FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 12, 2000

Larry Nelson

LARRY NELSON: Well, I had kind of a disappointing first three. Disappointing, in that I had a chance to win at the Tradition, and I missed about a 4-footer on the last hole to win, outright. And then, of course, Tom Kite beat both of us in the playoff. Then finished second to Doug Tewell at West Palm Beach, PGA Seniors, and had a horrible putting week that week. Then, of course, the U.S. Open, the U.S. senior Open, I wasn't driving the ball very well, which is very important on that golf course, and was not in position really to have any chance of winning there. So coming into this tournament, I'm hoping that my game is where it needs to be to kind of contend, because I really would like to win a major, whether it's this year or next, but this will be it, since it's my final shot. This is what we're looking at, anyway.

LARRY NELSON: No, you have to be hit the ball well. I think that's the reason why Hale just blew out the field last year, played so well on the weekend, and played real well at the U.S. Open. The courses are similar; your second shots are similar, because you have to get the ball in a certain little area to have an easy birdie putt, and that's kind of typical of Jack Nicklaus courses. TPC courses, second shots are usually a premium. You have to get it in the same levels or same areas where the pin is. So if you're hitting the ball well, you know, it's not too hard to score well, but if you're not hitting the ball well, it's very difficult. And I think that's the reason why this course separates so much, like it did at the Open, and like it will do here, probably. Guys who are hitting the ball well will separate themselves from guys who are not playing very well.

LARRY NELSON: How am I doing? This is actually the first season that I've been healthy. When I say "healthy," it's been 90 percent, anyway. So I feel very comfortable, and nobody out here wins every week. Even as good as Hale has played the last four or five years, he hasn't won every week. Seems like he has sometimes. I think I'm playing well enough to win. Whether it happens this week, you know, it's just a matter of maybe putts here and there. Definitely feel like -- I'm confident enough and feel confident enough in my game that if I play well, then I would have a chance to win.

LARRY NELSON: This golf course, driving is not as critical as it was at the Open. But I've got three drivers in my bag right now, and I'm sure one of them will work. One of them I'll be able to hit straighter an the others. It was funny, I really wasn't prepared when I went to the Open, Senior Open, because the golf courses we play coming in are a little bit more forgiving than that golf course is; so you can get away with a bad drive. There, you couldn't. And I really wasn't prepared. I will be next year, though. But I did only bring two putters this week.

LARRY NELSON: Two putters and three drivers.

LARRY NELSON: I don't know. I'll try them out today in the Pro-Am. Go out to the practice tee and hit the drivers; go to the putting green first and see if the putter that I kind of put together last week will work. So I think, hopefully I'll have everything solved by six o'clock this afternoon., At least the choice made.

LARRY NELSON: Last three weeks, let's see, I finished second at San Antonio, didn't play good at the Open, and I finished second last week, or third; tied for third last week, I've only used the same putter two consecutive rounds in that whole stretch. So I've never really felt comfortable with anything. That doesn't mean that I haven't putted well at any given time; I just never felt comfortable with it. My search is to find something I'm comfortable with for a long period of time. I have not won -- I've won twice this year, and seven times since I've been on The SENIOR TOUR, and none of them with the same putter. I do have the same wife. I've had the same wife for 30 three years. It's not that I can't fall in love with something and stick with it. I just cannot -- I have not found the putter yet that I'm in love with.

LARRY NELSON: Different strokes. I've tried every conceivable grip, as much as manufacturer-wise, every conceivable grip that you can -- every different place that you can put your hands. And last year, I ended up in the year, finished second or third at the final TOUR Championship, second, third, I can't remember, one of those, second or third, and I putted cross-handed. Started putting cross-handed kind of the last round in Los Angeles, and it felt pretty good. And I putted pretty good at the TOUR Championship; and then I won The Match Play the next week putting cross-handed. Came out the next year in Kauai and putted awful; so I went back to conventional. Now, I go back to cross-handed conventional. Last week, I putted three holes cross-handed. So I'm just strange in that regard, I don't know.

LARRY NELSON: I really thought about that last week. I said it really doesn't matter. None of them feel good. I said it really doesn't matter which putter I use. And I can't really compare it to anything, because I used same baseball glove all through my career, six years old through high school. Always used the same weight bat when I played baseball, same length, same weight. But golf, it's always been -- and I really think it has to do with kind of the person that you grew up kind of learning the game from, Bert Seagraves (ph) was the guy I worked for for two years. He changed putters every day. He'd always blame the putter and the driver and the clubs, and not the person. Some people always say it's the arrows, you know, the Indian not the arrows. I've always said it was the arrows and not the Indian. We've had some conversations out here about that, which one is better psychologically. Is it better to say: Well, gee, I got me another club, I can hit this thing great; or gee, I can't hit these things great no matter what club. So it's kind of up in the air which one is better psychologically.

LARRY NELSON: I won the PGA in 1981 in Atlanta, and I took two drivers down to the first tee on Thursday; didn't know which one I was going to use. And which one I hit straight that morning, I decided that's what I was going to use. And I hit that particular driver pretty good and used it all week and drove it all week pretty well and didn't use it after that. That was the last time I used that driver. When I won the PGA in '87, I used three different sets of clubs.

LARRY NELSON: No. Well, there's three different configurations. When I was flying down in the airplane and the Powerbilt rep said they have a new set of irons. And I said, "Well, let me look at them." And I got back to down to West Palm I said, "Well, these look pretty good." It was real wet. It had rained a lot, and I figured I needed some clubs that I could hit high and soft, and I said, "Well, maybe just put a certain type of shaft in these irons so I could get the ball up in the air." And so that's what I used Thursday. And it was drying out a little bit and I said, "Well, I don't need the short irons." The short irons I don't hit quite as accurate, but I can still use the long irons. I used my old set of short irons the second round, and my new set of long irons that I could get up in the air. So it was drying out a little more and I said, "Well, I'll just go with my old set." So, Saturday I used my old set. So it was three different configurations of clubs and the same putter. But when I went out on Sunday afternoon, I had two putters in the bag, not knowing which one I was going to use, even though I played the first three round, I made a decision to use the same one I had been using all week.

LARRY NELSON: "Gee, I wish I made the wrong choice." I do that all the time. But as many times I go out and say I didn't play --

LARRY NELSON: I think it's more the excitement. You know when you get a new set of clubs and can't wait to go out and play them? It's the attitude. It's the attitude. It's almost a challenge, too, I think. And because I don't have any negative thoughts about these clubs, the only thing I have is positive, but it doesn't take long for that positive to go away. If I hit one bad shot, gee, it's got to be the arrow; can't be the Indian. And I'll go search again.

LARRY NELSON: That's the reason why I pick large companies that have a lot of different equipment. That's the reason why I love Taylor Made, they have so many different drivers, so many different 3-woods, 4-woods, 5-woods, so many different sets of irons, and I've gone through every one of them. Now I'm kind of their testing machine, whenever they come out with, they say: "Let's go give it to Larry, he likes everything." At least I'll try it. And I'll take it out on the golf course during a competitive round. That's really the only place you can tell. That's the only place I can tell whether it's going to work. I can't even go out in the Pro-Am and play with it and tell if you it's going to work. It needs to be under some sort of competition, or really, this kind of competition before I can really tell whether it's going to work. And I can usually kind of manufacture something even if it's not very good. But I know that -- I had I it was two years, three years ago I qualified for the U.S. Open in Atlanta, and I had a driver that I couldn't do anything but hit hooks with. It was just one of those things where I couldn't do anything but hit hooks. But I learned how to play, and decided well, I'll just go ahead and play it; so 36 holes, I hit 30-yard hooks in the qualifier. But no way I would use that driver again, ever. So it's being able to make judgments and that kind of thing.

LARRY NELSON: I have done that before. When I won the PGA in '87, the same year I was switching irons, that's kind of the first year they came out with metal heads and graphite shafts. They had come out with the metal heads, but this was kind of the first year that we were really kind of pushing -- not pushing, but where people started using a lot of metal heads and stuff. And I practiced on Wednesday with a particular club I'd been using all week; and I said, "Well, it needs just a little more loft." So I took it in the trailer and they were bending them -- this is what I had been practicing with and been playing with all week. So they put another head, another shaft, and the first time I used it was Thursday, but only missed two fairways all week.

LARRY NELSON: Long stretch, you're talking about more than three days, aren't you? Weeks?

LARRY NELSON: My final -- well, back in '79, I had a really good streak with the putter. I used the same putter actually for about two years. I won the Western Open and I won the '81 PGA with the same putter. So I actually used the same putter for two and a half years. But that's probably the longest stretch. I went on and off in '87; I used the same putter that I won -- when I won the PGA in '87 in August, I used the same putter I won in the Disney World in October. And I still have all those putters. I still have every driver, putter I have ever won with. I have driver I've ever won with. I've got them marked so I can go back and say, "Well, this one worked in '87, so maybe it's due to go back in the rotation." To me, that's part of the fun of the game.

LARRY NELSON: See, you talk about me being a manufacturer's nightmare, I might be the best thing that ever happened to a manufacturer, because if the arrows are the best thing and the arrows are the ones that make all the difference in the game, they are going to be able to sell a lot of clubs. But if it's the Indian, they should have the same set of clubs they had 30 years ago.

LARRY NELSON: Thank you.

LARRY NELSON: I hope I spend a lot of time in here this week.