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SENIOR BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 24, 2004

Pete Oakley

PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND

PETE OAKLEY: Could have been raining all day, too, but we only had a little bit of spitting rain, so it wasn't that bad. The wind was horrendous as the carnage on the scoreboard indicates.

Q. Can you explain

PETE OAKLEY: Well, since I'm from Delaware (Laughter.). My brother, David, occasionally is from Florida. I'm from Delaware, which is on the mid Atlantic of the East Coast

Q. We know where Delaware is.

PETE OAKLEY: You do? All right. A lot of people don't. We have all four seasons there in a year, like you have all four seasons here on any given day.

I was being facetious when I say you have four seasons in one day here. Yesterday it blew, and then it rained, and then it got nice and warm for half an hour, and then it started blowing and got cold again, and stayed like that the rest of the day. Today was strictly cold and blowing all day long. It made the golf conditions very difficult.

Q. You have won a PGA Seniors event a few years ago?

PETE OAKLEY: Yes, I won the in 1999 I won the American PGA Seniors Club Pro Championship and I finished second the next year. Those are basically my credentials, I guess, as far as playing is concerned.

I've been a club professional for well, I will be reclassified by the PGA of America after I play 11 events here, and I'm not sure which this event is, is might be 11.

In America, the PGA of America has a classification system where if you're a club pro and you play in 11 events that are on a tour, then you have to get reclassified. So I'm going to be reclassified into what's called an A 3, so that will make me a touring pro. But I still will maintain my credentials with the PGA of America.

I'm a director of golf at my golf course in Delaware. It's called the Rookery. Got the name from an English word for a rookery is where birds raise their young, particularly rooks from England. We have an issue of herrings on the golf course, went through, I can't believe the hoops and ladders we went through to finish our golf course. But in order to assuage the Fish and Wildlife Federation, we said we're even going to change the name of the golf course to the Rookery because of the endangered species that are on it.

We were able to get it done and built the golf course and now it's already won two awards for the best golf course in the area. So I'm very proud of that.

Q. What's the name again?

PETE OAKLEY: It's called the Rookery. It's an 18 hole all bentgrass greens golf course, and getting a lot of good press.

Q. Where in Delaware?

PETE OAKLEY: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in a resort area, vacation town, similar to Portrush, actually. Very quaint like Portrush.

Q. How will you feel tomorrow?

PETE OAKLEY: I'll probably feel just like I did today. I was a little bit antsy getting ready to tee it up with Tom Kite and Mark James, who are names I've heard of and watched on television and have admired for so long. And they are both great gentlemen out there to me today and very nice. I felt comfortable and fairly relaxed and I played fairly well. So it was a pleasure to play and keep up with those two, which I did.

Q. Did you think coming in you would be leading going into the final group?

PETE OAKLEY: Not in my wildest dreams. I was more nervous trying to qualify for the event, which I did this past Monday or Tuesday, 132 players trying to qualify for 20 spots over at Port Stewart. I know all you I have to do is shoot par or a little bit better, but we had weather over there like this, and the front nine in Port Stewart is equally a test to either nine here, and so I shot even par there and made it handily.

Q. What's your experience in the majors?

PETE OAKLEY: I played in 16 major championships. But I've done my most notable work as a senior. I played in some U.S. Opens and PGA Championships but I never really did well.

Q. And as a senior?

PETE OAKLEY: As a senior I've done fairly well. I finished 29th in the U.S. Senior Open last year, tied for 29th, and that's about the best I've done. You know, so I'm unusual. But glad to be here.

End of FastScripts.

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