FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 15, 2001

Allen Doyle

ALLEN DOYLE: (Whistles).

ALLEN DOYLE: That's even better.

ALLEN DOYLE: Thank God for that putt on 18. You know, I thought today would be a -- you know, kind of the way it turned out. You know, I thought there might be one or two more guys in the mix when we got to the back nine, but it seemed that we got -- you know, just a shot or two ahead when we got through 13. You know, I was up most of the day and then I got down, but, you know, I just figured I was the one still in there fighting and scrapping, and if I can make a few birdies, you never know. That's exactly what happened.

ALLEN DOYLE: Hit a pitching wedge from about 127 to about six or seven feet and made it. Birdied 3. I hit a 4-iron in the right bunker. Blasted out about a foot away. It hit the pin, actually and I thought it was going in. Bogeyed 5. In fact, I played that hole 3-over this week. I hit it in the right bunker. One of our so-called professional caddies out here had done an absolute pitiful job raking the bunker. And I was in one of the low ones and I had to pick my club up. So it turned a routine shot into a hard one that I hit right and I made bogey. Then I bogeyed 10. Hit a great shot in at 10. I had 86 or 87 yards, I think. With that pin virtually no way to get it closer. I hit a great L-wedge to eight feet, pin-high, right and made it. Then I hit a great 8-iron into 12. We had 148, I think it was, and I hit an 8-iron about eight feet. Made that. I made a good up-and-down on 13 from the right, in the right rough. Hit a hell of a chip to about eight feet and made that. Then I made my bogey on 14. I was in between clubs and I took the long club and I pushed it a little. I thought I might get a little better kick back left, but it hung up in the rough and I pitched it by about ten feet by and didn't make it. 17, I laid up with a 4-iron and tried to get in the fairway and I went straight at the pin across the water. I drew a good lie out of the rough and pitched it about five feet. Doug made his, so I had to make that to stay one back. Then 18, I drove it good. I was in a divot in the fairway, but I -- I was going to hit the short club anyway to turn it over and just try to get it to run and release, and I hit 9-iron. I think we had 155 yards and put it up there pin-high and actually felt pretty good over the putt. I had rolled those good all week. Hadn't made anything. I figured, what the hell, why don't I make one now. Put a good roll on it and it went right in the middle of the hole. Those are the ones that you see on TV, but they never happen to you. I guess it was 35 feet or something. I played it about half a cup out.

ALLEN DOYLE: I was probably the only one in position -- I told myself I had to get it there, because even if I 3-putted, I would be in second alone. It really didn't matter. I told myself to give it a good run and see what happens.

ALLEN DOYLE: It didn't bother me much. If you talk to any player out here, they will probably tell you that they were the unluckiest player out here. You kind of roll your eyes when some of the guys say that. But it seems that -- and I'm not saying I am, but it seems that I get my share of them. If you drive it in the fairway more than the other guys, then you're apt to get in a few more divots, so it didn't bother me. I was going to try to execute the shot as good as I could, and worst case scenario, I finish second.

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, you know it, doesn't do a whole lot -- for me, it's a permanent thing. I can come back here next year and if I'm paired with Watson and Irwin in the third round, there will be just as few number of people rooting for me next year on that day as this year. So it isn't going to do a whole lot for me, other than, sure, I'll be known more. But it just -- you know, I probably, I'm sure there will be people saying that this is probably one more event that maybe they didn't think I would win. So, you know, it's a nice thing inside that you have. You always have doubters, but you keep playing hard. If you play well enough, this is what can happen.

ALLEN DOYLE: He got it up a little too much that way. On the 18th hole, he hit a 5-wood to carry that thing, but he had more on the line. When he hit it, I thought he was in the hazard because it got up. That 3-wood he hit on the 18th in regulation, kind of ballooned up there, too and didn't go anywhere. But that's not -- I just stayed focused on what I had to do.

ALLEN DOYLE: Yeah, I hit 3-wood.

ALLEN DOYLE: I thought he hit a good shot. I thought he was going to end up where I ended up. You know, that's all you can do. If get it left, you've got no chance. That had to have affected him. I had that shot on Friday up in that right rough and I pushed it a little and made bogey. So, you know, you are worried about the lip and that's what happens, you worry about the lip, you get it too far right. See, if I was there, I probably could have played that shot a little better than him, only because my ball tends to come that way, where he tends to cut it.

ALLEN DOYLE: No. I just bring it up. When someone asks me, I give an honest answer. For me to think that I'm going to carry the same weight out here that Tom Watson does is ridiculous. I'm just glad to be here. You can't imagine -- I'm haven't overachieved out here because I don't believe that someone can overachieve. He either has the ability to do what he does or he doesn't. So I'm just real thrilled to sit here and have a place out here. I have my little niche, and I realize that. I've got a niche that, you know, someone sees me and they see me as an underdog. I like playing in the shadows. I like playing from -- let everybody else get all the attention. You know, that's the way I've played since I've been out here.

ALLEN DOYLE: Like I said, it's huge. I can store it in here and no one can take that from me. No one. So, know, it's a huge win. It's one that I'm thrilled to have. If someone thinks he's more than man I am to come up and get that trophy, you come and try.

ALLEN DOYLE: This one it played out -- I'm a dead duck for all intents and purposes. Then I make that putt -- you know, but that wasn't too unlike the putt that Doug makes on 14. You know, so what's good for the goose is good for the gander. But I was a dead duck in a way. He played the back nine so well that, you know, maybe he did deserve to win, I don't know. I've been asked, aren't you ready to win -- and I said that every time, for some reason, I haven't got the breaks. I've played well enough to win. I can look back to 3 today; everyone thought that ball was going in the hole, including me. If I get a decent lie on 5 -- but I don't whine about it. It didn't happen that way, but, lo and behold, look what happened in the end. I kept playing and -- but I don't know if it was easier. It felt like it may have been a little easier because I wasn't, you know, climbing that hill as much as I was at the PGA Seniors. Here, I got to the top of the hill and I got a view over the rest of them. So it seemed like it -- wasn't easy, but may have been a shade easier.

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, I did -- yeah, oh, yeah. When he got to 1-up and then he made that putt on 17, after I hit a real good shot in there, I thought maybe this was my chance to get the shot back.

ALLEN DOYLE: (Laughter). You know, if I hadn't won, I would already be gone. I would have tipped the locker room guy and I would have gone out feeling pretty good, but not quite as good as I feel now.

ALLEN DOYLE: Oh, yeah, I would say so. If you talk to some of the other guys, they may not say so. I don't take myself any more seriously now than when I came out here. I don't have any -- any new hobbies that I've cultivated since I've come out here. If someone asks me a question, I give them a straightforward answer like I did when I came out here. I'd like to think that I'm a little smarter; that I've gotten a little smarter over the last two and a half years. I like to think things would fall in the way they did even when I was an amateur player. I always thought if you played long and hard enough; that if you hit enough good shots, roll enough good putts, things would fall your way, and I still feel that way. To the guy that maybe would say I've changed, I would tell him to go screw himself. (Laughter.) He's wrong. He's wrong. He didn't know me before -- or he knew me before and he thinks I should be acting a certain way now. But, you know, I think I'm the same guy. You just can't fathom -- you can't fathom where I've come from. I come to my office each day, and it still blows my mind that this is an office; that we come to work here at the golf course. If you don't lose -- if you don't lose touch with that, it's hard to -- not consider yourself one of the luckiest guys around. Hey, you guys have good jobs. Do you make what I make? So am I 1-up on everybody?

ALLEN DOYLE: We're flying out to Chicago in the morning. So it's the same old, same old each week. The one thing I've always tried to keep myself on is staying on an even keel. This is fantastic, what happened this week, but this won't get me much the next week. So I'll enjoy myself tonight, maybe tomorrow night, then go practice on Tuesday. But that, to me -- you know, I love that, so it isn't anything that I've got to work myself into or anything. I can go to the golf course in a heartbeat Tuesday morning and I'll be there at 8:30. Quigley is there and he's -- inaudible -- he got up on birdies and now he's scarce to find on Tuesdays. So if you want to print that, you can. So it will be back to normal come Tuesday. I bought a new house. My wife has a lot more demands on me. (Laughs) I'm only kidding. We haven't done much. We did upgrade houses, I guess you could say, but that's about it.

ALLEN DOYLE: The Schwab Cup, you know, I was in fifth place. It's hard to get excited about the Schwab Cup when you're in fifth place. It's certainly better than sixth. But move up there to 2 and maybe have a shot at 1 -- now the Schwab Cup could be a real beautiful thing. That becomes a focus more so from here on out than it was when I was in fifth place, although I was close to fourth and third. But I try not to set my set my schedule and get concerned about other things. When you play and you play well, those things take care of themselves. The Schwab Cup is a great thing for us. It's a great opportunity for the guy that -- you know, the one to five guys that play well during the year to end up with a little bonus check or whatever you want to call it, it's a great thing.

ALLEN DOYLE: Yeah, we got a glass thing where I've got all my crystal and silver exposed to the world -- if they can get in that room. Not too many people get in that room. Yeah, we have a spot for it.