U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 29, 1995

Raymond Floyd

RAYMOND FLOYD: I am very pleased, Les. I know you have heard the cliche many times that you can't win a golf tournament, especially a major, in the first-round, but you can lose it. I am very happy to get off and shoot 70. I had the best of the conditions, I am sure, playing early, the opening round; basically, no wind. The last 4, 5 -- maybe the back 9 you felt a very light breeze that made it comfortable. As far as playing conditions, they couldn't have been better. I played well from tee to green. I hit a lot of greens, and I also putted well. So I am very pleased to get off with a couple under at the opening round.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I had less traffic playing early, that was part of the statement. I obviously had the best of it getting out in the morning. It will be flip-flop tomorrow. The group of us that were early today goes late tomorrow and that -- they try to make it even doing that, but I think it is always better, if you can, to play early the first-round. You want to get out and get started. I putted the ball very, very well. I hit the putt solid; I had hit going at a good pace. I think if you got out there and you missed a few putts and you didn't get a feel for the pace of the greens, you would have some serious trouble. But fortunately I didn't, and I was very comfortable with the greens.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I started with a birdie at the first. I hit a 3-wood and a 9-iron about, oh, about 6 feet and made it for birdie. Then I bogeyed the fourth. I hit a 3-wood into the left rough; I hit a 5-iron in the -- short in front of the green in the rough, in the wall of the bunker. And I made a terrible pitch, about 20 feet and 2-putted for bogey. And then I bogeyed 6, I hit a real good drive there, and came off of a 4-wood second shot and put it in the water and then wedged up about 25 feet and 2-putted for bogey. Then I birdied the 7th. I hit an 8-iron, oh, about 15 feet and made a real good putt coming down the hill breaking to the right. Then I birdied the 12th, I hit 3-wood and 7-iron in there about 5 feet, and made that. And then the 17th, I hit 3-wood and 6-iron, I'd say, about 32 or 33 feet and made a marvelous putt -- putt there breaking to the right; maybe a couple of feet of break.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Technically, no. I guess when the greens hit in regulation will show at the 11th green I was -- I didn't hit the green, but I was in the very short fringe and I 2-putted from there and the same thing at the other par 5, 16, I did the same thing there. I hit my second shot in the rough and hit it just through the green, in the short rough, so basically, I missed the fourth green and made bogey. I put it in the water at 6 and made bogey and then I 2-putted, I don't really call that saves.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, Tom, I have been playing very well. I have had a marvelous run of golf from tee to green and my putting has been getting better and better. I feel very good about my putting. I have been working hard, and it is starting to pay-off. So I am very comfortable with my golf game. And I think it showed that today. I think I missed only a couple of fairways. I think I missed -- in fact, I think I missed three fairways. And I missed, well, technically I missed 4 greens but in fact really two, so I think that is the way you have to play; four days to have success the way the USGA sets up the golf course. I did not do that at Shinnecock the first three rounds. I drove badly and put a lot of pressuree on my golf game, and I think looking back, it was playing in the rain and the practice and my -- I lost my rhythm. I got tight. I wasn't taking a backswing and fortunately by Sunday, I got it back and felt good about the last round.

RAYMOND FLOYD: No. No. The holes that I hit 3-wood on, the holes get too narrow for me if I were to take a driver. The first hole, I hit a driver -- a 3-wood and 9-iron. If I had taken a driver I'd bring the right bunker in play and it forces me to go over the left. The third -- the 4th hole, I can hit -- I hit the 3-wood through the dog leg there. So there are a lot of holes; I am just forced to playing it from the up tees like we are. If I hit a driver, I am going to go through the dog legs or down through the narrow part; it puts too much pressure on my drive.

RAYMOND FLOYD: The putt at 17, I had been putting my ball really well all day, as I said earlier, I had a real good pace and a feel for the speed and I was very positive all day putting. I had a good feel over the putt, but I did over a lot of others, and I just kind of got up over it and saw a good line that I wanted to roll the ball on. And when I looked up, it was kind of cracking right on the spots that I had picked out across there, and it just went right in the middle.

RAYMOND FLOYD: It was -- actually it was a little up and then it crowned and then it started down breaking to the right a little. But, yes, you must be positive on these greens. You can't get out there and say, "Well, these are terrible greens; I am not going to make anything." If you have that feeling, I don't think you will make anything. There are going to be guys that putt well all four rounds, and I want to be one of those. I don't want to be one that has one or none. But I have had one good putting round, and I hope I can continue doing that.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I think if you got out there mis-hit a couple of putts or lose your feel for speed and that was the problem I had in practice. Practice putting, I was never getting anything to the hole. I have putted a lot on the putting greens, so I have picked up the feel for the speed now and I think that is the most important thing.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I am not very good at that. Maybe a "Ringer" could win it.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Actually, what I have been working on, Dick, is my routine more than anything. I think I got too technical with my putting for a while when I started putting poorly, and I have always been a feel player, not only on the greens, but on the golf course, and I think I got away from that. And I have gone back to the basics and really I am practicing my routine, which gives me a rhythm, so I have -- it is just help. It has taken the pressure off of elbow up, body open, all the stuff that overloads the computer.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I made a statement yesterday I don't know anything relative to not playing long. I came in here and played Tuesday and it has been raining, so the golf course is playing the length that I know it. I don't have anything to equate it to. So the golf course is playing at a length -- I would hope that it is not playing long. I am having to hit 3-wood on probably 50% of the par fours to keep it from going through. So if it gets faster, it is going to pull me back more. I am going to have to hit some irons off the tees.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, to go back to your statement, this area deserves major golf. You know the radio what, 100, 150 mile area, you have got a tremendous population, and it is a big golf area, so this area dis -- is very deserving of major championship golf. The Senior U.S. Open is not a U.S. Open, but for guys like us, it is the next best thing. I think we all will tell -- we will all say that what separates players are major championships and winning tournaments. So when you come to a U.S. Senior Open it is the ultimate in the senior arena; so it is the biggest event, so you want to win that one a little bit more than you do any other. I guess that is the best way I can explain it.

RAYMOND FLOYD: It was under 35, I'd say, probably just over 30.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Oh, I don't think -- I think if you put a good hit on your ball, it has got a chance of rolling. And too, if you have had your ball solid, it might come off the ground on occasion but it will still keep its pace. I think it is when you have not hit a putt real solid when you get it bumping and get something off of line. But I did happen to see that replayed on N.B.C. when I was up there with them and it looked like the ball stayed on the ground the whole route. But I think guys, when they play holes, when they finish the hole, when you are leaving the green, if you just walk -- as you are leaving, if you just tap down around the holes a little bit and be courteous to all the other players it would help tremendously.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I don't know, Jerry, I don't know that I can answer that. I didn't play last week and I didn't play golf two weeks prior to the U.S. Open, but that -- that is hard to say whether it is helpful or not. I can't -- I'd be honest, I wouldn't know how to answer that.

RAYMOND FLOYD: The U.S. Open is so much longer if you miss the fairway in the U.S. Open, plus the rough was longer and stronger and deeper than here. Basically, if I missed a fairway at the U.S. Open, I couldn't reach the green so was wedgeing out. Of course today, I missed -- I only missed two fairways and -- no, three fairways, one of them was in the short cut so it didn't affect it. The one hole I made a bogey, and then at the 9th hole I put it in the fairway trap off the tee, so I really didn't have any rough problems.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I would say that this rough is probably about like a PGA Tour event rough, in this area. I would guess because it is blue grass you have blue grass rough and you have bent fairways so you have got blue grass rough and it is a little bit damp, I would say that it is probably pretty much like a regular Tour event rough. But that is much deeper and thicker than we play as a normal senior event and I think a lot of people think that the reason the Senior Tour players play so well is length of golf course. I think that is fourth in the equation. I think the number one reason is that The Senior Tour basically plays, what I would be calling a members rough and in most cases on the Senior Tour when you drive your ball in the rough, you can reach the green unless you are behind a tree or something.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Thank you.