INGERSOLL-RAND SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 6, 1999

Gary McCord

GARY McCORD: I was -- I don't know how many shots coming back out of the lead, but it was a billion shots, just because I'm not playing very good. I haven't been playing good the last couple of weeks. I've been working on it really hard, really hard. Nothing comes out of it. You know, you just go out there and I think I had something on the range, maybe I'll try that. I actually was watching Tiger play in Valderrama, and I remember Tiger has got a -- he's got a little credo he follows. It's called wide, tight and rip it. I remembered that, and I thought: Maybe that's what I'm doing, I'm not wide enough, not tight enough on my turn and it kind of worked. It got to the point where it worked on the practice tee. Then I went out and the first couple holes I dusted in a couple, stupid putts on the 1st hole or 2nd hole. That was about 20 feet. 3rd hole, I made one from 50 feet. Next hole, par 5, I hit it over the green in two and chipped back. Next hole -- I think I made it.

GARY McCORD: About a foot. Then I made it again. All of the sudden, you started getting all excited about yourself.

GARY McCORD: 10 feet, 12 feet. I got going good. The guys we were playing with, we had a great time. They got sucked into my vacuum, which I was playing and then they started going good and I was kind of sucked into theirs, and we just kind of kept going and I think we had 20 birdies for the day. It was one of those deals where you catch the other guys and you're playing well and you all kind of play well through the round. It was like drafting, basically, and we just kind of drafted each other all the way out there.

GARY McCORD: Birdie at 8 par 5. I hit it in the bunker, green high to the right, pin-high blasted out about six feet and made that. Par 10, I made it from about 10 feet. 11, I didn't. 13, the lake. That was a stupid one. I pitched it and hit it up on the top there and it sucked all the way back down the hill. Not feeling very good, and I whipped it in the hole there. It was about 40 feet I guess. I haven't made a putt over six feet, and I made two 40-footers. Then I hit the next hole, just 6-iron, hit it about three feet. Couldn't miss that one straight in the hole. The next par 5, I laid back with a second shot, 7-iron, so I could have a full wedge, sand wedge in there and I think I just got the right distance. It was 106 yards and spun it back to the hole. Got there to six feet where I couldn't miss it. And the only one I bogeyed on, I took a chance. The wind was going pretty good on 18. I tried to hit it on the left-hand side where it's flat and just hit a hard swing, get it a little higher. But the wind was kicking -- hit 7-iron yesterday, and it went in some really bad rough; so I just had to pitch it out. Pitched it out and missed the putt. But I'll take it.

GARY McCORD: I'm going to keep working on the stuff that I'm working on. When you get in a position to do anything, you just -- the fairways and greens -- you know, Flash, it's not going to go anywhere but lower. So, you take a look at the number he's at, and you add a couple. If he plays okay, and -- what's he, 10, 13? So, I've got to go absolutely ballistic again tomorrow to catch him. That's what you've got to do. That's what everybody is going to be doing.

GARY McCORD: I was watching him last night. Yeah, what a golf swing. Wide, tight and rip it. And he does. But it helped.

GARY McCORD: Yeah, yeah.

GARY McCORD: No, it's a number. You know, it's a number. You've got to go low. It doesn't matter who shoots it. Bruce has been there most of the year shooting it. You know, the golf courses, you know, are not that hard so you know you can't -- no one is going to really stumble that's playing that well. This one is a little harder than most, but it's a still not that hard. Again, you saw what I did today. There are some low numbers out there. Really low. The wind has been perfect. The only hard hole out there is 18 where you really go -- I've got to rip it down there and I've got to get it on the green. Otherwise -- I got my card here in '74, and I don't remember much about the golf course. I remember it was fairly hard. But I remember the wind was howling here. We haven't had anything. It's nothing. If the wind does kick up, it will be -- it will be good. But you get this golf course with no wind, this is as easy as you're going to get it.

GARY McCORD: I knew Bruce would play well. I thought -- I knew Allen Doyle would play well because he's got the perfect game for the Senior TOUR. I thought guys like that would play well. You knew Tom was going to play well. You know the guys coming off the TOUR. You can see how they are playing and how their game sets up for this TOUR, which is, drive it straight; you'd better have a very good game inside of 120 yards; and you've still got your flat (inaudible). If you've got those three things, it's hard to screw up.

GARY McCORD: I never -- I'm not out here enough to really feel the flow and feel what's going on. But he's -- you get in that little inner sanctum of playing well, and he's been in it the whole year and he doesn't get out of it. Where most of us are outside of that little sanctum of playing well and always trying to get in it. If he ever shoots a 71 or 72, that's a freak show for him. He's used to 67, 68. We're out there trying to get in and shoot those numbers. The sports psychiatrists call it the zone. He's pretty much been baptized in the zone this year. Hale was last year. Every year -- there's some good players coming out here.

GARY McCORD: Bruce wasn't long enough for the regular TOUR. He hit the ball too low and wasn't long enough. You've got to go absolutely as high as you can go and as hard as you can go; otherwise, those golf courses are hard and then you're coming in. Bruce is a very low angle. I played with him a bunch out there. You've got stacked bunkers with greens that are 11 on the meter sloping, like this, (indicating steeply upward). I look at all your great players. They hit it this way, up, Duval, Tiger, Montgomerie, they hit it up in the air with a lot of spin on it. Bruce was always real low.

GARY McCORD: I think what you'll see is a TOUR in transition. I think this TOUR has been -- it was set up beautifully because you got some very, very good personalities coming out selling this TOUR: Trevino, Chi Chi. You can't have two better guys playing well and out there selling the TOUR. Now you're getting these guys that don't have the personality of Chi Chi or Lee, which nobody does, but they are all -- they all came from very good stock, very, very good players. Watson and Kite, Lanny, those are three really good players. And they are playing fairly decent. Tom has been turned around here the last couple of months here on the TOUR. You're going to see a lot better players coming out here, but obviously not the personalities that we've had before.

GARY McCORD: As it's structured now, I don't think so. But I think the TOUR has already been sold. I don't think -- I don't think there's any -- you don't have to go sell it; it's already a viable product. You go out and shoot in good numbers and people come out and watch no matter if you're 20 or 70. They want to go watch.

GARY McCORD: The only thing that's going to change, I have to take a look at how many I can play. I don't know if I can go at this pace. I need some time off. I need to go home. This has been a long year. A really long year. I've got so many things that are going on that I'm trying -- and the only way you can find if you can handle them is to do them; so I'm doing them all right now, but if a couple of these things hit and I have to do them, then I've really got no time. So I'm going to have to start whacking a bunch of stuff, but I don't know what to whack. I like this; CBS I'm contracted to do that. So I'm going to do these two things, but there's a lot of stuff that might get axed, and I don't know what yet.

GARY McCORD: No. If you play this game long enough -- I've played -- I've played so bad yesterday, and then so good today. And you just sit there and you go, what is this? You know, this is a stupid game. So you never get all of them in order with how good you play one day because you're going to play bad the next or the next week. It's the idea that when I peg it in the ground I get a heartbeat, and I like that. Because up in the tower, you don't get a heartbeat, but vicariously, you sit there and go: I want to get town there and go play. And then I get the opportunity to go down and play. I like them both. It's a going to be a tough decision. I'd like to play. I played 17 this year, and that's too many. But boy, to make the Top 31 every year, you know, I don't know if I'm that good to play a minimal schedule and keep doing it.

GARY McCORD: Probably not. But, you know, I'll go try. I know that I've got to shoot -- I've got to shoot -- the number is probably 13 to win. So I'm 6 back.

GARY McCORD: Oh, yeah. Any sports psychologist that's ever talked to me has said: The only way you're going to play good is if you have fun. If you go out there walk around in some sort of storm the whole day, you're not going to play well.

GARY McCORD: That's me. And I need to have fun when I play. I had fun today.

GARY McCORD: But you can have fun with your caddie, have fun with the gallery, do whatever. But I've been struggling with my swing. And it's been pretty good the whole year, but it just kind of -- it got out of whack, and you're trying so hard. It's really hard to have fun with the nicks and you're screwed up. Because I'm thinking constantly: I've got to get this loaded and this transition. I've got four billion things going on, trying to get back to where I was, whereas before, I never thought about it.

GARY McCORD: The golf swing, I was thinking about this with width and trying to quiet, and when it goes away, (snaps fingers) you've got to grab it real quick. And luckily, I've got a little understanding of my golf swing so I can go quick and figure out spots. But the last couple of weeks, it's been difficult because I haven't looked at it. And I should be looking at some pictures of my golf swing right now to see where it is. It's not where I want it but I've got this -- a lot of Band-Aids.

GARY McCORD: It was pretty good today. I got in the right positions, and then my timing came back. But you try and you think so hard. I mean, all day, all night, when I'm out last night, I'm thinking : I've got to do this and that. When you're playing good, you don't think about anything. It's just a giant sea between your ears.

GARY McCORD: I'm not an answer to any puzzle, okay. (Laughter.) Not the answer to any puzzle whatsoever. If I can help The Senior TOUR at all, I'll do anything I can to help it. But I'm not the answer. You know, I've been out here for a long time, guys and I've heard the same things. I heard cries for so many years, where are all the good young players? There's no more good young players. They stopped saying that ten years ago. Now, it's "Where are they all coming from?" As these guys get better and better and you watch these guys mature in front of you, they have a certain personality that comes out. Media always wants a great player and great personality. They always want Trevino. He's going to come along every three par seconds or something. So you take that, and you hold him up there and say: Everybody should be like him or a Chi Chi. We were lucky enough to have them out here when this thing started so this TOUR got a lot of knee on around it real quick. Those guys, you know, Fuzzy is going to be out here pretty soon in a couple years, and he's going to be great for it. You take them all in -- how much is enough?

BRUCE FLEISHER: I want your television contract.

GARY McCORD: I remember when he was selling fake jewelry.