U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 3, 1996

Arnold Palmer

ARNOLD PALMER: Maybe. We will have to go to the accounting class and see how we did. But I think we did all right.

ARNOLD PALMER: You mean Tom?

ARNOLD PALMER: He does very well. And he did good enough to, I think, salvage a buck or two.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, of course, I had many years here back in the '50s, which were sort of my real coming out party. And I won the National Amateur when I was a member at Pine Ridge and had a lot of -- I won the Ohio Amateur twice. Won the local tournament here. The Plain-Dealer, and the district tournaments here. And I enjoyed it. It is a great community. It is a great town to play golf in and there -- I have a lot of good friends, most of them unfortunately have past away, but there is still a few like Eddie Priceler (phonetic) is still hanging around.

ARNOLD PALMER: I have just been made a member of Canterbury. I played here quite a lot in those early years, and then I won two TPC Championships here in the - I think, what, '84 and '85 - is that right - somebody must know. One of them by 11 shots, even George Sweda could have finished that one.

(LAUGHTER)

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, I think there was a couple of things that we need to address as far as the golf course and the tournament is concerned. And one is you have got to stay below the hole. If you get past the hole or before the hole a lot, on this golf course, you are going to be in some kind of trouble. The ideal situation is your irons to the greens staying under the hole. When I have won here at Canterbury, over the years, my best golf here was when I was hitting my irons and hitting them good enough to keep them under the hole going up, or to the sides, but the one thing you don't want to do is get past the hole. There are a couple of greens out there that if you pass the hole you can't - literally cannot get it close to the hole at all. They are like -- well, 1 is a bit of a problem. 2 is also a bit of a problem. Oh, 5, can really be, if you get by the hole there, and 7, or 8, I am sorry, and there are a couple on the back 9 that you just do not want to get above the hole. You have to -- you really want to be putting up. I would say the other things, as far as in order of play and what you have to do is you really got to drive it in the fairway. The winner of this event will be someone that is driving it fairly accurately in the fairway and able to play the iron shots that we have been talking about and that is going to be vitally important.

ARNOLD PALMER: This golf course -- one thing about this golf course, it has changed very, very little over the years. Maybe a new tee here or a couple of trees, but this golf course has probably stayed as much like I remembered it in 40 years, as any golf course that I have ever played. So it is -- maybe a little longer. They may have stretched it out with a couple of tees here and there, but they have not, to my knowledge, made any major changes in this golf course and that is why it is so good, I think.

ARNOLD PALMER: That is hard to predict. I suppose it is possible, but I, you know, I would -- I would question whether it would happen.

ARNOLD PALMER: I do. But that is all. 16 is -- I mean, you can't reach it and when I reached it, it was just sort of a stroke of luck. It was dry and hard and windy and the wind was at my back and everything worked just right. And I was long. I could -- I know you don't think I was really ever long. (LAUGHTER) But there was a time when I could move it out pretty good and, but, oh, I suppose, Daly could reach it now, but there aren't many players -- there may be one guy in this field that I saw hit that could reach it, but not very many and everything is going to have to be right.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, of course, 16 you go right back to 16, 16, 17, and 18; as a matter of fact, you could go to 15. I think 15 can be a very damaging hole in the Championship. It is not a driver. You got to lay-it-up, and you want -- I think you want to lay-it-up far enough down so you are well into the flat. And so that you have that shot up from a flat lie to the green and you have got to be careful of the iron into the green because -- today, for an example, where the wind is coming from the right, I hit it in the left center of the green and it ended up off the left edge and hit, not a bad shot, so that is something that you really going to -- players are going to have to be careful of. 16: We have talked about. It is a par 5 and you know, everybody should make 5. Unless they get in serious trouble.

ARNOLD PALMER: There won't be a lot of fours. There will be a lot of birdies but -- for a par 5, there won't be a lot of birdies, like normal. There will be a lot of pars, and there will be some disasters there. 17: There is a great par 3 and it is long and, of course, depending on what the conditions are, it is going to play long. Tom Wargo, today, hit a 1-iron and just blistered it and - he can hit it - hit on the front fringe and kicked up on the green. I was tempted to do that, but my better judgment told me to hit a 3-wood and I cut a 3-wood in there probably as good a shot as I could hit about five or six feet from the hole. But I hit the 3-wood. I didn't hold back on it, so -- and the pin was up front. 18: 18 is just a good common sense hole. A drive in the fairway and an iron on the green and you don't want to be fancy with it. It is a hole that could jump you. It could hurt you if you come up there with a one-shot lead and needing a par to win you got to drive it in the fairway and then a nice iron into the green.

ARNOLD PALMER: I would be nervous. (LAUGHTER)

ARNOLD PALMER: I would. If I had a one-shot lead going to 16, and I made three pars, I would be very happy.

ARNOLD PALMER: Oh, the locker room when I talk about it. (LAUGHTER) My game is sort of -- it is a scatter shot. Just example today, I did not score well, but I made 3 at the par 5, what, 10, 11, 12, -- 13. I made 3 there. And at 17 I had about a 5, 6-footer for a birdie and 18 I had about a, maybe, 15-footer uphill at it. And if I had to choose, I'd take those holes everyday. I wouldn't fool around with them. But that is kind of the way I am playing. 16 I holed about a 6-footer for par. 15, I 3-putted for bogey. And so on. You know, it is a sort of up-and-down situation with me. It has been that way.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, if I have any advantage it is that I know the golf course pretty well. I could go over every shot. I could sit here and tell you how to hit every shot on this golf course and hope I can do it and every putt, as a matter of fact. There are some very subtle undulations in these greens that, it helps to know them, but -- if I have anything, it is what I know about the golf course. You all finished? You all have a good tournament.