SENIOR BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 27, 2003

Carl Mason

SCOTT CROCKETT: If you could sum up your feelings at the moment? Has it started to sink in what's happened over the last little while?

CARL MASON: Well, it goes without saying that how I feel right now, I'm pretty gutted. I'm proud of the way I played. At the last it was just one of those things. I played the right club off the tee, and I thought I had hit quite a good shot, but it just turned in a little bit, and then in the wind, and that bunker gathers everything. So, it was in there and I ended up in an awful lie in the bunker. I couldn't go forward. I did well to get it out sideways. The rest is history.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Was it 2-iron again?

CARL MASON: 2-iron.

Q. What was the lie like?

CARL MASON: Well, it wasn't a footprint. I don't know if it was where a ball had land before. It had not been raked anyway. It was quite a depression, and just to the left of it was a footprint, so the bunker had not been raked properly. So I couldn't go forwards, that was the thing.

Q. What did Tom say to you after the playoff?

CARL MASON: He just said how well I played and it's unlucky, "you deserve to win" and all that stuff. That was very nice, as always.

Q. Inaudible?

CARL MASON: Well, I was. I just pulled my tee shot a little bit off the toe and it didn't quite -- it was close to carrying because if I buttoned it, I could get all of those traps with the driver, yeah. That's what I -- I thought I got it, even then but it just didn't quite carry.

I got it out in two, but you know what these bunkers are like. You can't take on too much or it will come back and hit you or something stupid. My mind wasn't in very good shape at that point, I have to say.

Q. Were you aware of the position at the 72nd hole?

CARL MASON: Yes, I was, yeah. That's why I took the iron. I was playing for a 5, at the worst. Yeah, I had heard, yeah. Absolutely.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Are you able to look at the week at the moment? You've obviously played fantastically well. You've done yourself and the European Seniors Tour proud this week.

CARL MASON: Oh, yeah, if someone said I would be in a playoff with Tom Watson at the end of the week, I would be ecstatic, yeah, absolutely.

Q. Not a bad start to your senior career?

CARL MASON: It's not a bad start. I have a good few cards in for my handicap, anyway. (Laughing) Stroke average isn't too bad, either.

Q. What are you going to do this evening?

CARL MASON: Like I do most evenings, but probably a little bit more.

Q. Would you have preferred not to play the 18th again?

CARL MASON: Do you know, I hate that hole. I really do hate that hole. (Laughing).

No, that's how it was, and that's the best place to have it, obviously. No, it doesn't bother me, no. Unfortunately, you can imagine -- you can imagine when I teed off in the playoff what my mind was like; it wasn't in good shape, unfortunately, but that's the game.

Q. (Inaudible.)

CARL MASON: No, it's not.

Q. Bad experiences at that hole in the past?

CARL MASON: I'm sure I did in the Opens that I've played in along the line. I'm sure I must have done somewhere. This week has not been too -- I got way with a driver off the tee, I think it was the second round or something like that, when I finished close to the bushes. But it's just an awkward tee shot, and it teases you to go to that. The line is so much further right than you think it is. I thought when I struck the 2-iron, I thought, that's perfect, and then it was just turning in the wind, and as I say, once that happens, that ground is so hard, it all gathers and I knew it was in the bunker.

A decent lie, I could have at least -- because it was quite well back in the bunker, too. So I could have advanced the ball maybe 120 yards or 150 yards maybe with a decent lie. As soon as I saw that lie, I thought, oh, no. I couldn't believe it.

Q. Did you caddie as a kid?

CARL MASON: I might have caddied for my dad once or twice, but no.

Q. Did you know about Tom and his caddie?

CARL MASON: Well, yeah, I can see that Tom feels very deeply with that, yes. You could see he was choked up with that, yeah. I think of my dad, and, you know, that's quite emotional.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Carl, many thanks. Very well played this week.

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