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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIPMay 28, 2010Tom KiteDENVER, COLORADO KELLY ELBIN: 1997 U.S. Ryder Cup team captain, Tom Kite, joining us midway through the second round of the 71st Senior PGA Championship. Tom is tied for the lead at 6-under par after his second consecutive 3-under par 69 today. Tom, you birdied 15 and 16 again today, you had three straight birdies on the front nine. Looks like another solid round of golf here at Colorado Golf Club. TOM KITE: Yeah, I played okay. I sure did. A little bit of a disappointing finish finishing up on 7, 8 and 9, playing those holes 1-over par, I had a good chance to kind of open up a little bit of ground there. That was kind of disappointing. But other than that I played a very solid round and very pleased with the way I'm striking the ball, very pleased with everything that's going on with my game right now. Putting the ball very nicely. So very pleased with the state of the game. KELLY ELBIN: For the record, Tom hit 13 of 14 fairways today and 14 of 18 greens in regulation. Tom, if you would, go through your card. You had five birdies. TOM KITE: Started on the back side. I bogeyed No. 11. I hit 6-iron that landed just short of the green and kind of spun back off the front of the green. And I chipped short about 12 feet and 2-putted. Then birdied the two par-5s. Back to back. 15, I hit a really nice drive, hit 4-iron or 3-iron on the back of the green and 2-putted from 60 feet. 16, I got a really fortunate birdie there. That's a very difficult pin placement on a crazy green today. And I drove it in the left rough, going up the left side of the fairway and trying to hit the left fairway, I pulled it in the left rough. Very difficult layup from there and I was able to get it down there in the right side of the fairway. I had, adjusted, I had 122 yards, so that would be 135 yards to the hole. And the pin's up on that little plateau and I hit a beautiful little 9-iron in there about three feet and made that for birdie. So that was a really good break. Parred No. 1. Then had three straight birdies in a row where I hit it very close. I hit 9-iron on No. 2 about three feet. Hit a pitching wedge on number 3 about four feet. Hit a 5-iron on number 4 about three feet. So birdie, birdie, birdie. Then No. 9, I bogeyed. I hit a good drive down there. I had -- we misjudged the wind and then I pulled the shot on top of it. We thought we were hurting, the wind was hurting a little bit, it actually was helping a touch. So I hit an 8-iron, I hit it to the back left fringe and 3-putted from that point. KELLY ELBIN: Let's open it up for questions, please. Q. How different were the conditions out there today compared to yesterday? I heard you mention it was less wind today. TOM KITE: Yeah, I don't know what it was like yesterday morning, but it was certainly a lot less wind than yesterday afternoon. Which we kind of expected. But we kept expecting it to pick up because the forecast all today was at noon it was going to start blowing and at 1 it was going to really start howling and at 3 o'clock it was going to be knocking your hat off. And right now it's about a three mile an hour wind out there. So consequently it affects the way the golf course is set up when the weatherman misses it so badly. They had the tees set up in a certain way anticipating certain conditions. And then when the weatherman just blows it as badly as they have, I mean obviously the golf course is set up for the difficult conditions. And so you're going to see some lower scores. I anticipate there will be some low scores this afternoon, unless something happens in the next three hours, which, I mean, it could, but so far the wind has really laid down. Q. When you talk about how they have to set up the course as it relates to the weather, does that go for the greens? A lot of guys yesterday were saying the greens were much slower in the first round compared to the practice rounds. TOM KITE: Yeah, I think that part of it is the tee placements, having those, especially on those three long uphill par-4s that we have, 4, 5, and 12, they moved the tees up there. But, yeah, I think they, there has to be some concern that if the wind starts blowing like we have seen the first part of this week, that if the greens are fast, we can't keep the ball on the green. You set it down and it won't stay there. So they don't want to have this be a mockery. I think they would rather have the greens be a little slower. But you ask everybody in the field and they have left plenty of putts short this week already. They're a little bit slower than what we saw in the practice rounds and a little slower than what we were anticipating this week. Q. A lot has been made about what a successful year this has been on the Champions Tour thanks to Freddie and other factors, as a guy whose been out here a long time can you detect a little extra excitement, is there a different feeling in the air at some of the events? TOM KITE: I think that the Champions Tour is a great place to be right now. I'm very excited about what's going on. We have got -- it seems to run in cycles. But there's a lot of enthusiasm right now because you got a lot of name players that have popped out that are Hall of Famers or will be Hall of Famers that are all of a sudden playing on the Champions Tour. And when you've got a lot of young guys on the PGA TOUR that you can't put a face to a name a lot of times, and the same situation on the LPGA, the Champions Tour is a wonderful, wonderful tour where you can sit there and you go out and recognize most of the people that are playing in the tournament. And it really is a fun time for the Champions Tour right now. Everybody's real excited about it. Obviously when you have the top players that bring so much to the game like this, it makes you want to step up. You have to do something with your game, you can't just continue to do the same thing, you're going to have to perform, because you know all those guys are really bringing it to the table. Q. Along those same lines so you look at the leaderboard here now, you, Langer, Lehman, like you said, the name players, Major champions, does that add an element of juice to the tournament and for you personally to see that? TOM KITE: I don't think you're surprised to see those names up there, are you? I don't think anybody is. There are a few of them that you thought might be there that didn't play quite as well as you would have anticipated, but for the most part when you get on a golf course that's difficult like this and under the conditions that are tough like this, you're going to see a lot of the name players come up there. They get to be the name players because they're a little bit better than everybody else and they win more tournaments than everybody else and then get under tough conditions and they perform better. Q. Did you see this coming for you personally where you would be the top of the leaderboard between the way the course was laid out and just in general the way you've been playing? TOM KITE: Well, I like the golf course a lot. Apart from two holes I think the golf course is really a fantastic golf course. And I have been playing quite nicely the last few weeks. I finished fourth at Tampa, I finished third in Mississippi, and then I had two really good rounds at Birmingham, 67, 67 the first two days, I just didn't play well on the third day, 72. So I dropped back a little bit there. But I have been playing very well lately, so I'm on a nice run. Q. What are the two holes that are the exceptions for you here? TOM KITE: Well, 2 I think is a wonderful green setting. The green's just a little bit too severe. And 16, I don't, I don't understand that green complex at all. But quite honestly, I think there are 16 wonderful golf holes out there. And 2 just needs to have the green softened a little bit. So it's, I think that Bill and Ben did a nice job with it, with the golf course. I think everybody's really enjoying it. Q. Along the architecture lines you've had a tournament played at one of your courses last year in fact, can you talk about the emotions of having done a course and then having your peers come and review it so to speak? TOM KITE: Well, you're nervous and you're excited to have the tournament there, no question about it. I've had a couple of tournaments on my golf courses, the LPGA plays a golf course in Nashville the Legends Club in Tennessee. And they played that for a number of years. They play the course down in Puerto Rico on my golf course, Trump International at Puerto Rico and then Liberty National hosted the Barclays last year. And in each one of those cases where those top players come in there, you're a little bit nervous. I mean you absolutely, you work your tail off. And I know, I mean I have known Ben since I was 10 years old, and I know how much he loves it and how much he puts into it, the same way that I do. You put so much into the design of the golf course and you, I mean you're working to make it, I mean you're fine tuning it, just tweaking it so much and you want it to be perfect, knowing that perfect doesn't exist. And a lot of times when you have a course that could host tournaments, and host Major Championships, and entertain the top players in the game, you want to have it be a challenge to them. So you push it a little bit. You kind of push that envelope just to make some of those holes a little bit more difficult. And sometimes when you push it that hard, sometimes you come up, you go over the edge a little bit. I've done it. I did it at Liberty. There are a couple holes that we'll tweak before the next tournament is held there. Didn't have too many complaints at Puerto Rico, even though there were some adjustments to some tees are after the first year. So I'm sure Ben will come back in here and Ben and Bill will come back in here and make some adjustments after seeing the way this has played. But like I said, for the most part, I think they did a fantastic job. I give them high praise for this. Q. Along those same lines, you have known him forever and you're in the design business yourself, you talk about No. 2 and No. 16. How do you go about approaching him to say, hey, I love you, but what's going on? How do you do that? TOM KITE: Well, he'll see a lot of it himself. Quite honestly, Ben's probably playing the golf course under these conditions for the first time himself. You go out there and you design it, you may hit some shots into it, into those holes, but rarely do you get to play it under tournament conditions. So I don't need to say anything to Ben. He know what is to do. He knows how to fix it. Assuming they get the financial situation here with the club straightened out, I'm sure he'll get the opportunity to come back in and those subtle adjustments and get them right. But -- and whose to say that I'm right? I mean, you know, you prefer blonds or redheads or brunettes or whatever. I mean, there's different opinions in golf course architecture when you start talking about art. It's not an absolute science. What one person likes, somebody else might not like. But like I said, for the most part I think that they did a great job. And that will be what I'm telling Ben. Nobody wants to have the negatives thrown at them all the time. Ben's a good friend of mine and I haven't -- actually our tee times have been opposite of each other, so I haven't seen him all week. So I haven't had a chance to talk to him. But I think he's -- I think for the most part he's probably very pleased with the way the golf course is performing. KELLY ELBIN: You've been close a couple times in this championship, what would it mean to you to win this Senior PGA Championship? TOM KITE: Well, I'm to the point now where the wins are probably going to come, there's going to be more space between the wins. I turned 60 in December and as everybody knows that follows the Champions Tour, wins from guys in their 60s are not that prevalent. So I have that as a goal. I worked hard on my conditioning and worked hard on my game to try to make it last and I think it's holding up pretty well. I'm very pleased with where my game is right now. I think that at some point in time I will win in my 60s and I look forward to that day. I hope it's this week. KELLY ELBIN: Tom Kite, thank you very much. TOM KITE: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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