FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 25, 1999

Graham Marsh

GRAHAM MARSH: Overall, I didn't get the ball as close to the hole today with my iron shots. I left myself in the wrong segment on the green on a number of occasions. And that left me defensive with the putter. I had quite a number of putts from 30 feet and 40 feet; 2-putted them. But not really realistic, birdies, and that was the difference. I thought some of the pin placements today were very tight, given the wind direction. And that had me aiming way from the hole, because if you missed on the wrong side, it was a disaster. But overall, I still drove the ball well. Started off not so well with the putter, but picked that up in the middle of the round when I made a couple of birdies and a couple of par saves. Was not a poor round of golf, but I'm a little surprised that it's in the lead, to tell you the truth. I thought that somebody would come to grips with it today. And somebody at least just a couple shots behind us, we would have been probably behind the field at this stage. But, I guess that's good fortune that we're not.

GRAHAM MARSH: I hit the 3 with my second shot at the 1st, and went into the bunker and hit a great bunker shot to about 18 inches. Birdied the 2nd from about 10 feet, pitching wedge. 3rd, I made a par save out of the bunker, left, after being right in front of the green. I went for the flag and missed it left, and made a par save from about four feet, I suppose. The next, I hit it just over the back of the green, a good shot, and left myself a very awkward chip; and nearly played a great chip, and finished two feet short and putted that for bogey. Made a birdie at 6. Hit it in there about eight feet and made that, wedge. And the rest of it went pretty much -- I 2-putted out of that Valley of Sin over there on the left at 12. I got it up to about 10 feet and made that for par and made a nice birdie putt from about 10 foot at 13. Missed it at 15 from about four feet for a bogey, and then holed a nice one from about 20 feet at 16 for a birdie. So it was a mixture, but I certainly was not unhappy with the way I played. It was sort of a solid round of golf, and that's what you're looking for at this stage, to hold your position. At least not lose too much ground. You're going into it trying to get -- with the chance to do it on Sunday. That's what everybody is looking for, that chance to do it.

GRAHAM MARSH: I played them 2-over; 3-under yesterday. As I said to you yesterday, I played those par 3s so well. I mean, 3-under on the par 3s today and I'm five -- five shots better. That's a big swing.

GRAHAM MARSH: I'm surprised -- well, Aoki did, in a way. But the course, you know it's funny thing. In the back of your mind, you have memories of how a golf course plays. And even though there is rain on the golf course, sometimes you still get into a defensive mode of probably not taking enough club from the tee sometimes. When we've been laying up in the past and maybe getting 20, 25 yards release out of the fairway. All of the sudden you stand up there today, same shot. Instead of taking the extra club, maybe the driver, you still play with a 3-wood, and you leave yourself three clubs longer into the green. And the pin position is tighter, and you just don't get it as close with the second shot. We might have got caught today. The golf course played a little bit longer than we are familiar with, and I think that probably had something to do with it. It was windy in the middle of the round, too. There was a wind shift, where we were playing some holes downwind yesterday, we got caught when we were playing more directly into the wind. And that made some of them play longer, and there wasn't even downwind. You were not getting the run or the release off those fairways. There are a couple of tough pin placements, given the wind direction, on some of the holes. And they just were not as easy to get at. And I think a lot of players -- a number of players, maybe the whole field, sort of aimed away. And that's what I said yesterday: If you're confident, and you attack the pins, you don't have the difficult birdie putts. But if you don't attack the pins, you're left in the wrong segment; so you're defensively putting all the time. I didn't see a huge number of shots come up close today. Not in our threesome, and even looking at the groups as you walked around. You could tell just by gallery reaction, there were not a number of great shots being hit that were finishing close to the hole.

GRAHAM MARSH: 6-iron or something, it's a different ball game. Certainly, I got trapped -- I was very much trapped at 16. I mean, I should have hit a driver from the tee. I hit my 2-wood, and I finished up hitting a 4-iron, where I hit an 8-iron yesterday; so that was a mistake. And fortunately, I made a birdie from it, but it's so easy for it to go the other way, too, when you've got that much club in your hand.

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, over -- I guess -- I don't look at it and say: Well, I think probably addressed that issue yesterday, when I said I can't believe the scores that we shoot on this golf course. When you intimate that you'd rather have it playing longer, you're intimating that the scores be closer to par. Because if you're talking about having length, you're talking about getting it close to par. We have this as the TPC Championship, and I don't know that it's right for the SENIOR TOUR that every major championship, you should be out there grinding away where par is going to be the winning score. Because what you must understand is that if par is going to be the winning score, some of those other scores are going to be 30- or 35-over par. I don't know if that's what we're here for, not in senior golf. I don't necessarily agree with it. I think one tournament a year is fine, the U.S. Senior Open. I don't have any problem with that. That's a different event. It is one of our majors, and being the Open, that's a worthwhile goal. But I don't think we've got to try and do that in every major that we play.