U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 28, 1995

Raymond Floyd

RAYMOND FLOYD: Too many two's, not enough one's.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I am looking forward to it. I think we all would like to play well in the Major Championships and of course the U.S. Senior Open is the ultimate in the Senior Swing, so I am looking forward to it. I hope that I can perform well. I would hope that I am prepared. I don't think it is the same kind of week that any of us would like to think it's ideal for preparation, but it looks like the weather might be the same throughout the weekend. So come Sunday night, somebody is going to have a beautiful trophy under their arm; I'd certainly like for it to be me.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I played two holes on Monday before the second suspension and then I played 18 yesterday and 9 today.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I am sure at this time how much -- about the same as everybody else's. The golf course itself is in pretty good condition. Unfortunately, there is a problem with the greens and it is unfortunate. But I think the only other side of that coin, were the weather good and sunny, we might really have some problems with the greens so we might be blessed that we are having rain and not sunshine.

RAYMOND FLOYD: In'64 I was paired with Venturi the last 36 holes. I think everybody knows that story. The trying conditions with the heat and the humidity; the circumstances surrounding his win. He had been in a very bad period of his career, been five or six years where he really just did not play golf very well at all. And it was injury related. He had renolts (sic) phenomenon, I think was the name of the tendon disease that restricted his flexibility in his hands - if that is the name or whatever, but he was going through a lot of physical problems and to get paired with him the last round and to watch him hole out and I picked his ball out of the cup and handed it to him and thinking about the circumstances surrounding a guy like that who had just won the U.S. Open was a little emotional and I was tired and I handed him the golf ball and I think it got him started, but that was basically the '64 Open and then was it, '79?

RAYMOND FLOYD: '76 PGA, I was standing down there by the 18th green thinking that I might have won a golf tournament. I had -- I don't know exactly how many groups were behind me. I know there were at least two because Don January hit a driver and 2-iron and birdied the last hole to tie me for second and then Stockton parred the last 6 holes without hitting any of the greens to beat us both by one stroke. So from 1976 I had, what I thought, was maybe another victory in my pocket. When you have finished a Major Championship and you are in the clubhouse, that is usually a pretty strong place to be when when your name is -- name is up high on the leaderboard. It didn't work. Stockton made a fabulous run at the end, made great par at the last to beat both January and -- to beat both of us.

RAYMOND FLOYD: They are bad for a club or municipal course or whatever - they are bad greens.

RAYMOND FLOYD: It is kind of like hydrophonics, if would you. The grass is growing up on the top; there is no root whatsoever. So if the roots right up under that blade of grass, so if you had hot weather and dry weather, it is just going to crust off and die. The reason the greens are bad, there is no root down there. There is no organic layer and the root is not going down into the ground. And I do not know why. So I am not an agronomous. I can't tell you why the root isn't down. I can tell you they are bad. I do not know any of the problems that have caused it.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, basically it is. It is a Senior U.S. Open. You don't have the same field but it is the same situation. It differs not. I don't think -- I am not going to venture to say what the USGA might do. I don't think they are going to allow a U.S. Open to be played under these conditions. I wouldn't think.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I don't know. I don't know. Steve, I wish I could answer that, but you know, it is not my field so I can't.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Probably. I would guess that that is probably so. It many now favor your fellows that hit the ball higher and carry the ball a little longer, I would think. However, U.S. Open type conditions, you still got to get the ball in the fairway. And with it wet, it is even more so because you are not going to probably get the situation where you can -- you can get it out from the rough onto the green. It is not as severe a course, the Senior Open, the rough is not nearly as severe as a regular U.S. Open rough, but with it wet, it becomes about equal, so you are not going to have too much success unless you happen to drive it in the rough long on some of the short holes where you might hit a 9 or 8-iron or something like that to the green.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I have only played here this week. I have not played here since the changes in the golf course, so I have nothing to make it relative to -- does that makes sense to you. I can't tell you what is longer or shorter, because I only know it as it was Tuesday, yesterday, so to me, you can say to me is the course playing long? No, it is not playing long. It is playing the way I know it, so if that is not a dumb answer -- I hope I am making my point... I didn't play it two weeks ago when it was dry and I was driving it 40 yards further, let us put it like that. I don't know it any other way than it is right now.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I don't know. I can't answer -- no, I think we played -- I think the course in Birmingham was 7000.

RAYMOND FLOYD: There is a guy that can answer. It seemed that I recall Birmingham was 7000 something.

RAYMOND FLOYD: You know, it is hard for me to even imagine -- I really haven't thought about what score would win, but I would think with the conditions like this, certainly even par would be pretty good. You have got to consider that the greens aren't good, so I can see there are going to be a lot of good putts that don't go in because of spike marks and bumps in the greens, so not only are you fighting conditions that are norm -- that are the norm, you are also fighting a set of conditions that you don't expect, so I would foresee the scores being a little bit higher as a result of those conditions. Now you have got another thing going for you too. There is one thing about conditions like this that are damp and wet. You don't have any wind, so there is no wind in play whatsoever. And you have soft conditions, so the ball is very receptive to the green. You are not kicking off into the -- if you drive it in the edge of the fairway, it is going to stay there. If you hit it on the side of the green, it is going to stay on the green; it is not going to kick through in either spot. So there are positives to what you call long wet conditions. They are not all negative.

RAYMOND FLOYD: My first year, I think, was pretty much like Hale's. I was in a better situation because my birthday was in September and the meat of the regular Tour schedule was over. I had rarely played golf after September on the regular Tour. I usually went overseas and played a little bit. So basically, my season was over. And I had committed to go out that fall and play 7 tournaments and that is what I did. The next year was my dilemma. I was not sure that I wanted to be totally committed to the Senior Tour and I made no goals as to how many tournaments I was going to make. I was basically taking it week by week and in some situations, I got trapped because you have to commit on the Senior Tour Tuesday of the week before and I wasn't sure where I wanted to play golf. So I was having that kind of thing. Now, I imagine that is happening to Hale a little bit now, I know with the chance to make the Ryder Cup team. Hale has been playing very well of late, I would think that he is very torn right there with a birthday in June as to what he wants to do. I would think that is more difficult for him than it was for me because of my September. But I understand what he is going through because of my first full year. And I don't know that there is anything anybody can tell him. I think he is probably going to go through it just like I did and to be honest with you, every time I go play an event on the other side, I wish I were back there playing. It is something that draws you. That is the big show. That is the main event. It is nice to feel that you can go over there and be competitive. Of course, somebody -- Lee might know this - I don't know - but since I have been on the Senior Tour, I think that I have not missed a cut whenever I have gone to play. So that tells me that seems like I am still competitive over there, so still, when you go back there, it is something that -- it is difficult to do, so I think it is something that he is going to face for probably two, three, four, five years, I don't know, however long that he thinks that he is competitive.

RAYMOND FLOYD: The game is not played any differently. The depth of field and the quality of players is the difference. I mean, we have fabulous players over here 50 and over, but we are only playing limited fields other than, of course, the U.S. Open or PGA senior or I think those are the only two with 155 players. We are playing 78 player fields, so your depth of field is not nearly as strong. You don't -- so that is your quality there.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Thanks a lot.