ENERGIZER SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 4, 1998

Hale Irwin

HALE IRWIN: Well, coming back in the position that I'm in right now is very exciting, very much a proud moment, I think, for many of us to be here. And I think for -- from where I stand coming into this event, I think the exact position in terms of position on the money list is just a -- a delighted bonus. There's nothing that can be said about this year, in my mind, that maybe hasn't already been said. I'm very proud of it. I've played extremely well. In any measure, this has been at least the equivalent of last year. You can argue that last year may have been a better year because of the number of wins. But conversely, you may argue that this year has been a better year because of the amount of money won. Let's just say that each year that's had its special significance and each year has been most rewarding. Not just in prize, but that I've played at a very high level of achievement and done it over a fairly long period of time. So I'm very much looking forward to this week. And in some respects, I'm very much looking forward to this week being over, just to sort of cap off what has been a fabulous run.

HALE IRWIN: I always thought Myrtle Beach was in South Carolina. Maybe not. The weather here is such a factor, at least the times I've played. I don't think we've ever played it under what you might call: You-should-have-been-last-year weather. I think that's the slogan Myrtle Beach must have is: You should have been here last week. Every year it's: Should have been here last week. But it's been really nice. Every year that we've been here -- the best day we've had has been one-sweater weather rather than two sweaters and windbreakers and parkas and gloves and hand warmers. So that makes a difference on how you play. So somebody can say I've been playing well. Well, he'd better put it in the past tense, because in this type of weather, anything can happen. This is not appreciable weather. Hopefully it won't get appreciably worse. It's manageable, but tolerable. Those of you who have been here in the past few years, it has not been very comfortable. And you will see it on the score board. This is just -- The Dunes Club that -- it becomes that much different from the practice round yesterday to today in terms of how the holes play. We'll see what's ahead of us. It's anybody's guess. Maybe that's good. We shouldn't have a preconceived idea, a plan, of how you're going to do. Maybe it should be left up to judge on a day-to-day basis and who can lift and shift and make it work.

HALE IRWIN: Well, I don't know that I'll hold hands with Gil going down the last hole. I know if I'm playing with Gil, I'm probably going to be playing well. Gil has set, I think, a standard of excellence that many of us would love to have. And setting aside my performance for the year, I think I would have been -- somebody said, would you take Dr. Gil's performance in '98 and sit at home? In a heartbeat. Maybe not that slow. I'd take it immediately. There would be no problems. So I know that Gil has given it his best shot. I know that he has played well. I have the greatest admiration for him. But I think when we're playing together, it certainly helps bring about better competition for the two of us. But this is not a two-man tournament. If you recall, there's another gentleman by the name of Jay Sigel, Jim Colbert, they have won most recently. We have other players that have been playing well. And I don't for one moment think this has just come down to a two-man event. And whether it be Gil Morgan and Hale Irwin in the last group or someone else, I think you'll see a good championship.

HALE IRWIN: It might. But it's not going to push it significantly past. I don't know how I can say that one season is better than another. I think we're looking statistically at an awfully good year this year. If you look just at the statistics, throwing aside the wins, I can't, but let's just say you do, it's a better year. But then you throw the number of wins into the mix, then you've got a valid argument that last year was better than this. I think I played at a level of achievement throughout the year, with the exception of just a couple of tournaments, where I kind of came down to earth a little bit. It's hard to stay at that level. It's hard to compete against yourself, forgetting the other players; to go out and play a regular practice round and stay at the level I've been playing all year. So I think it sort of brings a bit of reality back into the equation that you are capable of playing badly. So don't forget that you can still play badly, but remember that you can play very well. So that's what I'm taking into this week, is that we've got four days of some challenging golf ahead of us. And if I happen to be lucky enough to win this, I'd have to say that 1998 was, if not the best year ever, certainly one of the best years that I've ever had in professional golf.

HALE IRWIN: Oh, absolutely. That was part of what was missing last year. That's been one of my goals as a senior, to win the U.S. Senior Open. And having achieved that does make that your year significantly better than '97, for instance. But it puts a big asterisk on the year because of -- of all the tournaments. That is one I really had set up in my mind and won it. The way I won, it was sort of a little different.

HALE IRWIN: I think that effort ranks probably as any other event. To put it -- whether to be 53 years old or 23 years old, that's all you got. Those last three rounds at Riviera, they may not have been the best that someone else could play, but they are certainly the best I could play. And to have set myself so far back after the first round and to come back, as I did, I would have to put it up against any other year or any other effort I've made in any other golf tournament.

HALE IRWIN: Well , there may be. Who knows? Yeah, I think there's a level that -- we talk about these levels, up to the next level and these levels and I don't know as that's appropriate; to be as best as you can perform and get your performance out of it, get what you think you're capable of doing. You have to take that reality pill every day, every week, every month, every year to understand that maybe I'm not quite as good, maybe I don't do the things quite as well because of age, injury or priorities or lack of interest. You know, who knows. I still feel capable enough to go out let's say in '99 to do the things I say I'm capable of doing next year. We're not talking about a decided difference. We're just talking about a few more for the '98 season. Yes, I feel I still can. Will I? I don't feel satiated by the money. I still -- I like that. It's a tonic. It -- you talk about success, breeding success, and that's exactly what happens. And it feels good to get on that role, and you don't want it to end.

HALE IRWIN: We'll see. A lot depends on what I'm doing at the time. If I'm -- if I'm into -- who knows, I can be heavier into my design work than I already am. If I am, if that's a logical way to leave, to go a hundred percent to the other. I just don't know right now. As we speak today, the plan for '99 is very much the same as '98. Will results be the same? It may take its twists and turns, and hopefully we can get similar results. But I don't think I'm over -- over the hill. Nor do I think I'm out of the woods. I just think it's part of the evolution for me. I would have to say these last couple of years have been illuminating for me. They have also been exciting. I've had lots of good choices. I have had a lot of opportunities. And I have taken advantage of those opportunities. And it's -- it's really been a ride. It has been a heck of a ride.

HALE IRWIN: Well, I think there's some validity to that, Jerry. Genetically, I think I've been blessed with extended coordination. Just literally, I've been gifted in that I've been able to do physically more than just play golf. I've been able to do some other things. So I think that has all had a very direct impact on my golf. I think that what I've been able to do off the golf course and some of the successes I've had off the golf course in other sports, and maybe I should say -- maybe silly as this may sound -- in the classroom. I feel like I was never an athlete as far as a scholar goes. But I did do what I could with what I had, which obviously some people say is not very much. You know, I've tried to approach in everything that I do, get as much out of it as I could. And, actually, athletically speaking, with the football, basketball, I was one of the best field goal kickers with the basketball you've ever seen. Baseball, all those things I've done, all those sports and activities that have touched my life have helped my golf, have extended me physically. Not just physically, but mentally as well. I've had just a wide array of experiences just to pull -- help make some decisions on the golf course, you know. Just physically I think it's helped me.

HALE IRWIN: When you're up there and you're sitting on the right end of the bench, you don't get hit too many times. (Laughter.) When you're back there as a safety and you're more of an escort, yeah, come on my way. (Laughter.) I think, seriously, I played with as much enthusiasm and as much intensity in football, if not more, than I do at golf. I had to. There was just no way you can walk onto a football field and try to tip-toe through a game. The moment you do that is the time you find yourself up and down in the nickel seats, and I've been there. Believe me, I've been there. Everybody that plays football is going to get that blind side. They are going to get that bell rung. They are going to know literally what the stars look like from inside the helmet. And you're going to get that. And you're right, luckily I didn't. I've gotten good knocks and bruises which still kind of stick with me. No surgeries, no operations. But, again, I was a defensive back. I wasn't in every play. And usually when we're seeing films, I was out of frame, most of the time, which was really good. I like playing that deep, deep zone. (Laughter.)

HALE IRWIN: Yeah. Because I thought I had golf to turn to. But it really wasn't until I won the NCAA that that became the catalyst to get me into golf. There was always kind of hanging over there, sort of that dangling participle that you -- kind of -- what am I going to do with this thing, football. But then along came that victory in the NCAA, which really and truly was the catalyst and got me going. I thought well, okay, now I can play with my peer group. Can I play with Nicklaus and Palmer and those guys? Well, that's another big leap altogether. But it was -- it was an interesting time. Very interesting time.

HALE IRWIN: Probably. Many -- many -- that's wrong. A number of the players that I played with on my team, and certainly throughout the Big 8, at that time did go on to play, and play successfully. Six of the guys -- six, seven -- six of the guys who played on my defense team went on to play in the pros, they being juniors and seniors. They went on to play pros. One who became all-pro. One was an All-American. Probably the two best players both got hurt; injury put them out of professional football. But they all got drafted and were very good players. You know, Walt Garrison, who went to play with the Cowboys -- from the Cowboys to the Cowboys. A lot of players from Nebraska and Missouri. A guy who ran over me as a sophomore, Gus Oto then he went onto -- and I competed at a level with them and certainly one may have been an offensive tackle but I was a defensive back but I had success as they had success. Let's stretch it and take literary license and say I could have done it but I didn't have I'm glad I didn't have to try.

HALE IRWIN: Well, as a running back, maybe Mike Garrison was the best that I've played against. Dale Saris was in Kansas when I was a senior but I had hurt my shoulder in the Missouri game in the game the week before so I didn't play. But Mike was like tackling a shadow. He was there -- another guy and I tackled ourselves. Neither one of us touched him. We tackled ourselves. To this day I don't know how we got out of there.

HALE IRWIN: Bowl, what's that? The only bowl we played in was a toilet bowl. I was a sophomore at USC and Mike was a senior. I was an offensive quarterback, starting quarterback and the guy playing defense broke his wrist on the third play of game so I became a two-wayer and then Garrett was a senior at USC. And anyway, we tackled ourselves. To this day -- I've watched it in films. He was here and here we were and we went together just like this and where he went -- it's like he just jumped over us, you know like this those games you play, you jump over things. Incredible. Of course it was 6 points. Coach had a field day with it that.

HALE IRWIN: I can't control others. I appreciate it more. I think because you know somewhere there's an end to all this, whether it be at this level of play or some other level or maybe it's just the end you draw the curtain and say: I can't get any more, I'm going to go off and pick flowers for awhile. I have. I think that because of my status as a senior and the lesser number of players we have out here to compete against and to achieve against may have been overshadowed as a regular tour player. But again you have the Nicklauses and the Trevinos and the Watsons who were taking a good deal of the deserved limelight. So I don't go back too much in time. I don't worry too much about it. There's nothing I can do about it right now, nor tomorrow.

HALE IRWIN: As we sit right now, yes. This has been a 24-month season. There's something along the way that I can see that said this was a different year than last year. There's no marked decrease in level of performance, no -- certainly no time frame that's -- you know, we really play right on through into December and into January. So from a timing perspective, it's been all one player.

HALE IRWIN: I think I just played well enough, Jerry, to keep that level. Maybe when I've been down a little bit I've had that momentum to carry me through. And as I said earlier, I think success does breed success. And it is a drug like no other. And you get that in your system and it's something that you really enjoy. It's an excitement. It's a pride of accomplishment. It's all of those things that make you want more and you'll find a way, somehow, some way, shape or form, to birdie that last hole or find the shot, find the situation that brings success forward. And it may not always win but it was as good as I can do this time.

HALE IRWIN: Pinehurst for the open. I'll be at Pinehurst. BellSouth. I think BellSouth is opposite one of our -- are they playing May this year?

HALE IRWIN: Tradition. Right now, maybe one, two. It's just -- it's just too hard. The back and forth -- really to play on the regular tour and to play the way I want to play it means I have to take probably a week to play over there to get ready for the next week and then that following week -- it's almost like playing the British Open in the sense that you're going out of your element and going back into your element. It takes awhile to get at that -- where you want to be. For instance, playing at BellSouth: You know, I go in I go to the practice tee and I know some of the players. And you play and then you leave and, what did I accomplish that week. I didn't play the way I wanted to. I was out of my element, not necessarily in terms of talent but just comfort zone. You're not in that comfort zone. So I wish I would have played the week before the U.S. Open this year, for instance, at -- where ever it was, to try and get ready because I think Olympic Club would have been a good club for me. I think it would have been a big difference. So we'll look at next year's schedule.