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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIPMay 22, 2009Michael AllenBEACHWOOD, OHIO KELLY ELBIN: Michael Allen, ladies and gentlemen, in with around of 66, 4-under par in the second round of the 70th Senior PGA Championship at Canterbury Golf Club. That 66 equals the competitive course record for score here at Canterbury. Michael is at even par 140 after two rounds. Michael, congratulations, and comments on an outstanding round of golf, please. MICHAEL ALLEN: Thank you. Today just in the second round, I went around yesterday, and some of my practice rounds, just trying to figure out how to play a few holes better and get the ball in play a little better. And that's the key out here, I think, to me, is just trying to get that ball in a position where you can get after the greens, because they are tough to get the ball in the right place. KELLY ELBIN: Go through your birdies. You had that string of three consecutive birdies on the back nine, but if you would start with that birdie on nine, please. MICHAEL ALLEN: Yeah nine -- oh, nine, I just kind of was frustrated, I had some good putts for birdie on the front nine, I haven't made any in two days. But I hit it to about a foot and a half and I was like well, I got this read. Q. What did you use? MICHAEL ALLEN: It was a 7-iron. It was just a little 165 shot. KELLY ELBIN: Follow it up with that birdie at 10. MICHAEL ALLEN: Yeah 10, I hit it a little bit left, just in the first cut and just hit a little like 125 year 9-iron in there. Just about 10 feet short of the hole. And I was able to make that. Actually it was a straight putt, which is pretty rare out here. KELLY ELBIN: At 14, 15 and 16. MICHAEL ALLEN: Yeah, let's see, 14, oh, okay. I hit a drive and I think I had about, I know I was hitting like a little 110 shot there and I hit it about six, seven feet right of the hole. And then these greens, you got, you know, eight inches of break on it, but I hit a good putt and knocked that one in. Then the par-5, I hit a pretty good drive up there and hit 3-iron to the back of the green. And I had 215 to the front or something and about 235 hole there. So I hit a nice 3-iron in there about 15 feet behind the hole. And almost made it. And then the next hole, I hit a driver, 3-iron into the upslope of the hill and chipped up to about eight feet and had a straight putt again, which is kind of weird. KELLY ELBIN: This is Michael's first Senior PGA Championship. His best finish on the PGA TOUR this year was a tie for 22nd at Pebble Beach. Open it up for some questions, please. MICHAEL ALLEN: Why did you have to bring that up? (Laughter.) KELLY ELBIN: Well, that's not bad. Q. Just talk about the decision, the process you went through to make this your first tournament out here. I know you were eligible the whole year. MICHAEL ALLEN: It's always hard when you're playing the PGA TOUR for six and a half million dollars and come and play for two. But I just, I thought it was very nice of the PGA to invite me. I have never had an invitation to a tournament before, so I was kind of honored. And I just, I'm 50 and I don't really have any status out here, so I would love to be able to come out here and just see what it's like, number one, and if I could win it would get me in a good situation for next year. I do plan on keep playing the PGA TOUR, but you never know how things are going to end up at the end of the year, so I thought it was a nice opportunity. KELLY ELBIN: So this is your first event on the Champions Tour, is that right? MICHAEL ALLEN: Yes, it is. KELLY ELBIN: Thank you. Q. What are the differences you noticed? I know this isn't a normal Champions Tour event, but just talk about what you noticed different than the PGA TOUR. MICHAEL ALLEN: The PGA TOUR, you're in Dallas, you got these enormous corporate tents everywhere and an awful lot of people out there. And it's not quite as big like that. But the great thing is I've been out here and I haven't seen all these guys, I stopped playing in Europe in like '96 and all these guys over here, Mark James and Woosnam and Torrance and Roger Chapman, all these guys are over here, I haven't seen them in 20 years, so it's really been a good time to see all these guys and a lot of the guys I played with on TOUR. So it's been a very nice week so far. I really enjoyed it. Especially after I played well today. KELLY ELBIN: Michael won the 1989 Bell Scottish Open on the European Tour. You hit 16 of 18 greens today. Talk about that a little earlier, you're obviously confident there with your iron play. MICHAEL ALLEN: Yeah, my iron play is always pretty good. I've been lucky a few times to hit it in the rough to have a shot and a decent lie. I feel once you get the ball in the fairway, it's hard to get the ball close, but you can still get it on the green. You got kind of short irons into most of these holes, it's a relatively short course, so if you get the ball in play, which is really a tricky part about this. It's hard, I had to reroute how I played some of the holes yesterday for today and I mean this course is a great challenge. But again if you hit the ball in the fairway, you should be able to hit the green with a 9-iron for the most part. But that's where it starts out here, these greens are very, very tough to get the ball in a good spot. KELLY ELBIN: Conditions any different appreciably from yesterday afternoon to this morning? MICHAEL ALLEN: Yeah, today was certainly a lot less windy, the greens were quite a bit softer than yesterday. Yesterday in the afternoon they were extremely firm and quite bumpy by the afternoon to hit putts. It was certainly a lot more pleasurable to play today. Q. Often times there's been a number of pros that have won the very first time they have played on the Champions Tour. I'm wondering if you feel confident enough that you might join that company? MICHAEL ALLEN: You know, I feel confident, I feel confident every week. Obviously it's been since 1989 since I won, so the odds are in my favor. (Laughter.) I do. I come here confident and I work hard on my game, I'm prepared to play every week. I got a great caddie. So we're working hard. And that's what we're working for every single week. And that's one of the reasons I came here too I was hoping to get myself in the heat and have a good chance to win and hopefully I can make that happen and hopefully that will carry over to my rest of the year on TOUR also. So that's the main reason I'm here is to try and win the golf tournament. Q. How would this week impact what you do the rest of the year? Could it change your schedule or do you want to keep playing the PGA TOUR the rest of the year regardless? MICHAEL ALLEN: Yeah, regardless. I worked so hard at my career to stay, to get exempt and stay exempt on the PGA TOUR that it means a great deal to me to do that. Say at the end of the year would I ever go back to the PGA TOUR school? No. I would go to Senior Tour school. And I don't plan on changing my schedule. This is a great opportunity, it was a week that -- I love the Byron Nelson, but by the same token I have never had great luck there. I played well there once or twice in my career. So this was a nice week. They gave me an invitation, so again I was honored, but I do plan on keep playing the PGA TOUR the rest of the year. KELLY ELBIN: Michael Allen, thank you, in with 66 in the second round of the Senior PGA Championship. Thanks much. End of FastScripts |
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