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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 28, 2006

Brad Bryant

EDMOND, OKLAHOMA

KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant, ladies and gentlemen, runner up in a playoff for the 2006 Senior PGA Championship. Brad closed today with an even par 71 for 279 total, 5 under par.

Brad, quite a dramatic final day here at Oak Tree.

BRAD BRYANT: It was, yeah, dramatic, I think that's a good word for it. Excruciating.

There was even a couple of holes that were fun. Not many, but a couple.

It was a tough day. Very tough.

KELLY ELBIN: Would you mind going through your card, please.

BRAD BRYANT: Not at all. I birdied the second hole. I hit what I thought was a pretty decent second shot, it just rolled over the left edge of the green and I chipped it in.

Then I had my really bad stretch. I bogeyed 5, 6, and double bogeyed 7 and bogeyed 9.

I threw a birdie in there at number 8. After going 4 over for those three holes I got up on the 8th hole and it was a tough pin, but we had a perfect yardage and so I went ahead and took an 8 iron and aimed it right at it and thought well if I can get this ball close, make a birdie here, I still might have a chance to win. I did. I got the ball close, I made a birdie.

Then I turned around and bogeyed No. 9. I bogeyed No. 11. I just had a 3 putt there. I hit basically exactly the same putt that I hit in the playoff. Every time I had sort of an into the wind putt today, I hit the ball very, very, weakly, and so that was just the way it was. I putted just those putts just terrible. Just like the one I missed in the playoff.

Let's see, I birdied 13. I hit a really good 9 iron. Made a nice putt.

14, I hit a wedge all the way to the very back edge of the green and made it from about 60 feet or some such nonsense down the hill and that. Just very lucky there.

The 15th hole I made a bogey. I just hit a bad second shot.

16, I hit my 5 iron in there close. To get tied for the lead. I made an eagle there. It was very much it was kind of neat because I hit a 5 iron to make an eagle at Birmingham a couple of weeks ago on the 16th hole, to end up winning there and so I hit the 5 iron there today about five feet. And I hit a pretty good putt that time.

Then 18, it was just found money. I mean it was like, you know, walking out there and finding five bucks laying on the sidewalk. I was just really lucky. I didn't, I hit a pretty good drive and the ball kind of got in the rough. And then I hit just a really great shot, you know, a, just had to kind of chop a 6 iron very low. The ball faded right near the flag and rolled past the flag and then I had that putt down the hill and Tony made a perfect read and I hit a perfect putt and we got in a playoff. It was pretty exciting. And that was it.

KELLY ELBIN: Questions?

Q. Can you just talk about how hard it is to get your composure after the way that you played the front nine, especially on a course like this, and pull it together the way that you did.

BRAD BRYANT: Well, my wife is sitting back there and I told her on the way to the golf course today that the one thing I didn't want to do today was embarrass myself. And I think that we so I think that had a lot to do with it.

It was really a hard week this week. And having my wife fly in was a great help. I think that had she stayed home, I probably would have finished about 30th this week. And Sue showed up at just the right time to help me out and I'm lucky to have her. And I think that talking about my composure, you think that was one of the big things is that I didn't, I made a fool of myself in front of her a lot of times, I didn't want to do it again. So I think that those, I never quit. I tried never to get mad today. I didn't get upset.

I didn't even say gosh darn it once, I don't think. So that was a good thing.

There again, you know, I got to play with Gil again today and so one of the things what I do, when I play with Gil is I watch Gil. And I try to mimic his composure. He stays so level and so he's just wonderful to watch on the golf course. And's great man to know off the golf course. So I think that that helped a lot as far as having my composure. I know on the Gil bogeyed number three? Then he hit it in the water on number four and made a great bogey and got up on the fifth hole and skied a 3 wood. I never seen Gil Morgan began hit a shot like he hit on that hole. I mean it was and he hit that shot and he went goodness gracious. And that was his reaction. And I thought, you know, I haven't heard that in a long time, but that was really good. He walked up there and knocked it down the fairway, on the green and made a birdie. And I said, that's what I want to be. I want to be like that guy. I want to be like Gil. Because I mean he really had it going badly and he just turned it around. Along about the 7th hole I said, you know, Gil's done it, maybe I can do it. It worked out okay.

Q. Well, gosh darn it, the talk about that second shot at 18. First of all did you know the situation, did you see a scoreboard, was it updated on the tee?

BRAD BRYANT: Which second shot.

Q. The original 18. The second shot there. Did you know you had to make a birdie to tie and secondly, Loren Roberts said he thought that your shot at 16 was great. He thought the shot of the tournament was your second shot on 18.

BRAD BRYANT: Yes. I would have to say that that was true. And, yes, we did know that Jay had birdied the last hole and I asked the TV guys, you know, what Jay had done. Because we heard a big roar and I thought it was probably Jay making a birdie.

I got up over that shot and looked at Tony and I said, this is not, definitely not my strong suit, trying to hit a ball low and fade the ball. I'm kind of normally high hooks is my strength. And I told Tony, I said, you know, we can't win the tournament with any club but this 6 iron. It's the only club I can hit that I can get anywhere near the hole. If I take a 5 iron, I have to tray to run the ball up the front of the green. 7 iron there's no chance to keep the ball below the limb and so I made kind of a, I don't know, I don't know that I would call it a golf swing, it was more like a ax chop at that ball. It had to be really funny looking on TV. It couldn't have been a very pretty swing. Was it? Did Johnny Miller say, boy, that was beautiful? What a pretty swing he put on that one. Nice tempo and just a nice finish. I mean I hit down on the ball as hard as I possibly could and tried to put the grip in my left pocket and kind of lost my balance and fell around and it just went up near the hole. It was pretty good.

Q. Can you go back a few years ago, '99 you left the TOUR, and then you make the decision a couple years ago to come out on the Champions Tour. Can you just talk a bit about the decisions and how that all came to pass for you?

BRAD BRYANT: Well, we had Sue and I had agreement that if I had enough money when I turned 45 I was going to retire. And I don't think she really quite understood that until I turned 46. And when I turned 45 we talked and I said I'm quitting. And she kind of said, okay. You know. And I think that somewhere during that, my between my 45th and 46th year, birthday, I think that she really understood, he's serious about this. Our income's not going to be, it's going down very fast. I had a talk with our financial people and we had a deal. His name is Pete. And Pete told me that he would take care with the money that I had been able to get, he would take care of my wife and kids. And if I wanted to fish, hunt, smoke cigars or buy fishing bait, I had to earn the money to do that. But he would take care of my wife and kids.

So I went out and played just enough golf and did enough outings that I sort of covered my fishing and for about five years there that was kind of the way life was. And there were just or things that I really wanted to do. My wife and I both tutored at a place in Orlando called the House of Hope. It's a place for kids that are run aways and they're called run aways or throw aways. And I spent about 18 months taking boys from there every Friday to the golf course. And it was a great time. And Sue worked with the girls there. And then as we looked around we decided to move to Lakeland. We moved to Lakeland so that our kids could attend the school called Lakeland Christian School. And Sue has now been volunteering in a crisis pregnancy center on Wednesday mornings. So we kind of kept that, the idea of volunteering and trying to help others as much as we can. And we have been involved with the school and our church. And then it kind of, I realized one day that it was just going to cost a lot more to send the boys to college and that type of thing. And I really wanted to buy a new boat. So I needed to go play golf. And that was kind of how my decision came about to come play the Champions Tour. And it's been great. It's been so much fun being with the guys again. It was tough qualifying for it, but since I been out here, it's just been, for the most part it's been a lot of fun.

Q. Locally a lot of the talk this week has been about the wind and Gil Morgan being so successful. But you and Jay seem to put on a pretty good story line today too. Can you talk about the theater of this playoff and stealing the head lines a little bit from those other players?

BRAD BRYANT: Well, I think that if you're going to write headlines and they're going to come out tomorrow, the first headline out to be, thank you. With tomorrow being Memorial Day. Let's not forget that. A lot of people died, fought, a lot of people are walking around with one arm and one leg so that we can go out there today and we can play golf. We do not want to forget those men and women who have given us our freedom and fought for it. So if there's a headline that ought to be the first one. It ought to be thank you.

Second headline ought to be that Jay, Brad and the wind did real good. I felt really sorry for Gil, you know, he played great these last two days. And Gil is one of my very favorite people. I just have an immense amount of respect for Gil and his family and for the things that they have done. It was Gil hit the ball on the green on number 17 and high fived every kid all the way down the 17th hole. It was fun to watch. I mean it was an amazing thing. So I think that by the end of the day, Jay and I and the playoff and the golf that we put together coming down the stretch was pretty exciting, I think, but there was a lot of other things that sort of went on out there today with Gil and with some of the other players. This is going to really tighten up the Schwab Cup race, I think. Loren still finished what, top 5, right? Third or fourth or something. So fifth? Okay. So Jay's going to get a bunch of Schwab Cup points. I'm going to get some, Loren is going to get some. And so that's going to be a big thing. At the end of, you know, by the middle of next week that's something that everyone will look at. Does that answer your question sufficiently?

Q. How long was that your putt on the first on No. 1 the second playoff hole and were you expecting Jay, how tough were his up and downs on 1 and then on 18th second time?

BRAD BRYANT: On 1 it was not that difficult. In fact, I thought that Jay is such a good pitcher of the golf ball that I thought that he might actually make that shot. It would not have surprised me for him to have pitched the ball in the hole there. I knew that Jay was playing well today and he had a lot of momentum. Even though I finished strong, Jay had a lot more momentum going into the playoff than I had.

The putt on No. 1 was probably 12 to 14 feet. And I just hit it really awful. It was just a horrible putt. It was as equally as bad as the putt that I hit on the last playoff hole.

There again, that's the way it was that was the mark of the way that I played today. Is every time I had a putt that was into the wind I hit it terrible.

Q. I was wondering how much confidence you put in your caddy, because I was with you on No. 9 yesterday when he seemed to make a questionable decision that you went with immediately. Do you do that often?

BRAD BRYANT: All right. Don't tell anyone this, okay. Because I want to keep Tony. Tony doesn't get to go somewhere else yet. But Tony is, I believe he's one of the top 10 caddies in the game. He is by far the best caddy that I have ever had and with a little bit more experience I think he's going to be as good a caddy as Herman Mitchell was. I think that he's going to be as good a caddy as Bruce was. He's tremendous. And he's found himself and, yeah, I lean on Tony a lot. He's got 20 years younger eyes than I do, he reads greens wonderfully, he knows my game. Tony Smith is God's answer to a prayer that I had a long time ago. And I prayed very diligently for about three or four months when I decided I was going to try to play the Champions Tour, that I could have a caddy that, No. 1, would be a really good caddy, No. 2, would be someone that I could enjoy and that it would be nice if he could also be a friend. Tony has fulfilled all three of those unbelievably. He is a tremendous young man. And I am so fortunate to have him as a caddy. I owe him a whole lot. And I'm not sure he's definitely, you might want to not tell him this either, I don't know that you want to put this in the paper. But starting next time we play he's getting a raise for the rest of the year. But I haven't talked with Sue yet about that. Is that okay with you? Okay. You can print it.

(Laughter.)

Q. You talked the other day about how winning changed the perception of you on the Champions Tour. What will finishing second in a Major and taking it to three playoff holes do to that and what does it mean to you to be there on the 18th green the third time?

BRAD BRYANT: Oh, gosh. I don't know what it means yet. I'm going to get home and go home and see if my kids still love me. That's No. 1. I've been gone a lot this year. I'm taking next week off and I'm spending it with my boys. And they have had to do it without me a lot for the last two years, last year and a half. It has been, the last year and a half has been very lonely for me. Because I've been without my wife and without my kids. It's been great on the golf course, but my time off the golf course has been very difficult. If it weren't for a couple of good friends, Andy Bean, I owe a lot to Andy, because Andy has been a good friend for me over the last year and a half. Since we moved to Lakeland. And if it weren't for Andy's friendship, I might have left the Champions Tour this year because it's been pretty tough being away from my family. Andy, Mike Sullivan, I think that what this does for the, for my perception is that it shows me that I don't have to have my very best game to still contend in a golf tournament. I did not swing the club nearly as well this week as I have any other week this year. But my attitude this week was so much better. I was patient, I was tolerant of my own mistakes, which is unusual for me. So there was a lot of good things that came out of this week. So I think that other people's perception is that Brad did good. I think that's what I'm looking forward, I already had a couple of phone calls and I had a couple of the guys stop and say, boy, you did good this week. And Jay is such a great player, Jay will be a great champion for this championship. And I think that that's good. It's good to have a Major player win an a Major championship, not that I wouldn't be a great champion, but you know, when you look at that time, Jay's been such a great player for such a long time, he deserves a Major. He deserves a Major quite honestly more than I do. I'm glad he won. He's a tremendous man.

KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant, congratulations and thank you very much.

BRAD BRYANT: Guys, thanks a lot. I appreciate everything. Thank you for all your kindness this week. It's been fun being with y'all.

End of FastScripts.

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