U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 5, 1996

Chi Chi Rodriguez

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: No, the fans now, my name is Juan Rodriguez, but they call me "Juan More" more because when they ask for autograph, they ask for "one more."

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: It make me feel good because any time you break par in the U.S. Open, the first two days you are going to be in contention. And it is not going to get easier. I don't know if the wind really blows these next two days, which I hope it does, I think even par might win the whole thing.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I want it to blow.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I want the greens to dry out.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I bogeyed the second hole. I hit a perfect 3-wood down the fairway, and I had 132 yards to the flag, and I hit the wrong club. I hit the 9-iron. I hit it on the edge of the green, spun back and it took me 3 to get it down. That is my first bogey. Then I 2-putted evergreen on that 9 counting down and then I 3-putted number 9. I had a bad break there, but good breaks and bad breaks even out. I hit 4-iron on my second shot to lay-it-up. And it was just on the -- it was on the fairway, but it was, I think, where people drive the carts and I had a hard -- I had a little wedge. I hit it past the pin and the next -- the first putt I almost got a speeding ticket. That putt looked like Pat Buchanan going through Harlem, fast. (LAUGHTER) Just a joke, guys. You know, you can't tell those kind of jokes.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I went 2-over. Then on 10 I hit a 3-iron off the tee. Then I hit a sand iron about ten feet and I made that one. Then on the next one I had a good 2-putt. Then on the next one I hit a drive and pitching wedge, 12 I put it about ten feet and I made that. Then on the par 5 --

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, 13, right, par 5. I hit a driver and 4-iron putt it in the sand trap; then I pulled it out about six feet and I made that. Then the next hole hit 3-wood. I never saw a lie like that. The ball looked like an Easter egg in the rough. I was lucky to advance it. I made bogey there, 2-putt. And next hole, I hit 3-wood. I missed the green there. I hit the wrong club again. I hit a sand iron instead of a pitching wedge. I left it short; almost pitched it in. Then the par 5, I birdied. I hit a driver, 7-wood on top. I put it about four feet and I made that. Then on 17 I hit it in the trap again and I put it in there about six feet and I made that. 18, I missed my first short putt of the week, which I have been missing about 5 a round that size and I only missed one that size in two rounds, so things are looking up.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I am always satisfied. I don't worry about it no more. 1.3 billion Chinese that wish they could have done it.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: It was very important for me, but the level of confidence necessary that I have going right now is pretty high because only fools live in the past. A smart person lives the time. He doesn't live the future; he doesn't live the past. You got to live now, and now I am going good and I am confident.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: Yes, I can. Yeah. Sure. I am not saying I am going to win it, but I say I can win it, yeah.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: It was three feet but the looked like 20 feet.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: No, I am going to sleep well. I am going to watch the Indians tonight. They are going to win tonight.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I am going to get another jacket. I am going to go and talk with Albert Bell again and --

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: No, he is my buddy. I am trying to make him my friend because I think everybody -- young people in this life, the elder must help the young. When a young person is having trouble, we are supposed to help them. We are not supposed to criticize them.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I used -- when I was kid I used to watch the cat, wait for a mouse - you talk about patience - sometimes the cat stayed there for four hours and the mouse finally came out and he get him.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: Well, I really didn't lose that U.S. Open. I think that Jack Nicklaus won. I don't think I lost. I think that golf won because of Jack and, you know, winning is not just shooting the lowest score. Oh, sure, you win the material things, but winning, trying to do it with honor and trying to accept the best with the bad. So I try to do that, so somebody else might win, but I never lose.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: Well, I told Albert Bell that you know, you are not -- don't always get things the way you want them. You know, life was not meant to be fair because if life was fair my name would have been Rockefeller. It would have never been Rodriguez. So Albert Bell has been the most valuable playing the last two years and he never got it. He never even came close to get. I said you have got to forget about that and enjoy playing the game. You are probably the best ballplayer in baseball. And I am a fan of yours. I have been a fan of him since he came out in the Major Leagues, and I think you are going to see a new Albert Bell pretty soon. That is what -- that is my goal is to ---because I am a fan of the Cleveland Indians because the Cleveland Indians never won, you know, and I am a fan of the Cubbies, I am always for the underdog. And they never win, so now that they are doing good, you know, I like to see everybody get the good print.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: Last time I felt that I could win a tournament I won it. It was in Minnesota two years ago. It will be two years ago in the next tournament which is the last tournament I won. It was on a pretty good golf course and I really felt that I could win there and I did.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: You know, Carlos Baerga got records that might be impossible to beat. He hit 2 home runs in the same inning one lefthanded and one righthanded and he did it in American League. Only Rogers Hornsby has done in the National League. He batted 20 home runs, had 100 R.B.I.s and batted over 300. Only he is the only man to do it in the American league. He has done it twice. I don't think I can make records like that. Carlos Baerga is a wonderful athlete. He does a lot for the kids in Puerto Rico and Roberto Alamar and he is the same way. They are all a credit for Puerto Rico and I am very proud that they are -- they are my country people.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: Pitch to Carlos Baerga? I would have thrown nothing but screwballs. Throw him the screwgee, but the guys don't know how to throw the screwgee now. There is no pitchers in baseball today. You ought to know that.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: With the Tigers?

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: When Sparkey left, I left right with him. (LAUGHTER) Baseball is my favorite sport, guys. Golf I make a living. I give the people a show because golf is show business. I am on stage. I give them a show, but there is nothing greater a sport than to have a guy throw a baseball 95 miles an hour and when the bat cracks it and sends it flying, I never heard a sound like that in my life.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I used to steal the bases. (LAUGHTER) No, I tell you why I quit baseball: I used to play with Juan Pizzarro and Orlando Sepado, Ramon Hernandez, Felix Milan, and Roberto Clemente. I was a pitcher, believe it or not, older I got, the better I was, but I used to throw the baseball faster than Juan Pizzarro and I weigh 117 pounds, but the reason I quit was because when I went in the Army I was 19 years old and there was a guy, the first guy to play second base at Candlestick Park, Darryl Spencer, he was in the same battalion that I was and I went to the ballpark one time I saw him hitting baseballs and I mean, he was cracking them out there 450 feet and I say if that man ever hits me with a line drive, he will crystalize me. (LAUGHTER) So I quit baseball. I kept walking right to the golf course.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I just like baseball.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I think to hit a baseball 95 miles an hour, I mean, you know, Bob Gibson, if you hit it off him one time, he used to come by the home plate and say, dig that hole a little deeper. You know what I mean? So we don't have anybody throwing at our head. So I think golf is much easier.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, well, we are all good athletes, but I think baseball is much harder to do. Especially in the old days when the pitcher through at your head. I met Albert Bell for the first time. You can tell how a person is by looking in their eyes. Albert Bell has got wonderful eyes. He is like Jack Nicklaus. I have a picture with Jack Nicklaus in my house. Jack has got his arm around me. He is looking at me. I could see his eyes that he really likes me and Albert Bell don't have the eyes of a bad guy.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: He plays golf?

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: But anyway, my game left me and most of you guys never left me and I really appreciate that and you have always made this little man - I am 5 foot 7 - you have always made me feel like I am ten feet tall and I love you all and God bless you, and I think one of the reasons golf is such a great game is because you guys with the media have made it that way. One of the greatest things this country has in the United States is to have freedom of the media, and free enterprise, capitalistic, democratic system that works.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: I read an article you wrote on Dennis Rodman.

CHI CHI RODRIGUEZ: God bless you, thank you.