FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 13, 2000

Tom Kite

TOM KITE: It was a little soft this morning, and this golf course, you could tell already that they had watered it, because it tends to dry out, and I guess the ball really goes a lot of times here. You get those greens bouncing a little bit and the fairways running, and you can put it into some trouble. But caught it early this morning, third group out, and it was nice. The greens were holding and able to shoot some -- hit some shots right at the flags and came up with a decent score. No wind as you -- there's probably more wind blowing in this media room right now than there is on the golf course. It's really a benign day out there. You know, still, it's a good golf course, and I'm very, very pleased.

TOM KITE: Yeah, I birdied the 2nd hole. Hit 9-iron in about four or five feet there. No. 5, a little short hole, I hit 9-iron there, also, about six feet. Then birdied No. 7, the par 5. Hit 3-wood just off the left side of the green, and almost had to putt a little flop shot; and almost holed it out and went by about seven feet and I made that. Bogeyed No. 8. Hit 6-iron and pulled it into the left bunker. Had a tough bunker shot and blasted probably 15 feet past and missed that. And then birdied number 9. I hit a 9-iron about three feet there and made that for birdie. Birdied 11 and 12. 11, I hit pitching wedge about three feet. And 12, I hit 6-iron about probably 18 feet there and made a nice little breaking putt. The pin was back left. It was a good, tough pin placement. And then parred all the rest way around until 17. Hit a good drive, 4-wood just on the back edge of the green and 2-putted from probably 40 feet. Made about a 2-footer for birdie. That's it. I think I missed a couple greens, two greens with the bogey on 8, and then I missed the par 3 No. 15. I had it just short of the green there, and actually putted from the fringe. And those were the only two greens I missed. It was a nice day of ball-striking.

TOM KITE: Well, you know, this is a pretty good golf course, but when you get weather conditions like what we had today, there's not much you can do. Honest to goodness, it's kind of one of those things when you get a golf course under perfect conditions, it ought to give up some good scores. I don't think you'll see -- I don't think the scores are going to be absurdly low by the time the week is over with. They will start tucking those pins and firming up the greens, and I don't think that it's going to go absolutely crazy. But really, we got it in such perfect conditions today that, you know, it has to give up some good scores. If it doesn't give up good scores on a day like today, it's probably just a little too difficult.

TOM KITE: I've had to really pace myself very well. I've had -- well, with the British Open next week, I will have four major championships in a six-week span. I skipped the two weeks that were not majors in there. I skipped last week and I skipped the week before the U.S. Senior Open. You know, I really had to pace myself in terms of my practice time and scheduling. You know, not spending a whole lot of time on the range. I spent a lot of time on the practice green. And as I talked a little bit at Saucon Valley when we were up there, the good news is that I'm playing well right now; so there's not a great need for me to spend a lot of time on the practice tee. I would hate to go into this stretch feeling like my game was struggling and feeling the need to spend a lot of time out there trying to -- trying to find the golf swing to use. So, you know, it's a couple reasons why I'm taking it easy. One, out of necessity; but two, just because I don't really need to. But yeah, I mean, you know, seven major championships in a year, and if you count The PLAYERS Championship -- I wasn't in the Masters; so that's why it's seven versus eight. And if you count The PLAYERS Championship, it's almost -- that's eight really big tournaments in addition to all the others. And that's enough. It really is. That's plenty. I don't need anymore majors.

TOM KITE: Yeah. I always try to go over on Friday. That was my usual schedule prior to the British Open, go over on Friday, get there Saturday and have plenty of time to adjust. As it is, I'm going to be getting in there Monday afternoon, or Monday mid-morning, I guess. Hopefully in time to do something Monday afternoon, other than crash, other than go to bed.

TOM KITE: I think that's certainly a testament to the SENIOR TOUR out here. There's no question that we probably had five guys in the U.S. Open. And four of the five made the cut, and to be honest with you, I'm surprised it wasn't five out of five, because I really thought Jack would make the cut at Pebble Beach out there. But you've really got some guys that can play out here that have kept themselves in good shape and are remaining competitive and shooting some very good scores. And so when they step over to the regular tour, maybe the expectations aren't exactly the same, but the expectations to play well are still there. No question about it. You know, when Hale and Tom and I, all the other guys that are playing the major championships step over there, it's not just go over there play your two rounds and get the heck out of dodge. We're trying to go over there and be competitive.

TOM KITE: Well, I struggled with the putter the first part of the year. I was lucky to get the win at the Tradition, as everybody knows. That's probably as well as I've hit the ball from tee-to-green the entire year, but I was struggling with it. Now, I'm putting very well. And to be honest with you, there's not, you know, there's not really any excuses for not playing well right now, because I am swinging well, I'm hitting the ball well and my chipping and putting, bunker play is all very good right now. So if I can just stay patient and stay out of my own way, well, then I should be able to play reasonably well. How well? You know, it's golf. I mean, sometimes you're going to get the putts to go over the edge, and sometimes they are going to drop. But I should be able to remain competitive for a while.

TOM KITE: I'm not sure it's any easier. The greens may be a little bit slower out here -- well, they are a little slower than they are on the regular tour, and probably a little bit softer day-in and day-out than they are out there. But I'm not sure that the reason that my putting has improved is because I'm playing the SENIOR TOUR. I changed putters, changed everything, my putting stroke, and so I'm really -- my stroke is a heck of a lot better. I'm aligning the blade toward the target now, as opposed to -- I was having trouble aligning it to the left, and then pushing out on the putts. So I feel much more confident, especially over the shorter putts, because now on a 4-foot straight putt, I've got the blade lined up somewhere inside the hole where before I was, you know, really fighting with it and not trusting the stroke. So I think that when I go -- well. I putted reasonably well at Pebble Beach. I had just changed putting techniques with this putter the week before at Chicago at SBD, and I won there and then went to Pebble and then Saucon Valley. So it's only had three tournaments under its belt, and technique and the putter, they are holding their own right now. So I'm really kind of anxious to see what it does on some, you know, British Open course, and then later at the PGA.

TOM KITE: Well, 20-footer, yeah, at least I feel like I've got a chance on a 20-footer, there's no question about it. But 3- and 4-footers, there is a huge difference in the attitude. I'm not stepping up to that putt scared to death of them anymore. I feel like I've got a really good opportunity to make all of the putts that you're supposed to make. You know, you start eliminating a bunch of those 3-putts, and all of the sudden, your score goes down. I mean, Nashville was a perfect example. I ended up -- that was the last tournament before I changed putters, and I ended up losing that tournament by five shots to Hale, and I missed six putts inside four feet, for the week. I mean, when you're missing putts like this, you miss six putts like that for the week, you can't really one win the golf tournament. You may miss one, or even two and still have a chance to win, but you're not going to -- you're not going to compete missing many of them. So having those putts go in, those 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-footers, makes a world of difference.

TOM KITE: The wind is really not kicking up that much, or at least when I walked in, there wasn't much there. But again, the golf course is going to dry out. I would anticipate lower scores would be this morning than this afternoon. But, you know, there may be a few more par 5s that you can hit shorter shots into the greens on. You'll be able to reach those a little bit easier. So it may average out.