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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 28, 2004

Pete Oakley

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

RAND JERRIS: It's our pleasure to welcome to the interview area Pete Oakley, the 2004 British Senior Open champion. Pete will be playing in his fourth U.S. Senior Open this week at Bellerive. Obviously, you had a chance to look at the golf course, quite a bit of difference from the golf course where you had such success last week. Start us off with some general comments about the golf course as you've seen it.

PETE OAKLEY: Well, Bellerive is a ball strikers' golf course, which means if you hit it long and you can control your irons, you should do very well here because the greens are very receptive even though they're big. I know they've got to be over 6,000 square feet per green easily, and there's so many great pin placements that can be had out there that it's going to take a very precise ball striker to do well here.

Of course, the party starts also on the greens because the greens, not only are they huge, they're undulating and very fast, and I got some tips from the one-time head professional, Jerry Tucker, who I know very well, and his brother Mike is now the head professional, and he was basically saying, play twice as much break as you think you need on each putt, and that's been proven to be true just in my one round on the front nine today, where I was actually able to play the golf course. There was a problem with not having my own set of clubs here thanks to a particular airline that hasn't quite delivered them to me yet.

It's a great venue, totally different from Portrush where the British Senior Open was. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to hit a nice little low run one that runs up and catches Tom Kite and all the other fellows hit it low and high.

Q. You earned an automatic exemption into the field this week. Was it a difficult decision to make to try to come back across the Atlantic and play this week or an easy one?

PETE OAKLEY: You would think it would be a very easy one because in years gone by, I've just been so desirous to play in the USGA Senior Open or any USGA event, and I didn't even enter this year because I was on the European Senior Tour, so as a result of that victory and finding out that I was offered an invitation to play here, I actually had for the first time second thoughts because I was on my way to Switzerland to play in this tournament near Zurich that was an event on the European Senior Tour.

When I got to thinking about it and putting common sense together, I would be very idiotic to not come and play in the USGA Senior Open as it is a treasured event for all who play. That's why I'm here right now. I made emergency plans, and that's also why my clubs aren't here.

Q. First off, most of us are interested in what happened about your clubs, and are they going to be able to deliver your clubs here? If not, what will the effect be?

PETE OAKLEY: It's going to affect me greatly, affect my golf game greatly. It's not going to affect me greatly because I'm in such a state of mind right now that you could come up and punch me in the jaw, and I'd probably smile at you afterwards.

But as far as my game is concerned, I'm liable not to play too well or score too well not knowing how far I'm going to hit every club like I do my own clubs, not having my putter, which I feel is my magic wand. All the manufacturers are kind enough to put something together that resembled my set of clubs. I just played nine holes and played pretty well obviously.

You know, if all things go very well for me, I might score okay, but I'm still hopeful of my clubs coming, you know. They just might. I'm hoping that British Air and US Air can help me out and obligate themselves to my transmission from their country to this one and getting my clubs to me.

Q. Have you had any explanation as to where your clubs got waylaid?

PETE OAKLEY: If you've ever been to Heathrow Airport in London, it is like a disaster area. It took me 25 minutes from the time I got off my flight from Ireland to get to the gate for my next flight. That was being driven. I didn't have to walk that far. It's under construction, and their terminals -- there's four terminals there at Heathrow, and I know that's where the problem existed because I also changed airlines at Heathrow and flew US Air to -- actually I flew -- yeah, British Air from Heathrow to Philadelphia. Supposedly my clubs are in Philadelphia. Philadelphia has a terrible weather situation right now. They were supposed to come last night, but didn't. Because they've packed all this flight of people into one plane, and because of some weight restriction, not everybody's luggage was on. So there's other people who are annoyed with US Air right now. In St. Louis they don't have their luggage, also, so I'm not the only one.

Q. When did you depart Heathrow, what night, Sunday, Monday?

PETE OAKLEY: I was at Heathrow International Airport on Monday night. I flew all day Monday, and I got here Tuesday morning at 8:00 a.m. I've not had a whole lot of time to play, but I'm in such a great state of mind right now that -- if they lose my clubs, I'm not going to get all that mad. They probably will, let's put it that way.

Q. I noticed you were out at the driving range trying to duck under the ropes, and you got mobbed by some autograph seekers. Talk about how many you've signed this week and what that's like for you being so recognized like that.

PETE OAKLEY: That was really one of the things that is extremely hard for me to get used to, although I'm enjoying it. The attention is always desirous if you've never had it before. After a couple days of it, you start to look for some entrances where there's nobody around when you're coming off of a green. I enjoy the recognition, and I enjoy the congratulatory encouragement from all the fans. It's rewarding. I'm loving it, even though my laziness sometimes takes over, and I try and hide myself a little bit. I'll sign autographs until the cows come in.

Q. Or your golf clubs arrive, which comes first, the cows come in or your golf clubs do. You said you'd sign autographs until the cows come in, or I said until your golf clubs come in.

PETE OAKLEY: That's right.

Q. When you came here, did you have the Senior British trophy with you? Did you bring it with you on the flight or is it lost, too?

PETE OAKLEY: No. It is a permanent fixture at the R&A, I think. I don't know where that trophy is. I know I had to make sure I held the base of it and the top of it together so it looked like they were one unit because if I didn't, they would have fallen apart. That notwithstanding, I was gratified to see my name was going to be put on there with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player and Tom Wargo. I don't have one. Maybe they're going to send me a replica, but the permanent trophy is a permanent trophy, and the player doesn't get it.

Q. Do you have any idea what it'll be like when they announce you at the first tee or whatever tee they start at tomorrow as the Senior British Open champion?

PETE OAKLEY: I already have a couple of hairs on the back of my neck starting to gear up. It's an emotional thing to have experienced, winning a tournament like that and having so much encouragement from everybody and a lot of my friends calling me and crying over the phone to me and my brother and I sharing a very emotional moment after I made that putt on the last hole, and my family, my two sons just going, "God, I can't believe it, Dad," so it's a very emotional moment, and I'm sure it will be again when they make that announcement. Thanks for asking.

Q. You seem like in a daze reading your quotes after that. Is it still kind of foggy in your mind, this whirlwind?

PETE OAKLEY: Reading my what?

Q. The quotes in the article afterwards. You were just flabbergasted that you had pulled it off it sounded like.

PETE OAKLEY: Well, I'm a golf fan, also, and I watched Todd Hamilton go down the stretch with Ernie Els a week before, and what are the odds of Todd Hamilton whipping Ernie Els? I realized that myself on the last hole. I had a 12-foot putt and Tom Kite was waiting outside the ring there, and Eduardo Romero was also waiting there, and I know that my best chances of winning this tournament were right then and there because I don't really want to have to stand up to the likes of Tom Kite or Eduardo Romero being a club pro and never really having been exposed to such talent or competitive edges that I'm sure that they have.

What did you ask me (laughter)?

Q. It just seemed like you were flabbergasted that you pulled it off. You seemed kind of dazed and it seems like it hasn't really sunk in all the way, either.

PETE OAKLEY: No, it hasn't. I'm going to be on cloud nine for a year. This is an extreme moment for me, you know. Also, I'm a devout Christian man, also, I might add, where if anybody wonders if he who is in you can do more than you yourself can do, it's a guarantee, because I was talking with Christ all the way down that last round and asking for calmness and confidence. I mean, I had it. I know a lot of friends of mine who said, "Pete, I was in that position, and boy, I just couldn't pull it off." I really wanted to say, "You know, you might want to come to my next Bible study meeting; it might help you down the stretch." Anyway, I give all thanks to Christ.

Q. What about plans now after this week? Do you stay here and play, go back to Europe? Have you looked that far ahead yet?

PETE OAKLEY: Yes. I've been asked that question, and I have decided I'm going to play the Champions Tour through the rest of this year and all the way up until next year's Senior Open championship. I've been granted an exemption on the Champions Tour for a year from the beginning of this week, and I also, as a result of the British Senior Open championship made a nice donation to my bank account, so it put me about 41 on the list here in the States on the Champions Tour, so I'm at position 41 on the Money List. So if you finish in the top 30, you're exempt for the next year, so there's a goal for me there.

Also, I have been granted a five-year exemption on the European Senior Tour. So, if things don't work out here in the States and I start playing like I used to think I could play, then I can always go back to Europe and play. I understand Sam Torrence dumped the Champions Tour and is going back to Europe. That's a surprise. Any comments on that?

Q. Homesick.

PETE OAKLEY: Is that what he said? Okay.

Q. What aspect of your game enabled you to win there? You're not a high ball hitter, you've said that. Is it the fact that you can't control those runup shots and that kind of thing?

PETE OAKLEY: I think so. I played two months in Europe starting May the 1st, and, you know, it was raining. This is about the third day I've worn a short-sleeved shirt this year. It was cold, I was living in turtlenecks and rain suits and hats, and having to hit the ball into 30-miles-an-hour winds coming at you, I mean, you'd better hit it low or you're just not going to score at all. That was the case at Portrush. I played with Tom Kite, who is, in my estimation, one of the best strikers of the ball probably ever, and I was -- he would blast it up high into certain winds, and I thought, boy, that thing may never come down, and then I'd hit a nice low one and it would go by him by five yards. I'm almost embarrassed for myself (laughter).

Q. You mentioned that you had practiced nine holes today. Have you had a chance to look seriously at the rest of the course, and where is your preparation at right now for this tournament?

PETE OAKLEY: You'd better be hitting it solid and you'd better be hitting it pretty far. I pretty much did that my last nine holes. I was not overwhelmed by the length of the golf course. It was easily attainable hitting all the greens without hitting a 3-wood to every green, so my encouragement and confidence level is elevating as we speak. Compared to Portrush, you know, the right and left jumbo fescue, and you still have to hit your driver. The fairways are probably twice as wide here as they were at Portrush, so I feel like I'm hitting it out to the Mojave Desert on a lot of holes. There's lots of room out there. I should be able to hit plenty of fairways. If I can hit my irons I should be able to hit it close. I got a driver that's very similar to my driver. They've made the same driver for me, so I didn't have to make an adjustment with the driver, but I'm making a major adjustment with these irons. I've just got to hit it long and straight and putt good, just like anywhere.

Q. What propelled you to go to play the European Seniors Tour? It's not nearly as lucrative as here. You just wanted a place to play? Any particularly adventures with all the travel and stuff over there, anything that comes to mind?

PETE OAKLEY: I've had a lot of them, but my brother is the main reason I went to the European Senior Tour. He's been trying to convince me to come over there. My brother David Oakley played the Senior Tour here about ten years ago and he's been in Europe for about eight. He's done very well. In fact, this year, just within a month, he finished 2nd in Wales and won 100,000 and 2nd the next week and won another $30,000. The money is not that good over there, but it's still good. That's a lot of money to me. I have still not come to grips with the amount of money I won. I can't fathom $300,000. All I know is my kids' education has been paid for and a lot of other things. I may not have to wash and iron my clothes. It's hard to imagine really. I am so blessed and thankful, but my brother is the main reason for me going over there. I tried qualifying here three times and made the finals three times, but just wasn't my week, and now it is.

Q. What has been the reaction to some of your peers on the Tour? What did Kite say to you after the putt went in and what did the other some of the more famous players on the Tour said to you?

PETE OAKLEY: That's a good one. I have really had some just tremendous amount of encouragement and positive comments from everybody. Tom Kite, he was a gentleman. Mark James is a gentleman, Don Pooley is a super guy. I played with all those guys. Mark McNulty -- I was so nervous trying to sign that score card and making sure I put every number down properly, and so Mark grabbed my score card and said, "All right, go back from hole No. 18. What did you make on 18?" I said 4. He said, 17 -- he went all the way through the score card with me and helped me to remember things properly. He said, "All right, there, it's good, I'll turn it in for you." He was acting like he was being stern, but he was being very helpful. I've heard from some guys like Graham Marsh and Bruce Summerly both came up and told my brother, I don't want to -- my brother came up to me and said, "You know what Graham Marsh and Bruce summerly said? They said this was the best victory since Larry Mize whipped Greg Norman at The Masters Championship, same sort of deal." I was like, "Come on."

But to have those guys say that to my brother and be a great encouragement to me, and everybody saying, "Come on, relax, you're going to enjoy it."

So far it's really been the world. I'm enjoying it and hopefully I'll continue.

Q. Who's going to caddie for you this week? I'm assuming you have a different caddie this week. Have you even thought about as you played the rest of the year on the Champions Tour who's going to be on the bag for you?

PETE OAKLEY: I've had some offers, and I know some fellows, and I won't mention any names, but I have one guy in particular who I've known for a long time out of Philadelphia. He used to caddie for Seve Ballesteros and Graham Marsh and a lot of guys. This week I have a gentleman whose picture is on my shirt, his name is Cal Cass, he's a very good friend of mine. He came to Venice, Italy, and he flew over there to caddie for me there in a tournament. I called him and he met me in Philadelphia in the wee hours and we had dinner, and he's flying all the way over here to caddie for me this week. He's a very good friend. He's on the bag this week, even though he doesn't know anything. He knows to keep up, shut up and get there on time. That's the caddies' creed.

Q. No chance that the Irish caddie that you had will come over?

PETE OAKLEY: Oh, man, he was a great guy. That's a neat story I'd love to tell you. Mervyn Steed is his name from Ireland. I was trying to qualify for the British Senior Open on the Monday before the event, and I played nine holes and it was really windy and nasty, and I'm pulling my own cart and doing my own clubs because I'm still on the European Senior Tour, and I'm watching my nickels and I haven't got a whole lot. 70 pounds for a caddie to pull my cart was too much, so I'm pulling it myself.

I played nine holes, and after the 9th, this fellow came up to me and said, "Peter, I've just talked with your brother and he told me to come out and watch you, and I'm here to pull your cart for you, if you'd like me to." I had just made a birdie on the hole, so I wasn't sure I wanted to upset my rhythm. As I started walking down the first hole, I'm thinking, "Man, this is going to be a long day. Sure, come on over. If we qualify you can caddie for me over at Portrush."

Then on the first hole, I had a 50-foot putt for birdie, and I'm begging to stay even par and I roll this 50-footer in for birdie to go 2 under. I said, "Mervyn, you're my man. We're going to Portrush." He's one of these guys who everybody knows in town, in Portrush, and he was getting more oohs and ahs when we were playing the practice rounds in the first few rounds at Portrush. He's a great guy. We went out to dinner every night, him and my brother and I and the family we were staying with at the bed and breakfast. It was like I had a family over there. I'd love to bring him over there. I mentioned that to him kiddingly. He said, "You don't know how much I'd love to come over there, but my wife has something to say about it." So he's saying in Ireland. He's caddying for me next year over there, though.

Q. What model clubs are lost and are they ones you've had for many years?

PETE OAKLEY: The Acushnet Company, Titleist/FootJoy has been kind enough to supply me with equipment and balls, and I'm using their equipment. I have a set of irons, the Titleist 762s that they no longer make. If they still made them and had them in stock, they could probably get me a set over here posthaste, but I have a set from a young man here who is an assistant pro who's got a set of 762s and they're over there in the trailer being bent to my specifications and new shafts are being put into them. I'm still not sure if I'm going to use them. Hopefully I'll have something similar to what I was using that will enable me to have some more confidence making my approach shots into the green.

The clubs that are missing are my Titleist 762s.

Q. Before this year, how much experience have you had playing in Europe?

PETE OAKLEY: Before this year in Europe -- I went over there one time and played at a place called Royal County Down in Ireland, and I got into the championship proper the same sort of way that I got into Portrush where I had to play a practice round and similarly shot 72 and got into that, but I missed the cut. I had never been there before. The day before -- Royal County Down was a day like today, just beautiful, and the next day the tournament started and it was raining sideways and the temperature dropped about 30 degrees, and I just wasn't able to cope. I experienced that for two months. Actually I'm hoping it rains like a son of a gun here. Let it rain. I can play in the rain.

Q. Being a Floridian, how did you end up in Delaware?

PETE OAKLEY: I've been in the club pro ranks for 25 years. I'll be a lifetime member of the PGA of America here next year. I was born in Florida. I've been living in the middle Atlantic region for my whole life. I was at Aronimink Golf Club out of Philadelphia. We hosted the 76 amateur there, and I went down, and there was a job opening as a club pro. I married a girl there, had two boys, they're 22 and 20 now, and I'm a Delawarean now, so I live in Delaware. It's a great state, small, about 15 years behind the times, but it is great, a great place to raise a family, and that's how I got to Delaware basically, for a job opportunity.

RAND JERRIS: I know you've had some success in senior club pro events. I was wondering if you could tell us are you a streaky player? Is your hot play from last week likely to carry over to this week? What's been your record in the past in terms of good play carrying over?

PETE OAKLEY: I think that probably the strength of my game really is that I'm really not that go-low type of a player, nor am I that much of a go-high type of a player, so I'm fairly consistent. It pretty much was in evidence at Portrush, I shot 73, 68, 74, 70, and that won. I'm usually in that neighborhood. I don't usually play, like I said, make a lot of birdies, although I did make a lot of birdies there, started putting well. I'm streaky putting, put it that way.

I'm pretty consistent as far as the ball is concerned and keeping it in play, and my sand game is very good as you saw there on the 18th hole at Portrush. It all depends if I'm putting. It's like any other player, if you've only got one club in your bag that works, you want it to be your putter because you can get by with all the rest of them. However the putter goes, so goes the scores that you shoot. I've been playing very well lately, so I'm hoping that continues. These greens are just so perfect, like putting on a pool table. If I can get the hang of them, I hope to do well.

It's tough putting 60-footers when you're used to hitting about as hard as a 20-footer. They go fast and smooth. I'm fairly consistent player, I think. I think my peers would say the same.

RAND JERRIS: Pete, thanks very much for your time, and we wish you lots of luck this week.

End of FastScripts.

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