FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 12, 1997

Larry Gilbert

LARRY GILBERT: Yeah. I don't know how. As good as the other two days have been, today was that bad. I just gutted it out, you know, and made some real good par saves. I don't know. I just never could find a good rhythm today.

LARRY GILBERT: Okay. I parred the 1st hole. Knocked it in the water on the 2nd hole, and thought I hit a good tee shot. Wind just kind of gusted up right-to-left. When we stood on the tee, we felt no wind. It wound up going in the water. I made six there. And, then I made 3 on the next hole, the par 5, made eagle. Hit a driver and a 4-wood about 20 feet and made it. And, then from there, it was just, you know, hit what I thought was an awful good shot at the 3rd hole or 4th hole, 5-iron, just right at the hole. And it rolls into the back muff. I chip it down, I don't know, about six or eight inches and make it. And then from there on, it just seemed like, boy, it was a struggle. I made a good up-and-down for par on the next hole, and then had a reasonably easy birdie putt on the next hole and missed. 7, just off the edge of the green in 2, don't make birdie. 9, I hit it dead behind a tree and just hit a little shot from about - I think we had 160 something yards, and I had to aim it about 40 yards left of the green. And I just -- I've hit that shot many a time. Just take a little 4-wood and lay the face open, choke down almost to the shaft, and just hit a little, what we call a caddie-slice. I mean, the ball just turned perfect, just worked right out into the middle of the fairway and rolled up on the green. And on 10, I drive it in the left bunker. You know, that's just dead there. You can't get it on the green from there. Gets me 1-over-par for the day. I think at that time -- well, Jack 3-putted ten. So he still had a two-shot lead. I birdied the next hole, and he made bogey. Which got it back to tied. I make par on the next one, he makes another bogey. He bogeyed 10, 11 and 12.

LARRY GILBERT: Very much. Very much. Jack, the front nine, boy, he just played so solid, it was unreal. And then just kept gutting it out. 12, I drove it in the fairway bunker. You know, there's a hole where it's so easy to make birdie there, you ought to be kicked for not making birdie. But I drive it in the fairway bunker, hit a wedge, third shot, which I thought was going to be real close and it wound up about an inch over the back edge of the green, made par there. 14, I hit a real good tee shot, hit a God awful 6-iron shot. Missed the green way right, and got that up-and-down from up on that hill, out of the heavy rough. Then the next hole I thought I made birdie. I hit 6-iron there pretty hard, and left it about 25 feet short of the hole. Boy, it was just working perfect. Then it just quit turning. Kind of caught the edge of the hole. And, then drove it in the fairway bunker again on the next hole, 16. And hit an unbelievable shot. Hit a 9-iron about 12 feet past the hole. Had no chance of making it. To try and make the putt, I would have had to play it five feet to the right of the hole. And, you know, if I hit it just the least little bit too hard, then I'm going to knock it eight or ten feet by. It was just an extremely hard putt. And then 17, you saw 18. That's just one of my routine pars. The way the day went, that was pretty typical of the way it went.

LARRY GILBERT: I still, all day long, I felt like, you know, I'm going to hit one good shot here in a minute and really get some feel in me and pick up a good rhythm and I'm going to be okay. But it just never did happen. You know, it was just, like I say, just gutted out all day. And Jack, you know, that's just something he doesn't do. He kind of, I guess, went to sleep the back 9.

LARRY GILBERT: Yeah. I feel very, very fortunate.

LARRY GILBERT: It was, for me. And, I made it even harder. You know, like I say, I just hit a lot of bad golf shots and got away with it.

LARRY GILBERT: Well, look at the strength of the field. You look at the names that are up there, you know, and most of them are the guys that are in the top -- you know, on the money list. I mean, they're all good players. So, you know, and the golf course, the greens are cutting very firm, you know, and it's kind of hard to get the ball close to the hole, for me. But, like I say, that's the way I hit the ball today, has a lot to do with that.

LARRY GILBERT: I love to play with Jack. He is absolutely, in my opinion, the greatest pairing there is, him and Palmer. I mean, those guys don't get the reputation they get for being nice guys without being nice guys. Yeah, I'm definitely in awe of Jack. But, I'm not intimidated by him. I think, you know, just about everybody in the tournament feels the same way. You know, I mean, when you look up there and the guy has won between the SENIOR and regular TOUR, he's won 25 major championships, how you cannot be in awe of him?

LARRY GILBERT: I really don't know what you mean, Billy.

LARRY GILBERT: I don't know. I probably shoot at the pins a little more often than Jack does. Jack, he's such a great strategist when it comes to playing the game. I think a lot of times that's where he beats a lot of us, is he outsmarts us.

LARRY GILBERT: Thank you.