U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 29, 1994

Arnold Palmer

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, the state of the game is good. I am not talking about my game, however. My game is -- it is improving. Whether it is ever going to make it or not is questionable, but it is improving a little, and the golf course is in excellent condition. It is very good. There is still the same old thing about Pinehurst Number 2 that are traditional and have been the same since I first came here in 1947 and played. The difference, I suppose, is the roughs are -- some roughs now, which back in those days it was when you left the fairway you went to sand and pine needles. Today, you go to rough and then sand and pine needles which is the major difference in the golf course. Some of the sand traps have been changed, but basically, they are pretty much the same. The greens, the ones that had been changed had been mostly minor changes but they still all go off and there is no -- I don't know of a green on this golf course that if you go to the edge, whether it be right, left or back, that the ball doesn't go off. And of course, the secret to that is, I think, is just keeping your putter in your hand. I think if you start trying to pitch the ball to these greens you really get -- that is when you get in trouble. You might get away with it for awhile, but I think in the long run you are going to have to putt the ball up those slopes to the pin. I don't know whether I said it, it is in good condition. And it is playing probably a little longer than I recall back in the early days. Of course, I am a little older too, but I can remember a lot of shots that I hit through the years on various holes that are maybe a club longer or two clubs longer in some cases.

ARNOLD PALMER: Very little, and that is what the difference is, I think, Bob. The fairways are very good and very lush, and the ball is setting good on them. So, I think everyone would rather have the little extra distance and the condition of the fairways as they are. In the old days, they were never that lush. The ball would roll further and do more, and that is exactly what has happened.

ARNOLD PALMER: Actually, my game has been horrible for -- the last time I played really good golf was about five or six years ago when I won up in Richmond Virginia in the Senior's Tour, and that is really the last time I can think that I played the kind of golf that I would accept as being reasonable. The other day at -- in Detroit, at the Players Championship, Jack came over and we -- and I had just played with him, and we were talking about my game and what was wrong and of course, some of the things I knew and we were trying to get to the bottom of what was basically the problem. And of course, one of the things that we decided was that I was swinging around myself rather than up and taking the club up and down, and I have -- I have worked on that and on what we discussed that day, and I have seen some difference. Now, whether I have seen enough difference to make a difference in my play, I can't say. Yesterday I played here and it was enough difference that I played 18 holes and really sort of tried to just keep track of scoring and see how I would play the golf course without anything unusual or exceptional. I think I must have been a couple of over par, which is not very good. But on the other side of that, I hit a lot of greens; didn't get the ball real close to the cup, but I hit a lot of the greens and that -- hit the green and kept it on the greens, and that in itself is an improvement over what I had been doing. And I drove the ball longer and better for the most part. So, some encouragement, and there is enough to keep me from just not playing at all. So, I will -- you know, I will take -- I will play here and then probably take the next couple of weeks and -- I haven't really taken any time off in a long time from everything and I really -- other than maybe doing some golf course work, I plan to take a couple of weeks and not do too much; maybe work on my game a little bit and that is about it.

ARNOLD PALMER: What keeps me playing?

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, a lot has to do with the fans, the people who are continually insisting that I play. A lot has to do with my enjoyment of playing, even though it has not been very satisfactory nor satisfying to me from a scoring standpoint, and that is -- that is going to take it's toll in the near future if it doesn't get a little better. That is why I say I am encouraged by yesterday's round and what I said earlier about Jack and I talking about it, and talking about what the real problem is and has been with my game.

ARNOLD PALMER: I came here in the fall of 1947. My father who started coming here in -- I think he made his first trip here in 1939, and he being a golf pro, came with some of the members of our club in Latrobe and he fell in love with Pinehurst. He just thought this was the greatest place in the world and he loved to play golf. So, they made about two trips a year here; one in the fall and one in the spring. And I was then a freshman at Wake Forest, and I came down to see him and play a round of golf with that gang. That was the fall of 1947, and I think the next trip was the Southern Conference Championship here which I came and played in, won on the Number 2 course, and then I played in the next -- in the ensuing years I played in the North/South Amateur a number of times. Well, actually, I played twice; got beat in the semi-finals -- I am not sure what the sequence was either the first year or second year. I played Stranahan in the semi-finals and he beat me 11 and 9, I think, and the next year I played -- and he won; he beat Harvie Ward in the finals that year. And then the next year I played Harvie Ward in the finals -- or in the semi-finals, and he beat me comfortably, like 5 and 4, something like that. And then he beat Stranahan in the finals. Those were my two experiences there. But I continued to come and play with my father who came as long as I was at Wake and then of course, the years after that, I came here to play in the various tournaments that were played here over the years; whether it was at Pinehurst or Pine Needles or over at a country club in North Carolina or where ever it might have been and never really stopped coming.

ARNOLD PALMER: That is the first golf I played, yeah.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, geez, you know, a lot of things flash through my mind that they might do without knowing what is wrong with them, but I suppose the most important single thing they can do is keep their eye on the golf ball. I think a tendency for bogey golfers is to move their heads. That is why I am making bogeys now because I am moving my head and that has a lot to do with it. But keeping your head still would be my answer to your question.

ARNOLD PALMER: Anything else?

ARNOLD PALMER: Since Oakmont?

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, it is the most amazing -- you know, I have heard from more people that I hadn't heard from in a lot of years and of course just generally a lot of people that I have known for years and years and years and some that I haven't known and the response has been probably as great as it was at any golf tournament I have won. I mean, there was more nice mail and letters of just "don't quit," that kind of thing; "play somewhere, we don't care where it is, but keep playing," that is sort of encouragement. You can't believe -- and everybody is sending all the articles you wrote over that weekend, so I have got just about everything that has been written throughout the United States and some in other countries. It has been amazing. My autographing situation has increased a lot since then also. That means people want autographs and memorabilia and that sort of thing. It has increased my workload quite a lot but it is very pleasant. It has been very nice.

ARNOLD PALMER: I don't know whether it is a boost or not. It makes-- it just comes to make me realize that you know, that I am getting close to the end of a career that I have enjoyed very much and every bit of it. And of course, it is just another highlight in that career that has been super and of course, what promoted the whole thing was just things like this that the people -- the people have been very, very supportive and that is why-- and that is probably part of the emotion; why it came up, I was tired and of course all the things that happened but it was quite nice and it has been quite nice.

ARNOLD PALMER: Thank you.