KEMPER OPEN

May 28, 1999

Bill Glasson

BILL GLASSON: It is always nice coming back here to the place where it has been very good to me over the years. The course was in great shape. I really like the changes, the grass, the change. I think it actually makes the course play a little bit more difficult. The greens were really good today. Yesterday they really held up well in the afternoon, a lot of poa annua in these greens. So they tend to get a little bit shaky, bouncy late in the day, but they held up pretty well yesterday. They seemed to be drying out. Course is drying out a little bit. But should play a little bit faster over the weekend. The par 5s really haven't been reachable for the most part. 6 today with the left pin you can have a better chance than yesterday I thought to reach the greens, but since they built that back tee, it is a lot more difficult to hole. I like the front tee better just because it brings in more, you know, you are going see a lot more 4s but you are going to see a lot more 6s too. You still have to hit two really good shots. Unless you really get a good roll out on your drive -- yesterday hit a good drive, but it picked up mud, so, you know, I was close enough to go for it, but with mud on my ball that just -- wasn't worth the risk at that point and today I laid up also, made birdie with a sand wedge. I think during the weekend they will use that tee once at least, maybe twice.

BILL GLASSON: As probably most of you know, my teacher lives here first of all, Ken Casey. He used to be the pro at Congressional and I haven't played well in the last -- for my last five or six tournaments. So I really needed to come -- I got here Monday and I didn't get to this course until Wednesday, but we worked starting Monday and it is always nice to come back where -- he does his thing I do mine. I try to play. He tells me what to do. That is where we have been most successful in the past.

BILL GLASSON: Yes, he does the technical part and then my job is to try to get it in the hole and he just -- I had some fundamental and mechanical problems with my swing, a lot of motion in my lower body and we have been working this week to kind of stabilize my lower body so my arm swing can get a little better. I show signs of coming around. It is getting a little bit better each day. I played pretty solid first eleven holes and then I started tinkering, which I tend to do that. I made 30 bogeys coming in and two of those were 3-putts but they were caused by bad iron shots. Once -- that is the kind of Catch-22 when you start hitting it a little bit better, start hitting more shots on line they weren't quite perfect. I started well. If I can get that three feet close to the hole, so then that is where I kind of lose touch with reality. I kind of tinker past the point and so about the last seven holes probably I was tinkering with my swing instead of playing golf. That is kind of the funk I have been in the last six weeks. Been working too hard on the swing.

BILL GLASSON: You know, that -- they are going a little bit of both ways. I missed 2-iron shots to the left and--

BILL GLASSON: I really only missed one fairway, that was on 12. I hung a 3-wood just -- rolled in the right rough, had to chip it out. That is the other thing here, if I miss a fairway, I have to chip it out. I still can't hit it out of the rough. So that puts a little bit more pressure on me driving the ball.

BILL GLASSON: Yeah, my elbow problems. 12 is a perfect example, it is in there, if it's not setting up like it is on a tee, I have to chip it out. That causes a problem.

BILL GLASSON: Right after Tour Championship 1997. November of 1997.

BILL GLASSON: The left one. Which I think was the worst of it too for me because I am such a left-arm player, all my speed comes from my left arm and so this one will take longer to completely come back if it ever does. It has been almost 18 months, but that is about a normal timeframe. My right took about 15 months.

BILL GLASSON: It is half mental and half physical. I flinch on it. Same thing with bunker shots I tend to -- that is the two shots I can't hit, a shot out of the rough and any kind of soft or long bunker shot or buried bunker shot, just I don't know if it is the impact or the resistance -- it causes a lot of problems.

BILL GLASSON: Quite a bit. More off the tee and I am not really controlling the ball flight like -- when I am competitive I draw the ball and I am really not hitting draws off the tee. So it is really kind of hard for me to get a good picture of what is going on. But I got it around pretty well off the tee today. Hopefully I can -- that is the key for me, controlling the ball flight. I am still struggling drawing the ball.

BILL GLASSON: He has his driving range in Laurel, so he teaches out there most of the time.

BILL GLASSON: You know --

BILL GLASSON: If I could have -- I mean, yes, I could have hit it probably. If I could have known the creek, I believe, I could have possibly bounced it up to the middle of the green. But it wasn't even a consideration.

BILL GLASSON: 5, 3-wood off the tee, L-wedge around about '91 yards to about four feet. I sand wedge today about ten feet on 5. I hit a drive, 7-iron on 7 to about seven feet or so behind the hole. 11, I hit 8-iron to about eight feet. It was downhill after that. 12, was a 3-putt. I had to chip it out and wedged it on the green and made bogey. I believe fourteen or fifteen.

BILL GLASSON: That was a 3-putt. I pulled an iron shot to -- that mound in the middle of the green it kind of hit on that, just rolled out to the left. I hit a good first putt about three and a half feet and I thought I hit a good putt. It appeared to kind of jump right a little bit and I missed it on the high side, so that was a 3-putt bogey. And 17, I putted up the ridge and it was a lot of -- The hole before 16 I left it, oh, four feet short from -- I spun it back too far and so that was the slowest green I had putted all day was 16. 17 was just totally opposite, going up the hill really kind of picked up speed knocked it by seven feet by the hole missed that.

BILL GLASSON: 6-iron.

BILL GLASSON: 15, right.

BILL GLASSON: Yeah, the year I won, 8-under won the tournament. But 8-under led after the first round also the same year. I believe there were four people tied for second. Unless somebody separates themself, which is always possible - that has happened in the past year where a couple of people have just kind of taken off. If that doesn't happen, I think there will be a lot of people in single digits probably.

BILL GLASSON: Here yesterday and Tuesday and Monday night over at Pat Cullinane's. We go there and practice.

BILL GLASSON: That is the one.

BILL GLASSON: Yeah, I just started again in September.

BILL GLASSON: A year and a half I was out.

BILL GLASSON: Lawsuit. Took me a while to recover financially.

BILL GLASSON: I don't think the injuries are all negative, to tell you the truth. In the aspect that, you know, good friend of mine David Edwards hit a -- to use as an example, he doesn't mind, he is a friend of mine -- he has played out here for 18 years and never really had any time off. I see that he is a little bit burned out. With me, I play a year or so or two and I am off for six months. So I still look forward to playing. This is my 15, 16th year, whatever, and it is more -- you think it is a good -- when I come back to play I appreciate the opportunity I have because I have been close to not ever playing again. So I really look forward coming back to play and I feel like I don't have as many tournaments in as a lot of guys down here have as long as me just because as sporadic I have been able to play over the years. I always come back mentally ready to play. Physically, that is another question, but they tell me this is 95 percent mental so being hurt shouldn't matter that much, right?

BILL GLASSON: Early 90s. These two elbow surgeries were close just because the type of surgeries they were, not too many people have had -- wasn't real good track record of what I could expect. I have had to make obviously changes in the way I swing and things. I have struggled with it a bit. That is just all part of the challenge of playing the game.

BILL GLASSON: Yeah, but I haven't had knee surgery since 1948.

BILL GLASSON: Oh, man.

BILL GLASSON: Yeah, tendon reattachments.