U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 29, 2002

Walter Hall

MARTY PARKES: I wanted to thank Walter Hall for joining us in the media center. He had a 72 today, plus one.

WALTER HALL: Obviously, I got off to a fantastic start, birdying 1, 2 and 3. All the putts were in the 10 to 15 foot range. Made a good par on 4. Played five and six really solid. Good drives, good iron shots. Had a good birdie putt at 6 and missed it.

Played 7 really good until I got to the sand wedge shot and just dropped my concentration a little bit and just didn't get it up the hill and obviously came back down the hill. And then, I just knocked it by the hole. Hit a good putt, just didn't go in.

9, I pulled my tee shot just a hair, got it in the bunker, and got it in a bad rake print, so I had to hit wedge out of it. I was lucky to get the wedge out of the bunker. I had a good sand wedge into the green about six feet. And the putt just broke a little bit more than I read. And I ended up making bogey on the hole.

So, all in all, it was a good front nine, shooting 1-under.

The back nine, tee shots really gave me a fit on the back nine. I hit bad tee shots on 11, got away with it.

A bad tee shot on 13, made bogey, did not get away with it.

A bad tee shot on 18. Other than that, I hit some good shots on the back.

Hit a really good iron shot on 10.

Good iron shot on 12. I had a really good birdie putt at 14.

Hit a great 3-wood on 15. That hole was playing long. I hit a 3-wood, good as I can hit it, 30 feet short of the hole.

I birdied 16.

17, probably hurt me the most. I had a really good tee shot there. Had a solid, perfect distance for a 5-iron and I slid a little ahead of the ball, shoved it left of the green, and in the rough and had no play. Hit it out of the high rough down to about 8 or 10 feet and then I ended up making bogey.

Q. Take us through the whole thing at 18. Bad tee shot, which way, left?

WALTER HALL: I think 18, a little wind in my face. I tried to hit it too hard, I moved, hit it right, right of the bunker and in real high rough. I hit it in the high rough. I had about 205 to the front of the green. My choices were to just take a sand wedge out and just peck it down the fairway or take my 7-wood and try to hit it in the left bunker, which is where I was trying to hit it. The ball jumped out to the left a little bit. And I really -- really didn't have that hard play over there. I hit a pretty good wedge shot over that bunker after I dropped it. But I left it with a big break, had about a 8 foot putt, and it broke about 8 or 10 inches. A left-to-right break that much is pretty tough for me. Because that's not my favorite putt. I had about 6 or 8 left-to-right putts and I like the left-to-right breakers.

Q. That got you out of the final group. Is that more comfortable for anybody out here, particularly when you have to play with a guy like Watson or whatever?

WALTER HALL: Well, I don't mind playing with Tom. Tom is a great guy to play with. He's -- look at what he's done in his career. I enjoy playing with Tom Watson, Tom Kite or Ed Dougherty, anybody. I have to play my game anyway, because my game is not drive it down the middle, hit it in 6 feet and make one or two. I hit it all over the lot, and hopefully, I can make more birdies than bogeys. Today I made more bogeys than birdies. I enjoy playing with Ed Dougherty, so tomorrow will be a great day.

Q. Even though when you took the first tee box, the tournament was only halfway over. Were you score board watching. Did it take you long to know that Tom birdied the first three holes, and the lead you had today was gone, even before you got started?

WALTER HALL: I did not even look at the leaderboard until I got to No. 9, and at that point when I saw where Don Pooley was about 7-under, somewhere in that neighborhood, which I thought was fantastic. So, I really didn't pay any attention to the leaderboard. I was trying to play my game. I'll do the same -- from there on I did look, because I was leaking oil, and didn't really worry too much about the leaderboard, whatever was going to happen would happen, and I couldn't control it. All I could control is what I did with my golf game. So, I'm really happy with Don Pooley, he's a class guy, and he played a great round of golf.

Q. Do you feel like the conditions on the golf course have changed much from day-to-day this week?

WALTER HALL: Well, I think obviously the greens are going to get harder and faster. I doubt they'll put any water on them. And without the moisture on the greens they will get a little quicker, it depends on where they put the pins tomorrow. They had some really tough pins I thought, on the side of some slopes, edges left and right that you could lose a ball very quickly.

Q. Do you think you'll be nervous tonight thinking about tomorrow's round and being this close to winning a U.S. Open?

WALTER HALL: Not at all. You know, I've played in a lot of Senior Opens. I won the Canadian Senior Open last year in a playoff. I'm just going to go out and play golf. Nerves are, I think, great to a point. I think they help you -- keep you focused. I was probably more nervous after I made two or three birdies than when I was making two or three bogeys. So, I just want to go play golf tomorrow and whatever happens, happens.

Q. Are you surprised at all by the number of birdies this course is yielding, the way you described your game, does that maybe play into your game better than possibly a typical Open site?

WALTER HALL: Well, I think the course yielded quite a few birdies only because it's in such great condition. There are probably 4, 5, 6 holes, including the par-5s that you're hitting wedges to the greens. And the greens are so good that if you get it in the right place and you can roll your ball you're going to make them. The other side of the coin, you have four or five holes that are brutal holes, 17 and 18. 15, 17 and 18, that's all you want, they're as hard as I ever want to play day-in and day-out.

End of FastScripts....