U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 27, 1997

Dave Eichelberger

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Well, just seemed like a lot of the iron shots, I was right on, the right distance a lot of times today, it felt like. And, also, I felt like I was hitting more left-to-right shots for some reason than I did yesterday. Yesterday, I felt like I was trying to cut the ball a lot. Today, I felt like I was hooking it a lot on working it into the greens. Yesterday, that first 9, I really hit it close. And, today, I struggled a little bit at the start. Hit terrible shots -- hit a bad drive on 1, bad second shot, bad third shot, bad fourth shot, and bad fifth shot. Made bogey on the first hole. Then got up on the 2nd hole and hit a poor drive, but recovered with a good putt there on 2, about an 8-footer for par. And then made a putt on 3, about a 12-, 15-footer going down the hill. It might have been off the green if I hadn't hit the hole. That was probably, to me, the toughest pin was the third hole today. Looked like you could really, if you were past the hole putting down the hill, it was really tough to stop it within a couple of feet of the hole. I hit it close at 5 for a birdie, about 4 feet. 6th hole, missed club there left of the green, long, bogeyed there. Then just kind of parred along to No. 10. Hit a good iron on 10 in there about 8 feet for a birdie. Then the 12th hole, again, did the same thing I did yesterday, pulling my drive in the trees on the left, had to chip out, bogeyed there. Then came back with a birdie on 13, maybe a 10-, 12-footer there. Then 16, 17 and 18, hit good shots in close at 16 and 17 and missed putts there, about 10 feet at 16 and maybe 6 feet at 17. Then 18, had a good 2-putt from, oh, 35, 40 feet right of the hole. That ball broke 8 feet, I guess, 8, 10 feet, looped around up just a couple inches from the hole. All in all, I feel like I played better today, I guess.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Oh, very pleased. Keep shooting in the 60s, I know if you can shoot under par the last two days, that will be -- I'll be happy with that.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Well, yeah, kind of by design. Like a lot of times if -- when the pin is to the right side of the green, I'll try to make the ball cut in. And if it's on the left, I'll try to hook it in. And I guess like today, a lot of times on the -- some of the longer iron shots, I felt like it was -- the pin was left I guess a little bit. Yesterday, I felt they were more on the right.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Yeah, for the most part, I'd say that's true. There have been a couple times when I just got lucky and had the ball sitting up in the rough a little bit. I guess on the third hole today, I drove it in the rough on the right and was able to get it on the green. You just get in there in all that hay, and there it is sitting up a little bit instead of down. You know, just three-quarters of an inch can be the difference between being able to hit a 7-iron on the green or only being able to just gouge it out 100 yards.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: I felt the scores ought to be lower than what they are, I guess from the start. Just from playing practice rounds, I felt like the winning score should have been for the whole tournament maybe 6- to 8-under, something like that. I don't know, I still feel like somebody can get there.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: You bet. Thank you.