U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 3, 1996

Jim Colbert

JIM COLBERT: Well, the golf course is terrific. They don't come in any better shape than we are in right at the moment. I don't like to see the rain; I just see it really being hard and fast. We don't play them that often that way. Tradition, we do virtually hard and fast and here and PGA and TPC. These two weeks, and I really like to do that. I think most of our guys really, really like to do that. The greens are pretty big here, a lot of undulation, and the course doesn't seem that hard when you are playing the practice rounds with the pins in the middle, but when you have huge greens and then they start sticking the pins in the corners, then you start making well, geez, I don't want to miss the green then you end up in the middle of green. Then you end up with all these 30-footers with undulations and stuff, so you are going to have to make some pretty good decisions as to pick your spots as far as going right at the pins, I think. At least that is the way I have been thinking about it because as I look at the golf course, pin placements are going to have an awful lot to do with it.

JIM COLBERT: Well, I mean the first shot is very, very important. I don't care whether it is an iron, driver, whatever you hit, the first shot is very, very important here. You are going to have to be in the fairway a whole lot of times to do any good at all. The rough is heavy enough. The greens are firm enough that you just aren't going to be able to control the ball out of the rough. You can get out of it in a lot of places. Some places you can't, but in these kinds of championships, the first shot is just very, very important on every hole. And then I think, obviously, it is the greens. You are going to have to putt well. Announcers on TV and you guys are going to be watching - it's on television - you are going to say, "oh, God, he should have left it under the hole." In 72 holes, we are not going to do that all the time, so you are going to end up with some big breakers and downhillers and the guy that handles those the best is probably going to win. It is--. I mean, when you look at the golf course, obviously, you got to look at Jack and Irwin, I think, right at the start. If Trevino was healthy, it would be a great place for him to play also. Murphy is playing really well. You talked to him yesterday. I was really impressed with the way he played Monday. I am playing pretty well. Weiskopf, I think, will play well. John Bland - I don't know if you all know John - I mean, he is a very accurate player, and high-ball hitter, good putter. That is a few of them.

JIM COLBERT: My year has been a little bit different, but I have played an awful lot of golf in the last two years, so you are going to have some up-and-downs, and since I won those three times, I think I finished like 12th three times when I wasn't playing very good where one stroke I finished 6th. Went from 6th to 12th with one stroke. I missed the playoff last week by one shot in Philadelphia last time I played. Playing pretty well, actually. And I took a week off; didn't hit at ball 'til Friday; then played 9 holes with my grandson on Friday and I hit about 100 balls Saturday, 100 balls Sunday, just kind of be fresh coming in here. I came in here Sunday night, played Monday and Tuesday; played very well.

JIM COLBERT: I have played here in the amateur in '62, or '3, '4?

JIM COLBERT: '64?

JIM COLBERT: Okay. So I played here in '64, and I must have played - I came early, and I must have played five or six practice rounds. Then we had to play 36 holes qualifying. Then I got beat in the fifth round and so played a lot here in '64. I finished in the top 10 here in the PGA. I don't remember exactly where. You know, I remembered several of the holes, but I had them going in the wrong direction. I remember the hole, but I thought it was 8. I thought it was going in the direction of 8 like when I drove in. Obviously, last three holes I remember, 15 up the hill, and I remembered 5 and 6 for some reason, so the first hole, and I remembered the terrain in the last three places I played. I played in Pittsburgh, Canada and Philadelphia, and those were all similar type golf courses, similar type greens, old established, tree-lined, roughs, fairways, and it is also one of the reasons I kind of skipped Cincinnati even though I had won there before, just played those style courses this falls right into the same mode. I thought it was a good lead into here.

JIM COLBERT: Well, I have been chasing this elephant for 30 years to win the USGA, either the Amateur or the Open and it has always been kind of the premier tournament in the world for me is the United States Open and the Masters has always been a really big deal. If I was ever going to play on the other circuit again, only tournament I would be interested in playing is The Masters. I don't want to play the regular Open. It is too hard for me - I tell you the truth, we are playing those kids. I would love to play these guys on an Open course again. But I don't want to play the guys on the other -- each generation builds and those guys are so big and so strong, they are terrific players, but I'd love to play these guys on an Open course again, you know get another chance at that, but just playing these fellows is enough for me. I am very content doing that and they have been the measuring stick since I started playing - probably played my whole career against the best player in the world, Nicklaus, you know, and then Nicklaus Palmer, Player, Trevino, Watson, Miller, I obviously had my hands full. But this, the four senior Majors, are exactly what they say they are, they are Senior Majors and they are big deals to us at this time in our life. But it does say "Senior" in front of them, and -- but I had my chance over there, and I got a second chance here and I really enjoy it and as you will tell, I mean, the crowd, they really get into it. The national television, look at the media here, it is important to some people. So I was a little surprised that Tom said yesterday because when he won last year, he made absolutely no distinction he said, 30 years man, that is, you know, and it was a big deal for him. It is the only tournament he cared about all year. I am sure it is the No. 1 on his list this year. But I don't get confused between the two circuits. There is -- there is a difference. There is a word in front of ours called "Senior."

JIM COLBERT: Yeah, there is a couple of reasons. My biggest problem on the other circuit was my body. It just wouldn't go. I mean, I had -- every time I played really good, my back would explode, and I just couldn't play. I mean, I won at least one tournament in a year in '72, 3, 4 and 5. That was after I met Jimmy Ballard (phonetic). Got off to the best start I ever had in '76. In March of '76 my back went out. I never played full-time again 'til the middle of '79 and then when all that time in between and even in '79 I was full of muscle relaxants and all kinds of junk and you don't play very well under that and then they had some more sophisticated exercise and some swimming that kind of really alleviated it. And I had played my best golf in my 40s. Then it blew up again and then in '87 I said, the hell with it; I thought I never played again. I started on the circuit. I played 22 tournaments my first year and I was fine except for the Open in Birmingham. It blew up that Monday of that Open and I didn't play for three weeks. I played in the tournament but I might as well been somewhere else. And then the next year I was going along pretty well; blew up again; missed a month. I said, "this is going to be a real short career." And since that time, Mickey Gallagher down in Florida called me and told me about wearing these magnets, and hell, I will do anything, and so he sent me these magnets. I have not missed one day of golf in almost three years. I mean, I play any day all day, all -- whatever, and because my problem is in the facet joints -- it's not a disc problem. All my discs are gone. They have fused themselves. I mean, a lot of them have had that. I guess it creates just enough circulation through my lower back that I don't spasm and it doesn't blow up because mine comes around as a hip pointer on both hips and I just can't touch it. I just swing about a foot over the top of it. And I could never like sit in this chair. I couldn't ride one hole in a cart, I would be done. I don't ride out. I still walk, but if I play in a cart at home I could play all day. So what has been my biggest liability on the other circuit is now my biggest asset here. I mean, I am driving farther. I am looser and my longest tee shot used to be my first one if I hit it any big because I come off the practice tee and go to the first tee, I would be tight and hit it and I would play the rest of the day that way. I was taking aspirin a day when I finished on the other circuit. I got on here; I was up to 10, 12 Advil here by my second year. I don't have to do that anymore.

JIM COLBERT: I spasm real bad all the way across the lower back and when I am tight, I play with it and I just don't have a lot of movement. But when it gets really mad, it just -- I mean, it is just a real intense sharp pain that comes around as a hip pointer on both hips. Sometimes it goes to the right; sometimes left; sometimes it goes both ways. They just call it pain referral, but it is the facet joints between L-2 and L-3, they don't match up. There is no cartilage - as my hips come down, hitting the ball this week, that is the way it doesn't want to go. And when I am swinging really good, that is exactly where it goes. And then I can really hit it. And the only -- really the problem is when I am swinging really good and the rest of the time, I think I am swinging okay, but I slide a little bit past it; I guess that doesn't happen. That is subconsciously. Like right now I am really swinging really good and it is not bothering me. So it is -- that is the biggest single change is my biggest liability over there is my biggest asset now been able to play. I could practice putting. Hell, I never could do that, because you know, bend over for five minutes, you just cash me in.

JIM COLBERT: Well, it affects my knee where I had the operation more than my back, but the weather wasn't too good in Myrtle Beach when I blew everybody away for a long time. I have been fortunate, used to really affect me even worse, but when I take them off -- see, they are hot. I mean, in other words, the skin is -- you can just feel it. It is hot there. And they can't solve my problem, but I guess they just -- just enough circulation that it works pretty good. I mean, half the Tour is using them for one reason or another. They have been using them -- they use them on race horses for a long time. They have been doing that forever, so, it is -- I have allowed them to use my name because it worked so well. I mean, most of the guys out here are using them one way or another. Raymond uses them quite a bit. Murphy uses them. Mike Hill, he was withdrawn every week. I asked him if they are doing any good. He said, I don't know, but he hasn't withdrawn since he has been wearing them, so..... (LAUGHTER)

JIM COLBERT: Well, see, I sleep on a mattress too, because I am a little arthritic. My mom and dad have been that way, and sleeping on that mattress, I don't hurt, like my wrists and elbows and shoulders, you know, from all those high speed vibrations, so I haven't lost my enthusiasm since I been a senior, which is really important.

JIM COLBERT: No. The other big change is the equipment because I played that other company for a long, long time, since 1971, and played them out here, but it is a combination of working out, the magnets, and I changed the equipment and I mean, I literally hit the ball as far as I have hit it in my life. I am getting help out of the shaft, the wood and the ball just like everybody else, but I have gained ground with the guys that hit it farther than me. Those are the guys that I care about, the guys I am looking at. So it is a combination of all of those. I gave myself the best possible opportunity to be good this time. I sold my business. I bought an airplane. I got a full-time trainer. Magnets, you know, I got the best equipment. I gave myself every opportunity to play as good as I could play. No excuses.

JIM COLBERT: Yeah.

JIM COLBERT: Well, we had 23 golf courses. I sold them. I couldn't do both.

JIM COLBERT: No, from Florida to California. Basically through the southeast. Three in Kansas. Five in Louisiana. This travelling is easy. When I was doing -- I was doing ESPN for three years; I was running my company, I always took the family to Hawaii when I was doing ESPN for three years and plus first three years of playing on the Senior Circuit, I took no less than 17 people a year to Hawaii and I never bought a ticket on Delta. That is how many miles I accumulated on Delta. Between doing 20 events a year with ESPN and travelling to all my golf courses, hell, you can't run them sitting in the office in Vegas. You know, you had to go to the ones that are slow, and.....

JIM COLBERT: You know, I still have miles. I mean, because we just are getting ready -- they are getting, all that stuff right now; I am buying most of the tickets right now because I waited too long and they couldn't get on the schedules that we need to get everybody there because we take the grand kids and everybody, but I still have miles, of course. You get miles for winning out here too. So you pick those babies up with Delta, but I damn near busted Delta. (LAUGHTER)

JIM COLBERT: I'd be interested seeing everybody on Sunday. (LAUGHTER)