U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 9, 2006

D.A. Weibring

CRAIG SMITH: D.A. Weibring, 7 birdies the first 12 holes, finishes minus 2, 68 today.

D.A. WEIBRING: Can we talk about the first 12? Okay. What do you want to know?

Q. Obviously it's hard to put anything into question when you're standing up here right now after playing those first 12 and then suffering just two very significant set backs there very quickly.

D.A. WEIBRING: Well, I obviously got off to a great start and I hit some really good shots early, made the putts. Really had good momentum going. I didn't know what it was going to take today. But I was trying to kind of move forward and go as low as I could go.

I birdied do you want the birdies or do you need that?

I birdied 11 and 12 on the back side, and I guess I got to 7 under. And hit a perfect tee shot on 13. And as we got up and walked around the corner, the other group was just past us 30 or 40 yards. They must have had trouble in the left rough and what have you. And it took a while.

When you get stuck in that hay, you got to make drops and you almost can't play. And so I certainly understood that.

In retrospect, it probably hurt a little momentum. I was ready to play that next shot and I played a pretty good shot to the back part of the green. I hit what I thought was a good first putt down the hill. It came up four feet short or so. And I thought I hit a pretty good putt there and it broke the other way. And I 3 putt.

But I guess that just maybe opens up a little bit of a possibility. Everything was so positive all day there, everything was, and I hit a poor tee shot at the next hole. I pulled it in the fairway bunker. I was on the up slope of the fairway bunker. And thought I played a terrific shot. I choked down a pitching wedge trying to play up the right side of the green there.

But when you kind of open up, you stop your momentum, I guess that ball must have carried on the back edge of the green and just lurched back and it went into a lie I played as good a shot as I could have played to put it where I did. And that wasn't even on the green.

And then I kind of gunned the pitch shot by the hole and past. Was fortunate to hole the putt coming back.

Played a good shot at 15. 2 putt, I pulled the tee shot a little bit at 16. The wind really got gusting when the sun really kind of came out there the last three or four holes. But I caught a decent lie there. Par, I hit a 5 iron that I guess landed up on the top of the bank, one bounce forward and it's really in pretty good shame. And it rolled down up on the up slope of the bunker, which wouldn't be a difficult shot, that was my first bunker shot of the week.

And I was obviously I barely got it out of the bunker. I feel like I'm a pretty good bunker player. The sand was awful soft. And I misjudged how soft it was. I was trying to throw a nice little high soft shot there.

Then I had a little funny lie and chipped it up and make double. Make bogey off the edge. But really, it took a little bit of the starch out of me. I kept trying to finish, and it just didn't, it wasn't there. The last few holes.

Q. Were you expecting the sand to be wetter and heavier?

D.A. WEIBRING: No, I was surprised how soft it was. It was very soft sand. You get a feel for the bunkers when you play a few shots during the week. The first time I was in a bunker was at 14 on that fairway bunker shot and that was kind of a tight lie. But it looked like just an awful shot. But I just on the up slope, sometimes sand gets raked a little more up on the up slope.

I don't think I played as bad a shot as the result, but obviously it was a bad result.

Q. What was your yardage at 13 on the second shot?

D.A. WEIBRING: I had right about 150, something like that. I was in between with the wind. It kept going back and forth between a 7 iron and an 8 iron. And in retrospect I wish I would have hit 8 iron. But with that big false front there, I thought it was just kind of a little three quarter chip 7 iron.

Q. How many times did your thought process change? You talked about the wind and were there, you had so much time to wait, can you just talk about your thought process?

D.A. WEIBRING: Oh, it changed a couple times, but when I got up there I was thinking 7 iron then I went to 8. But I was really fine. I really I'm in the middle of the fairway, 7 under par. I felt bad for the guy in the hay. Tom Wargo didn't know where to drop his ball and I understand that. That happens. And I've played long enough, I ought to be able to handle that. And so I can't blame it on anything.

There's no question that everything had been pretty positive all day long up until that 3 putt. But I thought I hit the first putt, I know a couple of the greens that maybe they only mowed once rather than double cut, just because of the contour. That may have been one. But I was surprised that that first putt came up so far short.

Q. To have this championship in your grasp two years in a row, how disappointing is it?

D.A. WEIBRING: Well, it was it snuck in my mind, there's no question. I was near the turn there and but maybe I could be one to come from behind this year. There's no doubt about it. I kept trying to say, okay, you're human, you're going to think about those things, but let's put that over here. And that's what I was having those thoughts, you know, 10, 11, but that's when I felt so good because I played aggressively at 11 and 12 and made two more birdies and thought I was going the right direction.

Q. Tough holes?

D.A. WEIBRING: They really were. And I hit a perfect tee shot at 13. I couldn't have walked out and sat it down any better. So as it turned out I missed a couple fairways coming in, 14 and 17, but you're going to miss fairways. I hadn't missed a fairway all day. So it wasn't a very good feeling even bogeying the last hole, you know, I played a little 9 iron there that went in the back fringe and had one of those little fluffy lies out of the fringe. I used to think I was pretty good around the edge of the green, but it was too tough for me. But anyway it was a great week, great golf course and I'm starting to get a taste maybe I can get a little better taste the next couple years.

End of FastScripts.