FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 12, 1997

Graham Marsh

GRAHAM MARSH: Yes. Nice position to be in. Maybe one or two shots behind, I don't know. It will depend on obviously how the leaders finish out there. But, with so many guys near the lead, it's obviously going to be a shootout. Depends who just plays the best golf out there tomorrow. Just going to have to keep your head down and your tail up, make a run at it.

GRAHAM MARSH: Certainly slow start and a slow finish. Bogeyed the last and bogeyed the first. But in between that, I played some quality shots in between, but it's one of those golf courses for me, I really never find this golf course particularly easy. I don't know what it is. It always amazes me the scores that are shot here each year. Somebody seems to have a very low score. I don't know what the low score is today, --

GRAHAM MARSH: 66. You know, given the severity of some of the pin placements out there, given the severity of some of the holes, I think that's pretty darn good scoring. But, for me, I tend to play this golf course - there are a number of holes that I just go ahead and play defensively, a number of holes where I see an opportunity and try and attack it. But, I've never sort of envisioned this as being a really very easy golf course.

GRAHAM MARSH: Yeah. I guess I've always tried to peak myself at certain times of the year. The things that come to mind are the major championships. At the start of the year, of course the PGA and The Tradition, I try to get up for that. Then in the middle of the year, I try and get my game into form for these Championships. But, the Ford and the US Open. It's worked pretty well for me in the past. I set my schedule around those events. It's nice when it comes into a streak. I mean, I can hardly complain about the way it's been going the last five or six weeks. It's just fallen into place. Probably the difference has been I've made some critical putts when I've had to, and I've had my swing on a pretty good plane, and my confidence has been there, which, of course, is terribly important when you're playing on golf courses like this which are just the type of golf courses that require confidence, but also require a tremendous amount of patience.

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, last year I ran into a pretty hot streak in the middle of the year, too, where I think I finished -- I was sort of 86-under-par or something through a series of events there. But, you know, the nice thing about this one, of course, is that it's right at the majors, and that's always nice, because that's what I've prepared for, that's what I've sort of dreamt of doing well in. So, it's all just sort of happened at the right time. But, certainly, I've had streaks like this. And, I think, part of the mentality is, too, is that as an Australian, living in Australia, you go away and you go out for fairly extended periods of time. We've always done this. We've always gone away and played eight or nine weeks, even sometimes, you know, ten, twelve weeks in a stretch. So, we're not -- I'm not mentally conditioned to taking a break. So, when I get onto a run, I continue it on because I just keep playing from week to week. I think if you're living in the United States, we see many guys that win two tournaments and then they might take off for two weeks and don't come back. You never really know how long that streak might have gone on for. Of course, they come back and they continue the streak, but it just doesn't become as apparent because they're not playing every single week. So I don't have a problem with playing eight or nine weeks in a row. I've always done that. But, once I get onto a roll, I can continue it simply because I'm playing all the time.

GRAHAM MARSH: When you're in contention, obviously it's more of a drain. I was certainly washed out last week at the start of last week. I was walking around like a zombie the first couple of days because of the two wins and the third up in Canada. So, yes, I mean, there becomes a point, even within that eight or nine weeks, where you might just go off the peak a little bit. I certainly did that last week. I feel fresh again. I've had a cold all week. I've really just been taking it one shot at a time. That's been my attitude. I haven't probably expected too much from myself this week, having been -- having carried the cold around all the time. That's probably not a bad thing.

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, you know, I've said in the past, perhaps if you just go back on what I said about the low scoring, if my memory serves me well, certainly in the four years that I've been here, I didn't play here last year, I couldn't. I had to withdraw because of injury, never hit a shot in the tournament. I was here and practiced on the Tuesday, had a back spasm, I couldn't feature. But, when I think back on it, the other times there's been rain delays, heavy storms, and the greens have suddenly become soft. The guys have started to fire at the pins. This year the golf course has that little bit more life in it. The only thing I could say why the scores are probably bunching together is, I think the guys are probably treating many of these holes with much more respect. There are certainly par 4s out there where par is a very good score. There's no question about that. But, there are a number of 5s out there where you're expecting to make 4. The guys that are probably somewhere near the top are probably playing the golf course in a similar fashion. So the scores are squeezing together. There are not -- when you analyze it, there's a number of birdie holes out there. If you probably go back and look at the scores, you'll just see where they are. You'll probably find seven or eight, maybe even ten holes, where there really aren't very many birdies. But, on the others, there's a bundle of birdies. So that's probably what's bringing the scores together.

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, I wasn't aware of it. So it's pretty difficult to comment on it. My only comment that I would make about, you know, making bogeys out here, I mean, every hole -- perhaps it's a bit too much of a cliche, but every hole is a bogey hole out here, but probably more so on this golf course. You can be just a little bit out of position with these slopes and swells and the speed of the green, the tightness of the fairways, and just that little bit out of position, trying to get the ball close to the hole can be almost impossible. So, it doesn't surprise me that you can run up two or three bogeys in a line. I mean, that's certainly the very nature of this golf course. And if you take, on that back 9, probably ten would have been a disappointing bogey. But, 11, you just make a little slip there with an iron shot, a tee shot, your second shot in there, and you've got a bogey written all over it, and certainly the 12th hole. I mean, sometimes bogey is a very good score. So you don't have to be far off line. That's what I've always said. I've never found this golf course particularly easy. Because there's a fine line, there's so many water hazards out there, so many humps where if you get on the wrong side of it your ball is traveling 40 or 50 feet from the hole, you're left with a fast, downhill, eight-foot breaking putt. There's a fine line. You're walking along that edge all the time as to whether it's birdie or maybe double bogey. So, that's just happens to be the nature of the golf course, the design of the golf course.

GRAHAM MARSH: Thanks.