U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 29, 1995

Brian Barnes

BRIAN BARNES: Do I need this? Can you all hear me; because I hate this thing (indicating microphone). Highlight of the round really was that I only missed one fairway, and I think that really is vitally important around here. You have got to hit the fairways off the tee. And I only missed one green in regulation; but I managed to hit the 11th in two. So that really is what made my round; I didn't 3-putt either. Which I think at the moment the greens are spiking up a little bit and the boys are going to be finding them a little bit more difficult this afternoon. But as long as we don't have any more rain for the rest of the week, I think the spiking will probably deteriorate -- get better.

BRIAN BARNES: Birdied number 3, I think, wasn't it?

BRIAN BARNES: Oh yeah, that is the one up the hill, isn't it? I hit a good drive, just punched the 3 quarter 6-iron into about eight feet and missed it.

BRIAN BARNES: 7 iron to 15 foot behind the stick.

BRIAN BARNES: Drive 3-wood, 2 putts.

BRIAN BARNES: Yeah. 12, I took the wrong club off the tee, took a driver -- 12, I took a driver off the tee trying to knock it over on the trees; just caught the tree on the left-hand side went down to the left; then had to hit it up just short of the green through a couple of trees in between them, and saved a pitch and a putt and putted from 4 feet. So that was the only one actually saved.

BRIAN BARNES: It was 230 to the flag, uphill.

BRIAN BARNES: Hit a 3-wood, yeah.

BRIAN BARNES: A long way, long way. Must have been 20 yards, 25 yards.

BRIAN BARNES: No, I was hitting the ball well. I realized that it was vitally important, as I have said already, to hit the fairways and drove the ball either with the driver or a 3-wood. I used the 3-wood six times off the tee today. And I must admit if the golf course gets a little drier, I can visualize myself using the 3-wood more and more as the rounds progress.

BRIAN BARNES: None at all. It is all in the past. I had, as you say, a hell of a life. Now this is the second bite of the cherry. You know, Dick, I came across here and got through the school in 1969 and gave my card back after 10 events in 1970 due to a young family and elected to stay in Europe. Now the family is older, my wife wants to also get rid of me -- she doesn't, actually, but she realizes this is the second bite of the cherry and gives me the opportunity of possibly doing what maybe I could have done in the '70s and '80s, now in the 90s, and into 2000 hopefully.

BRIAN BARNES: Yes. You know, I am enjoying it over here. It is tough work. I brought a pal over here Bob Stevens (phonetic) who is a partner in a couple of firms that we have together in Britain. But up until today, I think we have really -- just over 5 weeks and I have only had three days in that 5 weeks where I haven't had a golf club in my hand which is most unusual for me. This qualifying round; as I call it: Russian Roulette on a Monday is not too much fun. Hopefully, we can get by that in the next few months.

BRIAN BARNES: Oh no, no, no. I think if the weather stays as is, I would have thought a total of somewhere around the 4 to 6 under par would probably win. I don't think it will be any less than that, due to the fact that once the pressure gets on and you start missing a few of these fairways, you are not going to be making the greens in two. The greens do spike up a little bit, but they will get better as the week progresses. But I think that the pressure of the tournament itself will stop any fantastically low scores because the course, for a lot of old fellows, is pretty long. So it is vitally important to be able to make sure you hit those fairways and of course they haven't even started putting the pins in some funny positions.

BRIAN BARNES: I have every intention to going to the school in end of November, December. I am with Golden Bear; hopefully they are going to manage to get a few more exemptions for me. Maybe you fellows can help as well - the more the merrier. You know, I know there are only 3 ways where you can manage to get into the actual main events; that is the Tour school itself, win a tournament, or manage to get into the top 31 of the order of merit. One of those three, or two of them I would love to do without doing the third one which is going to school.

BRIAN BARNES: I wouldn't even like to guess, sir. I hit it a reasonable distance, but never considered myself one of the longest hitters of the world. My old father-in-law who is Max Faulkner, he won the British Open in 1951. He started teaching me in 1964 and decided then that he wanted to make sure that I was going to keep it on the fairway. So started telling me that it was vitally important to get 80% of my power instead of 100% and I find it very difficult now, actually to stand up at the tee and try and bust the ball. So it goes far enough with 80%.

BRIAN BARNES: Yeah, I went back and played the European golf from 1964, but I packed up playing in 1982 for seven years, packed up completely. I got bored with it; living out of a suitcase and really it was the unfortunate time because European golf was just picking up. Any tournament that I now play in Europe, they can have the best field in Europe and there are only four or five guys that have probably won more tournaments than I have, but they are all millionaires and I am skinny (sic) so I am hoping that this coming over here and spending a few years on the Senior Tour will produce a little pension for me.

BRIAN BARNES: A lot of promotional golf; designed golf course with my father-in-law who is 50% owner of and basically that is what I have been doing. 1989, I started playing a few more tournaments due to the fact that of course I was getting closer and closer to the golden age of 50.

BRIAN BARNES: Oh, yes we heard about them.

BRIAN BARNES: There is two ways of looking at it. I can understand Nick's reasoning for it. There are a lot of tournaments that are played in Europe; especially in the early part of the season that are on new golf courses, and they are not in the greatest condition. The one wonderful thing about coming across and playing in the States is that even on a cloudy day like this, you don't have to go around with a sweater on and waterproofs. The condition of the golf course is 9 times out of 10 is for more consistent over here so because of that, you have got more of a consistent swing, far better putter and far more confident. But the conditions that we play under week in and week out in Europe, one week it could be in the 90s and next week you could be up in Scandinavia somewhere and there is a hailstorm, so it doesn't really produce the consistency necessary to be able to give you the opportunity of a good swing and a consistent swing.

BRIAN BARNES: Yeah.

BRIAN BARNES: No.

BRIAN BARNES: No. No. No. That is up to him if he wants to talk to me about. It would be a pleasure, but, no, a lot has been made of that, Dick, as you know and I think the part of the reason for that is that a lot of amateur golf is matchplay golf, but you know as well as I do 18 hole matchplay is a sudden death situation. I am capable of shooting 65 as well as Jack is. Jack shoots it a little more often than I do, but on that particular day I made a couple of good putts at the right time and beat him.

BRIAN BARNES: Well, twice, fine, but the great thing about that of course you do realize that in the history of the Ryder Cup the second time that we were paired together was a fiddle. And it has never been fiddled since or before that. And this is the great thing, I think, about Jack. To me, not only is he the greatest golfer that ever lived but to me, he is the greatest sportsmen that has ever lived. He has had the wonderful ability - twice that I know of - where he has had enough savvy to realize that by changing -- getting the draw changed that particular afternoon would be with the Americans only wanting one more point was giving the crowd the opportunity of being able to see the match once again and keep them there and the other time which also brings to mind the 3-foot putt he gave to Tony in 1969 under pressure. For anybody to consider doing that for the good of golf just shows what a hell of a man he is. And to me, he is my hero; always has been.

BRIAN BARNES: Jack let's face it, he has got probably one of the worse records in Ryder Cup history. A lot of people seemed to have beaten him. He is the greatest golfer to me that ever lived, but his Ryder Cup record is not the greatest. Ray Floyd I think is the same. Ray Floyd hasn't won too many matches in Ryder Cup but that is 18 hole matchplay.

BRIAN BARNES: I approached them; got a lovely letter back from Jack saying that he would love to have the organization look after me as they would have loved to have done in 1970, but second bite of the cherry is now here so hopefully I will be able to prove to him and a lot of other people that I can manage to hit the little white ball around the field.

BRIAN BARNES: No. I am still very British. And much of my family and my wife's family are all down in the south of England and I can't visualize us ever moving across here. It is not really necessary these days. I think you can do 5 weeks and go home for a couple of weeks and come back without too much difficulty.

BRIAN BARNES: Oh, yes.

BRIAN BARNES: No, not at all. As I said, I won 16 tournaments. There was a period of time in the '70s to the -- well in the '60s to the '70's where the lowest position I finished for, I think, eight or nine years was 8th in the order of merit and yet the top 4 in this year's order of merit will make more money in one year that I have made in 30. So it just shows you how the money has gone through the roof.

BRIAN BARNES: I tried that in Morocco a few years ago. One evening when we went to one of these official functions and I had the full regalia on someone dared me that I would wear the kilt the following day. I put it on and wore it for three holes. Fortunately I also had a pair of shorts in the bag because with the kilt on I was hooking the bloody thing all the time because, you know, there is so much weight in a kilt that I was coming forward to hit the golf ball the bloody piece was still going back, so I was hitting the damn thing with my foot all the time. I couldn't get the weight forward, so after three holes -- I won my bet, but I took it off and put the shorts on.

BRIAN BARNES: Well, I hate a hook. I cannot stand seeing the ball go left.

BRIAN BARNES: I hope so. Thank you very much.