U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 7, 1999

Arnold Palmer

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, I, first of all, I am happy to be here. Second of all, I think it is great that the USGA has chosen Des Moines for the Senior Open. I think we may see something that we haven't seen enough of in golf and in Senior golf by coming here. The support and enthusiasm for the Championship is fantastic. I think all of that goes without saying, it is a good venue. The committees and the people here have done a fantastic job in setting up the golf course, and the conditions are -- I was just very pleased. And I have seen a couple of them around. But it is good. The golf course, it is in excellent condition. Greens are a little tough. They are going to be, I think the major part of the Championship are going to be the greens. Long-iron shots into the greens are going to be tough. A couple of holes and, of course, we all will know the holes so, it is water hidden on a couple of holes that you can't see off the tee. But I suppose if you play a practice round, you will know where it is so you can avoid it. My architectural sense says that I'd like to see the water rather than have it hidden. I think that anyone that thinks they are just going to tear this golf course up is wrong. I think it will be, depending on how they do the conditions of the course from here, it could be -- scores could be low or they could be high. But again, that all depends on the tees and the pin placements on the green. Overall, as I said in the beginning, I think it is just a wonderful situation. I think, everything, the golf course, the logistics of what has happened here is very, very good.

ARNOLD PALMER: Les, is this an opportunity for me to do some advertising or marketing?

ARNOLD PALMER: Actually, we have been working on some. The Palmer Company has been working on some golf clubs, and I just got the two sets of the new irons which are cast forges, and they are both new. Last couple of days, I have just shafted them up myself, and I will use one of those sets today. The only difference in them being one is graphite and one is steel shafts.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, I have seen more good players, if that is what you are asking me. From 1980 to present, like in everything else in golf, the field has increased in numbers, and I think the caliber of play has increased. It is getting better and better all the time, but that is inevitable. The more people you have, the more good golf you are going to see. Of course, an indication of all of that is being here in Des Moines where these people haven't had the opportunity to see Championship golf of this caliber here in their home grounds, and that is something that I think is very, very good. I'd like to see the USGA continue the pattern of taking events to cities where they don't get a tournament every year or they don't have the opportunity to play and see golf as it is. So overall, the caliber of play is good. The field is a great field. And the situation, I think, for golf is tremendous. I have seen it improve in the 20 years. A lot of people said that the Senior Open would not survive. My goodness, if this isn't surviving, then we are all dead.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, first of all, if I have brought the game to the people, as you have just said, I am happy for that. I think that it was inevitable that a game such as golf was going to become a game for all people all the time. My contributions are only in line with what I think -- and I can name other people like Eisenhower and a few others that have had a lot to do with people becoming more aware of the game. I think as time goes on and more people have the opportunity to play the game and with all the programs that we are initiating to help youngsters get into the game, it will be as commonplace as baseball is. I really believe that and hope that it happens. But we have to create more facilities for that to happen. We are doing that, too, whether the First Tee Program, or whatever the program might be, we are trying to get more people involved in the game. I say that, and I am happy for it. In the same paragraph, I will say that we also must be careful -- I really believe this. I know that you people hear me say it a lot, but I can't say it too much. That is, we have got to be careful to protect the tradition and the integrity of the game as it increases in volume, whether it is public-links play; whether it be the amateurs at a local country club -- whatever it might be, we have to take a very, very long and strong stand on protecting what has made this game so great. When I go to my club and I see a mother and a father and a couple of children come out and play golf in the afternoon, late or in the Sunday evenings after the activity of the weekend is over, and I see them have as much fun as they are having playing the game, you can't beat that. You got family togetherness, you got a game that provides everything from competition to strength. And if you don't think it is strength involved in golf and -- you don't have to be an athlete. No, you don't have to be superman. But you just take a guy like Tiger Woods or Duval, the two guys that are leading the list right now, both of them are physically very, very well equipped. All of these things are a part of the game and what has happened in the game. I feel very good about it.

ARNOLD PALMER: I think the USGA has done a very good job of monitoring that, and I don't think that every guy that turns pro on a whim should just, without any equivocation, get his amateur status back. On the other hand, I think a guy that maybe tried to play professional golf -- this is the answer to your question, right? -- and did it a long time, then I think that he should have to pay the penalty for doing that. But there are some people that made a mistake, turned pro, saw sort of a luxurious life as a golf pro out there and made a mistake, then I think that the committee that considers that should give him the opportunity, if he is in a legitimate business that does not involve professionalism in golf, he should be given his status back.

ARNOLD PALMER: Do you know how old I am, young lady? (laughter). Thank you very much. Well, I am taking some. I am kidding you. Actually, I think that, again, in the beginning, I said something about the location of the tournament and what I think it means to the game of golf and to golf in the States. I think that it is a combination of nostalgia. I think a lot of people are here to see whomever that has been playing golf a long time. They know the names and they know the records, and they want to see that person play golf. Whether it is Nicklaus or whomever. Watson, you name them down the road. They remember when these people were competing for the Open Championship and so on. So I think that is a part of it. But I also think, and as I said in 1981 when we had the same conference and they said what is going to make the SENIOR TOUR go, and I said two things, the same two things that I am saying to you right now. One is people wanting to see, whether it be Nicklaus or Watson or down the road, whomever, Hale Irwin, you name it, they want to see those guys because they know what their record is. But they also have to see competition in its best form. If you don't have competition; if people start feeling like the SENIOR TOUR is a nostalgic trip down the road, they are going to quit coming. And I mean that. They are not going to support it. Thus far, when the scores these guys are shooting, and their records are pretty fantastic. And both of those things are happening. One, the competition is keen. I haven't played a lot this year or even last year. But when I show up to a tournament and I play the golf courses these guys are playing, and I see the scores that they are shooting, I am marveled that they are playing so well. They really are playing extremely fine golf. That is a shot in the arm for the SENIOR TOUR. If you ever lose it, then you could lose the SENIOR TOUR.

ARNOLD PALMER: When I think about that and I think about how great the game has been to me, that starts a whole session of things. One, it is something that is very difficult for me to give up, the competition; playing. I'm a dreamer. I am like most people that play the game of golf. I still see myself shooting 65 and winning a golf tournament, and I still feel the competition, and I feel the camaraderie of the guys that I have known through the years. All of those things are attractive to me, and they are part of the reason that I come out. There is nothing, you know, I enjoy trying to find things to make people play better golf, whether it is my own game, or your game, or whoever it is, it is something that I thrive on -- the equipment, the competition, the camaraderie, the fans. And I have seen people here yesterday in the gallery that I have known for over 40 years, and they have come up and talk and want to go to dinner and all these things. And, well, you know, I can't do all those things, but it is nice to think that those people have stuck with this thing that long. I guess all of those things, all of the above, Winnie would like me to stay home, but she also knows that that is impossible. One of these days it will happen, but I am not ready for it yet.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, I haven't, as I said earlier, I haven't reached the point where I am accepting, as long as two of the longest hitters on the Tour I played with yesterday with Wargo and Larry Laoretti, and as long as there is that little spark there. At 18, we did a driving contest and Laoretti cheated and won. And I beat Wargo, and we all three hit good drivers. I figure, what the hell, I'm still in the competition. That gives me a little bit of a boost to keep going. I might find another shaft or Buzz Taylor (USGA President) might give me hell for having too much titanium in my face, or filing it down a little too thin or whatever, but those are the things that I love to do and get a kick out of.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, I have mixed emotions about that. I read the paper this morning. They are going to play a three-hole, and it is not a sudden death. It is a three-hole match, really, with the total winner being the low score then reverting to sudden death. I am so traditional, I suppose that, you know, I like the 18-hole playoff for a major championship. On the other hand, I am very partial to the people who have worked for weeks and four straight days of competition. And to hold it over for another day, I sympathize with the fact that, hey, they want to get on with their lives and do something else. So I say I have mixed emotions. I suppose that it is worth a shot, a three-hole total-score playoff, and we will see how it works. I won't close the door on it at all because for the very reasons that I have just mentioned. People -- everybody wants to kind of get it over with. To pull it out, drag it another day, is a little tough. It is sort of like a nine-inning baseball game. You don't play another nine innings; you play 10. And if it is tied, you go to 11. So it is sort of a sudden death. Even if it is the World Series. I have to give it a shot. I would have to say that my opinion is: Let's try it. Let's see how it works.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, he won't win every week, I can tell you that. (laughter) And I can also tell you that he is going to see more competition than he thinks he is going to see. And I was complaining, I was going to complain to the USGA when I saw him yesterday, because I thought he was playing in the tournament and he isn't 50 yet. I am kidding, of course, Tom is a great guy and a good friend of mine, and I understand that he is here for some work or commercial stuff. Anyway, I think he is going to be a factor. I think he is going to be a very definite factor on the SENIOR TOUR. But that is exactly what we need to enhance the SENIOR TOUR. We need Tom Watson and we need Lanny Wadkins and I think it is great these guys are coming on. This thing of lowering the age and all that stuff, that is bologne. 50 years old is where it should be and they should be there. They are going to be competitive. So Watson and Hale Irwin and guys that have been really showing their stuff is just what the SENIOR TOUR needs to continue to enhance it and continue to see the success that we are enjoying right here.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, it is going to have an effect. It has already had an effect. I don't know that Jack would have come if he could have ridden in a cart. But I think that puts an emphasis on just what we are talking about, walking is a part of the game. It is a physical thing and golf is physical. If you don't believe me, just look at Tiger Woods and Duval. They are both physical specimens. They do a lot to stay that way. The guys that do not do that and do not keep themselves in some kind of physical condition are not going to be as competitive as the guys that are in good physical conditions. It is just like every other sport. I am so strong on not having golf carts in competitive golf. Now I believe in golf carts very much. You all know that. I think that our golf clubs around the nation are surviving because we have golf carts and we have golf cart revenues and we have people that are playing golf on a day-to-day basis that are not physically able to play if they couldn't ride. But we are not talking about that right here. We are talking about competitive golf. That is all I want it to be. I want the guys that comes here to play to be able to show that he is physically able to play. I am almost 70 years old. And I tell you what, I'd drop dead out there before I'd get in a golf cart and I mean it. My father was -- had a clubfoot; he played his entire life without a golf cart and he was as strong as I was about it and that is the name of the game in competition. But, in the same word, and same thing, I think golf carts have lent a great deal to the game.

ARNOLD PALMER: I talked about that a little earlier. I am just very pleased that we are seeing the support here that we are seeing for this golf tournament by the fans, by the committees, by the people who have done the work to put this competition together and I am not surprised, I am sort of astounded just how great it is and I am very, very pleased with it. That is part of what I said about the USGA doing this kind of thing with their competition, moving it around, moving it to places that it hasn't been and giving the people an opportunity to see it and we have seen the support that we have got here. That is enough merit to do it more often.

ARNOLD PALMER: Absolutely - very, very much. I think they need to be careful but I think they can make every one of these events as successful as this one.

ARNOLD PALMER: Thank you, Les.

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