U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 2, 1996

Brian Barnes

BRIAN BARNES: Can you hear me without this thing?

BRIAN BARNES: It has been great. To come back over here at the beginning of the year and be able to fly and be able to play tournaments, on the American Tour, of course, has been great. The sponsors have been fantastic to me, to give me the amount of sponsor invites that I have had. As far as I know, it is fairly unusual. By the looks of it, I have got about another 10 to come this year. So with any luck at all, by the end of the year, I should have made enough to have made the top 31 of the order of merit and not have to go back to that bloody school, which I have no intention of doing.

BRIAN BARNES: The course is in superb condition from tee-to-green. Greens, I think, are going to give a lot of people a lot of problems this week. If you get on the wrong side of some of these holes it is virtually impossible to do anything else but 3-putt. So although it is a fairly short golf course, I think there are going to be a fair amount of holes where discretion will be the better part of valor, and you will try and knock it to the fat of the green within sort of 20 and 30 feet instead of going for the actual pin. If you get past the first, the second, and if you have a few of the other ones, it is virtually an impossibility to get it stone dead. So I don't believe that the scoring is going to be that fantastic this week due to the fact of the speed of the greens. But the condition of the golf course is superb.

BRIAN BARNES: By the looks of it, I reckon if the weather conditions stay as is, there are probably only five holes where I will take wood off the tee; rest of the time 1-iron, 2-iron, 4-iron or even 5-iron to get you into a position so that at least you can hit the green in two, and hopefully 2-putt from there. But the problem is the rough is fairly thick. If you get in it off the tee, you have very little chance of stopping it even, if you get a decent lie, you have got very little chance of stopping it on the green if you do manage to hit the ball forward. If you don't, of course, you are still left with a fairly tricky third. So I'd rather hit longer second shots into the greens and be left possibly with a chip from around the green than have to go in with a long third shot.

BRIAN BARNES: I would say, yes. I think that the way the golf course is set up and the design and the severity of some of the slopes of these greens, it was not designed to be as quick as this. But then I can always remember many years ago, 1966, Tommy Horton and Malcolm Gregson were talking to one of the great amateurs and officials of the R&A game, and I forgotten his name -- R&A game official who is dead now.

BRIAN BARNES: Gerald Miclem. It was in the Open Championship; was at Muirfield, and the rough of Muirfield that particular year was about three or four feet high, not inches, right.

BRIAN BARNES: It was unbelievable. If you went in there, it got to the stage that you had to make sure you remembered where your golf bag was because you would lose that. They were complaining bitterly about this and of course dear old Gerald and in his inimitable way, of course, "fellows this is not the the montly medal; this is the British Open; that is the difference." This is the American Senior's Open. Because of that, there are certain conditions that we will have to contend with this week that we wouldn't do under normal tournament conditions. It is a special week, so you have to put up with them. It is the same for everybody, so you have just got to,, as I say, discretion at times is going to be the better part of valor.

BRIAN BARNES: Yes, I hope that they do put a little bit of water on every day. But you don't want them overwatered because, once again, it then becomes the normal tournament target golf. To be able to stand up on the fairways and realize that maybe a certain shape has to be hit into the hole, instead of just darts - which is normally the way to play American golf - this is going to be good for everybody. It is going to get a few guys tearing their hair out tell you that. It is not going to be won by a hooker this week, I can tell you that. Because if you start drawing the ball into those greens, the thing is going to go over the back. That is a guaranteed certainty.

BRIAN BARNES: A draw of a ball. Yeah.

BRIAN BARNES: 18 is a superb hole, lovely hole. I am not that enamored with 16, or 17. But then I have never been one for short holes over 200 yards. I firmly believe that a short hole can be made tough, but it can still be under 200 yards. Instead of having to bust -- if you get a wind against there on 17, I can see a hell of a lot of the guys not even making the bloody green; let alone, anything else. That is not really what a short hole should be. But it's the way the golf course has been designed. So we will have to play it. I don't mind. I hit the ball a reasonable distance. The way I played 16 today was a 1-iron off the tee, a 2-iron up to the top of the hill and wedge onto the green. That is the way I am going to play it everyday.

BRIAN BARNES: Make 5; possible 4. That is right, but you have got to stay out of that rough. Because you get into the rough either on the drive, or on the second shot on 16, you have got a guaranteed 6. Because you will not be able to get high enough up to that hill to be able to see where you are going.

BRIAN BARNES: Give me time. It might be this week. It will happen. It will happen sooner rather than later, I think.

BRIAN BARNES: Which one are you talking about? Two week's time, I am actually playing the British Open. Now that would be a lovely one to hold including the British Seniors. It would be fantastic. I would love to of course make the U.S. Seniors my first victory in America. I am hitting the ball well enough. But at the end of the day, on an Open Championship golf course, you need a fair amount of breaks as well as being able to hit the ball properly. So if I get the breaks, a few more breaks than the rest of them, then there is no particular reason why I can't be holding the trophy at the end of the week.

BRIAN BARNES: The old Slam. That would be the old Slam. No, it was a couple more surely. There again there, Dick, unfortunately as far as America and the Senior Tour is concerned, the British Seniors Open means sweet --

BRIAN BARNES: It means nothing. It has, in all honesty, done no good for me and the Tour over here, none whatsoever.

BRIAN BARNES: (nodding head in the negative) I played there when I was in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago. They invited me to go across and play at Lorel Valley once again and the end of the round they said, "do you remember the golf course?" In all honesty, I had to say to them, only holes I can remember was 16 and 17, the holes I shook Jack's hands and that was it. Because there was so -- the trees, of course, in 21 years, have grown incredibly and some of the holes had been changed, one of them, the 10th actually has been made into a superb golf hole. It is still a lovely test of golf. But I think amateur golf and the media have made far more out of that particular day than I have think about. It is you know, -- I have always been able to shoot 65, not as many times as Jack, but on that particular day, I shot better than he did. And that is what 18th hole Match Play is about.

BRIAN BARNES: He didn't mind the first time. I think he was a bit pissed the second time. I tell you that.

BRIAN BARNES: Yes, I have.

BRIAN BARNES: I am very grateful, but then there is -- a lot of big guns have been firing for me. Arnold has written letters. Jack, of course. Very difficult for Jack because, of course, I am managed by Golden Bear and of course it makes it difficult for him - if he writes letters to the sponsors, they said, well, of course we will have Barnsey, no problem, as long as you play. Now you know how many tournaments Jack plays on the Senior Tour, so it is difficult. Bob Murphy has been writing letters for me. Lee, Gary Player, of course, has been a -- has been trying to get me as many invitations as possible. I have been very fortunate with the friends I have made over the years, either through Ryder Cups or through my travels, as I did with Gary. I have played with Gary back in 1965, when I used to call him Gary Player. Now I call him all sorts of things. But Mr. Player, used to be, in those days. But you know, they have been trying their damndest for me. And I think that from the start of the year, when it was very pleasant to have those invitations, now, I think it is getting to the point where hopefully the scores that I am beginning to put up, are making sponsors realize that maybe I am not a scrubber and I might be able to enhance the event with their putting their money in. I hope that continues.

BRIAN BARNES: The R&A game will allow me to wear shorts at the British Open this year if I want to.

BRIAN BARNES: Yeah.

BRIAN BARNES: As far as they are concerned, it doesn't matter to them.

BRIAN BARNES: USGA -- we -- Eddie Smith, my manager, got in touch with the USGA two months ago and as far as the USGA were concerned, I was more than able and willing to wear shorts if I wanted to in this event. Since then, I have heard differently, but two months ago I was told I could wear them.

BRIAN BARNES: Yeah, I wore a kilt in Morocco, one of the equery to the king of Morocco, after a rather boozey evening, struck a bet that I wouldn't play in a kilt the following day. Fortunately I did take a pair of shorts in the bag with me because after three holes of doing nothing but hooking the bloody thing all the time. I took the kilt off; putt the shorts on. If any of you fellows have actually felt the weight of a kilt, you will know what I mean because of the pleats at the back. As I was swinging the club back and, of course, moving my weight across to the right side, so the pleats were moving back, as I was moving forward, the bloody pleats were still going back. (LAUGHTER) So I couldn't get my weight back across to the left side, so I was hooking everything. But that lasted three holes. I won my bet, though.

BRIAN BARNES: No. No. That is right.

BRIAN BARNES: A pleasure. Thank you gentlemen.