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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY KITCHENAIDMay 24, 2012Roger ChapmanBENTON HARBOR, MICHIGAN KELLY ELBIN: Roger Chapman, ladies and gentlemen, joining us at the 73rd Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid in with a 3‑under par 68 first round leader so far to this point. Roger, five birdies, two bogeys and you hit every fairway, every one of the 13 fairways. Congratulations on a terrific round. Comments on the round and then surprised at all with the way you played? ROGER CHAPMAN: No, I played very nicely. As you say, I drove the ball very well, didn't miss a fairway. Hit 16 greens, I think. So the iron play was good as well. Had a couple of 3‑putts out there, but I think that if you don't have a 3‑putt in 72 holes around here, then you've done really well. (Laughter.) But, yeah, it was a solid round. Surprising, really because we have only played one event in Europe this year, so this is probably my fourth real competitive round this year. So it's a long way to come, a long wait. But I'm very pleased with the way things are going. KELLY ELBIN: Key part of the round you had birdies at 7, 8 and 9. Could you give the shots you hit in there and the length of the putts, please. ROGER CHAPMAN: Yeah, 7, I hit driver, 9‑iron to about 30 feet and holed that. It was going a little quick, but it hit the middle of the hole. 8, I hit a really good drive down there and I just hit a little pitching wedge in to about 12 feet and holed that. Then on 9, I hit a good drive, 4‑iron second shot up by the cross bunkers there and pitched to about 12 feet again. So that was a nice little run there. Got the momentum going for the round. KELLY ELBIN: And then birdie at 13. What did you hit there on the par‑3 and the length of the putt? ROGER CHAPMAN: On 11? KELLY ELBIN: Yeah. ROGER CHAPMAN: Well, I knocked it on 10 in two and 3‑putted. Which I was on the bottom side and the pin was up top left, so I was probably pleased to 3‑putt that. And then on 11 I kind of wanted to go with a 52 degree gap wedge, but I thought because the wind was starting to really blow then I thought if it just knocked it down you would come up short, a cardinal sin. So I hit a little pitching wedge and it of course went to the back of the green. So I had to come up over the slope and fortunately from about 40 feet that went in as well. And then from then on in I was hitting the ball nicely and hit the ball very solid. 16 was playing really tough today. Second shot was 4‑iron in there. Whereas, on practice rounds, we were hitting nine irons. So it was a big difference there. KELLY ELBIN: Open it up for questions. Q. We talked a little bit walking in about the wind. Could you talk about how it picked up during the day and how much more difficult it made it as opposed to the past few days. ROGER CHAPMAN: Yeah, it was really starting to pick up about the 6th and 7th. That's when we noticed it. I think it's really difficult because of the wind, and the greens are quite firm, so it's very difficult to actually get the ball very close. So you might hit a good shot in and it might just go with the wind a bit and go 25, 30 feet past. And then with the slopes on the greens that it makes the putting quite tricky as well. Q. How long do you figure first putt was on the 10th? How far did you have? ROGER CHAPMAN: It was probably about, I suppose that was about middle of the bottom tier, lower tier on the right. So that was probably about 35, 40 feet. And I knocked it 15 feet past. I wasn't going to leave it short. I didn't want to have another go at it. (Laughter.) Q. You said on the way over here that these greens, probably the only thing close overseas is St. Andrews. ROGER CHAPMAN: Yeah, St. Andrews they have got, they have really big greens as you probably know. And they have got some humps and hollows in there, but they're not as, obviously, not as quick being on the coast, you don't want them too‑‑ well you can't get them too quick‑‑ but otherwise it's sort of unplayable. But, yeah, they're interesting. KELLY ELBIN: When you haven't played much competitively and you come into a golf course like this that you don't know, do you have expectations other than, that would be outside of the norm, as opposed to having played a lot and being ready to play or knowing the golf course? ROGER CHAPMAN: Not really, no. I came out here on Sunday, I played the pro‑am at Point O Woods on Monday, which I thought was a very good golf course. A little cold, which I was quite at home there. But no, my expectations were, just go in and come into the tournament and play as well as I can. And I must say I'm very happy with what's happened today. So just keep it going. Q. Is there a reason you haven't played more this year? ROGER CHAPMAN: Yeah, the European Senior Tour, we had one event, our first event, which was second week in May. We lost a couple of sponsors in China and Brunei and which we normally play a couple in March time. It's unfortunate that we lost those. We never really start very early anyway, but this is probably normally about the third or fourth event of the year. So we just lost a couple of sponsors. And I suppose it's a sign of the times, really. It's quite difficult getting people on board. So ‑‑ and we have got a nice little run up when we go home next week, so yeah, at least we'll get cracking then. KELLY ELBIN: Roger Chapman in with 3‑under par 68 to lead the Senior PGA Championship. Thank you, Roger. ROGER CHAPMAN: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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