FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 25, 1999

Hale Irwin

HALE IRWIN: The course is a much different golf course today. Not only do we have a different wind direction; although, it's switching as we finished. It's playing considerably longer with the overnight rain. I think consequently -- the difference between hitting for instance a 7-iron to the hole and a 5-iron to the hole in these greens, a couple locations is significant. A big difference. And I think that's what you're seeing. Most of the players are going to be not quite as aggressive with a little bit longer shot. For instance, the 1st hole today was -- I hit a driver and a 3-iron. A good drive and a 3-iron -- I should have hit a 4-iron of course. It was playing that long. Yesterday it, was a driver and a pitching wedge. So an enormous difference. That was the 1st hole. So you count up the yardage difference, the way that hole played. And that may have been a more extreme, but that's the way the course is playing. It's just playing that much longer.

HALE IRWIN: On average, I'd say you've got at least a two-club -- anywhere from 10- to 30-yard difference on these holes.

HALE IRWIN: Yesterday it was 118 yards, and today it was 186; so you do the math. You're better than I am. I'm not terribly happy with the way I finished. Not just the last hole. I really hit some very poor irons coming in the last four or five holes. With that in mind, I kind of let a much better round slip away from me, with not only the bogey there, but no birdie chances much over the last six or seven holes. Most of my good play was featured in the first two-thirds of the day, and the bad play was featured in the final third.

HALE IRWIN: It's okay. Give or take. The improvement from Wednesday to Thursday was greater from the improvement from Thursday to Friday; let's put it that way. It's holding it's own. There were a couple times out there, a couple pops in the middle of the swing, which kind of surprised me. I never had that before. Go talk to the boys and see why I have a popcorn in there.

HALE IRWIN: Hopefully, it will stay this way. I don't think it's right -- not that you can control weather, necessarily, but to shoot the scores that were shot yesterday for a major championship, I just -- you know that's like an every-day event, an every-week event. I think we have to do something to help separate the ordinary from the exceptional. And today, I can't say that it was anything that any of us did, other than the Man upstairs helped us out with that. Hopefully, we can go a little farther back on some tees. They have used some good pin locations, and we still have some more of those to be seen. I think the scores will go level off. Yesterday was sort of an anomaly. I don't see the scores doing that every day, even with the drying out. It was still pretty wet underfoot this morning when we played. There was some areas where you could drop the ball from casual water. It was still wet.

HALE IRWIN: That was in the bunker. And two-putts from there and possible bunker shot, for me. Birdied the 3rd hole, making about a 10-foot put. Third shot, wedge. Then birdied the 6th hole, sitting a 2-iron off the tee and a pitching wedge, and about a 20-foot birdie putt there. Then I parred a round until the 13th hole where I hit a 4-wood just off the edge of the green, and 2-putted from 40 feet for a birdie. Then on the 15th hole, hit a 5-iron -- I would say, conservatively, three inches fat. That's where I heard the first pop in the swing. Sort of startled me. It was a par 3, mind you, and I had 59 yards to the hole after it was all said and done. Quite a shot. Anyway, I got that up-and-down. Made about a six-foot putt -- less than that. Four-foot putt for par. Hit a second shot to the right on No. 16, making about a five-foot par putt there. And bogeyed the 18th hole with a 4-iron. Hooked it into the left bunker again. It was a shot that I don't have in my bag, and 2-putted for a bogey.

HALE IRWIN: Satisfactory is a good word. Exceptional, no.

HALE IRWIN: I think it's played too short. There's enough holes that go up, back -- you're going to get some holes downwind; some holes into the wind. But the rain, the moisture, has made it play longer. For instance, I mentioned I hit a good drive at the 1st hole. It rolled a foot. There were a number of shots before, where you did have some debris on the ball. Jack would probably say he likes the course to run. I think this course plays too easy when it runs, because you can hit too many fairway woods and irons off the tees. I think it needs to play long, because it doesn't play to it's -- if it's measured, it's measured from the tip, tip, tip back tips, because we're not playing from that -- 6,900. We're not seeing that. These guys are too good. They hit the ball too far. And you can take a course in good shape as this is, and when it runs, they are very, very good with their short irons. They will eat it up, which they did.