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U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 21, 2006

Mike Bell

NEWBURGH, INDIANA

PETE KOWALSKI: Just an emotional response, you're the 2006 USGA Senior Amateur Champion, tell us what that means to you.

MIKE BELL: Well, it's a life it's a goal that I set when I turned 50, and I went and started practicing really, really hard, and never thought I would attain that goal, but you have to have goals. And when I went down to Florida and would practice in the wintertime, the guys would say to me, "Man, why don't you come and play, why do you practice all the time?"

I said, "Well, I want to have a chance at being the Senior Amateur Champion." And everybody thought I was crazy, but I kept getting better. And so to actually win it is beyond my wildest dreams.

PETE KOWALSKI: Let's add a little question, a little tweak to that, beyond your wildest dreams, you did it in your home state of Indiana.

MIKE BELL: I love this golf course because it's a hard golf course, and I usually play hard golf courses better than I do easier golf courses because usually it's not chipping and putting that's my game. It's usually hitting the ball, solid. And so when you have to play airborne, hard golf course, I usually do pretty well, and so I was excited.

I played here before, and I've done well when I've played here. I shot 69 last year at qualifying for the Senior Amateur here, and I liked the golf course. And so I was really wanting to play in it so bad that I almost didn't get to.

Q. Tell us about your alternate situation. There was one or two spots and you were a first alternate.

MIKE BELL: Yes, what happened was at the site, we had two spots, and coming to the 18th hole, I was the last group, and the USGA official tells me, "Oh, Mike, how you doing."

I said, "Well, I'm 1 under."

He said, "Well, 1 over's best." And it was a hard hole and I pulled it into the hazard and I made a double.

Now we've got three guys playing for two spots, and we go to a par 5 that I can easily reach in two, and I pull it left hit the cart path twice and goes out of bounds. I went home that night, feeling about as bad as I could ever feel in my whole life. Then I find out that I was the fourth alternate, and three alternates got in.

And I was the No. 1 alternate in the whole country and I'm up playing in the State Senior Amateur Championship last Monday and Tuesday, and Jerry Jackson, who was a qualifier, his daughter had to have an operation, and he was contemplating whether he should come down here or stay. And I happened to win the Senior Amateur Championship of Indiana last week, and I think Jerry said, "You know, I'm going to let Mike go down there, represent us, and my daughter is in the hospital." So he had two reasons I think to let me come.

I think it was fate. Everything that could happen, seemed to happen for me right. And so, you know, everybody was telling me I was going to win this week, my friends said: "You're going to win, I know you're going to win."

One of my buddies in Florida said: "I hope you get to play Paul Simpson," because supposedly he said, "Mike you can beat him."

My wife kept coming up to me: "You're a good player, you're best player, don't feel bad because you're losing some holes."

This year has been unbelievable. I've won more tournaments this one year than I've won my whole life, and it's just been a phenomenal year, that's all.

Q. And alternate seems to be a good bonus for you, too.

MIKE BELL: I was an alternate at the Senior Open and I replaced Greg Norman, I got to play with Loren Roberts and Aoki. And for 22 holes I was one shot ahead of them and I was going to make the cut and then a little disaster happened to me.

But I had a great time out there, too, and I played well out there. I shot 73 77, with a disaster hole, so I'm playing better. And the beauty is, I played a lot of stuff this year, and I didn't get nervous. And I didn't play great in that last round maybe but it wasn't because I was nervous. It was just I miscalculated some wind and hit some putts that kept hitting the edges of the hole.

Q. How long was the putt that you missed and he made on 15?

MIKE BELL: They were both about 15 feet. His putt broke a little back right and so I played mine to break back right, I hit it, got on the left edge and just hung there. I hit a great putt on 14. I hit a great iron on 14. I hit a 4 iron up there like ten feet from the hole on one of the hardest holes in the world, and just nothing seemed to be happening.

And when I got the opportunity to make that putt on 18, I stood over it and I said: "Mike, you have practiced a million putts for the opportunity to make one on an occasion like this." And when I hit it, I kept my head still, I rolled it right over my spot, I looked up and it was going right dead in the heart. I was like when it went in, I wanted to just scream, because I was so excited.

Q. Did that putt move at all?

MIKE BELL: It moved about two inches left, right to left. Moved about two inches.

Q. You must have had a delayed reaction to it.

MIKE BELL: I wanted to make sure it went in. It had been hitting the lips on every hole so I wanted to make sure it went in before I did anything. When it went in, I did react.

Q. Coming in, you're up three holes going into the back nine.

MIKE BELL: I started playing a little conservative back nine. I was using my 3 wood on the back side. All I was trying to do was make pars thinking, he had to make three birdies to get ahead of me. Then he came on and he started putting and making some putts. And you know, that shot I hit on No. 12, it rattled my brain. I hit a perfect shot off the tee and a perfect 56 degree wedge from 85 yards right into the wind, and this morning, I hit that same exact shot, hit it in the middle of the green and backed all the way off the hole.

So I said to my caddie: I'm going to hit it between the right side of the green and the flag, let the wind move it a little left and let it get back there so when it sucks up, it's going to get back there and not come roaring off the green. I hit it two feet on evidently because it hit into an impossible spot. It's a risk/reward golf course. You take chances sometimes, and if they work out, you make birdie. If they don't, you make bogey or double.

Q. And you said you went a physical therapist or a chiropractor this week?

MIKE BELL: Yes, Dr. Tom Hamilton, for an amateur event, they had a whole physical therapy floor up there. They had ice for you; they had people doing infrared and the thing where they warm the stuff on you (ultrasound). Dr. Tom Hamilton when I first got here, my hips were out of balance and he put me back into position and he and I became friends. Every day after every match, he came in and checked my whole body over to make sure all of my things were back in line; because it helped walking 36 holes a day when I haven't been allowed to walk in the last six months because I had a bad back, I think he helped me be able to do it.

Q. Last thing I wanted to ask you was you're in your home state of Indiana and you're at the Senior Amateur and last year you played the Senior Amateur. When you played, there was nobody out on the golf course except for the players.

MIKE BELL: Right.

Q. Here, there were hundreds of people.

MIKE BELL: It was fantastic.

Q. What's your reaction to that?

MIKE BELL: That's the key. When you have communities like Evansville, Indiana that has a world class golf course on it with the world class people in it that are willing to give them all of their time and effort to make this thing successful. When they got the USGA Senior Amateur, they said: We are going to prove to the world and to the USGA that Evansville, Indiana can have the best event they can possibly have.

And I'm going to tell you, I'm prejudiced maybe, but it was the best-run amateur golf that I've ever played in. And they treated us like we were they treated us so nice, all of the people did. There wasn't one volunteer that wouldn't do anything you asked. I was thrilled to have all of those people out there. And you know what's nice about them, they are rooting for Tom, too. They are pulling for me to win maybe but Tom made birdie on 15, which was like a dagger in my heart. They all clapped and applauded. They didn't boo me or something like that. They were very gracious I think, for the fans and they really appreciated the golf and just ended in a beautiful note to me.

Q. What iron did you hit on your second shot on 18?

MIKE BELL: Well, I hit 8 iron because I was afraid of a flyer lie, downwind, if I took a 7 iron, even though it was 160 some yards, 176 to the pin, if you've ever played 18 here downwind, if you ever catch a flyer, catching the middle of that green with a flyer, the ball is going over the green into the lake.

Q. You knew there was a possibility

MIKE BELL: I knew if I flushed it, I knew could I get it on the front of the green. If it rolled maybe to the middle, but the worst thing I could do was take myself out of the hole.

You know, I don't know why, I just knew I could get it up and down out of that bunker. I would rather hit it out of a bunker than chip and I got in that bunker. And my hands stayed loose, and I knew I couldn't play it to the right of the hole until I had to play it left because of the way that thing was setting you on that little nobody and I got the ball right in the place I wanted to get it and I knew Tom was going to have a very difficult time getting his ball up that hill. It just when I felt like the cards were finally going to fall in my favour, and I had been hitting good putts the whole back nine, just I didn't hit that putt any better than I hit all of the rest of them. Just happened I got down in the perfect lie and it went in.

Q. How well did you know Tom before the match?

MIKE BELL: That's the neat thing about senior golf, we didn't even know each other before we played this match and at the end we both loved each other and were crying together because we both knew what it meant to each other and if he'd have won, I'd have been just as emotional for him to win, too. That's the greatest thing about senior golf. There's not been a bad loser in the whole tournament. They are all great guys.

Q. The tee shot on 18, were you surprised?

MIKE BELL: Yeah, because it's 285 to that bunker, as wet as it is, and I cut it a little bit thinking it can't go that far when you cut them. And I just, you know, I hit it right on the nose and when it got all the way to that bunker, actually got in that rough, I had downhill I couldn't shoot it out to the right.

So I had to try to clip the 8 iron a little bit. If I had to catch it perfect, it would maybe go on the green and I caught it high on the golf club and it didn't jump. I was just thrilled that it went in the bunker. I would much rather have it in the bunker than the tall grass, I can tell you that much.

Q. And the tee shot on 17?

MIKE BELL: I saw his ball, I thought he pulled his, and the wind was blowing so hard to the right, that I said, you know, whatever you do, don't block it or hit a fade because if you play that hole enough times to know, if it gets going right, it's going to go right and I just tried to hit it solid and it went through and I had a naturally lie. I hit a great shot and that ball rolled up on the green and rolled off the green and was setting about three inches in the air in that grass. I chipped it pretty well and I hit a great putt. I hit it exactly where I wanted and the ball went the opposite way, and I thought I was going to play it on the right edge and I hit it and thought it was going to break right of the hole and broke to the right a little bit.

I couldn't get mad at myself, I hit a number of putts right where I thought I should hit them. I guess it was just wait to the 18th hole to make this thing dramatic, I don't know. (Laughing).

The only time I played 17 and 18 the entire week other than qualifying. So I had a pretty easy go until the last round.

Q. What was your distance to 18?

MIKE BELL: I was 163, 176 to the pin. I was 176 to the pin, 165 to the middle of the green and it was downwind. I tried to hit a jumping 8 iron because I knew I couldn't knock that over. Every once in awhile I'll hit a ball and we'll have a little bit of jump to it and with a little draw, because I had a downhill lie, I didn't want to punch the ball because then it could slide right. I was just, you know, hoping that I hit a perfect shot, and I caught it heavy. The ball just rode up my club and I caught it on the top in the middle and so it didn't carry.

But I wanted to make sure it didn't go right. I didn't want to lose it right. That's a scary shot, I'm going to testimony you, it's worse downwind than it is into the wind. It's a lot easier shot into the wind than it is downwind because you don't know where it's going to stop. Went in that bunker, hit that knob and it takes off.

Q. Is that the custom to on this course to hit it in or around that bunker?

MIKE BELL: I tell you what, it takes me that first hole just playing too fast that's all. After that, I'm fine. In fact, that's why I started hitting 3 wood. I was driving the 3 wood great and I hit the driver all right once I get out on the course, but that first tee box, I don't know why, I came over it too many times. The one thing I did, was I made sure I got out of that bunker. There was a couple of my opponents that tried to hit shots out of the bunkers and caught the bunkers. They are a little bit taller than they look, they really are.

PETE KOWALSKI: We'll see you at Whistling Straits next year.

MIKE BELL: Looking forward to it. I'm going to take I bunch of guys Victoria National with me.

End of FastScripts.

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