U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 15, 1996

Woody Austin

WOODY AUSTIN: The golf course is getting a little tougher. The greens are getting much firmer. Late in the day, those last couple of groups, the greens are getting real bumpy. The ball is bouncing all over the place, so you just -- you don't want any -- you don't want any 4, 5-footers because you just don't know how they are going to react. The golf course is getting very difficult.

WOODY AUSTIN: I birdied number 2. Hit a perfect drive, had a 3-iron into the green, didn't hit a very good shot, but hit it short and right; so I had the whole green to run it up. And I hit a good shot out of the rough there and ran it up there about four feet from the hole and I made that. And so I got off to a good start, but then I 3-putted the third hole from below the shelf, but I got it right back and birdied number 4. I made the longest putt I have made all week. It was probably about 15 feet, and I missed a real short one on 6 from about five or six feet, and then I hit a bad shot on 7, probably the first bad shot I hit really, and I missed it on the wrong side. I missed it to the left in the rough, and I hit a good chip to about ten feet and didn't make it, and I hit a great 3-iron into number 9 about 15 feet behind the hole and I knocked it 15 feet by and 3-putted. So that wasn't very good. And then I played 10 perfectly. I had a good chance to make birdie and didn't make it. Then I my only other bad shot of the day I had on number 11. I had a hanging lie in the corner of the fairway, and I tried to send it right of the flag and bring it back and I just hung it out to the right. You can't miss that green to the right. And missed about a 12-footer for par there and then I made a whole bunch of pars.

WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah, I mean it keeps dwindling as far as who is under par and there's only two guys, and I am one over, so if I can put together the round that I shot on Thursday and get some putts to fall in the hole, I'm going to be in great shape.

WOODY AUSTIN: I am a Florida boy, never even had to think about that before until I got out here, so I don't really think too much about it. I am sure someone who has total control of their putting stroke will do it like a Crenshaw or somebody or a Loren Roberts who totally trusts their stroke, but I am not too confident to be sticking it out on the toe and leaving it three feet short and still having a downhiller, so I still try -- I still try to putt it in the middle of the putter. I just try and hit it easy.

WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I mean, sure there's pressure, but there is still pressure on them too, but I think the way, if you think about poa annua and poa annua really is so matty and thick, and as the day progresses and people start walking on them, there are so many indentations, there's so many dents, there's so many footprints and the further you are back in the group you are just going to have bumpier putts. So those guys that get out early definitely have an advantage, especially since the greens are so difficult to begin with to have any kind of a flat or a level smooth surface would be nice, but the later you get in the day they are definitely getting very bumpy.

WOODY AUSTIN: I didn't look at it at all. He was pretty much surrounded by everybody.

WOODY AUSTIN: He was way left. He hit it left at the beginning of the day, and then he got it straightened out, but then he hit that one left too, so.....

WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah, I mean, like I said, now that the round is over, I mean, one over is not too bad and I am still in the hunt, but when you are playing and you don't feel like you are hitting a lot of bad shots and you are not making birdies, you keep thinking about all these guys who keep making all these birdies and chipping in and knocking in 30-footers and you haven't done any of that all week. You just keep grinding and keep grinding thinking that something is going to happen and right now nothing is happening for me as far as anything-- I am not getting a big bounce and I am not chipping them in or I am not knocking in the putt. I am just kind of going on and going on and going on and making a lot of pars and a lot of pars, so while I am out there, I look like -- I probably look like I am about to die, but I know that I am just trying to keep going and keep going and hope -- I am just trying to hope that maybe tomorrow things are going to go my way; I am going to start making some putts.

WOODY AUSTIN: I am trying to, because like I said at the beginning, this is probably the best tournament for me because I know or I, at least, understand that in a U.S. Open, if you make a hell of a lot of pars and you don't shoot yourself in the foot, you are still going to be around on Sunday. I am probably one of the only people -- I have only made one bogey on the entire back 9 for three days and that was today on number 11; probably the easiest hole on the entire back 9. I think I could probably sell my score card to a lot of people on the back 9. But I am hitting the ball off the tee and in the middle of the fairway. I am hitting it on the green. I may not be hitting it really close, but I am hitting the ball where I am supposed to hit it and I am making a lot of 2-putt pars. I mean I had 35 putts today because I 1-putted the last hole. I am putting the ball where I am supposed to put it. I am just not quite getting the ball close enough to the hole to be making these five and six birdies a round that all these other guys are making, but I am not out of the golf tournament at all because I am not making any doubles or any triples or I am not putting the balls in the crazy spots.

WOODY AUSTIN: I wouldn't say it is much harder, really, I think the fifth hole is one of the hardest holes. That is a heck of a hole right there. I just think that number 14 is a long hole and when they put that flag -- I mean, the green makes the entire hole. Sure, the hole is 455, but there isn't a flat area around that place just about and I mean, I hit a great shot in there yesterday and it was right at the flag and I looked at my caddy I said, well, that is no good. I mean, half the time, you would think when you hit the ball right at the flag, you are thinking you are hitting a pretty good shot. But I know it is going to hit the mound and it is going to go way over there. It is just a difficult golf course to get the ball close to the hole. You just really have to be really good and have to be a little lucky.

WOODY AUSTIN: I don't think it is anymore difficult than I had imagined. Because I imagined the U.S. Open just like this. If you look at the history of the U.S. Open, if you shoot even par, you have done really well, and I like that idea. I like that concept. I mean, based on the fact that I make a lot of pars. I don't shoot myself in the foot too many times to make doubles and triples, so as long as I keep the ball in play and make a lot of pars, I know I have a chance. I am just hoping tomorrow that I get a little lucky and I start knocking a couple in.

WOODY AUSTIN: That was my bad drive of the day. I hit a drive out to the right and I hit it where everybody had been walking and I got a free drop out of a tire rut and I hit hit just a nice little punch 6-iron in there about 15 feet right below the hole.