KEMPER OPEN

June 7, 1997

Dan Forsman

DAN FORSMAN: You're right, Wes. Thank you. I tell you, that's an amazing reality, this TOUR today. Yesterday, I'm standing on 16 green, having struggled, you know, not really made any birdie putts, but really played pretty solidly. But at the time I'm 2-over par, and I step up there and I hit it in the bunker right and I blast out about 8 feet, and I told myself, This is a huge putt. If I make this, I'm still 2-over. It looks like 2-over is going to make the cut. I know I have to play 17, 18, two tough holes, even though 18 was downwind. The green is bouncy, and it's a tricky pin and not a lot of birdies on the last hole. But fortunately, I poured the one at 16 right in the heart from about 8 feet and that kind of gave me some breathing room, although I got to 17, as any time you're in that position on Friday, that's a lot of pressure, and you want to be in the hunt. But I hit a 5-iron, and the pin was back right at 17. And I was -- you know, as I stood over, I said, it's probably a 4-inch shot. It's into the wind to make the birdie. But at the same time, I played a practice run. I played long there. That bunker is dead. It's an automatic bogey. I don't have an L-wedge. In fact, I'm trying to decide whether I'm going to get one here, because you kind of need them around here. But I stood up on that tee, and I knocked it left of the flag and had about a 30-footer, and it was a big side-winding break, and Triplett, Kirk, who also played beautifully yesterday, was 4-under after two rounds. He was outside of my line, and I had a good read off of his, and I made this putt from about 35 feet for 2 to go 1-over. Now I step up and have some real breathing room. The weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders in a sense. And I played 18 with a 3-wood and knocked it on the green and had a 12-footer right of the hole. I thought, I really want to make this, but it's downhill quick. I don't want to be too aggressive. Just feed it down there. It ran by a foot-and-a-half, and I had to make that for par. No big deal, but shooting 1-over. When I got done, I thought 2-over, maybe 3 is going to make the cut, the way the paper was, that would be the case. Someone said last night, my wife had called the press room because after I had played here, I went over to look at Congressional, the golf course for next week. I'm walking down the fairways and just carrying on, and my wife had called and gotten the word. And I got home and she said 1-over made the cut. It's a long, boring story, but I'm just here to say, my point is this: I could easily have been at 2-over and been down the road, as are a lot of fellows out there who really tried hard. In fact, you know, Dave Stockton, Jr., birdied a couple holes coming in and he finished 2-over, which I thought would make it. And here I am and I shoot 6-under Saturday morning, and I'm 5-under for the tournament. Well, there's going to be some really good scores today, I think. But the wind is picking up, and this is a tough, demanding golf course. What's the round this week, 65?

DAN FORSMAN: So it's not an easy golf course. And there's some holes out there where you really have to be careful. I was a beneficiary today of some real breaks, I suppose. The one that stands out most is the one at 12, which is a very demanding tee shot. It was into the wind, and I normally play a 3-wood there and down the fairway, and I thought, things are going well. I need to be aggressive. I'm playing the Open next week. I want to hit the driver when I need to. I took the driver out and hit it very solidly, and it starts going dead left. I thought that's the creek. Well, sure enough, it's going right in there. It hits a rock. It was amazing. Here, again, this is the parallel of talking about this cut and not being cut and having a great round going and then thinking -- the sinking feeling of thinking it's going to go, it's gone, then it hits this rock and comes bouncing out of the creek on the first cut of rough on the left side of the fairway. And it was almost like, you know, everyone was kind of like, oh, my gosh, can you believe it? I kind of snickered and thought, you know, it's about time I got a good break. Seriously, I mean, it was just one of those deals. And I went on to make a nice par from there and played well, you know, down the stretch and made a bogey at 15, which was disappointing. But almost had a chance to make another one at 16. But, anyway, I'll get into the round. If you would like to do that, I can do that, as well. My point here is -- I'm long-winded, forgive me on this -- I just have to say I'm grateful to be in this position. I'm very flattered to be in the press room, and given the fact that I could be on the outside looking in like a lot of the guys are who really played well and shot 2-over or 3-over, and that's the cruelty of this TOUR and the game, the game of golf. My heart goes out to those guys, as well. I've been there. As I said to this fellow Tray Tyner, I said, Remember four weeks ago, I was in your position? I finished third at the Byron Nelson, made $104,000 and literally leapfrogged over everyone. I don't think I was hitting it any better than you were this week. I said, Hold your head up, because it's just around the corner for you. As a player, as a human being who competes out here, I realize the kind of effort these guys give. And to come up empty like that, I'm disappointed for them. But I'm also grateful to be in the position I'm in here.

DAN FORSMAN: Started off very comfortably hitting all the greens on the front side. I finally made a birdie on the short par 4. What number is it, 5?

DAN FORSMAN: The fifth hole from about 8 feet. Actually, 6 feet. 3-wood sand wedge. It was front left. It was a testy little thing. With the zoysia, you've got to land on the green. With the zoysia, it stops and comes back at you. It's a tedious second shot there. I hit a good shot and hit it close. Then the par 5, I hit a good drive, couldn't go for it, so I laid up left and hit a sand wedge about -- oh, about 12 feet left of the hole, made that for birdie.

DAN FORSMAN: That was No. 6.

DAN FORSMAN: 6, yeah. 7 was a great shot. I hit a great tee shot on the right side of the fairway. I had 200 yards to the hole. They've got this absolute sink hole right at that green. Have any of you seen this green, No. 7? I mean, if that's not a sink hole, I don't know what is. This thing is too deep. I'm sorry. It's brutal. And you come out of there, and it's a downslope. So the thing sits in this crown of just these -- the Grand Canyon on both sides. Anyway, I'm building this up, because the shot I hit was a 5-iron from 200 yards out. Yesterday I let it leak right, and I said, Dan, whatever you do, keep it left of the flag, because if it goes right, it's not going to carry. I did that. Got up to its apex. It started to fade right. Now it's just cliffhanging over that mogul. I'm just going holy smoke, get, get, get, you know. And it landed just over on the fringe and rolls by, you know, 8 feet. And I made that for birdie. So that was a huge. Huge three in a row. And things are looking real good. I felt good. Good rhythm. I felt comfortable. You know, Billy Ray Brown is a nice guy. He's also struggled. He's had injury problems. And he's back, and he's a fine player. He's won twice. He's very capable. And I'm inspired to see him make his comeback, because you can tell he's going to be doing well. I expect to see some good things from him. So log that in your memory bank. So, anyway, I parred along 8 and 9. 9 I had a birdie putt and just missed it left of the hole. 9 is a great hole. They're trying to make 9 play legitimately this year. Last year, they put the tee up and the pin down front and left and, you know, hitting the wedge there. Today, it was like 7-iron, 6-iron. That's a legitimate hole. They're putting the pin on the right side, it's middle, it's back. There's no room for a weak shot coming there. So I think Ray shot there, and that was a good -- kept the momentum going. I almost made the birdie about 12 feet, missed it. Then I got -- oh, I hit a good shot at 11, about 9-iron about 12 feet right of the hole, made that for birdie. Then I got the break at 12 I mentioned, which was a very big break at the time. And then on the par 5, I -- No. 13 I laid up with a -- then I hit a 9-iron in there about 8 feet right of the hole, made that for birdie. 15, I bombed the tee shot. I hit it so darn far down there, I had 118 to the front and 125 to the hole. It was downwind. The fairways are firming up, so it wasn't that big a deal. I tried to stretch a sand wedge, and I came up short. And it landed on the front and spun back, and I 3-putted from about 20 feet. Then on 16, I hit it in the left rough, just kind of compounding in there. I just got frustrated because I felt like I'd let something get away. That's been my history a little bit. But I'm fighting that. And I'm trying to get it out of my system and get on with the holes ahead. And I was able to do it. And even though I hit a second shot that went in the back bunker, I watched this bunker shot of mine go by 15, 20 feet past. And as I got down there, I thought this is a makeable putt, and let's not give up here. And I was able to knock it in the heart from 15, 18 feet. Huge par putt, really. I needed it badly. And stepped up on 17, I was second up. Billy Ray Brown hit a 4-iron, flushed it right at the flag, 8 feet behind the hole. I got up over the ball, and it was one of those crucial shots. And I hit a 5-iron. It was one club less than Billy, but I hit it yesterday and I thought it was the right club. The breeze was more forceful today. And I hit it and covered the flag and it almost went in the hole. It landed a foot short of the hole and went by about 3-and-a-half feet behind it. There's some clumps of poa annua out there. I don't know if you've seen the greens out there. They're smooth, they're quick. By tomorrow they'll be the way they want them. That means they'll demand the best shots, only the best shots will stop close. But they have some patches of poa annua. And they're seed heads, and they stick up. And I had this put of mine, had 6 or 8, 10 clumps of this stuff on the way to the hole. Even though it was only 4 feet, it was one of these putts that could have jumped left, jumped right. And that's exactly what it did. But I read the bounces and it rolled right in the hole for 2. So that was a great -- you know, I mean, any time you birdie 17, that's a big bonus too. Then on 18, it was a downwind hole. And the way that fairway is structured, you can't -- with a driver, you've got to knit it, cut it around that right bunker there and fit it down. And even if you do, you're on the downslope. So I took a 3-wood and blew it at the left sand trap and just kept it short. I had 168 to the hole. I hit 8-iron yesterday and it carried 168. But today was more downwind, the greens are harder. I was contemplating a 9, and I got over the shot. And my caddie Greg said -- I said what do you think 9? He said I don't know if 9 is enough. 8 is too much because it's going to land in the hole, one hop and in the back hay up there, chopping it out of there. I said okay, I like easy 8, kind of fan 8, in my mind use that imagery of taking that 8-iron, you know, kind of tweaking it open just enough, aim a little left and just throw it up in the wind a little more. It was one of those things where really I think-- and I described it to him as we walked down the fairway. I hit it like this, it almost went in the hole. It landed 6 feet short of the hole. It looked like it was going to go right in the hole. And the crowd at the right of the green went whoaaaa, you know, the hysteria. So we knew it was pretty close. But I didn't know how close. Even still I thought it had gone by 3, 4 feet even from where it was. On the way to the green, I described to my caddie Greg, who's been with me 12, 13 years now, and he's not only a fine fellow but a good friend. And I said, you know, what do you think about the TOUR and professional golf, because you can hit balls and you can do all the things that you need to do to play, but until you've been in this position and you have the team work of a good caddie and someone who's there and discuss it in a positive manner, allow yourself to pick the right club and make a decision and go with it. I was really pleased with that. Because we've had a history of being a little wordy under those situations, a little touchy-feely too much, instead of saying I've got it, I'm going to hit the 8. So that's why I said I'm just going to cut -- hit an easy 8, fan the 8, I've got it. He said okay, go ahead. I said I've got it. He backed off and I hit this shot. It could have gone in the bunker and it wouldn't have been as exciting, perhaps as good a story. But I hit it stiff. And he complimented me down the hill. He said I liked how you made the decision. And, you know, for someone that sometimes has a difficult time, you know, kind of touchy-feely here, I made that decision. It was a good feeling to make the birdie, was a bonus afterwards. Okay. Long-winded way of getting there, but we're there.

DAN FORSMAN: Are you out of tape yet?

DAN FORSMAN: You mean today?

DAN FORSMAN: Well, I don't know. It's a funny thing, last week Memorial, Muirfield Village Golf Club, Jack's course, I think it's so tough. I don't know why, I think it's a hard course. And Norman goes out the last day and shoots, what, 64. You know, so Greg Norman, if he can do that there, I think he can shoot 63 or 4 here. But for some reason this golf course has not let -- you know, there haven't very many low scores. I don't know if-- it's playing long, yes. But the greens are smooth. It's in excellent condition tee to green. The greens are nice. And it's got a variety of holes. I guess the thing you don't have here is the reachable par 5s. Even No. 6 over there is not reachable any longer because that new tee is all the way back. But I don't really know what's holding guys back. Although, like I say, 9 and 17 and 12 and 6 and 3 today, all the way back, you know, 220 par 3 and shaven, you know, fronts and banks where the ball, if you get it off line, is going to run off into -- you know away from the hole and the pin, and it makes chipping quite treacherous, I suppose. All those elements combined make it for what is a difficult course. But, you know, with my round today and -- I don't know what Billy Ray shot, I'm not sure what he had, but it could have been his round. It could have been even par today just as easy as it was -- you know, breaks, I guess, are the key. You have to get the breaks, you have to make some breaks. But you also have to be patient. I think that was my key the last two days, as I described, trying to make the cut feeling. I had some horseshoe lipouts, I had a bunch of lipouts, and I was really on the edge. And my caddie said gee, relax a little here. I knew there was not a lot of birdie holes out here. There really aren't. And if you don't capitalize when you're in there 6, 8 feet, you're not going to have that many of those, unfortunately. Did that answer anything?

DAN FORSMAN: Thank you. You didn't have to say that.

DAN FORSMAN: I started out pretty well in Phoenix this year. I finished top 10 there. I hadn't had a top 10 in a while. I made some cuts after that. But was -- had a pretty bad scoring average on the weekend. Wasn't really playing particularly well. And then I just bottomed out starting at Bay Hill. I missed the cut there., I missed it at TPC, The Players Championship. I missed it at -- where else? Masters.

DAN FORSMAN: I missed Hilton Head -- I missed Masters, Hilton Head, I missed Houston. A lot of these by one shot. That's why I'm saying I empathize with some of these guys that are giving it their heart and soul. But I needed to relearn this lesson, and I've learned it many times, as we all have. You just -- that's why I mentioned, I felt like, you know, you just have to get -- you know, you have to get your hands dirty and you're going to have some aching muscles and sore backs and sore everything, but that's the only way to get any better in this game. I'd perhaps forgotten that a little bit. I'm a family man, I have two wonderful children and a wife I dearly love, and when it's not going well, there's a lot of reasons not to be here. And yet, at the same time, this is what I enjoy doing. And it's because of their support that I'm doing it. And because of that, I've been able to -- and with their support I've decided that, you know, I needed to get back out and go to work. So as a result of that, you know, I took three weeks away from them Houston, Atlanta, Byron Nelson, and it was like -- when I left home that Sunday night and said goodbye, like anybody who would say goodbye to a dearly loved family or those that they care about, it was a tear-jerker. It was hard. I mean, there was a lot of reasons to say why don't you play this week and skip next. And I said well, you're right, but I just feel like I need to play three in a row. Because I'd missed five cuts in a row or four cuts in a row. And as I went to Houston and practiced hard and played, and I played hard, and ended up missing by one shot. In fact, I'll never forget, I was playing the ninth hole Woodlands on Friday morning. I just birdied 8 to go to 1 over for the tournament. I played the 9th hole, was a narrow par 4. All I had to do was drive it in the fairway, knock it on the green, two-putt, I made the cut. I should be able to do that. How many years, 14 years out here? How many victories? That's not that hard to do. I step up with the driver, preshot routine, I picture the target, I'm breathing deep because I'm feeling some pressure. I come over, hit this rope hook in the left rough, it was the ugliest drive you've ever seen in your life. I was ready to snap the club. I was very frustrated. It was very disappointing. Well, I get up there, knock it in the bunker green-side, hit a great bunker shot, it gets up on the top of the hill, I've got 8 feet from the hole. And I just said I've got to make this putt. You sense this. You know what the cut is going to be, you've been out here long enough. I hit this putt, it's left, starts going right in the center, it's going to go right in, then it shifts lanes, catches the left side and hangs on the back edge of the hole about 3 inches behind. Go up there stab the putter, because I'm so PO'd, I said I missed the cut. I stab it, it horseshoes. The crowd goes oh, no, how could he do that? Double. And so I'm thinking well, didn't make any difference. Well, I go in and have lunch, and all of a sudden here comes a storm. And the wind starts howling. And everyone says what's the cut going to be? Well, 2 over is going to make it now. I'm going now that is an all-time low for me to have been that careless, to have given up and said, you know, so what. And then -- I don't do that. And so it was like a wake-up call for me. Fortunately it didn't cost me the cut. It ended up being one over. I finished three as a result of missing or whatever -- it didn't cost me that little stab. But I just kind of went gee whiz, if my son was here or my kids were here and they'd witnessed that, I mean, that's a sign that, you know, I'm starting to misbehave and I needed to be smacked in the head or done something to -- but I was -- you know, the good news -- and I don't want to bore you here, I know this is probably boring for everyone, but you asked about how this year shaped up.

DAN FORSMAN: And the reason I'm spending some time here is because this is what's changed it. That weekend, I called -- in fact, ironically, Butch Harmon is a teacher down the road at Lochinvar, and I called Butch, and he was having lunch with a guest. I was really in desperation, you know. Again, I missed another cut, I thought now where do I turn? I tried this. I tried that. It's not happening. I called out there. He says, well, Butch is having lunch. I said, Well, I'm Dan Forsman. He said I don't give a heck if -- he didn't say that, but I'm sure he probably wanted to. It was like, I don't care if it's the President of the United States. He's having lunch. I said, wait a minute, you don't understand, I just missed my sixth cut in a row. I need to talk to this guy. Let me talk to him. He ended up saying, I'll give him the word that you're on the phone, so he -- he said, well, what do you want? I said, I want to come over and see if he can look at my golf swing. He said, I'll go ask him. So he comes back, and he said, Butch is booked solid today, tomorrow and he can't see you until maybe next week. I said, Well, you know, at least I tried, you know. So I hung up the phone, and I went back to my room and sat around and thought what am I going to do? I called Eric. Eric is our travel agent, our computer guy. I said, What do you have to Salt Lake? He said, I have 2:45. You can be on it. There's space available. Just leave the problems behind. Get on that jet, go home and be on your way. And I called my wife, I said, you know, I really want to come home. I'm really fried. But then at the same time, I just -- I think I'm going to stay. She said, well, we'd loved to have you come home, but we understand what you need to do. So I stayed out, and I didn't go home. Stayed overnight. And usually it's the case -- I'm sure for all of us -- a good night's rest, some food in your stomach, the next day it's a lot clearer after the dust settles. And I thought about it, I said, you know, what I did is I called the other course, the Woodlands across the street, and they arranged to go play the next afternoon. I went out to the golf course and practiced all morning. I was out there until dark. In fact, I was hitting balls, and there was -- it was pitch black on the 18th green out there. Everyone else was in The Duck Soup was partying, the loud music was going. Everyone was having a gay old time. I'm thinking, here I am -- okay, now this is not a poor me, because golf is a great game, and I enjoy this sport -- but I'm in Houston, Texas, having missed six cuts in a row at this golf course by myself, nobody to talk to, nobody to be with, you know, nobody cares, and I'm out at this golf course playing golf hoping to find some -- find the swing that's going to maybe allow me to start making some cuts and make a living out here. Well, you know, hindsight, it was one of the greatest days of my life, truthfully. Because it made me realize that, like all of us, it's how bad you want it, and it's what kind of sacrifices are you willing to make. And that started to change for me. When I left there on Sunday afternoon and I arrived in Atlanta and they drove me to the golf course the next week, I chipped balls until dark. I was there until pitch black. That's not to say: Here I am. I'm on a soapbox. I'm going to tell everybody why I am where I am today. I could shoot 78 tomorrow. Who knows. This could be, see, there he goes again. I could shoot 65 and I could win this thing. The story, though, is that -- and every one of us has been there -- it's those decisions and it's -- for me, it's the decisions I make and each of us make when you're down and how easy it is to give up. And that's -- after I played -- I finally made the cut in Atlanta. In fact, I made double-bogey, bogey finishing on Friday, but fortunately I made enough birdies, the only way I'm going to screw this up is if I don't get enough birdies ahead. I was like 6 under through 34 holes. I thought, I can get it home now. I can make this cut. And I'll tell you, you talk about the promised land or whatever you want to use, I got there on that Friday afternoon, and it was exhilarating. And I was a new person, and I saw people differently, and I signed autographs, and I appreciated this opportunity. Then the next week, of course, in Dallas is where I really played well and finished tied for third. But I had a chance to compete for the title, and Tiger ended up winning it. And he would have won it had it turned out the way it was. I stood on the 17th tee and I knew if I could get this ball close and make a birdie there and get to 16 under, he had to play those last two holes. Well, you know, I watched Jim Furyk rifle a 4-iron back of the green. My caddie was saying, I like 4, I like 4. He wanted me over the water. He hadn't seen a good paycheck in a while. I said, Greg, I like 4, but I like a 5 to get it close. This is part of the history, right? I chose a 5, and I just hooded a little left of the flag on the 17th tee and knocked it back of the green. I couldn't believe I hit it so far. I was pumped up obviously. Hadn't been there in a while. I hit a great shot. I ended up 3-putting and bogeyed the last hole to finish tied for third. But it was my best finish in a long, long time. I didn't realize until Gary had written it in Golf World that it was 1993 or '94, it was my best finish in a while. I said to my wife, Who am I to think I am out here. I should be trying to make top tens here because I haven't had that many in a while, but long-winded way of saying it's getting better. I'm in the Open this next week. I'm playing here, and I'm pretty much dedicated to the TOUR. It's not easy because it's, you know, it can be a lonely life-style at times. It's a very individual sport, as you all know. When you're riding the wave of success, it's great, it's exhilarating and exciting for everyone, your family and friends. But when you're not, it's a tough go. Sorry to bore you. And, Wes, that's about all I have to say unless there's any questions.