U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 9, 1999

Leonard Thompson

LEONARD THOMPSON: Played very well. I played what I thought was a reasonably solid round. Your radio guy just told me I only hit 56 percent of the greens. I asked him if he ever played in an Open. According to him, I think I missed four, five of them under the hole on the short side a foot off the green. I will take that.

LEONARD THOMPSON: Obviously the fairways were softer, which the ball didn't go as far. But the greens were a lot softer and the pins were more accessible. Now, there was about 4, 5 pins out there that if the greens -- if the wind blows this afternoon, and these greens get anywhere close to where they were yesterday, there is a couple of flags that are going to be unplayable or close it to. The 4th hole, if it -- we walked off the green this morning, all three of us looked at each other and said if this gets a little quick here, you can sling it off the green from three or four feet. So the wet greens made it easier to get the ball close to the hole. I think that is the biggest difference for me today.

LEONARD THOMPSON: These conditions today were much easier than yesterday. Yesterday, it was like somebody had an ax over your head and at any minute they could lop you right off. You could have on any hole at any time you could putt the ball, chip the ball, or hit an approach shot, pin the ball right off the green into the deep stuff. Today, it was not quite that way.

LEONARD THOMPSON: I used to be able to remember all of this. If I could remember it. No. 1, was just ordinary par, driver in the middle of the fairway, actually pitched it about ten feet on the wrong side of the hole and putted it three feet past the hole, then made that. 2, drove it in the right fairway bunker. Hit a nice iron out of there. I was actually better off there than I would have been in the rough about twelve feet right of the hole, and 2-putted. 3, I hit, 2-putted from about 40 feet, just if there is such a thing as a normal 2-putt from 40 feet here this week, that was one. 4, I hit a bad -- a terrible third shot there and had it like 50 feet left of the hole on the green and putted about a foot and a half past the hole, and the putt -- I made the putt from a foot and a half, but probably should have broke three inches from the foot and a half. That is one of the pins we were -- I was talking about earlier. 5, I made bogey, 3-putted. Drove middle of the fairway, hit 6-iron that at one time was within about twelve feet of the hole. Came back off the green, down the slope about, I guess maybe 6, 7 feet into the fairway. I 3-putted from there. I guess technically I 2-putted. I was off the green, but I putted from down there. 6, drove it in the fairway in normal par, 20-footer, two putts. 7, I hit driver and sand wedge about ten feet, made that. 8, I was real proud of that putt. I had about a 20-footer from the right of the hole that broke right-to-left first half of the putt and left-to-right on the second half, went over a little slope, and I made the thing. If it didn't go in, it was going to be about a foot from the hole. I was real proud of that putt. 9, I drove it in the middle of the fairway, hit 5-iron down the right side in the fairway and cold-served a bowl of chili up with a wedge, just left it in the grass in front of the green. Pitched it about 8 feet past the hole; made that. That is one of those up-and-downs that I had made, but there was no -- that was just an unforced error, the third shot. 10 was a drive and a 9-iron ten feet right of the hole, hit a putt that I thought was right in the middle of the hole. It got on the high side lip-outs, that was one of the better putts I hit today. 11, driver, 3-wood about I guess, on the safe side, ten feet past the hole; made that for eagle. 12, driver, 9-iron, actually 3-wood and 9-iron about 20 feet past the hole, two putts. 13, was a drive and a 5-wood way to the right of the -- to right of the right bunker. I pitched it about six or eight feet from the hole. Hit another pitch that I was real proud of and then just whiffed a putt. Missed it low. 14, I hit 8-iron about three feet from the hole, made it. 15, hit good drive to the right of the rough - not a good drive. I hit out with a 7-iron from the rough for -- I think I had 100 yards to the flag and again served a great big bowl of chili up, just hit it dead fat right in the grass in front of the green and chipped it about 15 feet short and made it. That was a big putt. That was a very big putt late in the round. 16, I hit a 9-iron -- this is where the statistics are misleading. The 9-iron hit pin-high came back about a foot off the green but it was dead uphill, 15 feet from the hole, a foot off the green. I would have rather have had it there than 15 feet up in the green where the putt that I would have had, would have been almost impossible. I 2-putted from where I was for par. 17, just to right of the green, about a foot off the green with relatively flat right-to-left putt and which I 2-putted. Then 18 I -- driver, wedge 20 feet left of the hole made that.

LEONARD THOMPSON: Absolutely. I don't think I have broke 70 in a USGA event before and I have played amateurs and -- I am very pleased. I was very pleased with the way I controlled myself out there today. That is hard to do in conditions like we play in at this tournament and that is one of the things you have to do to play well.

LEONARD THOMPSON: No, I think putting myself in the proper position around the hole and the fact that the greens were soft enough to allow you to do that. I don't care how good you are, yesterday when we played, you couldn't have put the ball where I had it today; had the pins been in the same places today, you could not have put the ball there. I could not have put the ball there, let me put it that way.

LEONARD THOMPSON: Right.

LEONARD THOMPSON: Any win boosts your confidence. You always like to think you can win at any level after you have won on the PGA TOUR you would like to think could you win on the SENIOR TOUR but there is no guarantees. That is kind of -- I said, well, you can still win, you can still beat these guys. That is what it does for you. It reestablishes what you have done before and let's you know that at some stage it is still there. And it is fun too. I mean, it is real fun.

LEONARD THOMPSON: You know what it is -- but nicer than that, is knowing you can still do something; that you were once able to do. Unless you have been there, I cannot tell you how much fun it is to be in the hunt last four, five holes of a tournament. It is just a real blast.

LEONARD THOMPSON: I had no preconceived idea of what the scores would be. I don't have any idea what it is going to take to win. If the wind blows and these things dry, it is going to be really difficult. Again it is going to be really difficult whatever happens, but if the wind starts blowing and the wind can blow here and it can be calm. We have seen two completely different days. So that will affect the scores as much as the pin settings and everything else. But the pins are going to be where they are going to be. If the wind blows, it is just going to add to it.