U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 4, 1996

Raymond Floyd

RAYMOND FLOYD: A little redundancy, but I don't mind.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I was very, very pleased with my play tee-to-green. I actually, on paper, hit 15 greens, but two of the greens that I missed, like the 18th and the 13th, I putted from right through the hole. I had about 25-footer from 18 - maybe not that long. And probably 15-footer at 13. So I played beautifully tee-to-green; I had the ball on the green. I had it behind the hole a few times and that is what you try not to do here, but with the gusty windy conditions, I don't know that you are not -- you are just not going to be able to put it every time where you would like, but I couldn't be happier with the round. I had a couple of people say "well, you could have been lower." Yes, I could have. I 3-putted the third hole from fairly short. I missed about a 10-footer at the second. I missed a short putt at 4, from about 10. I missed it from about ten feet at 5. But I made a lot of nice 2-putts, and I only had the one, 3 for my only bogey. But, overall, I am thrilled. You can see from the leader board that the scores aren't really low and aren't going to be low because of the conditions, and I am happy with the start.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I birdied 9. Hit driver and 3-iron on the bottom flat of the green. I guess I was 50 feet up to the flag and I putted it basically, stiffed, about a foot and made the birdie. At the 10th, I hit a 3-iron and actually couldn't shoot at the flag. I had a 90-yard shot to the hole, but I couldn't shoot at the flag. I was blocked with a spruce tree on the right side of the fairway, so I had to play into the middle of the green with a little cut and I put it about - I am guessing - 15 or 18 feet, and made that putt. Let us see. I must have birdied something else somewhere -- 14, I hit a 3-wood off the tee and had 117 yards to the hole. I hit a wedge about, I would say, five or six feet and made that putt for birdie. There was really no up-and-down other than the first hole. I missed the green left and hit probably about as good a pitch as I could hit up there and got it about six feet, and I had a real crucial hard breaking tough putt and I made it. I could have 3-putted it, probably. I think that was a crucial putt, and at the par 5, the first five, the 6th hole I drove it in the left rough and had to lay-up and hit, what I thought, was a really good third shot with a wedge from about 75 yards and the wind switched on me. I was playing downwind and the wind swirled right as I hit, and I came up about 30 feet short, and I putted it through the hole about, I would think, probably 10 to twelve feet and made that save. So I think those were the crucial, the two crucial things, 1 and 6 when I made those two par saves.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I played very well and shot 2-under. I couldn't be much happier with my play. I think it reflects, by looking at your leader board, it looks to me like there is four or five people under par at this time and they are all early players. This course will get harder as the day goes on. You have got no humidity and you have got sun and wind and that is going to tend to dry out the greens and get them quicker and harder. So as the day goes on, the scores are going to probably reflect that. So I'd say, it is very difficult. The golf course is playing very difficult.

RAYMOND FLOYD: No, I am not surprised. I think that is a heck of a score, but no, I am not surprised. And you would expect it out of someone out of the early fifth -- you know, the first couple of hours of play, when the golf course hasn't been walked on yet, but that is a heck of a round. I would say that is about as good as you could score out there.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Oh, no, I'd rather be at 66. (LAUGHTER)

RAYMOND FLOYD: Gravity. I will tell you, I justified gravity there because there is no way that ball could stop. My only thinking is the hole must be a little bit raised - maybe an early player had stepped real close to the hole and when he got his ball out, is the only thing because Larry Mowry putting right behind me from the right of the hole coming over, his ball was breaking into the hole and ribbed off to the right, the same thing that made mine stop, so I don't know how it stopped, but it did.

RAYMOND FLOYD: At the second hole, both of my playing partners Mowry and Wargo from the back fringe both putted off the front of the green. The ball went 10 yards off the front of the green from the back, so I would venture to say that they will not be the only people to putt off that second green, and if you get back to front on the really sloped greens, you can putt off any of the 18, so -- well, any of the 18, if the pins are down toward the front, you can, so it is crucial to keep the ball - well, crucial, it's -- you are going to have a chance if you are underneath the hole. It is going to be very, very difficult if you get pin-high or higher. Even if you are pin-high, you are playing a break of two and three feet because you have got to throw it up the hill to let it break back, so you really need to be under the hole.

RAYMOND FLOYD: It is very satisfying, but I think I said in here yesterday that I had addressed my bad play and there was a reason I was not playing well and I knew the reason and I addressed it and I am playing very well now. I am happy with my play. It is reflected today by hitting greens. You have got to get the ball on the greens to score well. And it has proven itself, so I am happy that from the work that I have done that it is reaping the rewards, I guess.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I guess to answer that honestly, I would say that it doesn't take 25 under par to win an event like this. You are playing very difficult, demanding conditions and I think that eliminates or takes away some of the parity that can be created in other circumstances, so I think the harder the conditions of play, I think your better players tend to appreciate that and I think it shows.

RAYMOND FLOYD: No. No. Robert is going to caddy for me in two weeks in Burnet. They do it once a year. They are playing amateur golf so they don't really have a lot of time. It is just -- I'd like them to do it. I'd like for them to do it more, but they are playing amateur golf and they don't have much time for me.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Not nearly as much as I'd like, Kaye, but that is a problem with "how do you balance your time." It is a tough thing.

RAYMOND FLOYD: My caddy, Steve, will be with me next week. They are playing in the Porter Cup. Is that next week? The Porter Cup? No, it is not. It is the week following Raymond will get a week off and Robert is playing at Williamsburg next week; then he is going to come caddy for me at Burnet. He got an invitation to play at the Anheuser-Busch in Williamsburg.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I couldn't go to Williamsburg, Jerry, and you can drag me in a cart and I couldn't get around there.