DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 3, 1997

Raymond Floyd

RAYMOND FLOYD: All of the reviews that I have received have been really terrific. I've been flattered. Most every player that had played the course that I've walked by said, "hey, nice job" or, "boy, it really looks great" or "good going." And that's very rewarding. It's very rewarding to hear that. But you've still got to go back - and I want to say what the intent was here at Doral and we go back, I have to start with a story. The first time I ever played this golf course was 1963 and I played in a practice round. And I went back to my hotel room here and I called my dad and I said to my dad, "I've just played the hardest golf course in the world. I have never seen a golf course play this hard." And, he said, "what makes it so hard?" And I had to start thinking. Well -- so I had to think about the tee shots. "It's the hardest driving golf course I've ever seen," I said, "And then after you get out in the fairway the greens are really difficult to hit. They are firm. They're medium sized, but they sit on angles that makes them pretty difficult to hit and there's even some pins that you can't even shoot at." And I said: "The bunkers, they have got a steep face on them and they're fairly deep and it's really hard to get the ball close out of the bunker." And I said, "Every hole that's on the water, if you miss a green, the ball can go up on the green and it will roll down in the water." And I said, "The 18th hole, I don't know how to play it. It's the hardest hole I have ever seen." So I did that at age 20. That was an impression that was everlasting. And as all of you are aware, Doral was ranked in the top-10 in everybody's top-10 for a great number of years. And through the - what I call - the natural aging of a golf course and natural aging of a golf course you've got to look here from 1960 to 1997, so that's 37 years. Everything gross in on you, Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass is a prolific grower in sand. It loves sand. So all of your bunkers started getting smaller. Your greens through a natural process of the guy that's mowing them every day, not wanting to catch that side and burn it a little, so he keeps it always green. He misses about a 16th of an inch on each side of a green, you want to figure that out through 35 years, see how much space you lose. Top dressing, people don't think about top dressing. But 35 years of top dressing with soil probes we figured here that the average was somewhere about 3, 3 and a half feet, that these greens had been pushed up in that number of years. All of the greens that were on the water had gone up in and away from the water. And, of course, the maintenance philosophy at some point - and the best I can recall it was probably in the early to mid 70's - where all of the areas around all of the greens, not only the greens with water, instead of mowing those at fairway height, they just decided to leave rough. So that took the water out of play, unless a player carried it in there. It wouldn't roll down the bank into the water. So all of the things that I've just talked about rendered this golf course harmless to the caliber of player that we have on this TOUR today. My goal when I took the job was to come back here and every hole in my mind was to use Dick Wilson's philosophy that he did in 1960, and say, okay, it's 1996; how am I going to make this hole play the way it did in 1960? And I think I accomplished that. There's still a couple of holes that some of these players are going to drive across these bunkers. But, at some point, how far do you go? But, overall, I am thrilled with the accomplishment. I think -- I know I accomplished my goal. That's what I intended to do. And that was to put the teeth back into The Monster. However, yet, you allow your resort and your everyday player to have an enjoyable round of golf. And that will happen as soon as this tournament is over and we cut this rough down. My intention was to never let this rough get up like this. The superintendent was concerned about trying to mow rough in its early stages. He didn't want to pull any of it up. He wanted to get a good stand of grass in case we had a cold snap and so on. But, the rough will come out of hereafter this tournament and it will be a very enjoyable golf experience for your average player. That's what the ownership wants here. So I think I've accomplished both. And I'm very pleased with what happened.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I'm very -- of course, you'll never see probably any of the courses unless there's tournaments played on it. We have the Senior Tour event on the Canyons in Las Vegas this year, and that's a golf course that Bobby Weed and I did and I'm thrilled with that. That is a golf course design, start from scratch. This is not a golf course design. This was purely a renovation.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I think I worked much harder here than I did in Las Vegas, because I was trying to do something that someone else had done before me, and I tried not to make a mistake. And it's a little bit like having a fine piece of art. I don't know much about art, but I know I never saw a Rembrant painting that wasn't kind of dull and not very bright. But I don't think you'd go and put some reds and yellows in there to liven it up. And Dick Wilson was a great golf course architect, so, I wouldn't want to do that to him. And you go back to the Rosses and the Tillinghasts and the McKenzies, some of the great architects and you go around and see where they were ruined by greens chairmen that decided they didn't like a certain hole or a look. But, I think we're learning in the industry that people aren't doing that anymore.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I prefer -- while I'm still playing, I prefer to stay in the United States. But nothing says that I will not go. I've turned down some opportunities outside of the country because of travel time.

RAYMOND FLOYD: The bunkers won't be right for a year. It takes sand a year to get settled. I'm thrilled with the job in the walls of the bunkers. The crews here have been on them every day since they've been in. You've got to cramp them and try to exact the walls. We don't bury lies on the walls. They're built to for the balls to come off of there, not to plug in there. And as you trample sand and take sand off the walls, it fills up the bottom, too, so there's probably a little too much sand in the bottoms now. But through rain and natural settling, that will firm up. Sure, you're going to get an occasional buried lie, but in every golf course I've ever designed, I think a bunker is a marvelous feature, but it's not to be penal. I think if a man is out there, that is another facet of the game. If you're proficient, you worked hard and have a good bunker game, you should be able to display that. And there are bunkers that are in places, fairway bunkers in particular that you drive it in, and you turn sideways and hit it out, or even a green-side bunker. I'm not a believer of that. So any bunker I do I want a guy with skills to go ahead and play, whether it's from the fairway to the green or the green-side up to the pin.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I think a low score, there's no doubt that a low score will not happen, especially with the winds now. Why? The golf course has never been in this position. The greens are perfect, and, shoot, and the fairways are like playing off this carpet. When you give the best players in the world these conditions, it doesn't matter how hard it is, somebody will shoot a score. My goal coming in, people have asked me what was I trying to accomplish, well, I've already told you what I was trying to accomplish, and that was Dick Wilson's original philosophy and the way he intended you to play it. But I would hope that the winning score would go up maybe 5 strokes, you know, somewhere between 10 and 15, back the way it used to be. That used to be the winning score. There was no intention of making even par, you'd have to start tricking it up, and trickery is not a word that I use in my design, either.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I haven't heard about the other golf courses, but it would be fun to do it. They're very nice people to work with and they're a hundred percent supportive in anything that I felt like was necessary they said, hey, they gave me autonomy. And it's nice to do a job like that.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Most definitely, yes. Let's say that he's even like Arnold. I hope that he has as much impact on the game.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, we haven't had a talent like Tiger come into the game with such exposure, is that the right word or awareness in the game of golf, I guess since Jack came in. He's taken us to another dimension. The game needs it. The way he's doing it, he's a very nice young man. He's got incredible talent. What he's accomplished beforehand. And it's great for all of us in the game. And I'm thrilled. And I'm pulling for him. I'm his No. 1 fan, believe me, because he's just great for the game that I love.

RAYMOND FLOYD: That's something that I used to have a pretty good feeling on when I'd go into an event. I've been playing well, right along. Tee-to-green, my game has been pretty good for a number of years. But my concentration and my putting are the two things that hold me back today. I'll go sometimes streaks on a golf course where I do the right things mentally. I'll have days when I putt very well and come back behind it and putt like I didn't know what I was doing. But it's really the concentration and the putting. And, if those two things work - because I've been a good putter throughout my career and take pride in that and know that I can putt well - I think it's probably the mental side of it when I don't putt well. But, I think if I can get focused a little bit, I can still play golf.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I don't think so, because I was on site with them day in and day out working with them when they were roughed out. So, no, I know what was here for a long time.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, the 18th, again, I have to go back and recall the statement that I made that it was the hardest finishing hole in golf, period. It might have been the hardest golf hole in golf when he built this golf course. Well, every player in the field, unless there's a 40 knot wind right on their face from the left, everybody could cut that lake off. Now they're driving into a hundred yard wide area. So, from being the hardest hole that you ever played - because you've got to remember in the mid '60s or early '60s, everybody had to drive to the right of the water - nobody had the length to go across there. Sure, you had the length if you got downwind. But, the wind doesn't blow from that direction very often. I think that's kind of north, northwest. You don't get that direction around here very much.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I'm sorry, I forgot the end of your question. I've got it, I'm back on focus again. But, yes, there was some change, but the intention there was to make that hole the hardest driving hole or as hard a driving hole as it was in 1965, when none of us could go through there. Now, those bunkers down the right, sure, they're esthetic. The bunker down the left -- but they're in play. But there are two of those bunkers that frame the hole from the tee and let you know where you need to go. But all I did is make the hole hard driving. There are still players against the wind today, Freddie and Greg that I played with could have both come across the water and the sand that was added to give you, the player, a feeling that that water continued on out, that I can't cut that across. That is a false look. As soon as players play there a little bit, some of your longer hitters will still just go right across there, because we could only add 8 to 10 yards back there, because that creek that connects for the drainage in all the lakes, we couldn't go back any further. But, the whole intention, again, was to make that as hard a hole off-of-the-tee as it used to be, and again, lowering the green down, and that green always fell away to the water. And, if you ever missed that green on the left side, it was in the water. And, I accomplished that. So, I'm very proud of that hole. It is now going to be, in my opinion, the hardest finishing hole on this TOUR, and that's what it used to be in 1965.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I've been there twice, in 1980 and 1981. I had that same situation. One year I was tied and one year I was one up. It's the same situation if you're one up, even or one down, you've got to make yourself drive that ball in the fairway. And, boy, I'll tell you, you take an extra swallow and you try to get some breath and you can't.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, it depends totally on the wind.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I aim at the left side of the middle bunker; that's the bunker that sits there, which is my target, which is basically right down the water line. You take the majority of kids on this TOUR, they'll go more left of that, because they can take much more of the water and the left trap off.

RAYMOND FLOYD: 18.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I don't know how many there are. Again, there were sets of twos and at threes in certain situations that I made one. So, in essence, you might have lost a few, when you're putting a total count in. I know the 6th hole there were three bunkers up on the left that had gotten down to little old spotted bunkers you couldn't see, I took that whole area and made it one. The first hole, the right bunkers there, there were three right bunkers. I left the one and then added the two, put them together. So there's three bunkers that you've lost out of the 18. The count is not relevant in my mind.

RAYMOND FLOYD: No.

RAYMOND FLOYD: The green jacket only leaves Augusta the year you are only a champion, and it's only to be used at a function honoring you as such, as the reigning champion. And I honored that. I never took the jacket anywhere unless there was something that honored me as The Masters Champion. So I upheld the tradition. I never did wear it or take it out. I think I used it maybe two or three times.

RAYMOND FLOYD: My memory is not that good (laughter). I'm sure I did, with my friends, they'd want to see it.

RAYMOND FLOYD: No.

RAYMOND FLOYD: No, not at all. I, as being a player, have empathy with players on a schedule. Tiger, especially, with a father who's had two surgeries in just over a week, no, not at all or any other player. Schedules dictate and it's hard to play every event. And I think most of your good players, the good players, whomever you're talking about who missed this year, they won't miss this tournament every year. I think you tend to move yourself around. So, no, that doesn't concern me at all.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I have been to one game this year and one exhibition. But I'm going Thursday night, come hell or high water I'm going to see the Heat play.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Yes, there's an expensive four seats down on the floor to never get to go.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Yeah, I am. It's a shame Mourning got hurt, but that will build some character, those things happen.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I would be totally against it. I think two is a perfect figure. Players earn their way. It's such an honor in the sport, in the game, to make that Ryder Cup team and to have a guy finish 9, 10 and not make it and someone has four selections over that, I think it's hard as a Captain to eliminate 11 and 12 sometimes to pick two players. But I wouldn't want to see that changed, no.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I'm sure you can do the pros and the cons, but I'm still against four, I'm for two, and whatever it is, if it changes it's got to be consistent. It can't be none for the U.S. and two for the other side. The teams are too even now, the players are too even on both sides, so you have to keep things constant.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, that would make them, if their Captain thought they were the best, they should be his two picks, and let the other guys play for the 10 spot. It's still fair no matter what. The other guys get the 10 spot.

RAYMOND FLOYD: This tournament means a lot because I live in the community. You go back and I can't imagine the dollars that have been raised for this community for what was the Doral Open, and certainly the Doral-Ryder Open. Millions of dollars, I'm a resident in this community, so I'm very proud of what this tournament stands for in the community, and all the good that it has done. And I think the publicity that the golf course will get will even elevate the tournament. I think the positive remarks from the players, I think the remarks however they be, you're going to write about them in newspapers all over the world about the changes, that's still positive, it's exposure. And, I am hearing that CBS is ecstatic, that it's just going to be something to behold, seeing all this on their cameras, for people to see back in the snow in Canada or wherever. I think everything is going to be a positive, and that's going to be better for the golf tournament, which in the end, is going to be better for the community.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I think in my mind there might have been apprehension. I don't think "nervous" is the right word. I guess all of us want everybody to like everything you do, but we know that's impossible. When I undertook the renovation, there's not a golf course -- let me put it -- I don't think there's a golf course we go to any place in the world that every player thinks this is a great one or their favorite golf courses. It's chocolate and vanilla. So their taste -- we all differ in our taste. I love Tillinghast and Ross and McKenzie. They're people that don't care too much for Tillinghast, Ross and McKenzie. I think Flynn was a great architect. A lot of people don't know who he was. Everybody has different tastes. You take 144 players and you take them to any golf course in the world, there are guys that don't like Augusta National, as you well know. So, now, how would I expect for every guy to come here and say he loves what I did, if I needed that, I'd have said, not me, I'm not going to do it or I don't think a guy could build a golf course if he thought he was going to please everybody that played it. So that's kind of my thinking, there.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Yes, I'd like to do brain surgery, I'll study that, I think that will be my next step, there (laughter). I haven't undertaken anything that was difficult yet. (Laughter). No, golf is -- the great thing about the game of golf is I don't think anybody's ever played the perfect round. And every round that we leave when we think about it as a player, there's always a way that you could have improved it. And I think that's the mystique and some of the ambiance in the game. I could have done better. Doesn't matter what score you shot. And the game's always going to be that way. And I think that's why it's so difficult. So I'm in a game that doesn't afford me thinking about --

RAYMOND FLOYD: I still want to be a better player. I want to be a better player. And I guess I'll watch Arnold, when he goes to the practice tee, he changes putter, what is he trying to do? He's trying to be a better player. We'll all strive for that until we go.