ENERGIZER SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 6, 1998

Raymond Floyd

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I 3-putted the first. I had probably without question the best drive of the day. I really hit a long drive down the first hole and hit a 5-iron about maybe 22 feet, and just hit it about probably six feet through the hole and missed it. And then I hit the ball solid again. I didn't play great, but I kept it basically out of trouble. I hit a couple bad drives, both of them on par 5s where I couldn't get out. It didn't matter. I couldn't reach either hole anyway. So I didn't birdie them. But the bad shots were in a place that didn't hurt me. And if I didn't hit the green, I seemed to be very close. I missed a lot of greens in the fringe long -- well, in the fringe long, it seemed. But, again, I feel that it's by no means was the kind of round that you would expect to get 4-under out of. But I did the right things. I didn't miss any little putts. I chipped the ball fairly close. The only mistake I made was 3-putting the 1st hole. And I'm looking the drive, I'm thinking: Boy, this will be nice to start with 1, and I get a little anxious and I run it through the hole.

RAYMOND FLOYD: 7, I hit a driver there into the short, right rough. And I hit a wedge about four feet, made it. And then 12, I hit 4-iron probably 40 feet and made that. And then 16, I hit a 5-wood off the tee, and then I hit a wedge that I thought was a very good shot -- well, it was a good shot even though it wasn't on the green. The ball hit and released and went through the green to the medium fringe coming down the hill, and I took a 5-wood and putted it from there. And I putted it right down in the hole. I don't think I was anymore than 15 feet. But I was -- I think the pin was on -- I don't think it was on the green, but six or seven, maybe eight feet from there, and I was probably -- maybe it was only 10 feet. And I might have been five or six feet off the green. So I made that. And then at 17, I hit a 7-iron about, probably, eight or ten feet and made that. And then at 18, I hit a driver and a 9-iron about 10 to 12 feet, and made that.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I'm one layer less. I took a cashmere sweater off. But I think the temperature was probably the same. It felt like it. But the sun -- the sun. And when you got back in the trees where you were buffered from the wind -- actually, I started with three layers, but I took it off at the 3rd hole when I got up in the trees. But the wind I think was about the same. It might have blown a little bit harder, but it seemed cooler yesterday.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Certainly the best I've scored, Jerry, without question. I haven't put two rounds in the 60s back-to-back in a long while that I can recall. Of course, in defense of that, I don't recall anymore, anyway.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Yes, it is. This is a great game if you remember the right things. (Laughter.)

RAYMOND FLOYD: I think my attitude coming in here is really good, and I was asked on television when I finished. I've never really thought about it. But I think coming in here, you know, it's such a good golf course, and, you know, you don't have to go out there and shoot 15- or 18-under par to do any good. I've always felt that par is a good score on any hole. If you make a par, sure, you might miss a putt like at 16 yesterday. But I made 4 or birdie and I made par. And my attitude is if I can make par, it's a good score. And to hit the ball solid and keep it in play because it will bite you if you don't play well. And the greens are very difficult to putt. There's so many of the huge oaks around the greens, they don't get quite enough sunlight to get growth there and they are always sparse. And we have them twice -- double cut and on the greens you have to be very careful. There are so many balls that are long in the back fringe. I bet I had a half a dozen balls in the back fringe. Between our threesome, I bet there were 15 balls in the back fringe today. And it's going to happen to a lot of players. So I think that thought makes me comfortable here. It's a golf course that I enjoy. I'm comfortable playing it.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I didn't perform that well after the time off. But certainly staying away from golf for two months is fabulous. I've never been able to do that, and it was great. But to get back away from it and realize you love what you're doing. But I loved what I was doing before, but I just had been running at it for so long. When you take it -- people think when you have two weeks, after that, it's a vacation. Well, if you have a tournament in the third week, you can't take a vacation; not if you're trying to perform. Because you have to stay competitive. You're going to have to work and practice and it looms there.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I think as I've gotten older, my attitude is fairly laid back anyway. I don't know about my attitude. But I think it rekindles -- your desire is there a little bit more. I was going through the motions for so long, just go to a golf tournament, arrive, play a Pro-Am, go to the practice tee. I don't remember practice sessions. I think the routine got such a monotony or monotonous that you forget how to prepare yourself or how you need to be to be a good player. I think those are the things that I forgot how to do. I know I've practiced more. And I feel like I've had more quality practice sessions since. I don't know that I've hit more balls. I can't say that or not. But I know there's a quality involved, and I think that will end up reflecting on my play. It might not today, tomorrow or the next day, but it will eventually, if I keep going that way.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Yes.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I don't know. It's hard to say. But I think the U.S. Senior Open was before I took off. That was the last event I played, and then I took two months off.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I think there, because it's a Major, I worked pretty hard there and had some pretty good thoughts about my swing. They didn't hold up really well the last couple rounds because I couldn't get the ball close. But I feel -- I'm getting more comfortable with my play. I'm just getting where I hit -- my bad shots, when I was in my prime and at the top of my game, my bad shots were on the green or in the fairway or just missed. The last couple years, my bad shots were search-party bad. And that's the difference between a good and a bad player, believe me. Golf is not a game of perfect shots. Golf is a game of misses that aren't really bad misses. You have players where your bad round is par or 1-under instead of 6- or 7-under. And that's what I see coming back. And I think that tendency, when your misses aren't as bad, then your really good ones are really good.

RAYMOND FLOYD: No. I'm wide open every -- basically -- almost every day between my design business and my other businesses in the Raymond Floyd Group. That's why I took these two months off. It just seems like you -- we all work, I think to achieve a certain level or point of security, if you would. And success allows you to get there. And you think, okay, let's pull back. But it just doesn't happen. You just take on more and more and there's more to do. That's what's happened to me. And that's why I took those two months off. And I plan to do that again next year. I don't mind working those 10 months now, because I can look forward to two months that I can take off. And I'm going to love every minute. And you can call me and offer me a million dollars to come to a corporate outing, and I'm not going, because I tell you, buddy, I'm off. (Laughter.)

RAYMOND FLOYD: And you can offer me a golf course design job next door, but I'm off. But I feel better about it. So I don't mind working 10 months. But I was going through that process every day for 10 months, and then the season starts again. And I think that's -- you have to balance that.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I wasn't smart enough to even think about it. My wife, Maria, figured this thing out. And we put it in my schedule last November, when my schedule is done. And we scheduled it in '97 for '98, and it was scheduled then. And it's scheduled for next year.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Are you kidding me? I couldn't wait.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I took it all. I have enough people that work in my company that they knew that they had to handle it and we -- we geared before and we geared after for all my appearances and companies that I own and golf course design and things of that nature. It had to get done before or after and it ran very smoothly would you tell me.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I don't think it matters what month. We've got a lovely home in South Hampton that we really enjoy and that's kind of the season up there and that played a major role in that for those two months. And there are no major championships in those two months.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Nothing. And I can spell that, believe it or not. (Laughter.)

RAYMOND FLOYD: Oh, I played almost every day. But I played golf the way you guys play golf. (Laughter.) Not the scores, but socially where you go out and you rip your buddy and you play five dollars a hole. I didn't go to the practice tee. Some days I might hit five or six balls; some days I just went to the tee. Wow, I love it. I love golf. But when I'm out here, it's a business.

RAYMOND FLOYD: That was my activity. That was it.

RAYMOND FLOYD: There's not many score boards that I can recall on a golf course that we can see. I can't remember the first score board I saw, it might have been on 17. And then I walked up and saw the one at 18th. Those are the only score boards I saw all day. You know how players say, "I don't look at score boards"? Well, I look at them. If there's one there, I look at it. But I don't remember seeing it until I got to 17 or 18.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I remember we had a pretty good match here a few years back where we played until dark. But I think he would probably say that he likes the golf course as well. But nothing more than that.