FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 23, 1999

Hale Irwin

HALE IRWIN: Physically, I think I'm okay. You know, after I hurt my shoulder last Friday and withdrew at Pinehurst, did not do anything over the weekend. I did a good bit of resting and icing on my shoulder through the weekend. I went and saw a doctor on Monday. He didn't think there's anything particularly alarming, other than maybe a significant strain of some ligaments, muscles up in my shoulder. And I had been receiving therapy here at the BellSouth Trailer and the fellows there have been doing a very good job. And I don't say it's perfect, but it's far better than what it was some five or six days ago. And I'm not pushing it, and I'm not trying to do anything that's going to exacerbate the problem any. So, I don't know, I guess physically that's about as physical as I can make it. I would say it's probably 90 to 95 percent fine, and that other 5 to 10 percent is tentative. I'm just a little bit sensitive on the golf course with it.

HALE IRWIN: Playing Pinehurst No. 2, that's how I hurt it. I really enjoyed last week's event. There were a lot of people that picked up on what John Daly had to say, and I was glad to see he apologized. But I think his comments were not the norm. I think a lot of players enjoyed Pinehurst No. 2. It was a much different venue, and consequently it was a very long golf course, though. And hitting a lot of 2-irons, 3-irons, 4-irons, just an awful lot of long shots, putting a lot of pressure on those power muscles, if anything, it went back to Nashville. Playing sort of poorly after winning St. Louis. I don't know if it's the chicken and the egg. I don't know if my swing caused shoulder problems, or the shoulder problems affected the swing and that carried into Pinehurst. Long answer to your question, Phil. But on the 5th hole -- or the 4th hole Friday, I hit a shot that kind of felt a little funny in my shoulder. I went to the 5th tee and we waited, oh, gosh, at least 20, 25 minutes for the groups to clear, and I hit my tee shot, and it was a little tight, and I hit it in the left rough. And I went into the rough with a 4-wood trying to get it in the cross bunkers up in front of the green, and when I tried to hit it a little extra hard, and make sure I didn't pull it out of that lie -- I felt something -- I won't say snapped but something -- strained right here in my shoulder. They have been pushing and protecting it. It's like, bruised. And it just felt very uncomfortable. I went to the 6th hole. Hit a 2-iron and it didn't feel good. Hit a 3-wood, 7-iron second shot and just picked my ball up, and I've never done that in my career, even back in junior golf. I always posted a score. It may not be a very high one, but that's the first time I didn't post a score. But I didn't feel it was very wise to continue at this stage, where it could be a rotator cuff or something that I could have -- well, it's in that area. It's not a tear, I don't believe. He didn't take an MRI; he took X-rays and the strength tests and all that, and it looked very good. I would be surprised if they found anything in an MRI, but he said: At your age, you're probably going to find something. If you can hang your hat on that. And it may have always been there, and you think it's hurt, now you've got the psychological hurdle to get over. And I've been in a lot of sports a long time, and I didn't think it was a tear. I just felt like it was a pulled muscle, maybe.

HALE IRWIN: I think it means a great deal. There's an awful lot of fortunate things that have happened to me in my life. And probably the most fortunate thing, at least careerwise, was that I was able to turn to golf as a means to express myself. Really. Being in sports a long time, even with the college diploma. My entire being, really is centered around activity. And being able to do this, particularly on into the senior years, is especially rewarding. And I'm not talking about money. This is not a money deal.

HALE IRWIN: And when I say "rewarding" I don't mean it to be financial. And it is that. I don't want to say that it is not important, but that is not the driving force. And I've said that. It's not the driving force in my life. It's not how much money I make. It's to me, being able to compete, at this level, at 54 years old, and at least go back and at least think that I can compete with the young players, has it's moments of satisfaction. It feeds that ego.

HALE IRWIN: Well, yeah. Sort of one and the same. If you haven't got an ego, then you don't have any pride. Let's get the thesaurus out.

HALE IRWIN: I'll settle with that. There is a great deal of pride. That's why I think you see the true champions will continue to be that through time. They may not play up to the standards that they once had, but they will continue to strive to meet those standards because they do have that pride.

HALE IRWIN: Mental. It's an easy question to answer. I think it's more mental.

HALE IRWIN: For me, I have to overcome other things that take away from the focus of just playing golf. I guess I've made this comparison before: When you're 24 years old, 30 years ago, let's say I played for 31 years on TOUR. When I was a youngster starting out, my single focus, careerwise was to play golf. I played golf. The occasional outing, but I played golf and that's all I did. Now, some 30 years later, I play golf; I design golf courses; there are a couple other businesses I'm in. I've got other priorities that take away from that single-minded purpose. And if you've only got a hundred percent, how do you divvy up that time in a multiple fashion. That to me is the hardest part. It's not the physical part of hitting the golf balls. We go out to the practice tee and still see some of the great players hit that golf ball, and they can still putt and chip. But it's the focus of it. Our games don't get bad. It's just that our focus gets twisted. Family obligations, other businesses, other opportunities, that may surface one way or another.

HALE IRWIN: I think knowledge and experience is a wonderful, wonderful thing. But, there are some strings attached to that and some of those strings might be the knowledge that, you know, I am mortal. I am not bulletproof. I can make mistakes. And when you're young, you make those mistakes but you don't pay much attention to them. You just keep going.

HALE IRWIN: Last week was -- I go back occasionally, and it's an eye-opener. I don't relate to those guys. Well, I don't know the names anymore. They play a different kind of a game than I do.

HALE IRWIN: The thing that pleases any of us at any moment in time can be, and I think maybe out in front -- I saw you describing how you had trouble working the ball hitting the perfect golf shot or what you sense to be the perfect golf shot. The best you can do at that time. You have to isolate it down to a single instance. You can't say, well, this day was wonderful and it may well have been. But at that point in time when I hit the shot that I want to hit, I can still do that. How can I put those in succession.

HALE IRWIN: I don't know as it is any different just that I've done it so often. I've been there, done that a lot of times. There's not anything in the game that I haven't done and I see it all the time. But I've done the same thing. I've hit great shots. I've hit terrible shots. And I know I'm going to continue hitting great shots and terrible shots. And many things in between. Golf has just so many variables, and there's not a soul in this room, not a person on this planet that can substitute themselves for me. I can't go and say: You come and do this for me. And Bobby has no control over this; dribble the ball. I have complete control over what I do. I can't control once it lands on the ground.

HALE IRWIN: I think you have to understand yourself. For me, if it's that momentary getting rid of the emotional part of it, but what I try to do is immediately kick in to what's next. What's the next case. I can't do anything about that lost opportunity. So what is my next opportunity. I really try to focus -- I don't want to just be stoic. I'm not that kind of a person. I have to show some -- I have to have a release. And that release may surface in different ways to different people. But what I try to do, I try to get on with the next shot, wherever it may be. However difficult or easy. But I try to immediately get to the next.

HALE IRWIN: You learn from it. What I've tried to tell my son is that -- if you're going to think of it in a good way and a bad way, think of the bad way first. Okay, this is what I did do. But the next thought should be: This is what I need to do and I'm going to do. I try to always make that next thought into the positive.

HALE IRWIN: He's 24.

HALE IRWIN: I think it's in better shape this year. It seems to be. I say better shape, but it -- I think probably from tee to green as consistent as I've seen it. It doesn't have a lot of soft spots or a lot of hard spots. It seems to be very nicely groomed. Consistent, I guess that's the best word. It's as consistent right now -- I think in years past, we've had some of the mounded areas get a little hot and get the ball rolling a bit, and then the softer areas stay soft a lot longer. But this one seems to be very consistent right now. Unless we get any significant rainfall, we're going to have a very good week. But it seems to be in great shape. I don't put a whole lot of stock in my performance in Pro-Ams. I do enjoy meeting the new people and playing. Even though I shot even par today it wasn't a great day but to me, it's more of a go-out-and-see-the-golf-course and have a good time with the people you're with, and go at it the next day. So I don't put a lot of stock in my performance today. But I do think the course is playing as nice as I've seen it play in several years.

HALE IRWIN: I think one of the thing that is -- just to sort of backup, but when I take these spikes off, I forget golf. I really try to forget that. I try to put myself into another frame of mind, and it's enjoy a beautiful day. I don't have a significant problem once I leave the golf course, carrying that problem with me. I don't -- I divorce myself from that pretty quickly. But beyond what pleases me, I love to do things for people. I like to make someone happy.

HALE IRWIN: Make my wife smile. Make a child happy. Do something charitable for a youth group. Those kind of things. I like to catch a nice fish. Those things that I think don't require a lot of talent. They don't require a whole lot of time and effort.

HALE IRWIN: Oh, yeah.

HALE IRWIN: About 10 minutes ago. There's degrees of anger. Do I get volatile and uncontrollable? No. To this day, I remember one time when I was in junior, I broke a golf club, in anger. And I have not done it since.

HALE IRWIN: Because I was thoroughly embarrassed. I had to go back and tell my dad what happened to my golf club.

HALE IRWIN: He didn't have to say a thing. My dad was a man of little words and the actions I had as a young man -- that was all I needed.

HALE IRWIN: Going to have to hustle.

HALE IRWIN: No. I have not -- I have not put restrictions to that. I think that too often you find you trap yourself. You build -- you've pegged yourself into a corner. If you start at 50 and say, okay, 55. Somewhere, psychologically, at 55, oh, I'd better get close because I'm not going to make it, and when I get to 55 I can't do it anymore. That's ridiculous. I haven't put my paramaters on it. Because of past successes does that make me feel like I've got it made? No. I am continually hungry. I am it continually strive to go do what I have done best, and that's what I look at. I don't look at the bottom line. If the time comes where I start looking at the bottom line, that I'll be more content with less, then I'm going to leave. I can't -- I don't want to find myself just being a participant. I don't want to find myself looking at that bottom line and saying: Well, I guess that's okay. All of the sudden, it's better and it's better.

HALE IRWIN: I'll lend you a hundred. It's not that. But what continues to drive me is I think that the personal goal, the drive to be as good as I can be.

HALE IRWIN: For as long as I can be. And that doesn't mean just playing golf. That means balancing those other things in my life. My private life that I thoroughly enjoy. The house that we're building, my wife and I. Two children. My business design, there's a lot of things that keep me going.

HALE IRWIN: Well, I've had my design company since 1985; so it's not brand new. I just don't make it -- I've had a great balance with that over the last four or five years. But it is something -- now my family is in the business; so priorities have shifted a little bit. I'm feeling more responsible to not -- but particularly to my family and my business outside of golf. And that takes -- it goes back to this how much can you give. And so whether I make 21 or 22 events this year is going to be a stretch because I have other things -- when I say I need to do, I need to do those things. At the expense of something else.

HALE IRWIN: I don't think next week is in the cards. Although, I have till Friday to determine that? I don't generally perform well at a long stretch. I'm better at segmenting. And the way I've played the last two weeks has not been particularly good. Over the next several days, if the shoulder responds and I can loosen it up and get back to swinging the way I want to, then I might play. But if it doesn't, then I'm just going to take the week off. And I do need to do some other things next week and it is the 4th, and I do want to spend some time with my wife and kind of -- sometimes kicking back, when I get into situations where I get a little -- I won't say frustrated, but I get out of sorts, stepping away from it is far better.

HALE IRWIN: Phoenix, Arizona.

HALE IRWIN: Depending on what happens, I might try and slip up there on Sunday. It's going to be so wild that I might try and skip over the holidays.