U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 15, 1999

Jose Maria Olazabal

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Are you talking about me? I truly believe nowadays that the closest thing to impossible to winning the Grand Slam in a single year. That's how I feel. I might be wrong, but the level of the game nowadays is so high, and there are so many players that can really win all the events that it makes it really tough for just one player to win all four.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I would like to be wrong, especially this year. (Laughter.)

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I got here around 4 o'clock yesterday. I played 18 holes yesterday and 18 holes today.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I think the golf course is very tough. The greens and the surroundings of the greens are very treacherous. They're very, very tough with a lot of slopes. And that is going to make scoring really, really tough.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, at least this week, I cannot deny that the short game plays a part in this tournament, which hasn't happened for the last few years, anyway. I don't think I'm the only guy that his short game is pretty good. I think there is a lot of players here that their short games are really good and good enough to get something out of this golf course, without a doubt. I still believe that driving plays a very important part this week. You need to be on the fairway to really have a chance to put the ball on the green and make, if you can say, an easy putt. You know, that's why I've always said that the U.S. Open doesn't suit my game, because my driving is not all that accurate. Obviously, you can use a lot of clubs. You can use a 3-wood, a 7-iron, a 9-iron, a sand wedge, a lob wedge. But to hit a good shot, to judge the distance and the speed, to leave the ball 3, 4, 5 feet from the hole is going to be extremely tough.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I really don't know how to answer that question. Monte has been close a couple of times. How many years that -- 29 that a European doesn't win the U.S. Open, but I really don't know about that. You still have to be a very mechanical player. It's important to go from point A to point B, from point B to point C, like tee to fairway, fairway to green. And I think the Americans, the U.S. players, are doing better that than the Europeans, with maybe an exception of Monte, that he's very straight off the tee and very good iron player; he's been doing well. But I still believe that the kind of player that is -- his game is very straight off the tee, and playing good with the irons, does have a good chance to win. I don't think a player that just has the short game is suited for this course.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, maybe because the golf courses we play. Up to now in Europe, the way the golf courses have been set up, it allows us to use more imagination. We could run the ball, bounce it 20, 30 yards short of the green, run it onto the green. We could use all kinds of clubs around the greens, from a 7-iron to a sand wedge to a lob wedge. We play sometimes in pretty bad weather conditions, rainy and windy. And somehow, you have to have more imagination to hit those shots. In the States, you know how the golf courses are set up. You need to hit a high shot to the greens, and that's the only way, virtually, that you can put a ball close to the hole; so I think that's the only difference.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: What surprised me? There's not many things that can surprise me now. There is only certain holes that somehow cut you. Like No. 5 or No. 8, any player that goes long on No. 8, for instance, long left, from that point -- I mean, just to put the ball on the green is good enough. You can use a 3-iron; you can use a 3-wood; you can use a 5-iron, 7-, 9-, sand wedge, lob wedge. It doesn't matter what club you choose. It is really, very, very difficult to put a ball on the green from the back left. I don't think anybody will be thinking of leaving that shot around four or five feet from the hole. That's how tough it is out there.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I hit 3-irons. I hit 5-irons, 7-irons, 9-irons. And out of ten, I think I missed the green five times. And that is, you know, without the pressure of playing the tournament. So that gives you an idea.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Yeah, I played 18 holes today all right. Maybe I didn't have the rest that I was suspecting to get on Monday. I'll try to take as much rest now in the afternoon as possible. And I'll try to do the same tomorrow. I'll try to be as fresh as possible for Thursday. But I think I played 18 holes today; I will play 18 holes tomorrow. After what I've seen today, and I think I've seen enough, I think we all know how difficult the golf course is, how tough it can be played. Now, it's just a matter of preparing yourself for it.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I think it's more fair. Last year, we did have fairways that sloped from right-to-left or left-to-right, fairways were like 22 yards wide, and you could hit a wonderful tee shot, and then end up in the rough. This year, it's just fair. I mean, you can -- if you hit a good tee shot, you're going to end up on the fairway. From then on, you still have to -- have a tough task to make par on that hole. I think it's a fair test, but a tough one.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I think the greens were pretty firm today. I hit a lot of shots into the green that -- they were expecting the greens to come and didn't water the greens, I suppose. But I'm pretty sure that it can really get the greens pretty firm, even though we get a little bit of rain.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I hope this is not my best chance. I hope my game will be improving as the years go by, and I will have a better chance somewhere down the road.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, after winning the U.S. Masters, obviously, a lot more people have been wanting me to make interviews and things like that. But I think the press has been pretty much the same. It was hard the first two or three weeks, but right now, it's okay. Especially this week that is the U.S. Open, I think the rest of the players, or at least some of the rest of the players, are getting a lot of attention, too.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, the similarities, if anything, might be just the greens and the surroundings of the green. Apart from that, the rest of the golf course has nothing to do with Augusta National, that's for sure.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, it was the first time I've shot a 62, yes, before coming into a major event, that's for sure. But you have to take into consideration that we were playing a golf course that virtually there was very little rough. The greens were very soft. And if you look at the scoring during the week, it was very, very good; so I don't think that that 62 was one of my best rounds. I think I've shot better rounds than that one.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I've been using -- from -- a 7-iron, 9-iron, sand wedge and a lob wedge around the greens. Obviously, the 7-iron, I tried to run it through the slopes. 9-iron and sand wedge, trying to pitch the ball against the face of the greens; face bounce onto the green, and then tried to stop the ball on the greens. And obviously, the lob wedge, just trying to hit it up in the air; bounce it onto the green and trying to stop it.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, when I was playing in '95, I was feeling a lot of pain. And when you're in a situation like that, somehow it's very difficult to concentrate on the golf course to keep concentration all through the round. I don't know how bad the injury of David is, but it might play as a positive thing, at the same time. He might get out there and feel relaxed and no responsibility because he's not a hundred percent. He might -- it might be a help. At the same time, if he gets on the golf course and feels some pain when he's striking the ball or gripping the club, that won't help at all, that's for sure.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I don't think this golf course needs any higher rough, anyway. A good thing? I think it makes the golf course play fair. If you have five inches of rough on this golf course and 20-yard wide fairways, I think Tuesday or Wednesday next week, we will still be playing golf here.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: It's not at all. Not even close. I don't think you would see any other golf course in the world similar to this one. You're playing in a golf course that there's a lot of pine trees, but sort of a links course tee-to-green, but around the greens is very unique layout. So obviously, there is nothing like this on the European Tour.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I don't want to think that. I think that -- as I said before, I hope part of my game will improve as years go by, and I will have a better chance, even though the golf courses at the U.S. Open might be set up in a different way than this week. Up to now, what, this U.S. Open might be the U.S. Open that is going to be played more fair for the Europeans in the sense that the rough is not going to be all that thick off the tee. But it's going to be difficult to control the flight, the distances. And taking into consideration the difficulty of the greens, there's going to be -- it's going to be a very, very tough golf course. And I truly believe that the guy that really hits the ball straight off the tee will have an easier job to score well this week.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I'm still concerned. Maybe less concerned. Obviously, if you have three inches of rough, instead of five inches of rough, that is pretty obvious that the three inches of rough shouldn't hurt as much as the five inches of rough. I hit a few roughs today. Sometimes you get really bad lies. But sometimes you can hit a 6-iron, something like that to be able to put the ball close to the green. Very difficult to put it on the green, because there's no way to stop the ball on the green; so it has to run in there. If there is any cut in front of it, you have to run it in front, but at least it gives you a chance to put it close to the green. And from there, maybe you can save par with a chipping putt.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I've always said that I've been very lucky in that sense. I've never had problems with that in the States, and I'm very pleased. Obviously, the situation that part of the crowd would love to see an American or a U.S. player win the U.S. Masters or the U.S. Open or the U.S. PGA, and sometimes they do not make it very fair on Europeans. But I've been very lucky. I never had a problem at the U.S. Open -- at the U.S. Masters this year. I never had a problem when I won there in '94. I understand that the people will be rooting for Tom Lehman, in one case; for Greg this year, or Davis Love or any U.S. Tour player. I understand that. But as far as being fair to me, I have not a problem with that. And they've been very fair.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: 72 holes? Never in my life (Laughter.) 72 holes in a row? That's a miracle. My memory is not that good. I've had tournaments where I've drove the ball well for two or three days, but I don't think I've been very, very pleased with my driving ever in my life.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: My nose. Look at it (Laughter.) I think both of them. I think they have to go together. I think you saw that at the U.S. Masters this year. There was a lot of heart in it, and there was a lot of head. I don't think you can do certain things if both of them are not working well together.