U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 24, 1998

Raymond Floyd

RAYMOND FLOYD: That would be nice. Those holes aren't that easy either. It is fun to make some birdies. I haven't made many birdies out there, but fortunately I haven't made a lot of bogeys.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I may have played better today than I played yesterday. I didn't really make anything until the putt at 15. I made about a probably 20, 22 feet. And then at 16, I made a very difficult putt from about eight feet. It must have broke -- it had to break 6 or 7 inches. And then at 17 I had, oh, I had it six feet there and I played it to break about the width of the cup and it broke twice that. But I hit the ball solidly. I had it -- I think the key was putting the ball in the fairway. I drove the ball very well. That allowed me to put the ball on the greens or when I did miss a green, it was very close.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I thought it was easier. I played yesterday afternoon in very dry, windy conditions. The greens were burned a bit and a bit crusty and they were much more difficult. We haven't had any sunshine as of yet, so, the conditions are much easier for that reason, with the overcast and the dampness. The moisture has stayed in the grass instead of drying out and getting brittle.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I think that historically has been to get the lead, you usually have to be playing fairly well. And when you are playing well, you should be able to continue unless someone else is on fire. But, I think throughout my career, my success from the front was always that I was playing well and I was comfortable playing well and I would continue that.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I am healthy. I am healthy. I played for a while with some problems and because of that you start swing-flaws. You start playing around hurt and injury and it is probably the worst thing that all of us do but you can't stop it. We won't sit home when we were hurting and you think you can do it and before you know it, your swing has changed drastically because you are playing -- you are making -- well, you are making terrible golf swings trying to get around a hurt. So I am healthy now. I feel good. I still have some terrible habits that every now and then I will throw in, right in my swing from playing with a bad hip and I will run up on it and bail out because when I had a bad hip, I couldn't hit to a stiff left side. I couldn't stay on the ball and turn because of the pain in my lower right side, and, still, on occasion, I fight that. It is tough a habit that was ingrained for a couple of years.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I don't, I am sorry.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I would say so, definitely. When I finished -- when I came to the golf course yesterday, I arrived about 12:15 and I walked around here to this putting green and looked at the scoreboard and I couldn't believe there was no red on the board. Traditionally, the morning round the first day you have got a lot of red up there. I don't care how hard the golf course is. So I was quite surprised not to see red on the board, and then to finish and have one player under par is pretty incredible to me.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I kind of knew why, Jim, during the practice. But you would think the fairways -- the fairways are not tremendously tight. They are giving you a lot of room out of the fairway. However, if you miss one, unless you are extremely lucky, you are not going to put it on the green. Then if you miss a green, again with the deep kikuyu, we are all getting, there is none of us that know a shot to play out of kikuyu grass. You are kind of hacking at it. Certainly, some lies that are sitting up around the green, you can make the ball do about what you think it might. But when it is down and all, you are just whacking and hoping.

RAYMOND FLOYD: No, I missed the first fairway and I missed the 9th fairway.

RAYMOND FLOYD: No, I didn't birdie the first. I missed a short putt there.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I would hope that I can -- that I would continue doing the same thing that I have done each and every hole these two rounds because I haven't looked at the scoreboard. I haven't been upset when I have made a bogey and I haven't been overly excited -- well, that might not be so. I mean, I haven't made many birdies, so I have been pretty excited when I do make one. But you try to keep an even keel and, you know, you are going to hit bad shots or I know I am going to hit some bad shots. I just hope that I can make a bogey with my bad shots and I hope that I can make a lot of pars and when I hit enough good shots that I can be rewarded. So I hope I can continue along that pace. Right now, mentally I am very sound. I feel good about it. I am having good patience. I would hope that I can continue to do that.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I would say after Sunday's round here, they will have a much better feel because if you had a US Open Championship here, the scores are going to be lower. You got better players there. You have got a greater depth of field. They are longer. They are better players, period. But I think if you don't have anybody under par here, they'd probably tighten the fairways up just a tad more. And if conditions are like this, I think she can stand on her own.

RAYMOND FLOYD: 15, I hit a 6-iron about just over 20 feet. 6-iron -- at 16 I hit a 7-iron, probably about eight feet. At 18 I hit -- I mean, 17 I hit driver, 3-iron and then I hit a pitching wedge about six feet.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Oh, I'd like to put that behind me. All it is, is age. There are so many of us out here on the SENIOR TOUR with aches and pains, and you don't have to be a golfer - after you get over 50, everybody knows where we are coming from. It is just things that happen. And, of course, golf is not the best thing in the world for your spine and your lower back anyway. So, a lot of us have those problems.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I do because -- I think if you put it in perspective, more golf tournaments should have a little more of that philosophy involved. There is more to the game of golf than standing there and drilling a driver and hitting a next shot and making a putt and going to the next hole. There is a whole lot more to this game than that. I think that has been lost through the years. The USGA has steadfastly held and adhered to that because there is so much more than the physical side of this game. The USGA makes you use all of those faculties or all of those facets. If you -- it is like here, it is such a discipline, you want to shoot at a flag but you know it is downhill, over a trap. Sure, go ahead, try it. You might make double-bogey from there, so that is a discipline that, is part of the mind and how you play. And, if the fairway gets tight down in the corner with a driver, but you think a 3-wood is a better club because -- sure, I am going to be a couple irons longer, but I feel it is imperative to get in the fairway. There is such a different aspect of the game from there and I think there are lots of players and the field gets terribly leveled - parity, if you would, on your every week event. I think every top player that you ask the question, why is it that you get up for a major championship, because parity is no longer there in a major championship. So your better players tends to get keyed up. He knows he has got a little bit of an edge. So I would like to see the average golf tournaments take back and get a little more of "It is a tournament. It is a Championship. We are trying to test these players, let's see if we can."