FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 10, 1997

Larry Gilbert

LARRY GILBERT: I played real well. I hit all 18 greens in regulation. If I'm not mistaken, I missed two fairways. Drove the ball good, except for a couple of holes. And knocked it close a bunch of times, really the run could have been a lot better. Had several putts that just burned the edge of the hole and wouldn't stay in. I kind of got it started on the 3rd hole. Hit about after 75-yard pitch shot, about three feet from the hole, then birdied there. Then birdied 4. Hit a 6-iron about eight feet right behind the hole. Then No. 7, I made about an 8-footer there for birdie. And then just kind of cruised along until we got to 14. I didn't birdie 13, the par 5. I hit a bad tee shot there and hit it in the left rough. Missed about an 8-footer, I guess. And then 14, I hit 3-wood off the tee, hit a 6-iron about, oh, must have been 30 feet past the hole. And just cruised that one right in the heart. Then I knocked it about two and a half feet on the next hole on 14 -- or 15.

LARRY GILBERT: 15 I hit 6-iron. And then 3-putted 16.

LARRY GILBERT: No. I just really misread the first putt. I hit it way too hard. Must have knocked it 12 feet by the hole. Then almost made a good putt on 17. And, then 18, I hit 3-wood off the tee again and hit just a nice little 8-iron in there, about 12 feet right of the hole, you know, just cruised it right in the heart. You know, it's just one of those rounds that really could have been a whole lot better.

LARRY GILBERT: Oh, yeah, I'll definitely take it. Anything under the par on this golf course is good. I mean, it forces you to take some gambles, or if you decide, you know, you don't want to take that gamble and you want to play safe. Then your next shot you have to take a gamble. So, you know, it really makes you play the game.

LARRY GILBERT: With a real hot putter, yeah. Like I say, I had 31 putts, with a 3-putt.

LARRY GILBERT: Quality of players. I think the quality of the players have got a lot to do with it. I think the weather conditions, you know, we got nice, warm weather with very little wind. We had three or four holes where the wind came up, then all of a sudden it just died down again.

LARRY GILBERT: I really owe -- you know, I put the ball where I wanted it an awful lot of times, which is not necessarily always close to the hole. It's just a golf course that just, you know, you can hit a shot that's mediocre and really be penalized. I know I hear several of the guys are not really crazy about Jack Nicklaus golf courses. I feel, you know, when I first played some of them, I didn't care much for them. You know, for that reason. It doesn't necessarily give you a bailout on a hole. It will give you a bailout, but now you've got to hit, you know, an unbelievable shot to recover. That penalizes the guy that plays safe all the time.

LARRY GILBERT: Yeah. I hit a streak a couple years ago where I had 22. Then I was sandwiched in, one over in there and went for about eight more rounds that were par or better. You get on a streak and it just -- you know, you just ride it out as long as you can.

LARRY GILBERT: The approach shots. I really hit a lot of good, solid iron shots.

LARRY GILBERT: As somewhat high-risk shots?

LARRY GILBERT: About six.

LARRY GILBERT: 14.

LARRY GILBERT: I hit 6-iron and just fired it right at the pin. The way that green is designed, from the position I was in, if I play it a little bit to the right of the hole, and hit it in there the same way, the ball is going to catch that downslope and it's going all the way to the back of the green. So, you know, I just looked at my caddie and said, "You know, best play is to just fire right at it." And I did. I flew the ball right dead over the stick. In fact, it landed about six feet past the hole and kind of released and went on back about 30 feet, and I made it.

LARRY GILBERT: Well, No. 4, the par 3. You know, they've got the pin in there on the front of the green. You've got about, I don't know, 12, 15 feet to the right of the hole and a little bit less to the left, you know. If you miss it either way, you're in the bunker. The way that green is kind of tilted in toward the middle there, you're not going to get it up-and-down out of that bunker unless you make a long putt. It's just an extremely different bunker shot.

LARRY GILBERT: Today is today. It's over with. You know, I'm going out tomorrow and just tee it up on No. 1 and try and do the best I can. I mean, that's kind of my mind set every day. You know, if I shoot 67, you know, that was the best I could do. If I shoot 77, that was the best I could do. You know, I'm going to grind my heart out on every shot. You know, I think that's pretty much true of any successful player. You know, they're just not going to give up. You look at, yeah, I got the lead. Big deal. Look who's behind me. I'll feel pretty good Sunday if I've got the lead. Now I can look behind me and see who I've got and think, "This poor old country boy from Vangrove (phonetic) just beat the best in the world."

LARRY GILBERT: Thank you.