your round today. Very steady again 4 under?

TOM WATSON: I played a good round of golf. I started off with a couple birdies on the par 3.s, I made an actually I started off on the first hole and made a good 2 putt on the first hole to save par.

Didn't hit a very good second shot there. But I knocked it stiff at the second hole and knocked it in about a foot and knocked it close again at number 4 with an 8 iron.

Wedge on second hole.

8 iron on the fourth hole, and then I made birdies there and that was a good start.

Q. Hit 11 fairways today too. Is that a big key to your round, do you think?

TOM WATSON: Did I hit 11 fairways? Did I?

Q. If this stat is right.

TOM WATSON: All right. Let me see which ones I missed. I missed 18, I missed 9, I missed 5. That's it. You're right. Okay. That's better than yesterday.

Q. That's the best so far.

TOM WATSON: Is it? That's the key then. Driving the ball in the short grass is definitely the key. Actually I got some good breaks today when I hit it in the long grass. At 9 I hit a bad tee ball. It was on the up slope and the ball was just teed up like you tee it up in the rough when you're playing with your buddies, you know.

It was just right up there. I hit a 3 iron right up on the green, 2 putted, and that was lucky. That was lucky. I had a shot there, because I was a long way from the green and I should be dead and can't get to the green.

18, actually I drew a pretty good lie at 18 as well. It was kind of in the gnarly grass but sitting where I could get the club on the ball. I could get the club through the grass, and I hit a good shot up there to have really a pretty good birdie opportunity, really.

And so that at five I really didn't have a chance to get it on the green. But other than that, that was I was pretty good today. I 3 putted the 13th hole; I left it a little bit short coming I was looking at that shiny slope right past the hole at 13 and down the hill like that, and it's I said, don't just go gunning this by. I left it about six or seven feet short and missed it.

But the birdies were very good. I hit a solid birdie, as I said, at 2 and 4, 6.

7, I hit a 2 putt birdie with an 8 iron for a second shot.

No. 11 it was a that was the best iron of the day. I hit a 2 iron off the tee and I hit an 8 iron about 12 feet from the hole. And that's a hard pin right there. The back right. Any pin at 11 is tough. Just to get it close. And I knocked it close there and made birdie.

Made a good putt at 14, up the hill there, and then 16 I hit an 8 iron in about four feet from the hole and made that putt.

Q. Where were you standing on 17 when Allen Doyle was on the green?

TOM WATSON: I was walking up there. I knew he knocked it on the green because I was waiting for him on the tee and he made the eagle there. That's pretty good. That's a good hole to eagle.

Q. When you see that out in front of you, I know you got to take care of business, but do you look at the scoreboard that much when you're starting to finish around like this?

TOM WATSON: Well, I always look at the scoreboard. I like to know what my position is. It's certainly much more important the last day to know your position than any other time. You got to take care of business up until the last day, and then let's use the scoreboard to our advantage. And know what we have to do.

Q. Talk about playing with Allen Doyle and Loren Roberts for the final round of the tournament tomorrow.

TOM WATSON: Yeah, Loren played typical boss of the moss round. He probably hit it in all the fairways and made a lot of putts. Allen Doyle's been playing very well. He played I believe that he said he played well at the U.S. Open, and I was pretty proud of him going there and playing the U.S. Open.

That was that's a tough golf course, and he almost made the cut there. Some other people didn't make the cut there, so he wasn't the lone ranger, you know.

Q. Can you talk about

TOM WATSON: But it's fun playing with both of them. They're both they both have a little bit different approach to the swing. Allen, he hits it from the front about right here (Indicating), and then Loren's got a nice long, very controlled golf swing. Same thing with his putting.

So we'll just see what happens tomorrow. I hope the weather stays like it is today so we can get the round in tomorrow. And we're going to everybody knows we're going off early tomorrow in threesomes, at 8 o'clock, so the last time is 9:29. So we'll try to get this round in tomorrow.

Q. Talk about your mentality just going into the last day. Do things change or do you just try to take the status quo?

TOM WATSON: Well, I react to the situation by taking it probably just trying to take it as easy as I can. There's pressure on me, but I dealt with pressure before. That's the way I deal with it, and I try to put it push it off to the side, and I do a pretty good job of that. Then some days the pressure affects me more than others. It affected me a little bit more today because I had such along wait until 2:30. I never really like that. But tomorrow will be a little bit different. We start early and I hope we can get the round in.

End of FastScripts.