ENERGIZER SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 5, 1998

Hale Irwin

HALE IRWIN: It was a very good round. I would not have suspected that number at the beginning of the day. It was sort of a rather shaky 1st hole, even though I parred it. I was very pleased with the way I played. A lot of control shots. A lot of good putting. Just the kind of game I'd hope to have starting out. It wasn't certainly a game I expected by the way I warmed up. But, as I said earlier, you never get warmed up in this kind of weather. You never seem to get loose. You don't have the feel on it. But one of those very good days to have, especially in the early going.

HALE IRWIN: The 1st hole, I drove it well left into the trees and had to play a low hook, just put it in front of the green and made about a 12-foot putt for a par. But then I made a -- probably a 25-foot putt at 3.

HALE IRWIN: I hit a 6-iron. 4, par 5, I hit my third shot with a sand wedge to within 10 feet and made that for birdie. And then I hit a 4-iron at -- whatever that next hole is, 5, probably 20 feet, and made that for a birdie. Hit it in front of the green on 8, and pitched it up about two feet from the hole, making that for my fourth birdie. I made a great putt at 11 from about 20 feet with, I'd say, a three-foot break in it. And then at 13, made a 15-footer for a birdie there.

HALE IRWIN: I actually hit a driver, a 3-wood and a 6-iron. We played some pretty heavy wind. And I was playing rather conservatively. Even though I hit a great drive, I played my second shot well left, just to get it over there. And it meant for a longer third. But that's okay. I've played that ball in the past years just a little too close to the right side, and today wasn't the day to try it. And then I bogeyed 16. Although I hit a good shot from the tee, I found I had a ball in rather a deep divot, an old divot, and I and couldn't get it to the green, one or the other, and missed about a five-foot and made bogey there. And then a 9-iron to within six feet at the last for my final birdie.

HALE IRWIN: I don't know, I out to take up residency, maybe. I don't know, the Harbour Town has been a very good course for me through the years. Kiawah Island certainly had a nice ring to it once upon a time, and I've played the Dunes course well. I think much of it is the definition of the -- of the target areas. You know, I seem to play better on those courses even no matter how narrow they may be, when the target areas are well-defined, when they are not, I don't get focused on the shot quite as well.

HALE IRWIN: Some of those, like 1, was playing extremely long and some of them didn't. The 11th hole, they had the tee moved well up, which I have never seen even when we had some cold weather in the past. It varied. It seems like when you're playing in the wind it's at least a two-club wind and when you're going downwind it's cold, it's pushing the ball down. What has changed the most since Tuesday are the greens. The greens were rather slow on Tuesday but the pace is picking up rather quickly, and I presume it's from the cool weather, maybe retarding the greens just a little bit, the growth. But it's not long in measurement yards but when you're going back into the wind it's very long. But I don't remember hitting a 2-iron as I did at 12. I could have hit a 3-iron but I'd rather be a little long than a little short on that hole.

HALE IRWIN: I try to play well -- you know all bundled up and when you're cold and you've got your shoulders up around your ears I've never been able to really swing, just an all-out swing. So I just build in more club. I just build in the fact that I am not going to get as big a hit on it. I am not going to get that full hundred percent hit that maybe I might have it it's 80 degrees or 90 degrees. I just build that in and I try to control my shots that way so I'm not out there flailing away with a lot of clothing or if I'm not -- like I said earlier you, I never really loosen up. I think a lot of it, your mind starts: Oh, I'm cold; I'm this and that, and you start complaining about it and we all fall into that and I just try to make myself -- normally it might be a 7-iron so take a 6. Here's a 3-iron, maybe it's a 2. And if I get downwind like the last hole, 130 yards to the pin, that's just a 9-iron for me,, well we're playing downwind, I play a 9-iron anyway. I find that when it's downwind it doesn't help very much. But boy, when you're going back into it, it picks up, a lot.