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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 27, 2004

Hale Irwin

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

JULIUS MASON: I think we'll invite Mr. Hale Irwin in to join us right now. Hale Irwin, ladies and gentlemen, joining us atop the leaderboard at the 65th Senior PGA Championship. Hale, some opening thoughts on your play today. We'll go through the card and then we'll go to Q and A.

HALE IRWIN: Well, obviously I'm delighted to be in the position I am. I did not start particularly well, but I did have a very, very solid back nine. The golf course was a little different than what we have seen in the last few days. So I think much of what was learned was negated a bit by the overnight storms and the conditions. But I think if we haven't mentioned it already, and I hope you guys do mention it, the superintendent and all those guys wearing the blue shirts have done one great job out there. If you've not been on the course it is very, very wet. And to see all the bunkers back in play, it's a remarkable job. So I hope you do plug them, because they really deserve it. As far as my play goes, pretty solid. I think I missed only one fairway today. I did miss a couple of shortish birdie putts which you think that you're going to make most of those four and five footers, not all the time, but I missed a couple of those. And all in all, I can't complain with the score I had. It wasn't a picture perfect round, but it was pretty good considering the lack of experience that I've had on this course, this was only the third time I've played it, so I'm building a bit of history and this is a good start on that history.

JULIUS MASON: Talk about the club selection.

HALE IRWIN: Club selection?

JULIUS MASON: How about your bogey and five birdies.

HALE IRWIN: About my bogey starting the day? Well again, a good drive, with a 7-iron, which I hit thin. Left it short of the green, from which I putted and left it short some 10 feet and missed that putt for an opening bogey.

Two I played well. I missed the green, I hit the green but it rolled off in one of those collection areas to the right of the green. And then I made about a six foot par putt after coming up out of there. Then I started playing very well.

I made good, a good par at the third.

I missed about a five foot birdie putt at four.

Perhaps a 10 foot birdie putt at five.

I did make a birdie at six. Hitting a 6-iron second shot to within, 15 feet of the hole. Making that.

8, I missed a very shortish 4 foot birdie putt. After hitting a 7-iron. And that's where I was mentioning to Tom how did he birdie nine because I thought nine was a very difficult hole. And I hit a 4-iron second and just played it into the middle of the green and 2-putted to turn in even par. But I felt like I needed to be a little bit more aggressive playing the back nine. And I did birdie 10, hitting a third shot with a sand wedge from 80 yards to within a foot and a half of the hole.

I made about a 7 foot par putt at No. 11 after missing the green left with a 5-iron.

Birdied 15 with a drive and 6-iron making about a 25 foot putt for birdie.

I missed the fairway at 16, the only fairway I missed, and then laid it up short of the green, perhaps some 50 yards from the hole and hit a pitch and run shot to approximately 8 feet past the hole, making that for par.

I birdied 17 with a 5-iron second shot and a six foot putt.

And I knocked it with a 3-wood second shot at 18, past the hole about 30 feet and 2-putted for a birdie.

So I finished with birdie, par, birdie, birdie on some pretty good holes and that essentially was my round. But there was some good holes out there as well.

JULIUS MASON: Questions, folks?

HALE IRWIN: Quite a descriptive round if that's it.

Q. Can you just compare the difficulty of the front nine and back nine.

HALE IRWIN: Well, when I looked at the board I saw most of the scoring was done on the back nine, which I thought was a little odd. I don't consider the back nine any easier than the front. I think they're both pretty good nines. But as you would have it, that's where I did my scoring as well. It could be that there are two fives on the back nine, both of which, one is reachable, the other I suppose if you really -- well maybe not in this wet, but 10 is, with a good drive, good 3-wood, you could get it pretty close, although that hole location today I think it's foolish to try. But there's some good holes. 16 is a good hole, 15's a good hole. 14, the par-3, there's some good holes on that back nine. 17's no slouch. I just -- on the front nine you have some equally good holes. 2 as a four par is really a difficult hole. And 3 is a good hole. 9's a terribly good hole, back into the wind. I think they even out. But in my case, if I would have made those two shortish birdie putts on the front then it wouldn't have looked quite so different. But it seemed that most of the scoring was done -- no, I guess Watson, he played the front nine, I think, better than the back, did he not? Or did he turn in 1-under or 2-under.

JULIUS MASON: Yeah.

HALE IRWIN: So there you go. His was probably a more predictable round.

Q. If you could just describe your love for this championship and what would it mean to win it outside the state of Florida?

HALE IRWIN: Well, there's a lot of history with this event. And I did overhear Tom, I don't know if he had the same question, but very much the same answer I'm going to give, is that there's a lot of history with this event. It's different in the sense that it was established by the PGA, which was, years ago, the only organization in professional golf that had tournaments. So I think there's a great deal of thought, and looking back at some of those great players that have played the game and added such integrity to the PGA of America. And having said that, I think that today's professional golfer versus the golf professional, we all work sort of toward that same goal, but just sort of in a different way. I think we're trying to add to the game of golf, which is the ultimate winner. For me, I'm, having won this event in the past, I was very proud of that. Even if it was in the state of Florida. I find that it's one of those events in my calendar that I very, very much look forward to. And let's face it, we don't have many four round events on the Champions Tour. So this is really a treat playing on a great golf course, under some pretty difficult conditions in a four round tournament. I just hope Mother Nature cooperates and let's us do that.

JULIUS MASON: Questions? Back row.

Q. How did you find out about the delay? Did you already come to the course or did you call in?

HALE IRWIN: Well, I got up at 5 o'clock this morning and about 5:30, 5:45 I called Julius to see if he was awake and I got a recording that said, "If you're interested in tickets, please call 502, blah, blah, blah". So I called out here trying to find out what the status of things was and I got the recording. That's a little slip up on your part, Julius.

JULIUS MASON: How come Tom got ahold of Kerry?

HALE IRWIN: I have no idea. But anyway I called and I got the recording. So I came out here and when I got here -- two hours. I could have been asleep.

JULIUS MASON: But it obviously worked for him, didn't it?

HALE IRWIN: Well, it's kind of -- you do get yourself in a time frame, at least I do, you have that wake up time, you get your prep time, you, if you're going to have a meal, you practice, you get that kind of established before you even start the day and then you have that, oh, by the way, add two hours. It kind of gives you a little pause. And so I paused in the locker room and sort of laid down and took a little nap until Gary came in and started giving his ambassadorial speeches again. Which I've heard before.

Q. So what time did you get here?

HALE IRWIN: I got here at about 6:15. That's nothing. I've been out on the course, the first guy on the golf course both days, the last two days, so, but that was in prep for today, to be honest with you. I don't like to get up at five o'clock, but coming from Arizona where there's a three hour time change it was like getting up at 2 o'clock each day, so I needed to kind of practice that. That was part of the prep. And my son just got married Saturday so I didn't have a hell of a lot of preparation coming into this event, so I'm, it's kind of been a lot pushed into a couple of days.

JULIUS MASON: Questions? Let's go get you a phone number.

HALE IRWIN: Nice try, Julius, I don't need it now.

End of FastScripts.

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