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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 27, 2006

Gil Morgan

EDMOND, OKLAHOMA

KELLY ELBIN: Gil Morgan, ladies and gentlemen, the third round leader in the 67th Senior PGA Championship. Gil, your round of even par 71 today probably a matter of perseverance on a day like today as much as anything.

GIL MORGAN: That's true. It definitely was.

Well, it was obviously a very difficult day for everyone, me included. But, I don't know, I made I think making a birdie early on kind of got me started a little bit. And then I didn't play too badly until I hit a flier over there on the 7th hole.

But I thought it was a very difficult day to play. You had to really control your golf ball to be able to get the ball to come down in the right spot with the cross winds and the down wind and that type of thing.

So of course I think everybody knows it was going to be difficult at the onset. And you just, fortunately I was able to hit a few good shots today and not make too many mistakes and was able to make a few birdies. So I don't know, it was just a tough old day.

KELLY ELBIN: Would you go through your card, your birdies and bogeys, please.

GIL MORGAN: Okay. Let's see, first hole I hit a 5 wood off the tee and then had pitching wedge and hit it in there probably 15 feet or so and was able to make that one.

I made a bogey at 7. I hit it in the right rough off the tee. A big cross wind there. I had about 150 yards, I actually tried to hit a little 8 iron out of the rough and I caught a flier. And it went, when you see the gallery going like this (Indicating), you know you're in trouble. But anyway, it ended up where I got a free drop and it kind of in some area around the cart path there. I chipped it on and missed the putt from about 20 feet.

Finally went to the ninth hole and I hit a drive down the right side there and I had about 90 yards to the hole and hit a gap wedge out of the rough and it landed on the kind of the front and ran through. That pin was pretty tough up in that front flat plateau there. Peter hit an excellent shot there. He hit it in there about four feet it looked like. I was able to make it from about, oh, maybe I would say it was about 16 or 17, 18 feet. Something like that.

11, I hit a good drive and kind of went to sleep. I tried to hit a little easy 6 iron from about 175 yards. I let the wind, there was a cross wind left to right, I tried to play it out to the left and I started the ball too far right and it blew off the green down in one of those, one of those mowed areas and couldn't get the ball up and down there.

Parred around until 16 and I hit a really good drive there. I aimed it at the tree. And I had 210 to the hole and I hit 4 iron out to the right and let the wind blow it a little bit. I got if a little bit low and it turned over a little bit and went up on the back fringe, off the back fringe. But I was able to putt it down there about three feet and make that.

And then I got a little, I went to sleep again a little bit at 17. I should have just played it out in the middle of the green and tried to 2 putt and get out of there. But I hit a 7 iron and it went through the green in one of those mowed areas along the downslope kind of and I chipped it by about, oh, about eight feet, I guess, and missed it coming back.

Then just parred the last hole. Hit a pretty good shot in there and made par on the last hole.

Q. How far were you out on the last one?

GIL MORGAN: The last one? It was about the iron shot? I had about 135 yards. I hit a little knock down 7 iron there. It was just right at the hole. It was a good shot, it just came up a little bit shot. I hit a good putt, I just didn't hit it hard enough or it would have gone right in. So that was about it in a nutshell.

KELLY ELBIN: Questions?

Q. The last time I seen those tees on nine and 18 up that close were the member/guest, I mean you guys are really up. You said a hundred yards or maybe on nine was it?

GIL MORGAN: Well, yes.

Q. Is that too close? The bunker's not even in play on 18. Are the tees up too close?

GIL MORGAN: Well, 18 I had about 130 yards, but 9 I had about 100 yards. So, no, I mean I think from that distance that bunker really is not in play at the 18th hole. Which is, you know, normally our ninth hole. I don't know. The golf course, we're there weren't probably a whole lot of low scores today.

Q. Two?

GIL MORGAN: Two? Okay. So I don't know whether it played too easy or not, to tell you the truth, looking at the scores.

KELLY ELBIN: Gil, there were three rounds under par today.

GIL MORGAN: Three rounds under par? That's pretty tight.

Q. If I can take you back a few years, could you explain what was your reasoning behind pursuing the optometry degree? Was it the backup in case the golf didn't work out? Because it looks like the golf is working out pretty well.

GIL MORGAN: Well, actually I wasn't a very good player in college starting out. High school I was a very poor player. I played football and basketball in high school and I liked those sports better. And then I played some baseball in the summertime. But I liked basketball the most, but I wasn't quite tall enough to continue in that endeavor.

But when I got to college, I thought, well, I'll just, I wanted to do something, I was kind of sports oriented a little bit in that regard, and so I decided that golf was something for me to do. And so I ended up playing golf down there in Ada for four years and got better, eventually made the All American Team for NAIA my last year. And at that point in time there was kind of a funny time, you know, I was looking into higher education and my parents wanted me to go on into something. They thought about dentistry first and then eventually I applied to optometry school and was accepted, so I decided to go. I got to play some in optometry school, mostly intermural type of situation in the school and then in the summertime I played all the little summer tournaments around either in Oklahoma or in Arkansas or Tennessee when I stayed and went to summer school there a couple of summers. So and then I tried to get on the TOUR, missed, went to play mini tour for about 10 months. And decided to go back to school. And I had qualified and at that point in time I thought, well, I had my degree and if golf doesn't work out, that's kind of the end point. If it doesn't work out then I would go back into optometry.

So I had some people sponsor me for about three years and then was able to, in that first two years I became exempt. I finished top 60 at that point in time and then I've been exempt the rest of my career. That's kind of the story of my golfing.

Q. Today the wind was really up versus the first two rounds that you played. Did you have to change your club selection on any holes versus those first couple of days or maybe even the way you played certain holes today?

GIL MORGAN: Yes, I had to do both of those things. I think the ball was going obviously a lot shorter into the wind and a lot longer down wind. So you had to adjust there.

Sometimes I hit a few knock down shots, tried to keep the ball underneath the wind. Even with cross winds like at 11 I tried to hit a driver that was real low. So that was just part of the deal in windy conditions you have to adapt, either you have to play the wind or you have to try to control the ball against the wind or you have to try to keep the ball maybe under the wind somewhat or like down wind maybe you can, if you want to hit it further, you can enhance that by getting it up in the air pretty good. So all those things are used by all of us all the time, I think.

Q. On a day like today where it's windy, it's hot, how much of an edge does local course knowledge that you, David Edwards, Doug Tewell have, because all of you shot a pretty good round today?

GIL MORGAN: Well, obviously we probably have a little more experience than most of the players here. And then when the conditions get severe, then those come into play a lot more I would anticipate. So from that standpoint I think that we might have had an edge with routing and also how the course normally plays and of course because we play a little bit, in a little bit of wind all the time and then we get a little bit more here today, so we may understand those situations a little bit better than the rest of the field did.

Q. After how this course played in '88 and then after the first two days here, is this more, is this the real Oak Tree, what you guys had to go through today?

GIL MORGAN: I think so. The change in the greens structure and grass type and speed, you know, that type of thing, in the '88 PGA, the temperatures were up and the grass was a lot softer and a lot slower. Greens might have been a little bit more severe in a couple places, but a little smaller in places though.

So the greens speeds weren't nearly what they are today. It's a lot more treacherous out there today and with the wind blowing I think that this, you could really see the teeth of this golf course most of the time today.

Q. You had a lot of big wins in your career, would this be the biggest with all the circumstances that are surrounding this and the fact that it is your home course?

GIL MORGAN: Sure. I think that being able to win this tournament at this point in time in my career, at this location, well that would be a real plus for me to be able to win this championship, you know.

Obviously it would probably put a little bit more pressure on me tomorrow to do that. I'm in a good position at the present time, but I know that I've got to go out there and do kind of the same thing I did today. Hit a lot of good shots and not make too many mistakes and hope that somebody doesn't have a real hot hand.

Q. I know you're leading this tournament, but how would you characterize the way you're playing, No. 1; and then No. 2, I know there's a lot of talk about the local course knowledge, but do you sort of say, hey, but I still got to go out there and hit these shots and make this happen?

GIL MORGAN: Sure. I think that any time you play, you know, in a championship like this you have got to do the right things to make it happen. Especially in the more the conditions get more difficult, the conditions are, I should say, the more that comes into play. So obviously I'm playing halfway decent. I think I made a few too many errors this week, mental errors. I have kind of gone to sleep three or four times when I shouldn't have and made a couple of bogeys.

So hopefully I can grab ahold of those tomorrow and maybe not make so many mistakes and still play at a good level. You just never know. You just got to go out there and play and hope for the best kind of try to do all the things that you have been taught and you've learned overall those years and hopefully it will come into play and you can perform and do the right things to have an opportunity.

What you would like to have is an opportunity coming down the last nine holes to win.

KELLY ELBIN: Gil Morgan, ladies and gentlemen, the third round leader in the 67th Senior PGA Championship.

GIL MORGAN: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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