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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 14, 2013Steve ElkingtonOMAHA, NEBRASKA MODERATOR: Steve Elkington shot a 5 under par, 65 today and is 4 under for the Championship. STEVE ELKINGTON: Obviously, today was a terrific round. I was hoping to get this kind of round maybe a day or two earlier. I had my chances. I was 3 under the first day and had a poor finish. Had a double bogey on my last hole yesterday, was a poor finish. So I wasn't up around the lead all week, but I felt like my game was good, and I certainly enjoyed this golf course. It was a different kind of test this week with a lot of hills. I mean, from an endurance point of view, it wasn't a big deal for me, but just playing off the uphills and the downhill was a different feel, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Omaha people, you know, I can't believe they don't get to see much golf up here. They're very‑‑ massive crowds, and they seem to know a ton about golf. It was a fantastic week. Q. Pleased with the setup of the golf course through the course of the week, Steve? STEVE ELKINGTON: I did. I thought the golf course was great. It gave us some difficult par 4s, gave us some chances to score on the front nine, on No. 2 and 6. We saw some good rounds by Michael Allen. 63 was probably the‑‑ by far the best round of the week. Obviously, when you play well, like I did today, I was 6 under, shot a 65, I felt like the scoring was there today. The scores aren't quite showing that yet, but I think the guys will pick up the pace here as they go along. Yes, there's plenty of scoring opportunities on the back nine. I like the way they set it up. Q. A little more comfortable playing with a fellow Aussie today too? STEVE ELKINGTON: I haven't played with Pete for 20 years. We've been great friends. I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday. I always remember when I play with the greats like Tom Watson. But, you know, Pete Senior, he's had a wonderful year. He was an Order of Merit winner and won the Australian Open at age 50, beat Adam Scott and Justin Rose down the stretch last year. He's a great player, and I've always enjoyed his company, of course. Tom Watson, playing with him was the highlight for me this week. Q. Are you still a legend on the Jim Rome show and get on there? Because I know you and Jim have quite a great relationship. You were one of the best guests he's ever had, and he always talks about it. STEVE ELKINGTON: Is that a question? Q. Yes, it is. STEVE ELKINGTON: I did the show this week. So I think the show speaks for itself. I talked about Omaha and all the things about Omaha. It was great. Q. Steve, you said you're surprised there isn't more golf here, big tournaments here. Can you elaborate more on that? What made this week so special? STEVE ELKINGTON: I don't know much of the history of Nebraska golf, but it just seems like that people love it, and they've certainly got a good golf course here, and there's plenty of room to build more if you need to, looks like. But I'm glad the USGA changes their venues. One of the nice things about the Champions Tour is you get to see a few new venues. I've played in all these different places like Iowa and Boca Raton and Newport Beach, and, of course, this week here has been kind of new for me, which after 30 years on Tour, it's really nice to come and see that the people actually know who we are and they love the golf. Q. [ No microphone ]. STEVE ELKINGTON: 18 yesterday, I got a bad break off the tee. I hit a great drive off the right, and the ball stopped there and then rolled 60 yards back down the fairway. So I had a really long shot in, and I pulled it. The ball was up high on the bunker. It was a simple shot, but I basically fluffed it, and it came back. Then it went into the skip mark of my 4 iron. So it buried itself. I made double there. Today, I hit a great drive. I only had 140 yards, and there was no way I was going to go over. So I was trying to drive a 9 iron low, and I kind of‑‑ at the last second, I didn't want to pull it, so I pushed it out a little bit and came up short. And then, of course, I wanted to see if I could make a long putt and left it too far by and finished up making a bogey. Competition golf, you never know what's going to happen. Sometimes, I've done it before where you come in and shoot a real low round, and then it's posted, and it's just enough for them to look at it, and sometimes it works to your favor. Unfortunately, I wasn't good enough early in the week this week. Q. Was there a particular number, as you saw your name start to climb up the leaderboard, that you thought you could possibly get to, put some pressure on the leaders? STEVE ELKINGTON: I was just trying to‑‑ you know, 17 was kind of a key hole. I drove it in the rough there. I was 6 under. If I could get a wedge there, that's a possible 7, and then, you know, I'm a long driver, so I had basically a good iron shot at 18. So there was two left, but I didn't get either one of them. But as I said, it's more the pressure as opposed to the number, I think. Pressure of a posted number. Q. Thank you. STEVE ELKINGTON: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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