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MONTREAL CHAMPIONSHIPJune 23, 2012Hale IrwinSAINTE-JULIE, QUEBEC DAVE SENKO: Thanks for joining us. HALE IRWIN: I had no choice. Security brought me up here. I was screaming and kicking and hollering the whole way. DAVE SENKO: 7‑under right now and two back going into tomorrow. Maybe just talk about your day, and then we'll get some questions. HALE IRWIN: Well, I had actually played yesterday, and what I had hoped today was I could play equally well and maybe eliminate just a couple of mistakes and I played very similarly today. To score one shot better, I hit a lot of very, very good shots today. I did eliminate a couple of mistakes I made yesterday. Yeah, I don't want to say that that was as good as I could have been. I hit a lot of good shots that both days, I continue to not judge the greens, the firmness of the greens. I'm continuing to play a little bit more aggressively and landing close and bounding past the holes. But some of the greens are just so difficult to get close to the holes. But I hit a lot of shots‑‑ if I can play like I did today, or yesterday, tomorrow, I'll be very happy. I just played very, very solidly today. DAVE SENKO: Your birdies? HALE IRWIN: I cannot remember this course, so pardon me. Who has a scorecard in anybody got a scorecard? Well, anyway, I made four birdies today, how's that? (Laughter) That's good. And the first one was somewhere around the fourth hole and it was about that long (indicating). I made the little short putt at whatever hole that was. DAVE SENKO: Par 3? HALE IRWIN: No. I think it was the fourth hole, just before the par 5. No. 4, I hit a very close wedge within a foot of the hole. Then I made all pars until we got to, was it 13? I don't know, four birdies. Four birdies. I birdied the 16th hole to go 4‑under par, and I figured if I can birdie one of the last two and shoot my age, I'll be really happy with that. I hit two really good irons to both greens and they landed, hit very, very hard, and bounded well past the hole, and fortunately I 2‑putted both of those from 35 there or thereabouts. Came close on both putts but disappointing in that I had opportunities. I put the ball in the fairway and I had a chance to have a better chance at shooting my age again than not. Q. (What keeps you so competitive at 67)? HALE IRWIN: I don't know. I have no idea. I think it's‑‑ my desire to still compete. My desire, my competitive desire, is still relatively strong. Maybe not as strong as it once was, but then again maybe nothing is quite like it once was. Q. You were way ahead of everybody else on the Champions Tour, do you think you would still be competing with these guys now? HALE IRWIN: At 67 years old when you're playing against guys that are still relatively young golf‑wise, and have this great experience, and they still have a lot of their skill sets, yes, it's difficult. You can just see by the scores they are shooting, the Bob Tways of the world and the Dan Forsmans and on and on. They are really good players. Q. Will you play all the majors this year? HALE IRWIN: I've missed one thus far. I will not play in the Senior British. I'm taking my family to Hawai'i for a holiday. But I'll probably play most of the others, if not all of them. So I still keep a full schedule. This particular stretch we have right now is difficult. Going from here to Pittsburgh is not bad. But Pittsburgh to Pebble Beach to Detroit and eventually we get back to upstate to New York and Seattle; those are hard trips. The schedule‑makers didn't do us any favors this year. I think that's Mr.Senko's. Q. (Why do you always play well in Canada)? HALE IRWIN: I don't know. I think part of it here is that my eye likes to see corridors. I'm not nearly as effective when it's wide open. I don't know why; it makes you focus on your target and I think that's what I'm better at. If I get an open environment, an open golf course, where the targets are not nearly as well defined, I don't hit the ball quite as well. So that could be much of it, I'm sure. Q. How long do you think you'll still be playing? HALE IRWIN: I don't know. How long should I? Let me ask you? You answer that question. I don't know. You know, as long as the body holds up and I suppose maybe more importantly the desire, and ultimately that means the mind; as long as all of those things still burn, still have a desire, I will continue playing. Perhaps it won't be 22 events or 23 events a year; it maybe is back to 15 or 18 or something like that. But we'll just see. At the end of the year, we'll see how it goes. I'm working very hard to try to get that number 46 win, and then after that, then it's number 47. Somewhere, there's an end. We all know there's an end somewhere. I know there's an end somewhere, but I don't feel it's right now. But when you get that answer, you let me know, will you, so I can tell my wife. Did she call you up and have you ask that question? (Laughing). Q. Your impressions of this course and also just contrasting it from the Fountainbleau course that the event was played on previously? HALE IRWIN: This course, while it's not particularly long, it's quirky, if that's the proper word. Just because the greens are very firm, and there's a lot of the greens, many of the greens have that little back tier. So to get back there, you have to land somewhere down here, and then you have to judge that correctly. Now, when it's down here, it's almost more difficult, because you have to land it on the green somewhere; otherwise, it may not get on the green. So you land it on the front and it rolls down the back and then you have the putts down the hill. So it's difficult to judge, but it is narrow off the tee. You have to position your ball off the tee to have any chance on these greens. And I've done that very well for the most part this week. I've hit a lot of fairways and put it in good positions. I've had a lot of really good irons. I'm not getting the results from those iron shots, simply because‑‑ I'm hitting the ball very solidly and I think I'm getting a little bit more out of it and landing it a little farther than what I intended to. So therefore, it takes that extra bounce or that extra roll, and I've been over the back of quite a few greens. The greens that I have missed have not been side to side as much, because it's been long. Very much like 17 and 18, exactly. I can't complain about it, because they are all good shots. I played well in the Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbor, Michigan. I didn't putt very well but I played well. I've gone to a slightly different putter this week. Just trying to get a little bit of a different look, a little different feel. While I haven't putted great, I haven't putted badly at all. These greens are not the easiest to putt, either. I can't complain about anything. I'm going to call it a day as soon as we walk away from here. I'm going to take off my shoes, get in the car and drive back to the hotel and look forward to tomorrow. DAVE SENKO: No. 11, do you remember how far your putt was, the par5? HALE IRWIN: No. 11, I had probably a 6‑foot putt. 13, the par3, that was a nice putt, I made about a 25‑foot putt there. 16, that was about ten feet. I don't know how far I was in meters, maybe three meters, 2 1/2. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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