U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 1, 1994

Graham Marsh

GRAHAM MARSH: Yes.

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, I guess the first thing is that we obviously got the advantage of the rain delay, because it quieted the greens down, didn't have the spike marks that were staring at us in the face after the five holes. Nice one at the second from about 30 feet which was a nice hole to birdie, obviously, being one of the tougher ones, on the tough side. Just prior to the rain delay, hit it in about just over two yards from the hole at 5 and went back out for the rain delay and made that. 9 I hit a 7-iron in about twelve feet. Backside it was-- basically all birdie chances except 17 where I missed the green; put it in the back bunker, hit it out just under a yard. And 18 missed, the green left, put one of the little ridges on the left side of the green; tossed it off and 2-putted that from down the bank. A nice start. No bogeys out there today which is always nice if you can keep those off the card around here because sometimes birdies are hard to buy on the backside.

GRAHAM MARSH: Very much so. They were easier than what they were yesterday morning when we played, so, yeah, it was real in the throwing darts stuff. And if you can zero in with your iron shots, you had every advantage out there this afternoon. The biggest advantage, that you are getting the ball reasonably close, you didn't have the spike marks to contend with. Of course, when you get late in the day at an Open Championship, when you got 154, 56 out there, players, that is a huge advantage. So there is no question that the morning players and the afternoon players had the advantage of the times.

GRAHAM MARSH: Yeah, you get -- I have always done poorly with rain delays, but I don't know, I must be getting smarter, I don't know, last few times I have come back over here; you get a lot of rain delays at this time of the year in this country on this circuit, and it is just a question of what you do mentally when you are in those rain delays and I try and keep myself warm and try and go and stretch a little bit and just get back there and hit the balls. But I knew the putt I had -- I lined the putt at 5, before I went out-- sorry, 6, before I went out there; I knew it was a little to right to left breaker so I hit about ten of those on the putting green before I went back and holed the putt. So I knew exactly what -- I was feeling pretty confident because I slaughtered about 6 out of 10 before I went back out there. That was a nice little boost because you can so often have that length to pass and miss it and then get agitated.

GRAHAM MARSH: Just over 2 meters.

GRAHAM MARSH: Yeah, but I noticed that the other day, there was a lot of rain here on Monday. We went out Tuesday morning and it was just like they had the sprinklers out overnight. It is very impressive golf territory. You can't help but be impressed with it.

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, I think the difference between golf in the United States and golf in other parts of the world is that you usually playing much more target golf over here, if you want to generalize. I know you can say U.S. Opens and more recently at The Masters that you have had a little bit of bounce in the green there, but if you were to just generalize about American golf, it is more of throwing darts. I think that the players over here have come to adjust to that. That is why the scores are always so low. I mean, when you are playing in the U.K. or Australia, you get on the sand belt courses there; we have got a lot of sand belt courses down there; it is just not the same golf. It is like playing at Oakmont, so you start to get a lot more defensive. That is one of the adjustments I had to make when I came back here this year playing on the Senior Tour; I had to become more aggressive with the iron play because you do tend to get very defensive when you are playing on hard and fast greens. There is no question scoring is much more difficult when you are playing under those conditions. I mean, you only got to look at the U.S. Opens and Masters this year to see what happens to scores when you get those types of conditions.

GRAHAM MARSH: Yeah, of course I am getting anxious to win. I mean, I came over here to play on the Senior Tour -- you don't come over here for holiday. There is plenty of places in the world to do that. I am keen to win. And particularly I felt like I had a chance in a couple of Majors and I didn't win them. Of course, you guys make it that way, that the Majors are everything in golf. Not everybody totally agrees with it. But that is the history of the situation. And Majors are very important and of course you want to win. I have a fire there to want to win this week. And whether it is -- whether you are 50 years of age or 46 or 47 or 40, I mean, when you have been through the ropes, and you are a competitive person, that is what you come out here for.

GRAHAM MARSH: Yeah, I have played a lot with Hobday.

GRAHAM MARSH: Hobday is a very impressive player. I mean, if you talk about a guy being able to drool (sic) the flag out when he gets on a roll, he just knocks it out all day. And I mean, there is no telling what he is likely to do. He is capable of shooting very low numbers. Let me say having had that rain this afternoon I think that that is what is going to happen tomorrow, maybe Sunday will be a little different; if we get a little sun and little breeze tomorrow. But certainly tomorrow morning, the players that go out there are really going to have a lot of fun being able to toss it in the hole. Somebody, I think, is going to shoot a very low score and Hobday is one of the players that is capable of doing that, obviously.

GRAHAM MARSH: I saw my fair share of it, yeah.

GRAHAM MARSH: I think you better ask him that question. That is fairly touchy stuff. It was when he didn't have his gear on.