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THE SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

July 25, 2008

Tom Watson

TROON, SCOTLAND

STEVE TODD: Thanks for coming in it again, Tom. Different conditions today, but you're right up in there again.
TOM WATSON: Well, I'm still right in the tournament. I'm I had a very good break at No. 11 to keep me in the tournament. I hit the ball in the bush to the right over there with a 3-wood, actually it's pretty close to where I was trying to hit the 3-wood and ended up unplayable in the bush. I take an unplayable drop, stroke penalty, and I take a 7-iron out and the ball came out flying right. I was out-of-bounds and went over like this with my caddie and said, give me another ball, going to drop it, and one of the marshals there says: "It's in the gorse! It's in the gorse!"
I said, "You've got to be kidding."
"No, it hit the top of the wall and didn't bounce." Well, good, that's real good. I'm thinking 8 now, you know. I'm thinking I'm going to shoot one of those "other" scores that they put, bogey, double-bogey and then others; I was going to rack up another.
But as it progressed, I made a good pitch, it hit the top of the wall and went left of the green just short of the green and I pitched over the bunker about 12 feet and I made the putt for a bogey. So I went from making 8 to 5 on that one hole.

Q. What club will you use tomorrow?
TOM WATSON: Well, I made bogey. Bogey is a pretty good score on that hole today. I know what club we'll take tomorrow if we have the same wind, but I'm not telling you. (Laughter).
I remember fitting the ball in there, but the 3-wood, I knew I was at my maximum limit there from the yardage. On that line, I probably should have taken a driver. I saw Cook and whoever was in the group before me hit drivers on that line over there, and that's a good line.
But anyway, I made the par there -- I made a bogey there and the next hole I made a lousy drive off the right and got a good lie in the Heather and chopped it out right of the green from a good lie, lousy shot, and I ended up pitching up for a pretty easy par there.
So it could have been two big scores on both 11 and 12 and I ended up 1-over par, coupled with a birdie at 10 and about a 20-footer to save par at 9, that swing very well right there could be the most important swing of holes in the golf tournament for me by time Sunday comes around.

Q. How have conditions changed from yesterday?
TOM WATSON: You know it hasn't changed at all, it really hasn't. A couple longer tees, and we're playing No. 11 as a par 4 rather than as a par 5. There's nothing different about the golf course.

Q. Do you know Bruce Vaughan?
TOM WATSON: Yes, he's from Hutchinson, Kansas, and plays in and around Prairie Dunes, which is one of the great unsung golf courses of the world, I think.
Playing in the wind and the bounces of that golf course, it is similar to the links golf courses we play over here. He's a good player, Bruce, he's a very good player. I like his action. He's very solid, very, very solid. I'm not saying that lightly; I'm just saying that factually. He's a very solid player.

Q. Have you played with him before?
TOM WATSON: Yes, I played with him in a tournament sometime on the Senior Tour, Champions Tour here. Hasn't been this year. I think it was last year. He first came on the Tour, I think last year, wasn't it? I think early last year.
Has he been on two years? Well, last year, he played a lot last year, I thought. What did he say? I know he played quite a bit last year, and had a hard time with the way they changed the qualifying system and all that. He's a good player.

Q. Does he have the experience to win here?
TOM WATSON: Of course, yeah. He's got the wind experience from the winds of Hutchinson, Kansas. It can blow there. It's about the windiest place in our country. Wichita and Oklahoma City are the two windiest cities, large cities, in the United States, and Hutchinson is not too far from Wichita. He played in a lot of wind. That's where T. Boone Pickens wants to put all those windmill farms and use up all of the natural gas and windmill farms so we can turn energy consumption to different sources.

Q. Going from links this week to completely different conditions and altitude next week, what are your thoughts on that and what are you feelings that if anyone can win here, can the same person win next week, as well?
TOM WATSON: Well, if you're playing well, why shouldn't you be able to win both places? That's the way I look at it.
It's a different type of golf. But it's not like we haven't played it before. Most people haven't played this type of golf before, and they have the most difficult time with this. When the American players go back and play that type of golf, it fits right back in their wheelhouse.
STEVE TODD: Good luck at the weekend, Tom.

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