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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 13, 2012Dick MastLAKE ORION, MICHIGAN MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, Dick Mast shot a 68 today and is 4 under par for the Championship. Q. Good round. DICK MAST: Thanks. Q. You had it to 5 under with a birdie on 2, and tell us about what happened on that hole. DICK MAST: You mean my actual second hole? Q. Your actual 11th hole. DICK MAST: 11th hole. Q. Yeah. DICK MAST: From then on? Q. I just want to know what happened in the stretch where you went from 5 and then lost a shot on the par 3. DICK MAST: I hit a tee shot in the bunker on, let's see, No. 6, and I actually had a pretty decent shot. And tried to hit a hard 9 iron. I hit it with my arms instead of my body and hit it a little heavy. Then I hit a‑‑ the greens are starting to dry out so it's going to get testy this afternoon, which is normal. So I had about a 20‑foot par putt and didn't make it. And 7, I hit a pretty good tee shot just through, and you can just get really unbelievable lies. I just had 120 front and I barely could get it to the green. I was like three feet out of the fairway. I got that up and down for par. Good tee shot on 7, missed the fairway by a yard, and hit a good sand wedge. Got up, lofted it, and landed about four feet from the hole and went about 20 feet by, two‑putted. Then the 9th hole, my last hole, hit a good 5 iron off the tee. Hit a pitching wedge about 15 feet above the hole. Hit a good putt, didn't go in. Q. Two rounds under par at the Senior Open, that's good play. DICK MAST: Yeah. I hit the ball well. I‑‑ you know, you always look at‑‑ I gave back three pretty easy ones today, but I holed a 4 iron too from the fairway. So you just have to do the best you can, see what happens. Q. What hole was that? DICK MAST: Number 1, I hit in the bunker on the right, and it blasted out and then holed it from 210, 209, to be exact. Q. Are you the kind of guy that has to change his mindset once he gets near contention, or do you just get keep going your same formula? DICK MAST: I'm the kind of guy who would like to play the same way I played the first two days. No, it's challenging when you've got more things going on. The more times you're there, you're used to it, know what to expect. And so you try to stay focused, execute, stay in your rhythm. I know that I try to‑‑ no matter what anybody else is doing 'til the last three holes, it might become match play. There's a long way to go. So the guy that's going to hit fairways and makes good saves is going to be there at the end. And I hope it's me. Q. On a course like this‑‑ I'm assuming you haven't played here before; is that correct? DICK MAST: Correct. Q. On a course like this, the more you play it, does your learning curve increase and you learn more quickly, or is it just slowly you're finding little things? DICK MAST: Some things you don't want to know. Yeah, yeah. There's certain fairways that are drying out out there, like No. 11, I believe it was, was drying out. So you have to pay attention to which ones are staying soft, which are drying out. There's a couple greens, No. 16 green was a brick today. So you got to know those things, where to land it. Q. Had you been playing well coming into this tournament? DICK MAST: I've been hitting the ball well. Been a little up and down with my short game, but it's coming. Q. Short game good this week? DICK MAST: It's decent. I mean, I could have shot a funny number if my short game was really good, but it was okay. Q. Dick, about when did you notice the wind making a difference in the way the course played today? DICK MAST: Well, what was difficult the last two days, even though it wasn't very windy, is it was shifting. So a little five yards here on this golf course, and you're in jail. So sometimes, it's better to have a steady 10, 15. You know which way it's going. You can use it to stop a ball into a hard green. But when the wind's puffing the wrong ways, you hit a pretty good shot and it lets up, and it will really‑‑ now you got a 30 footer over hill and dale. Q. Do you like where you sit, where you're one stroke off the leader as it stands right now? DICK MAST: I'd like to have about an eight‑shot lead, but yeah. I told myself to be patient out there when I knew that I was getting up there close. I just said, you've got a long way to go here. A bogey's not going to bethat ‑‑ just keep playing the way you are. So a lot of it is staying focused in your game. Q. Birdied perhaps the toughest hole on the course, No.12. Can you go over that one a little bit? DICK MAST: My dad told me. He said, Dick, he said, they're all easy if you hit it good. That's my theory. If you hit it good, it's an easy hole. Q. Good position off the tee? DICK MAST: You got to have position, yeah. Those holes can make you look bad if you don't. Q. Did you have a [inaudible] on that hole? DICK MAST: No, actually, I hit a 3 iron about six feet. Q. How far, it says here Bluffton, Ohio, for your hometown. How far is that from here? DICK MAST: Three hours, I think. Q. Any family still around and visiting? DICK MAST: Yeah, I got two sisters live there, Lima. I was born in Bluffton. I've been in Florida a long time and now Virginia. But Bluffton still claims me and I claim it‑‑ and Lima. Q. Good to be back in the Great Lakes region playing golf? There's not many tournaments up this direction anymore? DICK MAST: What was that? Q. Is it good to be back in the Great Lakes region? DICK MAST: Sure, yeah. I do have family around here. Got a lot of friends who came up. That helps to have them pulling for you, get some mo going and prayers and everything else. Q. I think you already addressed it, but how dry and hard the course is playing? DICK MAST: It's actually been pretty soft, but it started to dry out now. It's‑‑ I don't know if they're going to throw any water or not, but it could get U.S. Open tough. Q. Thank you. DICK MAST: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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