SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

October 27, 2001

Bruce Lietzke

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, definitely a different golf course today. I had not played this course with a south wind. It wasn't a brutal wind. It was about a one-club wind, 10, 12 miles an hour. And more than anything I am just disappointed with some of the greens that I missed especially because I was coming out of the fairways most of the times with one-club wind; we talked a little bit about just how much tougher this golf course is with some wind, but not with the kind of wind I thought we had today, especially if you are hitting iron shots from out of the fairway, the greens are still pretty soft, and I still think I could have scored pretty low today if I had hit my irons better instead of missing some of the greens and making bogeys. But I think I should have been hitting it in there not only on the green but a lot closer than I did. Some of the par 5s were very accessible today. I still think -- there was, I think I saw Hall maybe had 5-under and I think that was a realistic score today and especially with the good start that I got off to that's what I was trying to shoot was 5-, 6-, 7-under par and more than anything, I didn't quite have my putting touch. I hit good putts but I lost a little bit of my speed. I missed three or four really makeable putts when they lost their speed at the hole and broke away. I thought the greens looked faster today and I tried to read a little bit extra speed in them and I missed a lot of those putts because of it. Back nine I kind of readjusted my thinking and made some -- a couple of better putts on the back nine. But I really thought it was still a golf course that a low round could be shot. I don't know what to expect tomorrow and I won't really have any expectations 'til I wake up and come out here and hit balls. If the wind is blowing 15, 20, 25 miles an hour you start shifting your thinking a little bit. I never have been one to pick up a particular number to try to shoot whether you are leading or trying to catch up to somebody. Historically if the wind blows that hard it's pretty good to be a leader. Pretty good to be in the lead. It gives you a couple of chances to make mistakes in those conditions, because nobody is going to play a really good round, a real solid round in 20, 25 mile an hour winds. Everybody makes mistakes and if you are the leader then you are afforded a couple more mistakes. If the wind stays like it is today, I got to go out and shoot a low round tomorrow, Walter Hall shot a low one. I guess Doc probably had a pretty low score today. Some guys moved up the board, and if it's just a little one-club wind like we had today, I need to shoot about 66 or 67. I still don't put a lot of emphasis on those numbers. I still kind of wait and see what the golf course is getting as you play. But you kind of -- I give myself neighborhood numbers I guess if the wind is blowing hard tomorrow really a hard south wind, 70 or 71 is probably going to be a real good round, and I could probably maintain the lead. If it's just a one-club wind, my number is going to be 65 or 66, something like that.

BRUCE LIETZKE: No.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yes.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yes. Why you want to put a banana in my head (inaudible) cover just to check it out, Steve? If I find one I know where it came from. Because my caddie doesn't doubt me anymore.

BRUCE LIETZKE: It has been -- this is my 10th tournament and what I heard from Doc, I think he's exactly right, I am still pretty enthusiastic. I am not playing anymore golf this year but I could and I am -- I noticed when I came out in July of course I had been looking forward to this SENIOR TOUR for twelve years. It hasn't been just a little one or two-year process. I did my thinking and math a long time ago and been thinking about it a long time, and as I said yesterday, I only played two tournaments this spring, saving up -- that enthusiasm and my strength and I came out in July and boy, I am telling you a lot of guys were already dragging. I could just listen to their voices and listen to how they felt after their rounds and all that, and right then I said you know what, you have got a little bit of an advantage right now, man, you are fresh, and these guys have been campaigning for four, five months, and some of them have played too much, which happens on both Tours. And I decided you know, that was at least a plus. It wasn't going to mean instant success, but I made a mental note that boy, you are fresher than anybody else out here, and that should mean that your mental outlook probably should be the best of anybody out here. I don't have any garbage dragging me down or as Gary McCord says baggage, I don't care much baggage around and I certainly wasn't carrying any baggage around when I came out in July. Some of these guys were. Some of these guys as you know play every single week. So I decided just to kind of put that in my plus column. I don't know if it meant anything or not, but like I said, I am still pretty fresh, and this is only my 10th Senior event in my career and I could play some more golf after this. I am choosing not to kind of get ready for next year and my plans for next year still are probably to play around 20 events. Tim talked to us in a meeting a couple of nights ago, and I got a lot of messages from him. Some of it is putting forth an effort to maintain -- not only maintain what we had, but to try and improve our product and that number might go up to, just to help sponsors that are maybe struggling or tournaments that are struggling. My number is probably going to be around 20. But Tim sent a nice message to all of us the other day. My tournament schedule could change because of that a little.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, birdied -- first birdie came on No. 2 from about twelve feet. I hit a 7-iron second shot. Birdied 4, hit a 7-iron into that straight downwind to about two feet from the hole, tapped that in for a birdie. 7 was a bogey. Missed the green. That was the first dead-into-the-wind hole. Well, second one. No. 2 was dead-into-the-wind. But 7 was dead in the wind, hit a drive right in the middle of the fairway missed the green with a 5-iron into a bunker, blasted out, missed from about from about eight feet for my first bogey of the day. Made a nice par from about -- made about 6-footer for par on 8. It was 2-putt par, but I had to make about a 6-footer. 10 was my second bogey. It was also the third dead-into-the-wind hole right in the middle of the fairway, another 5-iron, and missed the green. I just kind of think that's unacceptable. Hit a good bunker shot out to about six feet, and missed that putt for my second bogey of the day. I got up-and-down. 11 was an two putt par but 12 was up and down out of the front bunker came up short from out of the right rough into the front green-side bunker, blasted out to about eight feet, I made that putt for saving par. 13, par 3. 14 par 5, hit a real big drive around there. 4-iron over the green into the back fringe, chipped to about eight feet, and made that 8-footer for a birdie on 14. 2-putt par on 15. 16, probably finally was mad enough and I was back into my fourth dead-into-the-wind hole and I had bogeyed two of the three into-the-wind holes, hit a good drive but still had 209 to the pin and just decided I had to make a good hard swing and just killed a 3-iron, three feet from the hole, tapped that in for a birdie. That kind of washes away those bad swings a little bit. That kind of swing that I made on the 3-iron is what I intend on doing tomorrow, really made a good hard aggressive swing and got rewarded for it. 2-putted 17 for par. 18 hit driver off the tee and I hit a 7-iron just to the front of the green, under-clubbed a little bit, and 2-putted pretty easily from 60 feet for a 2-putt birdie.

BRUCE LIETZKE: I had 169 to the front of the green and I think the pin -- I had 190 to the hole. 169 to the front. I tried to hit 7-iron nice little uphill lie straight -- little right-to-left but helping (inaudible) especially hitting up in uphill lie I thought I could hit a 7-iron up I nailed it, threw it a mile in the air. I expected to fly it to the hole and it flew right on the fringe and stopped right there. I really thought I could have hit a 6-iron over the green and obviously 6-iron probably was the club.

BRUCE LIETZKE: I was pretty certain that nobody was making -- nobody was going to shoot a 65 or 64 to catch me at that point. I knew 18 was going to be a birdie hole but 16, 17, there were some really tough holes coming in, after kind of you know, making a couple of birdies and a couple of bogeys and then looking up and not seeing anybody passing me up, just decided to kind of forget that. Nobody is going to be coming from way back in the pack, Bob Gilder and I were kind of going head-to-head and it kind of appeared that, we were going to be each other's competition at least for this day. Nobody was coming from way behind and then in the back of my mind I also knew there weren't many birdies hole holes to be had. The two downwind par 5s on the back nine, and just not really a birdie hole anywhere else that you can expect to make. So it just became pretty apparent at least at that point that Bob and I were going to holed our own for the day.