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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY KITCHENAIDMay 25, 2012Hale IrwinBENTON HARBOR, MICHIGAN KELLY ELBIN: Hale Irwin, ladies and gentlemen, matching his age for the fourth time in competition. He shot 66 today in the second round of the 73rd Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid. Hale is at 5‑under par, two strokes behind Roger Chapman and John Cook. Hale, congratulations on comments on your round and more importantly, shooting your age. HALE IRWIN: Well, to end the day, obviously the 3‑putt at the ninth hole was a real killer. Just simply because it would have been great to play without a bogey. And when you have as many birdie putts as I had today and not make ‑‑ really I didn't putt well at all, which I know is going to sound pretty trite, but at the same time I really didn't putt very well, I just played very, very well. John set the stage, because every time I looked up he was tapping in a birdie putt. So I knew there was some low scores to be had today. But at the same time, finishing like that is always a distasteful thing. But shooting the age, it was, I don't try to think of that. You try to think of what you need to do to play well. And, yeah, I would love to have beaten my age, not just equalled it. But at the same time it's nice to do that. But it leaves me, rather than one stroke behind, it leaves me two. So you got to look at it from a positive, I'm positive I'm two strokes behind now. I'm positive that I could have improved. So positives are hopefully going to outweigh the negatives. And there were enough negatives on the putting green today. And I know the greens, that they're difficult, but some of the putts I missed today were not that difficult. So I'm a little discouraged with that to the point where I might even change to another putter tomorrow, it's similar but a different putter. Can't putt any worse. KELLY ELBIN: You did make six birdies out there. If you wouldn't mind starting with the birdie on 10 going through that real quick in terms of irons into the green and length of the putt. HALE IRWIN: Sure. If you you're expecting me to look at this thing. That thing is so small. KELLY ELBIN: It is small. HALE IRWIN: You got to be 14 years old to see that one. KELLY ELBIN: I thought you had laser surgery. HALE IRWIN: That doesn't even matter. I started at 10, yes, 10 was, let's see, actually a very difficult starting hole today. But I played it well. I hit a pitching wedge third shot, played it off the bank up in the back, the left there and let it carry down to the hole perhaps five feet from the hole. Made that for an opening birdie. Then hit an 8‑iron, a nice little 8‑iron at the next hole within probably two feet of the hole. Making that for a birdie. No. 11. 14, that was another very well played shot. I hit a 5‑iron, just tried to play it left of the hole and let it roll down. Play the contours. I hit it down there perhaps about three feet from the hole, making that. 15, I hit a hybrid club, my, what it's kind of my 2‑iron/5‑wood kind of shot. Just over the green. Not just over, but over the back edge of the green. I hit a nice little pitch up to within a couple feet of the hole. Making that. Then I don't want to talk about all the misses, but this is kind of what I missed. I missed about a 12‑footer at 16. Just about a similar putt at 17. I did par 18. 1, I missed about a 15 foot putt. 2, I did birdie. I hit a 5‑iron to within, oh gosh, big long distance, about five feet again. I missed from about 12 feet at 3. About again 12, 13 feet at 4. I did birdie 5. I made a long putt there, made one of about 12 feet. Really a big putt. In case you can't see the cynicism in my comments. (Laughter.) But that was a nice putt at the par‑5 there. And let's see, the 6th hole? Oh, it was down the hill. 6, again I missed a putt just off the edge. It was probably about 15 feet, but I missed that. 7, I hit it straight down the hill about eight feet from the hole and left it short. 8, I hit a pitching wedge to within about 10 feet of the hole and missed that. And then I 3‑putted No. 9 from about 20 feet. Missing the third putt from probably three feet. So whereas the score looks really good and it is, I'm very happy with it, the manner in which I got it was a little frustrating because I left a really, really, really good round out there. And, knock on wood, you hope to have these kind of tee to green rounds all the time and take that knock on wood back and hope you don't have putting days like I had today. So where it was such a great round tee to green, just fabulous, I can only hope to have some of those shots over the next week or next couple days. But I certainly hope I can putt better. KELLY ELBIN: Open it up for questions. Q. Obviously no one has accomplished more than you have on the Champions Tour, what is it that brings the best out of you in these Majors? Last year at the Senior PGA Championship you were right there through 54 holes, made the 73 on Sunday, but when you come here, what is it that brings the best out of your game? HALE IRWIN: Well, we play, these are exacting golf courses and they require exacting shots and it's not a normal TOUR event where we're kind of going into host clubs and doing it year after year. And it's just as much a golf tournament as it is sort of a social occasion. And they're fun, they're enjoyable, and that's what, that's why we have the TOUR and that's why it's successful. But there are those tournaments, and the Senior PGA Championship is one of them, that are earmarked as Major Championships for us. And again, it's exacting conditions, exacting golf courses, and that's the way it should be. And hence why I think there are some of us that look so forward to these kind of events. And if you can do well in them, excel in them and have a chance the last day, then that's kind of why, I hate the term, that's what it's all about, but I think that's why we continue doing what we do and continue trying to push that bar beyond where some people might stop. I just don't believe in that. It's just not in me to do that. Q. How are you able to stand up to the physical demands of the TOUR, of this life, of this game over the years? HALE IRWIN: I don't know. I think genetically I'm put together pretty well. Mentally I sometimes wonder. But I just don't ‑‑ it's just my competitive nature, having been in sports my whole life and knowing that you might not, you might beat me, but you're not going to out‑try me, you're not going to out‑heart me, whatever that means. I just have enjoyed that, those opportunities to reach beyond and do something that's, that requires some effort and requires some push. And normalcy is not, if we were normal, what's that? That's boring. To go beyond the norm, I think, is where I always try to be. Q. In a way it was this week, with so many players seemingly so bummed out or mad about the greens, the kind of thing back in the day when guys would talk themselves out of a Major and you would just hang in there and say, I can rise to the occasion. HALE IRWIN:  Well, it reminds me a lot of Winged Foot in '74. Simply there was a lot of disgruntled players in '74 and 70 percent of them were out of the tournament before the tournament even started. I think we saw some of that perhaps this week when you see these greens and they are, they can be maddening. There's no doubt about it. It's a very difficult, you have two different kind of things you got to conquer here. You got to get tee to green, which that in itself is exacting enough, but when you get on the greens and there's rarely a straight putt and I had a number of those today which I just, you can't believe it's a straight putt, but they were. But reading the greens I think is very difficult. And it almost, and I don't mean this badly, but when I saw Brad Faxon miss a couple of putts I thought, wow, I don't feel so bad now. But I did. They're just hard putts to read, hard greens to read. The difference between a good shot and a bad shot landing within a foot or two of one another is, could be 20, 30 feet. But like yesterday, Bob Tway's caddie said, you know, the wind is enough, let's not worry about the bumps on the greens. And that's about right. You can't worry about all the bumps and lumps. You just can't do it. Particularly if the wind is up. It's too exacting. So I was fortunate today, hit a lot of very precise shots, very crisp shots. I played some hunches and got away with it, I shouldn't say got away with it, but I played the hunches correctly. And I had the ball inside 15 feet just almost every hole today. And other than that real bonehead putt at the last, I could have really shot low. But that's sort of kind of like the book, The Tale of Two Cities, that's kind what have it is, it's the tale of two golf courses out. There you got the tee to green and then you got the greens themselves. And there's no way, because it's a new course for us, that we can remember what we did last year. You don't have any history from which to play. And we have seen a whole different golf course yesterday and then we got the flip today. Some of those hole locations, some of the good ones are still yet to be seen. And some of the tees are going to go back, so it won't be as receptive, let's say, the next couple days, I'm sure. Q. You mentioned normalcy is not for you and I was looking back on some stats and they're certainly not normal and I just wanted to throw them at you and just get your thoughts on them. And in 1996 when you were 51 years old you averaged 260.6 yards off the tee. This year, eight days away from your 67th birthday, you're averaging 261.4. HALE IRWIN: Is that all? Q. That's it. HALE IRWIN: Oh, man, I got to step on it. Q. Surely you would attribute some of it to the equipment, some to the ball, how much of that would you attribute to that and how much to your fitness and how you try to take care of yourself? HALE IRWIN: Well, the equipment certainly is a benefit to all players that really play the game a lot. And I'm not going to say it doesn't benefit the amateur, because it does. But I think the players at the top of the game will see they can take and refine that and get more out of it, simply because that's just the way it is. They can hit the ball farther simply because they create more club head speed. And it's a disproportionate return. If you got a 90 mile club head speed you might get five yards. If you got 110, you might get 25 yards. It's the same equipment. So it's sort of, it's a difficult answer to a fairly straightforward question, but at the same time I haven't worked out like I used to, I think at the stage I am now, I just can't push the body the way I once did. I would like to, but it doesn't respond. The mystery each day is which part is going to hurt today. How did I sleep last night to make this part hurt. It's frustrating. Long days like today, when you're playing a twosome, a lot of standing around and kind of cool conditions, that's very difficult. The warmer weather yesterday felt much better. So it's just little things like that that you have to kind of ‑‑ but I do try to keep myself in shape. Don't ask me if what I'm doing working out, because I'm not doing it right now. Last year I kind of stepped away from working out and I had a very good year. Over the winter I started again and I kind of backed off again. So I'm, I know that's not the right formula, but maybe I'm finally coming back to where I should be. Q. So is your swing speed then the same as it was? HALE IRWIN: I have no idea what my swing speed is, I don't want to know. I just go, what did I shoot today? That's all I want to know. I don't care how far the ball goes. Sure I would like for it to go out there farther, but I hit good irons and generally putt better and it's the bottom line that I'm worried about. I could care less about what my stats are. Q. The other part of that, another stat which is not normal you mentioned you were lamenting your putting and things like that, but it's actually not bad. Same thing, in '96 you averaged 29.36 putts a round, this year it's 30.4. They always say putting and your nerves are the first to go. I mean‑‑ HALE IRWIN: Well, if you saw me putt the last hole you would have to agree with that one. (Laughter.) Q. Do you have to fight it? HALE IRWIN: But actually I don't think averaging putts at 30 is good. I think you have to be in the 20s to be even close to being a good putter. And right now I'm not. I'm adequate, but I've just hit the ball well. And when you're averaging 30 putts and hitting it where I've hit it today, miss one green, maybe. You know, one green. And you're ‑‑ well if I, I wish I could take you out there, I wish we had the time and we could go out there and have a good old time and I would show you where the putts were and then you could see what I'm talking about. I'm not going to lament it anymore, simply because it's negative returns, I don't want to do that. But it was a frustrating day on the greens. But when you're saying 29 and 30, there's a stroke times four, there's four strokes. Over the course of a tournament. And that's one. Q. Over 16 years though‑‑ HALE IRWIN: Average that out over 16 years and that takes you out of the top‑10. Q. Over 16 years? HALE IRWIN: Okay. If you want to go on statistics, I can beat you to death with statistics and I just don't want to do that. KELLY ELBIN: Hale Irwin, thank you. HALE IRWIN: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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