U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 5, 1996

Hale Irwin

HALE IRWIN: I think probably the word that immediately comes to mind is disappointing. Enumerable chances to really play well today. My putting was probably as poor as it has been any single round all year. Today I only missed two fairways and two greens, one of which was the last hole just off a few inches. Coupled with 2, 3-putts and 2, 3-putts from yesterday. If I just eliminate those -- I am not 3-putting from long distances they are relatively short distances, I am 5-under par, knocking on the door, so if I could just make a couple of the putts I have been missing, I would feel very, very good about things, but today was a wasted day. I just left so many strokes out there. My caddy and I were talking about it coming up the last hole. I probably had 10 legitimate birdie putts today that I did not make and I made three total, so I don't know what to say. I am a little stupified by the putting success or lack of success, I should say, because I had been putting pretty well. And this has been a bad week for it.

HALE IRWIN: Well, okay. First hole I started out rather poorly, drove it in the right rough. Hit short of the green. Chipped up very close, made -- saved the par.

HALE IRWIN: (Indicating.)

HALE IRWIN: A foot. 2 was my first good chance for birdie from about ten feet. I missed that. I lipped it out at 3, from about 20 feet. 4, I drove it poorly to the right behind the porter potties, but got away from there all right and saved par. Then I got it up-and-down at 6. I birdied from the front bunker making about a 4-foot putt. 9, I missed about a 10 foot birdie putt. 10, I had about probably 12 foot birdie putt, putted it down the green, back down the slope, and made about a 6 foot bogey putt. I count that as a 3-putt even though it is on the green, off the green, on the green, thing. I missed it from about twelve feet at 11, about eight feet at 12, about the same distance at 13 for eagle. I 2-putted that, but 13 was for an eagle. I missed it. 14, I missed it from about 9 feet for birdie. Same distance at 15 for birdie. Finally made about a 30-footer at 16 for birdie. Missed it there about 15 feet at 17 for birdie. And then 3-putted 18, missing about a 5 foot second putt. So --

HALE IRWIN: It was Hale and my head. It wasn't the greens. Yes, the greens are difficult. There is a lot of front pin positions and seemingly a lot of difficult pins to get to, more so than yesterday. Yesterday the wind was the factor. But the way I played today, it just was a waste. I hit a lot of really, really good shots but the good point is I am still - I can still see them. No one is running away and hiding. I don't think they are going to, the way the course is playing today, and if the putter comes alive over the weekend; then I am in good shape.

HALE IRWIN: I am red figures. I am one under and ready to put the last two days behind me and start making a little better effort on the greens.

HALE IRWIN: I know what I am doing. It is just a matter of correcting. I am pushing many of the putts. It's in my right hand, in an effort to stroke it on fast greens, you like that nice stroke. What I am doing, I am stroking, but I am stroking -- I am pushing my hands away from me. What I need to do is almost shorten my stroke down, make it a little bit more compact to where I am in here, rather than -- it is sort of a lazy -- I want to get to the ball. I am just opening the club face. I always do that. That has always been my problem, but generally, not not as much as I did today. Every putt I missed today was pushed.

HALE IRWIN: Well, certainly it stands out. But let us be fair and not compare apples and oranges. We can't compare this tournament with the U.S. Open. It is unfair to do so and I don't like to get in that comparison. But for those of us that are playing the Senior Tour, it is an important event. It is a big event. If not the biggest; certainly one of the biggest. And that -- that depends on the perspective of each individual.

HALE IRWIN: Of course I go over and play the regular Tour periodically, but I play there because I enjoy playing there. It is not -- that is not where my future is.

HALE IRWIN: I played in the U.S. Open this year, but at the same time, I don't think that that question has been asked before and I don't think it is quite right to say that when you eliminate other players just because of the age, then you can't have a fair comparison. If we had invited, hey, Steve Jones come on over, hey, Greg Norman come on over, hey, Phil Mickelson come on over, then maybe we can compare them, but it is unfair to do is. They are both extremely important, though.

HALE IRWIN: Well, I don't know about -- to me, the grinder part is -- I suppose you could describe it as that although that is not what I would describe it as. I think you really have to fit some shots out there. I think it is more the shot-making perspective because you really have to put the ball in the fairway and you have got to shape some shots around the tees and get to the fairways and then you have got to shape some shots into the greens to keep them under the hole if you can, so I don't know if it's grinding, per se, but I think it may be that you have to be tenacious and just keep after it,. And, yes, I would say that suits my game. However, I am a grinder without any sandpaper right now. I feel like I am kind of skating with no blades and I need to -- just need to get the balance back. Right now, at least today, it was so good tee-to-green and just the opposite on the greens, so --

HALE IRWIN: It is not really a lack of confidence. I really feel I can. One or two rounds of poor putting as I have had the last two days does not shake my confidence. It is just a matter I have to -- I have in mind what I want to work on, but I don't know that I am going to work on it today. I am just going to think about it. A lot of times my best practice sessions come from thinking about it. My confidence or my spirit of my confidence is not broken at all. I have had too good a year to let one or two slipped rounds from bad putting affect me.

HALE IRWIN: Oh, yeah, I mean --

HALE IRWIN: It was an extremely well played round, but at the same time, putting counts and if you don't get it in the hole you might as well hit it 50 feet from the hole, but my efforts now will be to sort of sort it out in my mind; kind of let it go. I would have been happy if I would have just made that little putt at the last hole but again, I pushed it. It is anxious, and am I pressing my irons. Well, if I am -- I am hitting them awfully close, so I hope I continue pressing my irons.

HALE IRWIN: The wind is not drying the greens out quite as badly as it did yesterday. We got to them yesterday afternoon they were -- it was tricky. They were pretty bumpy, and the traffic was -- had worn on the greens. Today, I am not -- I think there will still be some good scores on the board because the wind is not there to dry them out. I'd like to have been in the other half of the draw. I'd like to have better starting time, playing 2, whatever it was yesterday, 2:10 or 2, 8 o'clock, whatever it was, the greens were not in very good shape. -- Scratch that. They were in good shape, but they had traffic on them. They were very good greens, but it is just hard to score. It is hard to get a stroke going because you are sort of wobbling the ball to the hole all the time, sort of like today. I wobbled a lot. And I think if the wind doesn't come up, it is playing very fairly right now. There is not a lot of wind to speak of. The pin positions are a little more difficult, I think. There are a lot of front pins, a lot of kind of your sucker pins. They are wanting you to go for them. If you do you are in bad shape, but it is hard to keep the ball under the hole which is all what we are trying to do with the pins in the front and that is where a lot of them are today.

HALE IRWIN: Thank you.