IR SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 2, 2000

Allen Doyle

ALLEN DOYLE: You know, I played very well. I bogeyed 1, which wasn't a very good start. But I told myself, we've got 17 more holes and three more rounds. And then I made a good 2-putt birdie on 2. 2, I was probably 45 feet. I hit a driver, 3-wood. 6, the par 5, I was about 25 yards short and I chipped in for eagle. Then I turned and I made a scrambling par on 10. 11, I hit it long of the green and I chipped in for birdie. It wasn't a very long one, but it was -- I was only probably 20 feet from the hole. The pin was way back, 35 -- 39, I think it was. Then I hit a sand wedge in to 12 about 78 yards, about 12 feet and made that. I hit a 5-wood on 14 from 225 about 15 feet and 2-putted for birdie. On 15, I hit a 9-iron from 138 yards about 10 feet and made it. Then I had my other eagle on 16. I had 119 to the hole and hit sand wedge, and I thought it hit straight and went to the hole, but I saw on TV that it spun back in and it ended up that I made two. So, all in all, it was a very fortunate round.

ALLEN DOYLE: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I don't mind, you know -- if I miss a green, if I do, I'm not afraid that I can't get up-and-down. You know, I'm a little better ball-striker now than I was as a kid, but I used to miss greens like crazy as a kid. When it becomes a habit, you just grab the club that you're most comfortable chipping with and you go chip.

ALLEN DOYLE: You know, I'm a believer in that, too. Five strokes today isn't -- I don't get -- way too much golf to play. There are enough -- the par 5's out there are, you know, if you drive it good -- and I hit some good second shots -- you can make some things happen on the par 5's. I think you'll see -- I was very surprised today that the scores were not lower. So I think that you'll see in the next three days, you know, I think as the guys get a little more comfortable with the golf course, I think you'll see a lot better scoring than you saw today.

ALLEN DOYLE: You know, I don't -- I don't set up the golf courses. I play them. I thought that the firmness the course is playing at, you know, I don't think you can say that, because it does bring in the -- you know, the shape of the golf course, the shape of the fairway. And if you're not shaping the ball in the direction of that fairway goes, then you're going out of the fairway. I would agree with that if the fairways were soft and you had a ball that was -- like on 3, you know, you either are have to cut that tee ball or take it down that right side and hit a pretty straight ball. If you hit it down the left side, you're going in the rough. I'm not so sure that if you were at a lot of our other events, you would see that those balls would hit in the fairway and they would not get to the rough. So I'm not so sure -- there have been times during this year that I think that either John could say that or anybody could say it, or I could say it, because I've said it. I don't think that's the case here, because of the firmness of the golf course, and you've got to now -- with the pins in front, you've got to drive it in the fairway, because if you have a front pin, with the firmness of the green and you're not in the fairway, you have no chance of getting the ball close, and if you don't shape your -- not every tee ball, but if you don't shape a lot of your tee balls, then you won't be in the fairway. And, you know, that, to me, is -- you know, you have to shot-make and shape your shot to the hole, up the tee, as well, and into the green; and I think that you have that here. So, I wouldn't agree with that. Maybe the tees should be moved back a little, but I'm one that the first day you set it up, and then according to the scores, you make it either harder or easier according to what the scores are. But he loves long golf courses. He's a long-ball hitter. I don't like -- I'm not a long-ball hitter, but I don't necessarily like short golf courses. But I do like golf courses where if you don't shape your shot, then you can't hit the fairways, and then it is harder to hit the greens and that makes it harder to make birdies, and it rewards a good shot-maker. I think here now with the firmness of the golf course that good shots are going to be rewarded.

ALLEN DOYLE: It was not for me. But it was not a bad driving day. I mean, on the holes that I had to hit good drives on, you know, I did. I think I missed -- I missed four fives. And on those holes -- like the hole on 10, where he said you need more length, I did miss the fairway right; and I had 137, but I had to carry the traps; and the front and I hit a pitching wedge and it flies pin-high and goes another 60 into the back fringe and I make a great up-and-down. That -- to me, I didn't drive it in the fairway, and so I shouldn't have been able to get it close, which I absolutely couldn't. You know, I had to make a great up-and-down from 60 feet to -- you know, to make par. That to me is a golf course that, you know, I didn't hit the drive where I was supposed to hit and it; and thus, par became a very good score for me.

ALLEN DOYLE: I should have shot 4- or 5-under today without any trouble. I mean, you know, that ball on 6 was going to go, you know, maybe a foot by; so I make birdie. And the ball on 16 was going to -- I mean, it was barely spinning back into the hole; so I was probably going to make birdie there. So I shoot 6-under more than likely. But, no, I don't ever feel -- any golfer that feels that they have left the golf course stealing shots only has to think to their last event or two events prior to that. In Hawaii, I shot 8-under, I think, on -- what did I shoot on Saturday? I shot 8-under -- everyone shot 9-under, 10-under -- I should have shot 11-under, if you go by ifs and shoulds. I had three or four putts that almost couldn't get in the hole -- someone said, "Boy, you must have putted great today." I said, "No, I only made one putt." "You've got to make more than one putt to shoot 63." I made one single putt. Everything else was here to eight feet. And I don't consider those making, you know -- so I don't ever feel that I get off a golf course. You know, I'm happy that I turned a 66 into a 64 or a 67 into a 64. I'm thrilled. But I learned a long time ago, whatever number you're supposed to shoot that day, you normally end up shooting it.

ALLEN DOYLE: Well, I mean, the last time that I can recall it happening was the Southern Amateur when I won it for the first time in '89. I had two in the back nine on Saturday in the second round on Saturday. I holed out two 9-irons, but that doesn't happen. That doesn't happen much. So, no it doesn't happen often. You wouldn't come off a round like that and say, "wow." You don't normally do that. So that was two shots, you know, that I got in the good column that I shouldn't have, and I can weigh that out on the shots that you don't make -- that I don't complain that I'm an unlucky golfer, but I get enough screwy breaks in the course of a career that, you know, I wonder how it keeps happening. So I just -- you know, I play and I go to the next shot, trying to do the best that I can on that shot and just see what happens. I'm thrilled to be here. You're talking to a guy that five years ago was worth almost nothing. Now I'm worth a few million. I probably do owe golf a little more than it owes me. It wasn't too long ago that I was an amateur golfer, scrubbing around at my driving range making 20 grand a year.

ALLEN DOYLE: She's caddied the last -- for the quarter of the year. So she'll do some job hunting, I guess in the off-season. If she finds something she likes, she will probably jump on it. If she doesn't, she'll have good old dad.

ALLEN DOYLE: She's a junior in Alabama.

ALLEN DOYLE: Yeah.

ALLEN DOYLE: Yeah.

ALLEN DOYLE: (Inaudible) ... where I live.

ALLEN DOYLE: She just graduated in August from Southern Mississippi.

ALLEN DOYLE: In business.

ALLEN DOYLE: Her two percentage checks for the first few tournaments she worked were pretty good checks. They were more than I made in my first job every year. I figure she's doing pretty good.

ALLEN DOYLE: I really didn't get, rid -- well, I did at the beginning of the year. The one I used last year I kept at the beginning of the year and throughout the year, when she got through school, she said she might want to caddy for the remainder of the year or longer. I just picked up -- (inaudible) pick up that guy for two weeks or three weeks or someone else for two weeks, and I just used -- you know, I made sure that they was what I thought was some of the better caddies, and just used a lot ... I've never been one that has needed a lot of -- you know, I don't need a guy pointing me in the direction: "Go over there and hand me a club and do this." I need someone to give me yardage and be positive if I'm going to try to do something, because all of my life I've played carrying my own bag or I had some little scrub caddy that didn't know anything, anyway.

ALLEN DOYLE: Erin. Generally, I've left -- any of the guys at home that have wanted to caddy, follow me for a week, I've probably had in the last -- on the big tour, on the Nike and here, I've probably had eight or 10 -- or the guys eight to 10 weeks one of the fellas caddied for me... (inaudible). And again, it is something that is not a problem for me, because I'm the one that knows my game and I'm the one that knows what I'm trying to do, you know, and I'm the one that can -- I don't need someone thinking for me all that kind of stuff. I come in and I can do all of my -- do my own thing. You know, they are there and they love it because they are in the action.

ALLEN DOYLE: I pay a straight five. Five percent.