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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 6, 2007Lonnie NielsenKOHLER, WISCONSIN Q. Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw, Lonnie Nielsen, how does that feel?  LONNIE NIELSEN: You don't use those three names in a same sentence very often. It feels pretty nice. I'm coming off a great week last week and a little bit of a carryover to that. I think I'm still using the same swing keys this week and the ball's going pretty much where I'm looking most of the time. And you're going to hit a few stray ones out here and when you do, you're going to pay the price. But overall pretty happy with my play. Q. What's it like to be on this type of hot streak? How do you explain it? Is it a technical thing, mental? LONNIE NIELSEN: Just a little bit of confidence, you know. It doesn't last very long in this game. So I'm hoping to ride it as long as I can. Usually swing thoughts or swing keys last about maybe three or four weeks if you're lucky. So I'm into the second week here. I got one more week next week in Binghamton New York, so I would love to finish it off this week. I've been pretty pleased with my play, generally driving the ball in play, at least where I can hit it. Maybe not hitting that many of the fairways, but just off the fairways in the rough and leaving myself a chance. I haven't put the ball into real bad spots yet and that's pretty easy to do out here. Q. Nine birdies and an eagle. Are you hitting it that close or is the putter just that hot? LONNIE NIELSEN: The first round my putter was on fire. I made, well, maybe three long putts, I think, the first round. I got real lucky on my eagle. The ball was flying, it just came flying out of the rough, I thought it was going to go 20 or 30 yards over the green. It hit the pin right dead on and left myself a 4-footer for an eagle. So a little bit of luck in that first, in the first round, where I had, like I said, I had a lot of nice putts. And when I gave myself a good chance, I made every one of them too. So this afternoon the putter wasn't quite as sharp. I actually thought my ball striking was a little bit better and my putter was steady up until that last hole. I just hit an awful putt from about three feet. So that was a lousy way to finish. Q. When you're out there earlier in the week did you see something in the golf course that gave you a sense of confidence that you felt like you could score? LONNIE NIELSEN: I generally play well on courses that have pretty big greens. And obviously these are some big greens out here. Chipping is not my strong suit and so if I can -- and I feel like I can lag the ball pretty well. I think that was my first or maybe my second 3-putt for the week, which isn't too bad as big as these greens are. I had some nice long putts too. If you can continue to do that, lag the ball pretty well and not make the bogeys when you do hit the greens and as big as they are, you should hit a fair amount of them. Q. Your previous tournaments before last week your finishes were not that great. What was it, was there something going into that week? LONNIE NIELSEN: I felt it coming, it just wasn't showing up in my scores. I would shoot a good round here and there. I had two or three 6-, 7-unders, but I just didn't do it for the week and for the whole week. And I guess I just got a little bit more patient with myself, more patient with my misses. This is an aggravating game. And if you can forgive yourself for your bad shots, I think that it will go a long ways towards a good score at the end of the day. Q. I think when you're playing a U.S. Open, whether it's the U.S. Open or the U.S. Senior Open, that's probably a good thought to have coming in, you got to be short on your memory with the bogeys? LONNIE NIELSEN: Yeah, you bet, because you're going to get in trouble. Especially a course like this. You can get in some trouble here you almost can't get out of. So that weighs on you when you're standing out there in the fairway or when you're on the tee looking at all this trouble that Pete's got for us out here, you just have to make sure that you put that ball someplace where you can play it, play the next one. Q. When you're riding a wave like this or a hot streak, whatever you want to call it, what do you do? Do you have any superstitions and if you do do you try to not think about anything just ride it out or what? LONNIE NIELSEN: It's just such an old adage, but one shot at a time. If you can just stay in the moment and keep, and you know, if I can just really get into my target, believe in the swing thoughts that I'm using right now, and just trust myself, it goes a long way. And standing here it sounds pretty easy to do, but out there when it means so much to us, it's hard to do. But it's all about trusting yourself and believing in yourself. Q. What did it mean to win last week? LONNIE NIELSEN: It meant the world to me. I've been at this a long time. So to be 1 for whatever I am, that's, you know, you dream about doing it your whole life and to finally do it the at page 54 is an incredible feeling. Q. That's your home now or are you from Iowa or? LONNIE NIELSEN: I grew up in Iowa and I lived in Buffalo, New York for 22 years. He was a club pro at a club in Buffalo for 20 years. And then when I turned 50 I came out here and we have recently moved to Florida. Q. I imagine that your cell phone has been ringing, so it's a bunch of wonderful distractions, but it still doesn't diminish what you've done in the last few days? LONNIE NIELSEN: The last few days have been incredible. Every time I go to my phone the mailbox is full and hearing from people I haven't heard from in 30, 40 years, that's been incredible, really, some of the phone calls we have had. But it's been great fun. Neither my wife nor I, we haven't slept very well really since the win. Even starting Saturday night. So I think we're both pretty whipped, we're looking forward to a nap this afternoon. But it's all been, just everything about it has been wonderful. Love to do it again. Q. How close are you going to be next week in Binghamton to home? LONNIE NIELSEN: About three and a half hours. We have got quite a few people from our club, there's some people from Rochester, which is the Western New York PGA section there, quite a few guys coming down from there and my whole family, all the children are going to come as well. So it will be a great week. Q. Is there anything not too technical about your swing thought right now that made a difference and so you're trusting that swing thought? LONNIE NIELSEN: Just little tweaks. This is a constant game of adjustment. And a little bit of an adjustment in my swing, a nice feel to my finish, just kind of basic stuff, but it's working right now and I stand over every shot feeling like I'm going to hit a good one. I don't all the time, but I sure feel like I'm going to hit a lot of good ones. Q. A lot of confidence? LONNIE NIELSEN: It is. You better believe it. End of FastScripts |
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