U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 17, 2001

Tom Kite

TOM KITE: Well, obviously one of those great rounds where you're hoping that everything just kind of falls into place. We were looking for a good round today after playing three so-so rounds the first couple of days. And all of a sudden everything started happening today. And except for one little hiccup on the 6th hole where I 3-putted, a lot of great things happened today and it was fun.

TOM KITE: I thought I had a chance. 18 and 9 are both just a little bit slower than all the other greens, and I had a good read on it, it was just a little right breaker, and coming back left at the last. But all week long it's been a difficult green for anybody to get a feel for because you know it's slower, but it's not that much slower. And the moment you start thinking that it's a little slower you zip it by there about five or six feet. I played with Paul Azinger the first couple of days, and he did that on 9 the first day. And had a 15 foot birdie putt and a 12 foot par-putt, thinking it was that much slower. That's one of the things I wasn't trying to discount the speed of the green. But, yeah, it was right on track, just a little bit more gusto and it's in.

TOM KITE: Yeah, I think mainly because I had been practicing on this upper end of the range and everything, and you had that left-to-right wind, for some reason I hit the ball very poorly the first three days. I hit fewer fairways and fewer greens than I've hit in a long, long time. Yesterday afternoon I went down to the bottom end of the range and then warmed up this morning, I went to the bottom end of the range, where I was hitting uphill and into a little bit more of a right-to-left into wind. And I felt so much better on it. But I think what I ended up doing, is basically I ended up hanging on my left side too much, and never was getting back to the ball. And I discovered it yesterday afternoon, and there was no comparison. I think I hit, what, 16 greens today and almost all the fairways. A couple of fairways that I missed, I missed the fairway on the 12th hole with as good a drive as I could hit. It kind of hit on the downslope of the bunker, so I was very pleased.

TOM KITE: Well, you know, it's one of those things that I talked to Kirk yesterday about it. I had hit the ball very poorly from tee-to-green, which has been the thing that I've been doing very well all year long, actually for the last couple of years. But this week I did some really nice scrambling. I played some nice bunker shots, chip shots, and more importantly I putted very well this week. So I felt like that it was only a question of time before I started hitting the ball a little more solidly. If I could keep the putting stroke working that I used the first three days, some good things would start happening. When I started hitting better on the range this morning I felt good. Started and hit a nice 3-wood off 1, and had a 9-iron in about four feet, and here we go.

TOM KITE: No, I'm so far back -- when you start off at 7 over par the last day, unless it's the massacre at Winged Foot, at Winged Foot in '74, 7 over is not going to have much chance. It was nice to get a good round under my belt, 64 in a major championship is very, very low. And I'm quite pleased with that.

TOM KITE: Actually, no, I hadn't thought about that until we got in the scoring tent. Obviously, I can sit there and now knowing that I missed it by one, I think back to that 3-putt on No. 6 and I kick myself. But, of course, I made a 90 or 100 footer on No. 8 that you're not supposed to make. Those certainly more than offset each other. I've got no complaints. But it would have been nice.

TOM KITE: Yeah, we talked about that earlier in the week, that this was a good golf course for both Hale and I. I really thought Hale would continue to play well, the way he did the first day, and really I'm a little bit surprised that he hasn't followed it up with a little bit more Hale Irwin type rounds the last three days. But he got us off to a good start, and with this finish I had today it hopefully makes the Senior Tour look decent.

TOM KITE: I don't know. It's a hard golf course, but I'm not sure that that has any particular thing to do with it. I couldn't -- that would be a pure guess on my part.

TOM KITE: Because they're hard. I love difficult conditions, especially when you've got the windy weather like this. I grew up in Texas, playing in some wind and I love getting conditions like this. I had it in '92 at the Open, and certainly this golf course and the venue cannot be compared to Pebble Beach, but other than the fact that it's a difficult golf course, with a lot of wind, and clubbing is very, very difficult and you have to be very patient with it. And you have to hit the ball very solidly to have your shots turn out well, and that's what I did today.

TOM KITE: There's a lot of enthusiasm out there. All you have to do is go out there, and at least where we were, and I'm sure where Vijay was earlier this morning, and I can promise you the enthusiasm out there is fabulous. The people of Oklahoma and all the folks that have come down here to Tulsa to watch this event have not backed down at all in terms of creating an enthusiastic, exciting atmosphere. And, no, I would not say that at all. It may be disappointing to you guys, because that's what you want to write about.

TOM KITE: I'm sure there's a lot of guys out there that are sitting there thinking that they've got a good chance, as when Jack would have an off tournament in those few and far between occasions. Everybody felt like they had a little better opportunity. So, yeah, when your top players, whoever they are, are not playing as well as they are capable of, then the other top players love that.

TOM KITE: I was right in between clubs there. I had 196, which is normally just a good 4-iron, but of course it's playing uphill and playing long, and I was right in between 3 and 4, and I ended up trying to cut a little 3-iron in there to make sure I got it up there, because the wind was quite gusty at the time I hit it there.

TOM KITE: That's unfortunate that it's what it's got down to. But, on the other hand, it's nice to have your autograph worth something. But it does take the fun out of doing autographs. But I collected autographs when I was a kid and enjoyed that part of it, long before it was a business, and I wish the business end of it wasn't there.

TOM KITE: 3-wood, 9-iron on the first hole about three or four feet. Then parred all the way around to No. 6. I hit a 7-iron right in the middle of the green and had about a 20-footer, maybe 22 feet, and knocked it about three and a half feet by and missed it coming back. But I came back with a good birdie on 7. I hit 8-iron on my second shot, about 12 feet and made that. Then I got a really lucky break on No. 8. The pin is so far left that it's a joke. And we've got 230 yards uphill into the wind, nobody is going to get it within -- if anybody gets it inside 15 or 20 feet today they have done some miraculous stuff. So everybody is playing out to the right. And I pushed it a little bit and I had it on the far right-hand side of the green. Had to be at least a 90 footer and I rolled it in like it was a two-foot putt. It was perfect speed, looked like a Crenshaw putt it was so pure. Then I made a good par at 9. Parred that. Birdied No. 10. I hit a 9-iron in about three feet behind the hole, 9-iron -- 2-iron off the tee. Then I hit 8-iron about 8 feet on No. 11 and made that for birdie. Parred 11 and 12. And then 13 I hit a good drive, hit a 3-iron into the back bunker and had it on a downslope with a very tight pin and didn't play a particularly good bunker shot about 18 feet past the pin, but made that for a birdie. And then birdied No. 17, I hit a sand wedge about five feet, maybe.

TOM KITE: Let me see, 2, 3, 9, 12, 13, 16 and 18 -- 7.

TOM KITE: He's 2-under? That's struggling? Your standards are too high.

TOM KITE: It's a matter of playing well and getting the ball in the proper position and getting some breaks at the right time and making a few putts. And that's what I did today. I gave myself tons and tons of opportunities to make some birdies out there today by hitting 16 greens in regulation, and when you do that, if you're putting well, you do have a chance to shoot a good score.

TOM KITE: Yeah, I think somebody will shoot a decent score. It's a pretty jammed up leaderboard. Anybody that's under par to 5-under has a chance to win the tournament. But I expect there will be some decent scores out there. But again my standards may not be quite as high as yours. With 2-under, 3-under is a pretty good golf score on the final round of the U.S. Open. So a good score might be that.

TOM KITE: I don't get into predicting. I like to sit back and enjoy and watch and kind of fantasize with all you guys as to who is going to win it. I'll let you all predict or somebody else.

TOM KITE: Yeah, he worked for me at Birmingham, I finished third there.

TOM KITE: I'm very pleased. I'm playing Boston this next week. I'll fly up to Boston tonight and we'll play the Fleet Boston tournament up there. So I'm excited about that. I've heard nothing but great things about Salem Country Club. So I'm really excited about that. They say it's a very difficult golf course, an old Donald Ross -- we've had some wonderful venues for our senior major championships, with playing Ridgewood in New Jersey, which is a Tillinghast course for the Senior PGA, and Salem, which is a Donald Ross. So we're getting in high cotton on the Senior Tour.

TOM KITE: In an Open, yeah, sure. Yeah, I mean I played today like I was goofing around at the Austin Country Club. I was hitting fairways and greens, and just having a grand time.

TOM KITE: That's right, which is nice.