ENERGIZER SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 8, 1998

Hale Irwin

HALE IRWIN: Makes a nice poker hand. Well, the day obviously was a great day, a fantastic way in which to finish off an exquisitely-played year. The commitment that I've talked about in the past to myself and to my golf game was there today. I think you have to make that commitment before you can go play well. And the bit of a practice session I had yesterday and the little bit of thought that I gave it last night certainly was helpful in what I did today. There's just not a whole lot I can say other than it was some phenomenal putting round I had, and what a day and what a situation to have one of the best putting rounds of the year. It wasn't the greatest ball-striking. It wasn't the easiest day either, although it was the best day of the four. It wasn't easy. I just putted superbly.

HALE IRWIN: How many did I have? I had five less than anybody else. I don't know. We could probably run through them, Jerry, and maybe we'll do that when we get into hole-by-hole.

HALE IRWIN: Well, two-putted the first. When you say two-putted the second putt was probably four or five feet. 2nd hole was a 2-putt. 3rd hole I put it in the green-side bunker, made an eight-foot par putt. 2-putt the 4th. One-putted the 5th with about a 9-foot par putt. Then I made a 10-foot putt at 6 for birdie.

HALE IRWIN: I hit a 5-iron. I hit a 5-iron in the 7th, making about a 12-foot putt for birdie. Two-putted 8, and two-putted 9. So however many that is. No. 10, I stuck a 9-iron in there about two feet from the hole, made that. Made a great putt at 11 coming down the hill probably from 25 feet. Two-putted 12. One-putted 13. I spun the ball back down off the slope and just off the green and left my -- although I putted from the fringe, I'm going to count that as a putt because it was almost on the green. I left it six feet short and made that for a par. I birdied 14 from probably from 15 feet hitting a 5-iron. I birdied 15 hitting a four-wood off the tee and hitting a 9-iron third shot to within 10 feet of the hole. Hit a 3-wood off the tee at 16 and a 6-iron second and made a 10-footer there for a birdie. And then I two-putted the last two holes.

HALE IRWIN: Whatever it is. Just the putts that I made were great putts. They are not easy putts. And the early putts I made for pars at 3, 5, really saved my bacon. And then to come back with birdies at 6 and 7. Oddly enough, I made my birdies in bunches at 6, 7, 10, 11, and then 14, 15, 16. A little unusual. 10 3s is most unusual. But I knew I had to do something because the length that Gil and Jay have, in particular, and Jim Albus, for that matter, and Ray Floyd, they have that length that can overcome some of those holes that are playing a little bit long for me -- I shouldn't say that I'm not on my game, I am now. But I just have not been on my game the last few days. But I was playing today with that commitment to take more club, swing within myself, just try to get back to that same swing thought, same swing results that I had on Thursday.

HALE IRWIN: Just going through the round. Going through what I wanted to do with my swing. After my practice session I kind of cogitate over the results and to try to put some things in some sort of priority, what I want to do the next day, make a mental commitment to do that.

HALE IRWIN: I'm not getting the good, full turn in this weather. I'm not doing it. I said: Okay, let's just quit trying to do that. Let's take a shorter swing. Maybe go down the shaft on too much club and keep it in play. Find a way to play this game the way you can play it. You don't have to play full out all the time. And that's essentially what I did.

HALE IRWIN: It was pretty significant. Put a stamp on a fantastic year. Put my name on this trophy, which was very significant. Put a good-sized dollar amount in the bank. Kind of put the stamp on any other ideas about Player Of The Year and that kind of stuff. All those things were goals.

HALE IRWIN: God, let me get through '98. (Laughter.) I've got to play at 10:30 in the morning in Las Vegas; so the year is not yet over.

HALE IRWIN: Well, it's -- I was and I wasn't. I'd like to say that those players are very capable of doing that. It's just that the conditions were not that easy. I just was -- I just got on that roll on the back 9. I stuffed it there at 10 and made a great putt at 11. I mean, that hit at 11 was -- there were a lot of key moments, but certainly that one at 11 was a big, big putt. And then keeping together at 13, because Jay had birdied 13, and there was the possibility that that lead could quickly diminish. But each successive birdie just took the life out of their game, took the wind out of their sails and inflated mine that much more.

HALE IRWIN: That's a toss-up, Mike. Last year, in terms of tournaments won, was a little more. I'd probably have to say, if I had to make a choice, it would be this year, just because I got the two majors in there; I got this event. There are, how many, 22 tournaments I played in? 20 out of 22 tournaments in the top 5, man, that's kind of hard to beat. So it would probably have to be this year.

HALE IRWIN: I would have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised. But I don't want to say that I'm shocked. Those are goals that I have. To attain those goals is pretty lofty. But for me to say that I'm shocked or really surprised means I don't have that kind of faith or confidence in myself, and I do. Now, whether I do it or not is one thing. But I've been able to do it. Whether it will continue or not, somewhere along the line the streak will slow down a bit. But I don't feel like it's going to happen right now, and it may. But right now I'm just doing things very well. I have a lot of confidence. I'm putting well. There's no sign of weakness in my game, unless I let it happen. And right now I don't intend to let it happen.

HALE IRWIN: Possibly. I always like to play with the leader, so you know what you're doing. You don't have to guess. But that may have been a blessing in disguise; although, yesterday I wanted the last group. It may have turned out to be, because the way the day evolved, I was able to put my score on the board first. I kept putting it on the board, and they had to try and match. And I've been in that reverse situation. And, boy, you just run out of energy trying to catch that person. And I think that's kind of what happened.

HALE IRWIN: It's an infinite. (Laughter.) I don't know. If you look at the game of golf, obviously, you're not going to drive every green, but if you didn't hole your second shot, you've played an imperfect shot. So we've got all sorts of ways to get better. If you don't get every putt, you've hit a bad putt -- so you've hit a bad putt. You can't drive every green. It's impossible.

HALE IRWIN: They have got some frozen tundra, don't they? (Laughter.) I think it's really a matter of -- I emphasize for me. I can't tell you what Gil is doing. I can't tell you what the other players are doing. But I can tell you that what I do is I commit myself to that degree of excellence that I think I can attain. And that's what I've always done. You know, whether it be in any part of my athletic career or my commitment to my family or my friends or whatever it is, to my design, that's what I try to do. And it makes it easier to do that. Yes, I second-guess, and it's in a learning mode. Does that keep -- that keeps making me a little bit smarter. Maybe a little bit more cognizant of my weaknesses and my strengths, and play to those and play away from those and make myself as complete a player as I possibly can. How hard is it to make that commitment and how do you do it? Well, I'm not so sure that some people have the mental fortitude to do it. Some people may not have the interest in doing it. They may just be happy going out and playing golf and getting their money and going to the next tour. But that's not how I live my life. There's gusto and there's intensity. I love to smell the flowers as I golf. Sally may not think so, but I do like to stop and enjoy life. And with that in mind, that's what I enjoy in my game right now is I'm achieving all the things that I've set out to achieve. And there can be no better feeling.

HALE IRWIN: I think as you get older you understand things a little better. You can prioritize a little better. It may be harder for some. I find it to be a little easier for me, because I've been able to surround myself with good people and good family and great things, so it's a natural order that way.

HALE IRWIN: Sure. I hope those guys play, and I hope they play well. You talk about me raising the bar here. Here you're going to have a whole group of players come in that are going to absolutely raise the bar. And that standard is going to get better and better. And those of us that can't keep doing that will be those also-played-in-the-field players. And that's the evolution of the sport.

HALE IRWIN: I think you can overanalyze it, underanalyze it; you can look at it upside down, Jerry. And I'm not sure I can answer that question, other than if I felt like the regular tour was a direction I wanted to go and I made that commitment, I might play successfully. Dominate? No. Because there's just too many good players; there's just too many players. It's a numbers game. We've talked about this before. When you're playing against the best players there and the best players here, it's a smaller pool. It's a bigger field over there. It's a smaller field here. So I could probably take my talents, if I chose to do that, if I said to myself, okay, I'm going to set aside a year. Now, let's get real, let's think about this: Financially, do I want to set aside that opportunity? Well, maybe. We'll see. I don't have any interest in doing that right now. I've got too many things going on. I'm going down this road real nice right now. Why do I want to -- why do I want to change things? But my game is as good as it's ever been. Now, whether that would be good enough to play proportionately as well on the other Tour, I don't know.

HALE IRWIN: That's an argument that can be made, yeah. I don't disagree with that. You're asking me why? Hell if I know. I'm not going to think about it. I'm just kind of: Don't wake me up. I'm having a good time here. This is a heck of a dream.

HALE IRWIN: I'm glad he didn't. There was a talk about I should have been on the Ryder Cup. Now there's talk about the Presidents Cup. Those are the choices those gentleman make. They make the best choices that he can at the time and we can reflect and second guess and we are all Monday-morning quarterbacks but I'm not going to do that.

HALE IRWIN: And win $75,000, too. Maybe we'll get in there some other way. You never know.

HALE IRWIN: It was a nice putt. I got a little excited with my first one. I didn't try to ram it that far passed. When you make a good putt early, it doesn't matter if it's this far, that far or 50 feet, it kind of relaxes you, it makes you feel like -- even though some of the putts I did hit early, I just felt like a good stroke going. I just felt like it was in the slot. The grip pressure felt good the timing felt good, the stroke felt good. The ball rolled nicely. I think it's always nice to get off to that kind of start. If save something early, you say: I've got the nerves out of the way; I've got the bad shot out of the way and I can set the tone and that's essentially what happened.

HALE IRWIN: Well, we'll talk to the powers that be, sometime. We'll see. There's things I could maybe teach some of those younger players, but they have got to ask, first. (Laughter.)

HALE IRWIN: Thank you.