U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 9, 2006

Bruce Lietzke

CRAIG SMITH: Bruce Lietzke, with a birdie on the last to finish at minus five, a share for second.

Q. I would imagine you feel pretty gratified.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, I feel pretty good. I can't help but look back now that I'm done and I've got all my shots out of the way, a real disappointment on 17. I had laid up, hit a good drive in the fairway and a perfect lay up. And had a pretty good feeling my yardage was going to be just right. And I walked up there and it was the only divot I've been in all week and it was just the worst possible time.

As it turns out I made heck of a par, I spun my third shot off the green, into the heavy rough and chipped out and made about a 10 or 12 footer, but now that I see the scoreboard and how close I'm going to be or have still got a couple holes to play, but as good as I played, and making putts here and there, that divot on 17, I'm going to probably think about that for quite awhile. Because I was really kind of licking my chops on that yardage and that particular shot. I laid it up just where I wanted to and I walked up there and only divot I was in all week there, and it was also the worst kind of shot. Because you want to try and take spin off of that shot and when you're hitting out of a divot like that you can't do it.

So that's the only thing that's on my mind right now. I love making birdie on 18 and all that, but, boy, I'm really disappointed I didn't have any chance of making birdie on 17 to maybe put a little more heat on those guys and anyway, it was my it was by far my best round of the week and probably couldn't have been much better. Other than playing 17 over again, I got just about everything out of the round I could. And it looks like I'm going to probably come up a couple of shots short and 17 will kind of bug me for awhile.

Q. You you've had a very steady week though.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, it was. That's kind of what you hope for in this kind of an event. You try to avoid the 75s and 76s and it's, if you go look at the scoreboard, it's hard to do. It's hard to avoid big, big numbers. I didn't make any double bogeys this week. I stared at a couple of double bogeys, but I didn't make them.

I made two eagles this week, that kind of jumps you up there. But, yeah, pretty happy with my consistency and I really didn't think I had a 66 in me. The wind were down just a little bit today and but I really didn't drive the ball any better, I did make some long putts today, that's the first time all week that I made some long putts. But consistency is pretty good in most USGA events and I did have that. Never shot over par. Like I say, I avoided double bogeys, but it looks the bottom line is I'm probably going to fall a couple shots short.

Q. When you get used to playing three rounds, does that fourth round?

BRUCE LIETZKE: It does. It's a little disorienting because I can remember coming straight from the TOUR and being a four round player and I felt kind of weird playing three day tournaments. And now this is my fifth year and I have fallen into that three day comfort zone. I had to kind of make sure I paced myself well. I came in very early this week, might have been probably not the wrong thing to do, but I came in Sunday night, so lots of practice rounds in. So this was an extra long week. Extra day competitive golf here and two practice rounds when I usually only have one on a Champions Tour event. But that's okay. It worked out to my advantage.

And I am a little tired now and I am going to try and play the Ford Senior next week, but I'll recover. I got some time. The fishing the fish are biting back home I understand, so one more week of golf and I can get back to fishing.

Q. Can you talk more about that eagle today.

BRUCE LIETZKE: A little bit different. I drove it into the rough this time, whereas the eagle I made on, I believe it was Thursday, it was from the fairway. But I drove it in the right rough today, had 192 yards straight downwind out of the rough and hit a 6 iron that actually looked like it was heading towards the hole. And I made a double eagle at last year's tournament in Dayton. And only the second double eagle of my life. And they said it went right by the hole and it went only about 10 feet past.

So it very easily could have hit the pin. But anyway, I made a nice 10 foot putt coming back for my eagle today. So my eagle on Thursday was a two footer with a 4 iron and today it was a 10 footer with a 6 iron. And the score was exactly the same, but everything else was quite a bit different.

Q. Did you get over to Wichita this week?

BRUCE LIETZKE: I did. Tuesday, we had a family reunion Tuesday there. And so I saw about 25 aunts and uncles and cousins, Tuesday afternoon.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRUCE LIETZKE: When I was living in Oklahoma I would come up here at least once a summer and do a reunion deal. And that's when I would come here and play this golf course. I live in Dallas now and our reunions are down to about once over four years now. And I think I was in Wichita three, about four years ago.

Q. Is it still a special place to you at all?

BRUCE LIETZKE: It is a special place. I love my New Way hamburgers, that's one of our trips to coming to Wichita is to eat New Ways, and I do like seeing my mom and dad grew up in Wichita and Augusta and like I say, 20, 25 cousins and aunts and uncles that are still very close to me. And so I do love coming there.

I miss coming here to bird hunt. I used to bird hunt around Abilene and then out into Western Kansas, used to do that about 15, 18 years in a row. And I miss that trip. But I love getting back there.

Q. It had to mean more than even with it being a Major?

BRUCE LIETZKE: I, this tournament, when this tournament was announced three years ago I put some little highlight marks around Prairie Dunes. I knew this was going to be an exciting week for me. I love the golf course, I worried about what the USGA was going to do to the golf course, because all I had ever done was played social golf here.

It was a tough, tough golf course. And I'll defend this golf course, I don't care how many there was a 62 shot yesterday this was a hard, hard golf course. The USGA used some really tough pins and some real, real long rough and I feel pretty lucky just to have finished under par for the week and happy to have finished close, wish it could have been better.

Q. It can't be defined by the 62. It looks like 7 under is low today.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, that's a fair score. I don't know if the USGA or somebody may be looking at this tournament for the PGA Majors, I saw where Johnny Miller said if they could add some yardage out here and I think they could, although I'm kind of a traditionalist and I think Perry Maxwell did a great job and Press Maxwell did a great job here. And I would hate to see the character of this golf course changed just to add some length and just to have a pro tournament.

I would rather leave it just like it is and let everybody enjoy it. But I think this tournament could host the PGA players with a little more length, because the rest of the challenge is out there. The greens and the rough and everything, it's a tough, tough golf course.

End of FastScripts.