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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 28, 2011Jim ThorpeTOLEDO, OHIO JIM THORPE: My approach is a little different than Tommy's. The USGA is probably, when it comes to setting up a golf course, they're probably absolutely the best. We found the greens not as fast as we normally find Open greens, but because the greens have so much undulation, I don't think they should get them much faster. The wind might not cause any problem for Tommy, but Tony and I talked about it after the hole, because the wind kept changing directions. I heard you ask Tommy if he left a couple of shots on the golf course. I know I did. I think we hit 16 greens today, and that's pretty good for me. The only mistakes I made, we three-putted from about 20 feet and hit a 7-iron on the par-3 in the water. Other than that I played pretty solid. I think the course this morning might have played a shot or two easy because of the wind direction and the way it was blowing. But any time these caliber of players catch the greens receiving the shots, then the scores are going to be low. And this could be a record for a guy shooting under par the first round. This golf course -- I was here when Bruce Lietzke won it a few years ago and had a decent Open. It seemed like the golf course might have played a little shorter, but I think the fairways might have been firmer. Here we have the fairways a little softer, which means we can hit driver more times than we choose to because the ball is not releasing. The one par-5 is playing short for us over there, No. 4, that par-5 is playing short. We're hitting driver, 3-iron, driver, 4-iron. So you're not thinking four anymore, you're thinking three. The two guys I played with, Armour and Jim Gallagher, the longest par-5 on the course, 8, you know, Armour should have been on the green. He just hit it a little bit short, and Gallagher hit a hybrid there. So the golf course is there for the scoring. I'm quite sure as the week progresses, the golf course will firm up a little bit if we don't get more rain, and I think you'll see the scores a little bit different. I will say, and I think Tony will agree with this because Tony was out here this morning saying it wasn't near as much wind as we had this evening. Basically what we have out there, we have four or five holes, maybe 1, 2, 10, 11, 8, 4, and even the par-3 I made double bogey on. We've been hitting 3-irons and 4-irons all week. START today we had a 7-iron shot because they put the pin on the front. So we have a half dozen holes out there that we can kind of take advantage of with short clubs. And the rest of them, Tony and I have talked about it, the greens are not overly big. If you just put it someplace in the center of the green, you've got to put in a decent birdie putt because your downhill putts are getting away from you. So just the idea that driving the ball is always a premium when you're playing in an Open, especially with the USGA and the rough. They kind of fix it where the rough always seems to be leaning against you. I think it's very important to put the ball on the fairway, and that's what we did today. I think when that happens, we can hit those 4-, 5-, 6-iron shots. Q. Some of the players in the interviews we did before the championship were talking about the difficulty of the last stretch of holes. How did they play for you today? JIM THORPE: They didn't bother me. I played them all under. I made a bad swing over there on the par-3, but we waited 20 minutes on that tee. So I probably should have just grabbed that driver, went back and took about 20 firm swings before I tried to hit the 7-iron. The hole played 169. But based on the practice round, I think we played the practice round a lot longer than what the course played today. We played from the tips during the practice round. Today like No. 9 we just hit driver, 8-iron. I think earlier this week we were hitting 5- to 6-irons, so there was a big difference between an 8-iron and 6-iron; we were shooting smaller targets. I just think we always start out this way. But the golf course has a way of catching up with you. Even today we missed one little short putt, but that was my stupidness, not the green or the break of the putt. It was just the idea that I rushed the putt. If the greens continue to roll at this speed, then I think you'll see the scores -- if the greens roll at this speed and receive the shots the way they are, then you'll see the scores stand the way they are. But with the wind blowing and the greens firm up, they've got a way of putting those pins in position where you can't get it close on some of these greens. Q. USGA talked a little bit yesterday about dialing the course back a little in the first two rounds just because of the number of players they want to get around. Do you think that's a little bit of what you saw today? JIM THORPE: No doubt in my mind. There is no doubt in my mind that the golf course played softer today than it did in the practicing rounds. I think it played much shorter today. We hit wedges on 1, 2, wedges on 10, 11, and a couple of other short clubs we hit on par-4s out there where during the practicing rounds we were hitting three, four clubs more. The one par-3 that played 235 the whole week during the practicing rounds, today only played -- what did that long par-3 play, 208 or something? Yeah, it played 208 downwind, so that is a big difference that is, instead of trying to hit a 18 or 17° hybrid versus a 5-iron. Q. You hit a par-3 into the water? JIM THORPE: 7-iron. I'm going to go home and have a talk with that club. I reloaded with a pitching wedge and two-putted from about 40 feet. You know, it's a funny thing there too because if you look at that hole, you know, my ball only missed the green about that much, landed outside the hazard. But that hole, they've got it painted yellow there, and we thought that was very strange because we're not actually going across the water. The water's kind of running along the side. But we noticed that earlier in the week. We just didn't think the drop area would be in the rough, you know (laughing). So USGA, I mean, they have a way of making it -- they fix it where you can play it, and I will say this: I think the golf course played very, very fair. I think they did a great job. Even though they set the golf course up a little easier today, the pace of play is still going to take you five and a half hours. If you miss the fairways, you're just not going to put it on a lot of greens. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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