U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 29, 2001

Larry Nelson

LARRY NELSON: This is kind of strange. Any questions?

LARRY NELSON: I played pretty well today. I didn't have three, 3-putts, I only had one. I drove it in the fairway. I hit the ball a little bit better today than I did yesterday. So it was kind of nice. I felt like I needed to play well today to kind of get back in it. Nobody else made big moves either, so it was kind of nice.

LARRY NELSON: It had some good pin placements. I'm kind of realizing, the more you play this golf course, the more you're going to understand it. Yesterday playing this golf course under the conditions, I guess Open conditions, it wasn't like that when I played a practice round Monday and Tuesday. So you get a little bit more used to it, and I think you know where to miss it a little better. So I think that's probably the major difference. I don't know that it was all that -- I know the scores were a little lower today, but I think maybe because people were getting used to it. Plus, the wind didn't blow. Yesterday was very difficult.

LARRY NELSON: Yeah, they really have. These greens, you know, they're pretty close to being domed greens. When you hit them real hard, it's hard to get the ball close to the hole. You can land the ball five or six feet from the hole, and it will be 25 feet, you can hit a pretty good shot. Or you can hit a pretty good shot and it bounces over the green and you'll be dead. It's definitely difficult. If it was a touch harder, it would be almost tricky. So it's kind of borderline, borderline between difficult and tricky.

LARRY NELSON: I had a couple of them today. Number 9 I only had pitching wedge into the green, and I actually hit it a little bit left of the hole, thinking that it would bounce to the right, and it actually came straight back down the hill. Some of these putts are just extremely slow because you're going back up the hill, and it's hard to hit it hard enough when you've just touched it maybe a hole or two before and hit it five feet by. So they're really slow going up the hills, really quick going down the hills. And you just have to be careful.

LARRY NELSON: Today, this afternoon I didn't find that to be a problem. I knew which ones were going to be slow, but I still couldn't hit it hard enough. So that's typical for these type of greens. The grass grows down the slope, and it's going to be real slow coming back up the hill and real fast going down the hill. And it's going to have a lot of break going across the hill. There hasn't been -- I don't think I've been surprised at any putt that I've had, with the exception of maybe the third hole, I guess the third or fourth hole, the little par-4 that doesn't have a flat spot on the green. I can't remember which one it is. It's either 3 or 4.

LARRY NELSON: No. I actually played pretty solid today. I think I missed two fairways and maybe two greens, and that was it. So I played completely different than I did yesterday. I'm hoping that it's because I'm feeling a little more confident, a little more in control and a little bit more used to this golf course. So hopefully each day will be a little bit better. Not scoring-wise but just hitting-wise.

LARRY NELSON: I think the only thing it does is give me a little more confidence. I hadn't won since the second week of the year this year. So that makes it -- you kind of wonder if you can win again. It was pretty close competition last Sunday, so I think being able to hit some shots under that pressure the last day last week will help me if the same thing happens this week.

LARRY NELSON: Other than seven shots, I drove the ball better today. I didn't hit my irons any better because I was in places where I couldn't hit them anyway yesterday. So I think that was the major differences. I just actually drove the ball better.

LARRY NELSON: Yeah, it is.

LARRY NELSON: I think because it's kind of a semi-domed green. Today I hit 4-iron. I had 210 yards to the hole. I hit 4-iron. The ball landed about 15 feet short of the hole, went over the green into the rough. The hole almost slopes away from you. You hit a good drive, you're going to be over 200 yards away.

LARRY NELSON: The fairway it is because it's uphill and it kind of slants away from you a little bit. I've hit the fairway both days and only hit the green once. I've actually played the hole 1-under, so I can't really complain. I birdied it yesterday and parred it today.

LARRY NELSON: It's fair I guess in that it does have a fairway and does have a green, but that's about it. It would be a little bit better, I think, if the green was a little more receptive. It's hard to keep the ball on the green.

LARRY NELSON: Today was on the right, which actually was an easy pin. To get it close to the hole, you would have had to hit 5- or 6-iron or something over the bunker to stop it close to the hole. Anybody who hit it close to the hole today, they missed it. They pushed it. Thank you.