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THE SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY MASTERCARDJuly 23, 2009Jerry BrunerSUNNINGDALE, ENGLAND STEVE TODD: Jerry, you're clubhouse leader at the moment. Sum up your round for us. JERRY BRUNER: Started out pretty good. Hit the first fairway into the green in two and lipped out the eagle putt. Second hole doesn't set up too well for me because you need a right-to-left shot off the tee, which is not my favourite. I like to go against it. I hit my tee shot in the rough and I made bogey on the second hole, but I birdied 3 and 4 to get to 2-under. After that, I was pretty settled in then. A little nervous like you normally get when you first start, and just shake it out and I felt like I could just go ahead and work the game plan that I had planned the tournament started. STEVE TODD: You arrived here in some good form after Wales and Slaley Hall on the Senior Tour. Were you feeling confident ahead of the week? JERRY BRUNER: I was feeling confident after Wales and Slaley. I had a bad nine holes at the end of Wales, and I had a bad 18 at Slaley. After that first 18 at Slaley, I started thinking well again, hitting the ball well and getting the ball on the greens. You know, we had a month off between now and then, but it just so happened that I know someone that's a member at Oakmont in Pittsburgh, and he suggested we go to Oakmont and play Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and that would make this golf course seem very easy. I said, well, let's go. So we went to Oakmont. I was only able to play two days, but we played 36 Friday and 31 holes Saturday. And coming off of those greens and coming off that golf course, this one does look easy. STEVE TODD: It's obviously worked. Q. How was the course playing out there? JERRY BRUNER: The course is playing good. There was a couple holes I was intending to hit 3-wood on today, but I changed my mind and hit 2-iron utility club because I bring the bunkers in play with the 3-wood and the driver, and that's the worst thing that you can do. If you can't carry them, you have to lay back of them. That's one of the secrets, I think, to playing links golf and playing it well. If you can't carry the trouble, make sure you lay back far enough of it that it doesn't come into play. Q. The recent rain seemed to take some of the fire out of Sunningdale. Normally it is very, very bouncy. Is that allowing you a bit more to go to the pins? JERRY BRUNER: With the greens being softer, with the weather that they have had lately, yes. If there was no rain and the greens were as firm as they are, there would be a lot more bump-and-run, which doesn't bother me. When I go to a links course, I look forward to landing the ball in the front of the green and letting it roll to the hole or landing in the fairway and letting it roll to the green, depending where the flags are. I was a little surprised when I got here that the greens are as soft as they are, and we are continuing to get a little moisture which is not allowing them to dry out. I don't think we are going to get dry weather until the weekend. So tomorrow will probably be another day like today where you can pretty much shoot at the flags once you're in the fairway. Q. Secondly, how much were you inspired by Tom on the weekend? JERRY BRUNER: (Smiling) I can't say how much he has inspired me. It was good to see him there challenging the young guys to win The Open. And I think TV really enjoyed it, because with no Tiger Woods, this it was the best scenario they could have had was to have someone, a senior, challenging for The Open. I guess the R&A will go back and rethink that 60 rule, too. Q. And how much do you think that on a course like that, versus on a course like this, where it's not just bang down the fairway, high shot on to the green, where you do have to play more shots, where you have to think a bit more, visualise a bit more, be able to move the ball more, it seems like the guys with experience like yourself are going to do well. JERRY BRUNER: Well, you know, the older guys, they came from a different school. See we used to do a lot of things with the golf ball. We used to hit it low and spin it and hit it, fade it low, draw it low, hit it high whenever we wanted to. Young guys nowadays, most of them hit the ball one way, and that's high. On a links golf course, when the wind gets up, it's no good. We've got to be able to line drive the ball. As we say, keep it flag-high going into a lot of the greens where you're into a 15-, 25-mile-an-hour wind, because the higher you get it, the more it comes back to you. Q. So you're not going to see so much on say Bethpage or Augusta -- places like this, this is where you guys are going to show your stuff. JERRY BRUNER: I would think so. You'll see a lot of that this weekend. STEVE TODD: Jerry, thanks a lot. Best of luck for the weekend. End of FastScripts |
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