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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 8, 2007Brad BryantKOHLER, WISCONSIN RAND JERRIS: It is a pleasure to welcome the 28th United States U.S. Senior Open Champion, Brad Bryant. Brad with a round of 68 this afternoon, 6-under, 282 for the Championship. Brad, on this piece of silver there are some wonderful names, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Billy Casper, Lee Trevino, how does it feel to know that your trophy is going to be joining theirs forever?  BRAD BRYANT: Well, let's get a few things straight. How many of you thought I would be here. That's what I thought? (Chuckles.) Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. As for having my name listed with those guys, what an honor. It will be an unbelievable honor to have my name next to Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus, those guys. Let's face it, guys, I'm not in their league. I wasn't, and as far as golf goes I never will be. Those are the greats of the greats of all of the game. I'm a journeyman that happened to have a really great week here. And what a privilege it is to be a U.S. Open Champion, U.S. Senior Open Champion. I can't tell you what it means to me. To have my name on the trophy is something more special than I can tell any of you at the moment. As time goes by I think it will become even more special to me. And I appreciate all you all did this week. Thank you very much. RAND JERRIS: Brad, you played some of your best golf on what was probably one of the most difficult days of the Championship, is there a point that you thought you might end up on top? BRAD BRYANT: When I birdied the 9th hole today I thought if I played well on the back nine I had a chance to win. And sure enough that's basically what happened. I got to 4-under, I thought I would have to have 66 today to win and I actually thought 66 would get me in a playoff. And then the back nine the conditions deteriorated and the wind started blowing harder and got very, very gusty, and so it made it very difficult to play that back nine. And fortunately I just hit some great shots coming down the stretch. And it was amazing today. Normally I am not very good with my wedges and today I was amazing. It was like somebody else was hitting them, because I hit the ball close with my -- especially my 60-degree wedge I think four times today and made birdies, which was, for me, it was really spectacular. Q. Can you talk about where you've come both personally and professionally from a very tough year 23 years ago with your family situation and your shoulder and you weren't sure you would ever play again to now being a U.S. Senior Open. BRAD BRYANT: I don't know how to explain it to you. 1984 was a tough year. I tore up my shoulder at Shoal Creek. My father nearly died of a drug reaction and Sue nearly died later in the year. And that was a tough year. I never dreamed that this would happen. Actually as a kid I did. I think that the way things have been going the last couple of years have been just amazing. So to come from where I was to where I am is a pretty meteoric rise, especially -- I don't know exactly how to explain it. I know one thing it sure is incredible to have my wife and kids with me here today. You know, when something this fantastic happens to you, it's really nice to have the people that matter the most to you with you, and it's been great. We got to see a couple of good movies this week and just had a great week together. We even went to Kopps once, probably go again tonight. Q. You are truly a great champion and a very humble champion. How difficult with the wind changing the way it was -- I've played this course, I'm a PGA golf professional here in Wisconsin. The wind can change -- you know, you could use a 4-iron and the next person in the group might use a 7-iron. How difficult for you was your club selection and was your caddy able to help you with that? Did he know your game that well? BRAD BRYANT: Oh, yeah, Tony knows my game probably better than any other caddy -- well, there are several caddies. The guys that know our Tour, that are out on our Tour occasionally, they will tell you about Tony. He's tremendous. Tony has been with me for over four years now and he knows my game better than I do, I think, sometimes. Plus he has young guys and he reads greens really good. It's amazing how many greens we misread this week. These greens are very difficult to read. And when Tony is misreading greens you know they're really hard. Tony has been through just about everything you can go through with a player over the last four years. He's watched me hit every kind of shot in almost every kind of situation and if it weren't for Tony I promise you I wouldn't be here right now. Before I started the Champions Tour, there were a couple of things that became real matters of prayer that I spent hours and hours in prayer on my knees praying about and one of those things was that God would send a caddy to me that not only would help me, but that would become a good friend that I would enjoy spending time with. I never realized God is good all the time. He sent me Tony and it's just been incredible, what Tony has meant to me. The other thing I prayed about was at some point in my career I would do something really significant when my sons were with me. I think this qualifies. Q. You made some great shots, those last two holes were tough holes, talk about the 5-iron on 17 and the two shots on 18 and after any of those shots did you think that did it? Just your mind-set over those holes. BRAD BRYANT: My mind-set on the 17th hole was that we probably had just almost the perfect shot for my game. We had the wind coming from the right, and all I had to do was hit the ball solid and not hook it too much because that's the way my ball goes anyway. Tony was very solid that it was a 5-iron shot, I felt like that it was, and so I had a lot of confidence going into that shot. Plus I had just hit -- no one will talk about this shot, but it was the shot of the tournament for me and that was a 3-wood second shot on 16. That was the shot of the tournament. I felt like after I made birdie at 16 that I had a good chance to win and then found out, gosh, I was ahead. On 17, that shot was basically just tailor-made for my game. It couldn't have been better. It was 210, it was a 5-iron, a little downhill with a left to right wind. If I'm going to hit a good shot, that's the place I'm going to do it. 18, Tony asked me, he said, "Do you want to know how you stand?" And I looked at him and I said, "I think we're 1 up." And he said, "No, you're not." And I said, "Do you mean we're tied?" And he said, "You're three up." And I said "Let's aim right." And he said, "Let's do." But, there, again, it was a hard particular shot, it was a 3-iron to the right of the green and let the ball hook a little bit with the wind. And there again we ended up having -- as we came down the stretch we had perfect yardages for each one of my clubs going into the greens. And that's very unusual. I didn't have to hit any half shots. Q. You talked a little bit about Tony, but we were speaking to him and it seems like your relationship goes much further than most caddy/golfer relationships. He said you guys are pretty much best of friends. BRAD BRYANT: I think so. Tony has been really close for the last, you know, four years, he's been the guy that I've spent the most time with, and he's been the guy that's really been there for me when I've needed him. We've been through a lot in the four years. Tony got engaged a few weeks ago, and now his life is over. But that's okay, he's marrying a real neat lady and we're happy for him. These are the things that make life really worthwhile. It's fun to win golf tournaments and the money is great, but when you have good friends -- if you ever run out of money and you have good friends, your friends will feed you. Well, I've got great friends and I've got great family and Tony is one of the closest. Q. You touched on it before, but how aware were you of what was going on behind you, you know, with Watson and Roberts? BRAD BRYANT: I was completely unaware. I had no clue until we got to 18 and Tony told me that Tom had made a double, I did not know. I honestly did not know. At one point in the day I looked at the scoreboard and I think that I was tied. I think that was somewhere, 12, 13 or something. And then I birdied the 16th hole and I thought that that was to go 1 up. So I was blissfully unaware of what was going on behind me. Q. How would you quantify how much more confidence you have or self-belief you have on the course now versus when you were 30, 35 years old? BRAD BRYANT: I think a lot more. I think in the last five years I've matured a lot. And the game has changed fairly significantly as well. The equipment, the way that we play the game now fits me better than the way we played the game 30 years ago or in my 30s, 25 years ago. So I think that's made a big difference. I've learned an awful lot about the way to play golf, too. And a long time ago, it seems like during my TOUR career I was trying very hard to be technically very good and I tried to quit becoming technically very good and become technically better. And now it's more of an understanding that as we get older rhythm, timing, patience matter more than hitting great golf shots. Where years ago I thought you had to hit great golf shots to win. Now I find out, guess what, you can hit a couple of bad shots and make a couple of good putts and all of the sudden you win a golf tournament. I know I had a talk with my brother at one point that really mattered, and, in fact, Curtis and I were talking about this when we played yesterday. My brother was hurt very badly and he went and practiced for, I don't know, six solid hours and came away from it in great pain. And I said, "You know, you're practicing to punish yourself for playing bad." And I said, "You're one of the best people I know in my whole life, you're one of the best guys I know, everyone loves you, stop punishing yourself, because golf is just the way you make a living." And I think that that understanding has made such a difference in my career on the Champions Tour as opposed to the Regular TOUR. And I think that understanding that even if I play bad, my wife and kids aren't going anywhere, they still love me, and Christ still died for me, even if I play bad golf. That's really -- those are big things in life. That's really what matters. I think that level of maturity gives me a lot more confidence in myself than I ever had in my 30s. Q. What kind of reaction do you think this is going to cause back in Lakeland? BRAD BRYANT: Oh, man! You know, it's -- well, first thing is tomorrow night, Jonathan stand up, show them your shirt. We have a group -- thank you, that's good. You can sit back down now, son. We have a bunch of 20 guys from our church on Monday nights we get together at Beef O'Brady's and eat chicken wings and if you don't eat chicken wings, you don't get to come, that's the way it is. Tomorrow night we get home and guess who gets to buy for everybody? I do! And it will be a great celebration. We've already had phone calls. I'm sure my messages on my phone is full, from guys and girls at home. I talked with my brother while Tom was playing the last hole. That was pretty neat. Andy Bean called me from home, from Lakeland, and I'm sure the people at home in Lakeland are going to be -- they'll be ecstatic for me. It will be quite a celebration when we get home. I'm really looking forward to it and I think that's when it will soak in that I finally won a Major. Q. Not to belabor an obvious point, but is this by far the biggest moment in your career? I know you won on the PGA TOUR, but if so, can you put into words what that means to you? BRAD BRYANT: There have been several -- I'm really fortunate, I guess. Either my career hasn't been that eventful or I just happen to remember the things that have been really eventful. Hitting the ball on the green on the 17th hole in the 1982 PLAYERS Championship, the last round, that was a big deal. That meant that I had a job for the following year, so that was really big, and back then it was a lot different. Winning a month or so ago at Birmingham was really big, because that was the first win I had when Sue and the boys were all there together. And it was pretty special. You know, when you win a tournament like this, when you win a U.S. Open -- I mean, let's face it, this is it. This is the big apple right here. This is the tournament that when you turn 50, this is the biggest event you get to play in the rest of your life. This is it. If I go play in a U.S. Open with the young guys, I'm playing to make the cut. If I make the cut, boy, I've really done well. So from a significance standpoint this is actually a step into history. And I don't know how to explain that a guy like me gets to do something like that, but it's a real privilege. RAND JERRIS: Brad, thank you, congratulations, and we hope you enjoy your year as a U.S. Senior Open Champion. End of FastScripts |
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