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CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

October 28, 2007

Jim Thorpe

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA

DAVE SENKO: Before we get some comments, just a couple notes here. His 20-under 268 tied the tournament scoring record, which he set in 2003. It's his third win in the event, tying Tom Watson for three victories. And Jim wins a Champions Tour event for the eighth in a row, which is the longest current streak on Tour, and earns a career best 442,000 check, which pushes him over the $1 million Mark in season earnings, and it's the eighth straight year that he's hit the 1 million Mark. So Jim, congratulations, and just share your thoughts on your third win here.
JIM THORPE: Well, first of all, you know, just give God some praise for all the great work and stuff we had. You don't have to write about it but something I do.
Coming in this week, I knew my game was showing sparks normally the year, by late summer, it starts to peak a little bit. Unfortunately this year I think I got myself behind the 8-ball where I could not just relax and play because trying to make the Top-30, trying it maintain the 30 position out there. It just gets a little bit tough and when people say there's no pressure, bologne, it's a lot of pressure. Sometimes we don't talk about it and we don't admit it, but yes it's a lot of pressure out there.
This whole week, I started on Monday afternoon with a practice round where I hit the ball very well and making some birdies and it just continued to go the whole way.
Today's round, I don't think was any different than the first three rounds. The first day was perfect for me, the pace of play, the greens, nobody had been on the greens before I had been on the greens and the ball was rolling so smooth and opened up with a nice 64, it's always good -- I know we can't win on the first round but it's always good to put yourself into position where you have a chance.
Yeah, I knew the second round would be the toughest round for me, because I had not been in that position for a long time. And once I got rid of the first couple of holes, then I was fine. Yesterday was the round I really felt I could have separated myself from the field just a little bit. I didn't capitalize on the good shots that I hit. I hit a lot of decent putts. You know, 8-, 10- 12-footers I thought I could have made.
But the one thing that, you know, very close friend of mine, I call him Yellow Man, Rick Carry (ph). He talks to me a lot about golf and patience and that sort of stuff and sometimes he doesn't feel that I'm listening. But you know what, when you're practicing that sort of stuff, we kind of take in some and let some go. But that was the key word, patience. Today I got off and hit some very, very nice shots and didn't make nothing happen with it. I had, you know, a decent birdie putt on 1 that I thought I had made the putt and turned the opposite way I read it.
Missed a makeable birdie out on 2 and a short birdie putt on 3 and says, okay, here we go. No. 4, missed a green to the right. Chipped to about four feet and made a nice little putt there, so that gave me what I needed, a little confidence.
Then I think I birdied 5 from probably 10, 12 feet and then birdied 6 from about 16 or 17 feet and the worst shot I hit all day came on 7. We had the wrong club on the shot, I didn't have the club on my bag to hit the shot from 224, my hybrid club goes about 230. It's got hazards to the right and you could not afford to miss the green left, but I just kind of fanned a 3-iron and made about a 4-foot putt for bogey there.
8 was an easy-to-reach putt, hit a bad shot there and hit it in the bunker and I couldn't execute.
9, I hit a another beautiful tee shot there. We have 71 yards to the flag and I hit it four feet just right of the hole and I thought I hit a good putt there. It just broke a lot more. Missed it.
Go to 10, hit a another good shot and we misread that putt, we played it to move a little left and it actually went right.
11 was very good. That's the best putt I hit all day. I really thought I made the putt on 11 but I knew I put a good stroke on it and that's what I'm looking for, again, the smoothness in the stroke, kind of letting it flow.
And made a good 2-putt from probably 50 feet on 12. That was actually a 2-putt because I made about a 6-footer for par and there again, I realized that the putter was kind of going again. And from that point to this point, it was, you know, all downhill.
I put it in the rough on 13, the par 5. Wedged it probably 18, 20 feet and made that putt for birdie.
Hit an excellent hybrid club on 14, the par 3. It was playing 226 or 227, so you know, making three there was a good score. But I came very close to making a hole-in-one there. I hit what I thought was a perfect putt from the back fringe of the green there, about 15, 18 feet and it just stopped turning. So it stopped a couple inches. But I would have taken three without playing the hole.
I hit an excellent drive on 15, and a beautiful little 7-iron shot. It was a fun tee thing because every putt I had down the stretch, we had had them before. And that's one thing that Tony pointed out, you know, we've had this putt before. He read it right and so we just sort of got that putt, it was beautiful.
16, we had kind of a wait on the tee. You know, when you're on a roll, you kind of want to go, and we waited for probably five or six minutes. I kind of flared my driver out to the right and actually had a pretty decent lie, but you know, I've got so much confidence with my wedge game that I told him, if you could lay me up a hundred yards, I can make birdie for you, and he laid me up about 102 and I hit it about three and a half, four feet and made birdie for him.
17 was a clutch shot there. I knew I had a one-shot lead after making birdie on 16 and I few any could birdie 17 that would put where he wanted to be coming down 18 because 18 even though we tried to forget about what happened yesterday it's still in the back of your mind. When he give me the yardage, 135, I knew it was absolutely perfect, 9-iron, best shot of the week there, just never left the flag pole, 2 1/2, three feet, and the putt was straight as a string. When that putt went in, I felt pretty good with it.
Of course, on the 18 tee, we had to wait again, but Tony got into my head. I'm one of those guys where even though the bunker is like 264 to carry, if I choose to carry that bunker, I have a little extra I can go get. So just said, just take it over the bunker and beat the dog crap out of it. That is probably my best tee shot of the day, just perfect, just enough left there, hit 112 to the hole and that's about birdie range. From that range and in, I hit it pretty good. I knew when he gave me 112 to the hole -- I knew when he didn't say, keep it right of the flag or something, he knew I was in that zone, shoot at the flag. I felt the hole really owed me something from yesterday and hit a beautiful wedge shot nice and high just past the flag and spun a little bit and had about a 5 1/2 or 6-footer and I read it from both sides and I seen the putt like a left-center putt, and he called it left center and that gave you all the confident you needed.
Sonoma Golf Club here has been very, very kind to me. It's my third win here since 2003, and when you find a venue -- I lived in Buffalo, New York for 20-some-odd years. So I grew up most of my golf on poa annua greens, playing bent golf courses. I developed just a feel for poa annua greens, you know. I think they are some of the best greens in the word and we know later in the evening, the greens are going to fly just a little bit and that means you need a little more speed and that means when you get that putt four or five feet, you need to putt some speed on it to get it to the back of the cup.
I'm telling you guys, it sounds, I know you guys, some might say, he just shot 20-under par, why is he complaining about his putter? But I swear to God I really didn't putt well till the last five or six holes. I made some putts to keep me going but this is probably my best ball-striking week ever. I hit my irons unbelievably good. I don't know how many greens I missed for the week but it couldn't have been much more than eight or ten greens.
It's the type of golf course you're going to miss a few fairways because that's just the way the golf course is set up. But my bunker game was pretty solid. I had a couple of difficult bunker shots. I think I hit three bunkers this week and got two of them up-and-down from difficult lies.
I just felt that there's something about being amongst the best players in the world or being amongst the Top-30 that seems to make a guy like me reach a little deeper and just really wanting to do well. The one thing, I felt like it was three guys could actually win the golf tournament. I'm being honest. Fred Funk played a beautiful round of golf today but I never thought Fred could win the tournament until he got to 5-, or 6-under but I thought Denis Watson and Romero and Bart Bryant would be my main situation. I knew I could out drive Eduardo. I hit the ball as far as he can hit it, so my thing, if I could keep it on the fairway, I was going to have a lot of pressure on him with his second shots.
And I think the difference in the round was closing the deal, I made the putts and he didn't. I didn't play with Denis this week, but I know that Denis and Brad are both great players, and both were lingering around 15- or 16-under so nobody was really going no place.
And as a whole, on this golf course, I've always played the back nine very strong. I've shot my best numbers on the back nine and I knew if I could find a birdie if the first two or three holes back there to free me up a little bit, yeah, I could definitely make birdies and that's basically what happened. You know we catch a golf course like this, I think it's a hell of a golf course, it's amazing we can go out and shoot 18-, 20-under par on this golf course. It's the fastest greens we play all year, toughest rough we play all year. You get the Charles Schwab Cup race, Jay and Loren battling it out. I guess Bryant had a chance there at the end.
You know, it's a lot of pressure. I mean, even a guy like me who has had a year that I guess a lot of people would love to have, but itwasn't the year that I was looking for; you know, to come in here, the way I've played this year, I'm telling you, man, I played through the whole summer, my biggest check might have been 30,000. I just played like a dog during the summer.
This year, the game can't kick in like it normally does laid summer. It showed sparks last week at the AT&T Texas tournament where I fighting for survival to get here, number 30. I hit some good shots down the stretch because I do like -- I knew I needed to make a couple birdies down the stretch the last three holes and I did and pretty much, three, three, three.
You know, that tells you that you still have it. Sometimes it's hard to get to, you know what I mean, and the same guy I was telling you about 15, 20 minutes ago, Rick Carry, was talking to Tony, and I was kind of listening to the conversation and Tony could read my putts and that sort of stuff. So Rick was saying, he said, thoroughbreds, horses don't lose races. Nine times out of ten, if the horse loses, it's a mistake; the jockey makes a mistake someplace. You have to get a chance to get in there and see what he sees and if he doesn't like what he sees, he's going to call you in any way.
Tony and I have a very, very strong relationship. We've been together since 2000, so he's kind of got the green light on the golf course. But sometimes, you know what I mean, he has not had a stellar year with me this year, and we only started back together at the last half of the season. So it was actually a great week for him.
But sometimes we get in each other's way, you know what I mean. We walked up and made a thousand four-foot putts. So why do you look for something, you know what I mean? We stood there and hit 8-iron from 155, 160 yards, a thousand times, so you don't need to hear, "Good thing, stay in your zone." It's something that you already know in the back of your mind.
So Rick really felt like that that was bothering me a little bit because I went back and normally I play at a fast pace and when he would say something like that, I would back off the shot. So I was kind of go out there, you get together and talk about it a little bit because you get to the first hole. And Tony cleaned my ball and is still 20 yards in front of me.
Of course, I call him in, that sort of stuff, but it worked out. We birdied five of the last five or six holes in the back nine, and probably for the first time since I've been playing golf, we had the same read on every putt. And it wasn't like he walked up and said, I like it right, what do you like and I said I like it right edge based on speed and he says perfect.
The putt on 17, we look both sides, we look, we look, we look, I says, I like it straight in. He stepped out of the way.
I think that's what you've got to -- sometimes we put too much into it. And I don't think -- I'm not saying that's the reason I was missing a lot of put but I do think it had a little something to do with it you know what I mean. Sometimes he might see it right edge and I might see it left edge you know what I mean but I have to go with my feel. Give me a chance to be wrong, and he's a hell of a caddie. We've won 13 tournaments together out here and we've made a lot of money together out here. He knows this business. But it's like me sometimes, like today on the two par 5s on the back nine, I'm just overconfident. I knew I was going to birdie the hole before I got there. That's the wrong attitude to have because I put both tee shots in the rough.
But the good thing about it, I just told him, lay me up strong, which is 105, 110, 85 or 90, someplace that I can get a birdie putt. I'm just happy that it turned out the way it did.

Q. You mentioned you had poa putting greens in the backyard in Buffalo; is that right?
JIM THORPE: Mm-hmm.

Q. (When did you live there)?
JIM THORPE: I left Buffalo in 1997. Moved there in 77 and left there in '97.

Q. Can you describe the putting green in the backyard?
JIM THORPE: It was probably the size of the room in here with just a little undulation to it, a green that I -- I didn't have it custom built. I had a couple greenskeepers I knew from a couple of golf courses I played around the area and told them if they had extra sod and that sort of stuff; and I dug a hole and didn't have no sand and drainage, nothing of that nature. And went to a junkyard and bought me an old-fashioned green mower, and I never spiked it, never did nothing to it. Just kind of chipped and watch the ball bounce and run and all that sort of stuff.
I go out there, I get ready for a U.S. Open and cut it down real close, get it running probably 11 on the Stimpmeter but probably overall probably run about a 9. When I was home a lot, I would take care of it but when I was away, just grow it, you know.

Q. Did you putt every day?
JIM THORPE: Oh, every day when I was home. I had a beautiful backyard, rock garden you know what I mean, beautiful backyard the trees and the water and the rocks and it was beautiful. When I left -- beautiful. That's the only thing I regret, I couldn't take the backyard with me. (Laughter).
I don't know if you know it or not, but to get here and have a chance and the opportunity to play with the best players in the world, the best players in the world, you can't go no place else and find 30 -- over-50, that's what I meant to say, find 30 golfers that can beat what we have here this week. I mean, the likes of Tom Watson, Jay Haas, Loren Roberts, Fred Funk, Denis Watson, Dana Quigley, Mark James, D.A. Weibring, Fred Funk, I mean, just -- Scott Hoch. You talk about world-class golf, guys that have won major golf tournaments and have won multiple times on the TOUR. You know, it's funny, too, because I'm kind of a softy, walking down 18 fairway, hit my second shot, you know, that's the stuff I was thinking about. I says, you know what, if my Pa could see me from where I came and where I've gone to where I am today, he would probably say, "Well done, Son."
And you know what, it's not easy. It's a lot of sacrifice and it's a lot of work. I haven't even talked to my wife yet. It's funny, too, because I talked to her yesterday and she tried to give me a putting lesson over the phone. Can you believe that? And the woman doesn't even play golf. "You should square up, I see you a little too open." Yeah, the dog's running away, you know what I mean. (Laughing) "I watched you putt on TV, you seemed to be a little too open, square up a little bit more." Because I talk about those things at home you know. I said, you know, give her the credit; yeah, I took your advice.
But you know what, no one knows until you've been there how tough it is, what a thrill it is, how much pressure it is. I was on the 16 tee, the rope was shaking. I said to the people standing there, I says, you know what, if I wasn't so nervous, I wouldn't see that. But here I'm so nervous, I can see everything now. You say things to try to free you up a little bit. You have to be freed up out there. I've always felt that I could close. Always felt like coming down the stretch, I made eagle on the last hole to force playoffs and wind golf tournaments and that sort of stuff and I bogeyed the last holes to lose golf tournaments and that sort of stuff.
If you play golf, everything you can possibly do in golf, if you play golf as long as we have played golf out here, Everything that you do in golf is going to happen to you. You're going to 3-putt from four feet; you're going to hit it out-of-bounds; you're going to shank a chip shot. You're going to get so nervous on the golf course you can't swallow your own swallow, and that's the beauty of it. That's the real beauty of it, you know what I mean, to pick up a phone and call my daughter -- I know she's watching, she left me a voicemail yesterday, "Dad, you've got these guys, you can beat them, Dad. You've done it before. You can do it again." Stuff like that goes a long ways.
And just to call her and hear her say, "You beat them suckers, I told you." That's what she'll say, and we'll laugh about it and that sort of stuff and give me a chance to talk about it when I get home. You know the funny thing about it, I can go back on Thursday teeing off at 11:45 and tell you where I hit every tee shot, every second shot, every putt, every chip shot up until I finished today. That's the thing that I think is the beauty of the game.
If someone walked up and said, how about that bunker shot you hit on No. 8, "And, Man, that was perfect Jesus Christ, that was it, we had ten holes to go, 11 holes to go and I needed to get that ball up-and-down." It's just the beauty of it.
You know, and for Rick George and his staff and the PGA TOUR and everything they do for us -- I think I said it last year. Most of us are probably -- I'd probably be parking cars at Foxwoods in Las Vegas or someplace if it wasn't for the Champions Tour. We are the luckiest human beings walking to do what we do, travel around the country and play venues like this one and stay in the best hotels and drink the best wine and eat the best food and fly private planes. I tell you what, it doesn't get any better than this, I'm telling you.

Q. The greens were poa?
JIM THORPE: Strictly poa.

Q. Why did you move to Buffalo?
JIM THORPE: My wife had all the money, man, I had to go. I won't let her get away, man. (Laughter).
We lived in northern Virginia at the time and she took a job with the Department of Housing and very, very smart lady, man, and she told me she wanted to take a job in Buffalo. And she always had wanted a child. And I says, well, honey, you know what, kids are fine but you need to be around family. She says, they have this opening at a job in Buffalo, same thing, benefits could be a little better but we're close to family. Doesn't bother me because I travel anyway. I can't believe I moved to hell. (Laughter) But Buffalo was good for me, man, it was good for me. I was the only player in the world that played the PGA TOUR for 22 years and for 20 years lived in Buffalo during that time.

Q. Then you moved to Florida?
JIM THORPE: I told her when I finished playing the Tour, I'm gone. You can go or you can stay. I am gone.
I came home the second week of September with snow on the ground. I said, "Honey, I'm going to Florida, find a place and we're gone." She loves it now. The good thing about it, lucky enough, saved enough money where I could move the parents, mom and dad down, and unfortunately Mom died three or four years after she was there but still Pop is there giving it to her at 92 years old.
So moving them down and having some fun with them and that sort of stuff with the grandkids and my daughters love them. You know, all in all it wasn't bad.
I think my career probably could have been better if I lived in Florida someplace. Probably could have been better if I would have taken it a little bit more serious, if I had taken it as serious as do I now. I just thank God I realized the opportunity that I had when they come up with the Senior Tour/Champions Tour they are giving us the second opportunity to go out and make something happen, map. I didn't realize when it started in 1981 that the Tour would be what it is today. It's just continued to grow and grow and grow. I think it's just going to get better, we have so many great name, we have Hal Sutton coming out next year and John Cook and Freddie Couples not far down the road. Sandy Lyle is going to come out so the Tour is going to get tougher and tougher, a lot of major winners.
Basically, my buddies, I've got a bunch of buddies at home and with travel and play a lot of golf and stuff together. They never watched the regular tour unless Tiger Woods is playing. That's the only time they turn the regular tour on is when Tiger is playing. I'm telling you, man. But the station, even at my club the TV stays on the GOLF CHANNEL showing the Champions Tour. Because I think these people, you know, my age and in that area came in late to the Hale Irwins, Tom Watson, all these great guys and to me that's what makes it -- to me, that's what makes it fun when you can walk up and say, hey, Tom, hey, Hal, something of that nature. If it's not Tiger or Phil or Vijay and Ernie, I really don't know anybody up there anymore. I seen Tommy Armour III leading that tournament, I don't know who won this week but I seen him leading the golf tournament.
DAVE SENKO: Didn't finish. Weather.
JIM THORPE: Plus the guys make so much money, they don't want to play golf. Imagine playing for between 4.5 and 6, 7 million every week. You couldn't keep me off the golf course, man. Are you kidding me? I'd have a bank on the corner called Thorpy. (Laughter) Stop and think about it, man. Tiger Woods plays, what, 15, 16 events and he makes 10, 11 million every year. You know what, Tiger is making so much money, I think this is his last year and he's not going to go back with American Express and GM. He just signed with Gatorade, $100 million. I don't know, you'd think he'd throw a brother a bone. (Laughter) I'd pave the road for him, you know what I mean. Write that small check, just a couple million will do.
You know what, man, he's brought a lot to the game. And I talked the other day and I had breakfast this morning with Brad and his wife, Sue, and they was talking about some of the things they read in the paper about turning kids around and making them better citizens and for the community and that sort of stuff. Evidently, it's been the parents and the trainers in the last eight, ten years, are not doing what they need to do with their kids. I think it's up to guys like us to step in there and try to be a role model to these kids and let them know that trouble is a no-no and education is necessary.
I think if all of the professional athletes got together somehow or other and we formed some type of syndicate where we go to high schools and speak to these kids -- just by speaking to these kids, you know, giving these kids opportunity to say what's wrong, you know, check with this young girl and say, "Why did you have this baby at age 15: First thing she'll say, I'm looking for someone to love, someone to hold onto, and that to me is a real tragedy, you know what I mean. It's like, I can't wait to get home -- I cannot wait to get home tomorrow to see my daughters, you know, to be hugged, congratulations and all that sort of stuff, the high-fives. To me, that's what it's all about, you know what I mean. And then I sit down and say, hey, how is everything going in school, something we need to talk about.
My oldest daughter called on Wednesday night and was crying, and I said, what's wrong, and she said, me and mom got into it again. She's always crying when she and mom get into it. She says, you know what, I just feel like I'm a failure. Says, you know what, I got a college degree, finished my degree, got this, that, and that the other; and you and mom had to buy a condo to live in; and you just brought me a brand new car and I feel like a failure. I have these credit cards and they are all maxed up.
I said, "You're not a failure, you have a problem." You have a problem, you know. So I tell you what I do. You meet me Wednesday, you take a half a day off work Wednesday, bring all of your credit cards and all your bills over to the house and we'll go over this stuff and show you how to correct it, you know what I mean and first thing I'm going to do is take the scissors and cut the credit cards in half; and honey, you can't control them. It's okay to have one for emergency but you don't need to 20. She said she had 17. 17, when are you going to do with them? You are just going to keep charging. "When I get depressed, Dad, I go shopping." Go running. Take a swim. (Laughter).
So basically what I've got to do is show her where she made her mistakes and that sort of stuff and say you know what when you're ready for credit cards and that sort of stuff -- she really felt bad. I was trying to get my baby daughter, trying to upgrade her car and she said, "Dad, I want to work and upgrade my own car." And the oldest daughter sat there and listened to it and I think it kind of hit home a little bit.
She called up crying, that sort of stuff, so I was with my buddies said, look, I need to talk to my daughter in ten minutes. I said, you know what, depression, all that sort of stuff, you know what, you have no kids, you have a wonderful job, you have a nice little condo you live in, your car is paid for; it's just the idea that you have a problem with credit cards. You can't control your money.
So set her down with a financial advisor to cut up her check four different ways and show her that this goes towards savings and what you have to pay different ways, and show her with a financial agent exactly what she needs to do. Those are the things we need to do to our kids. It's just like young athletes that we have. Hell, they make a lot of money, but somewhere along the road, when we go to school, schools teach us history or teach us language and mathematics, arithmetic, whatever you want to call it; we need to teach these kids more about taking care of themselves and more about how you take care of your money when you make it, especially our young athletes, when you leave school, you take, for example, LeBron James. This kid, this young man is going to make hundreds of millions but someone needs to sit down with him, some agent or some broker needs to sit down and say, this is how you plan this, this is how you do this.
Those are the things that are missing, especially black kids. We need to unite a lot of our resources and give something back to the community such as libraries and places to go play basketball, Boys and Girls Club is a perfect example. Think the boys and girl club is the greatest organization in the country. They work their asses trying to keep those kids out of trouble and give them life skills and doing something constructive. They have already told me at Foxwoods, I could use one of the golf courses if I want to start a Jim Thorpe Academy; and get a group of kids up on the first tee, I have a couple of guys waiting on me, but Foxwoods is going to step in with a couple million dollars. So then we hit the McDonalds and Nikes of the world to find a sponsor for these kids coming from the West Coast or Midwest to the northeast.
I think we can make a difference, guys, I think we can make a difference. I just don't understand in today's word with everything that we have why kids are struggling so bad. And I think they are struggling so bad because there's nothing wrong with education, there's nothing wrong with school. We know they need this. I just personally feel that somebody somewhere along the line, either from a mother, father standpoint, school standpoint, someone is doing the wrong thing with these kids. There's no way in hell these kids should be as bad as they are.
Other night I went to a movie, came in at 11:30, three kids walking down the side of the street and whooping and hollering and carrying on, and couldn't have been 15 years old; and that time of night, there's nothing but trouble.
Basically what I'm trying to do is hopefully play golf until I'm of 62, and then I'm going to take the time. I'm going to take the time because I know tons and tons of people because I think we can make a difference with our youth and going to schools. Don't have to write no speech. Go out and tell them the truth. Black kids have to walk a much straighter line than Caucasian kids, and that's the way society is and kids needs to be told that. Plus, you need to tell young men that when you get these young girls pregnant, it's fine, because you can move on with your life. But these girls are stuck with these babies and only one place they can go and that's going over ore to the -- what do you do you live it, looking for some type of place that would take care of these kids.
High schools today, do you mean we have to have day care schools and high schools? Something is wrong with that picture, man. I was 20-year-old before I had sex, 20. My dad had me so scared of girls I almost run every time I seen one. Today, you go to high school, back in my day -- I don't remember one girl, I'm telling you the truth, I don't remember one girl during my high school days was pregnant or had a baby. But that's back when we had parents and mothers who stayed home and took care of the kids and took care of the house.
Today we have a working morning and we have single parents' mother and the kids are running wild, man. I mean, you can listen, you heard the music and the way they talk to one another, and you know what, so I'm going to rededicate my life to trying to get these kids on the path to righteousness and doing the right thing. I've seen it and over and over and over again and there's no reason for it. It's just the idea I think that you have to be more like a Bill Cosby and someone to go out and speak out to these parents and let them know, you raise these kids and they will raise you and that's basically what I'm saying today.
The reason I'm saying that, I'm trying to make a point that we're in a new millennium, this is the year 2007, going to 2008 and planning on one of the tours, PGA, LPGA, Nationwide, we've got no African American kids at all, and there's none in sight. I think that's the real killer, you know. All the stuff, Ogden and the guys before them, a lot of the Caucasian pros, Billy Maxwell, all of the things they did years ago to make it better for the younger generation, we're going to fall right back in the same way we were back in the 50s. And guys like myself, the Calvin Peetes of the world, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, just to name a few, if these guys don't speak out and start making something different -- when you look at baseball, all Dominican. You know what, more than half, I would say more than half of the people in the country that play baseball are from Casa de Campo, somewhere, all Dominican.
So you know what, something's gone wrong and something is missing and something we need to do to change there to get the playing field just a little bit more level and I think that I was talking to the wife another night -- I told her, I said, I don't think I'm going to just dedicate my life, at leave four or five years, I've been trying to get into high schools and try to talk to principals and get our kids on the right track.

Q. Would you ever charge for an autograph?
JIM THORPE: No. Happy just to come watch you play. I think that's the beauty of the Champions Tour out here, we don't need to walk through interest with bodyguards and all that stuff. We just have a job to do and we just do it better than the after rain working man.
Got these little beautiful racecars, cigars, my garage is full of hats and shirts from different golf courses. It's amazing what people send you and give you. I was playing with a guy someplace and talking to him about his putter, and next thing I know his putter comes to me in the mail; and I never used, but it was a nice putter, you know what I mean.
Beauty of the Champions Tour and have these people come out and watch us and really enjoy what we're doing. When we have days like today that's what makes it all worthwhile. I had a little kid up there doing the totals, "How did you make all those birdies down the stretch under pressure?" Shit, I don't know. We don't. We do it so much it just becomes easy for us and it just happens. We know the pressure is there, and we deal with the pressure and we know that if we -- standing next to you the way we're practicing, we can make it work and that's basically what happened this week, guys.
The weather this week, all seven days, couldn't have been better, the fans have been the greatest. Walking off the tee today I could feel the energy of the people. I told Tony, can you feel that, man? Over the years, the way you conduct yourself, the way you take your time, and people love it. The last day says, I want to thank you for signing this, I know you're tired and exhausted and you signed all these autographs and hats and he said I want to thank you for that because most athletes would not do that.

Q. At this point are you playing for the money or something else?
JIM THORPE: You know what, there was a gentleman that said to me this week, it was a black guy that walked up to me, he says, we're pulling for you so hard, and some weeks we pull for you so hard and it just doesn't happen you know what I mean. I just want to thank you what you're doing for us. Giving us hope and staying involved in this game and continue to go do things for the Boys and Girls Club and kids and we would appreciate that.
Walking up 18 and looking to people around the greens, and I said to myself, if I didn't play golf, would I actually go do that? We have very, very loyal fans and I think that's one of the reasons we work as hard as we work and play as hard as we play.

End of FastScripts

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