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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 9, 2006

Allen Doyle

HUTCHINSON, KANSAS

Q. (Inaudible.)

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, I don't I don't get ahead of myself quite like that. When I played the golf course I said, well, if they make the rough tough, I can compete here. But that's as far as I go. I don't get too carried away.

Q. You didn't spend much time in the rough, but the one time in this round that you did was very, very significant because of the ruling and the way that you ended up being able to save par on that hole on 11.

ALLEN DOYLE: Yeah, well I didn't have that bad a lie, but I was in a burrowing animal spot. And so I got relief and was not very far from the not the short grass, but short compared to what I was in. And so it enabled me I felt I could have got it up within 30 yards of the green probably from my current spot. So I still felt I had a good chance to get up and down. But being in the trap was much, much better.

Q. Was there any discussion about whether there was relief coming your way as far as from your two playing partners or a rules official?

ALLEN DOYLE: No. Oh, yeah, the rules officials were right there and I checked with them before I did anything. And each subsequent move, you know, they were right there and they okayed everything I did. So we were okay.

Q. You made the putts when you had to have them?

ALLEN DOYLE: Yeah, I did. Well, any putt is a good putt. But when you get in that six to eight foot range on Sunday, I made a good par on 10. I made a good par on 11. I made a good birdie on 12. I made a good par putt on 13. Tom makes that one on 14. I felt it was very, very important that I make that putt.

Then on 17 I actually felt that I had a freebie kind of. I mean, I wasn't going to do anything stupid. I was going to attempt not to. And I didn't have to hit the putt hard because it was going to be fast, so I could concentrate on my read. And I felt that it was a freebie kind of. If I made it, it would be fantastic. If I didn't, I still had a shot lead. But I did make some awful good putts on the back nine.

Q. We discussed Tom's approach shot there on 17 that got close and the roar and that. It was just an unbelievable roar, and your putt that goes in and probably wins the tournament for you.

ALLEN DOYLE: I'm sure there weren't a lot of people real happy at that other than me and my wife. Hey, but that's the way it works.

Q. (Inaudible.)

ALLEN DOYLE: But that's good. That's a good thing. You know, we play probably a third of our venues don't draw that good. We have a third that draw real, real well, and probably a third that are okay.

So when you come to a place that's that fired up about having a tournament and supporting a guy like that, I mean, he's a Kansas guy through and through.

If I wasn't playing, I would have been rooting for him. And that's the way it's supposed to be.

Q. Coming up 18 and afterward you said that that applause did you really think it was for you? Are you telling yourself as you're coming up?

ALLEN DOYLE: Oh, yeah, you know, they stopped Loren stopped, and I'm sure that it was started for Tom. But I assumed, rightly or wrongly, that when I approached the green that they had an idea what was going on and that's good feelings there.

Q. Talk about going up the 18th. Because last year you had to sit around and stew and hit balls and chip and putt for an hour or more waiting for the end result. This time you got to enjoy it a little bit more.

ALLEN DOYLE: I didn't have to wait. Well, they gave me a good round last year. They knew what was going on, or had an inkling. They didn't know exactly how it was going to turn out, but they knew I had shot a great round.

So maybe I didn't get the great applause for coming up the 18th as the would be champion, but they gave me a pretty rousting ovation for the round I was shooting.

Q. Winning last year, did that help you at all this week?

ALLEN DOYLE: Oh, yeah, sure, it does. Absolutely. Because you know you can play a good, tough golf course. That's one thing.

You know that you had to make some putts coming down the stretch, which we have to do that every week if we're going to win. But it's a little more testing out here. So having won big tournaments before is a big help when you get in that position again.

Q. Would this be considered you won two of them now you beat Tom Watson in Kansas, holding him off down the stretch. Is this your biggest win?

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, it probably would be. I got a little boost from last week with Dana winning. Dana's had good luck in Kansas City beating Tom. So I think that and maybe he and I will get banned from this area, I guess. That's apt to happen, I suppose. But, yeah, I would have to say that it would be you know, this is pretty huge.

Q. You get to keep the Ouimet trophy for another year now. What did you do with it last year, and what do you expect to do with it this year?

ALLEN DOYLE: We just put it on display at the two clubs last year. We'll do that again probably. I actually didn't drink out of it last year. I showed it too much respect. But being a Ouimet, Massachusetts guy I was a Ouimet scholar as a kid. I think I've earned the right to drink out of it now.

Q. Obviously you won this twice, but winning it is again, could you just talk about that?

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, it's incredible. You look at today at the last few groups, and Jake is playing well and he's played well in the U.S. Opens. He won it two years ago and he got to 7, and Tom and Loren Roberts has been beating us up pretty good this year. Fred Funk was supposed to be the next guy and the out here, so to handle all those guys is pretty neat.

End of FastScripts.

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