U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 28, 1995

Deane Beman

DEANE BEMAN: Well, I am not sure anything I have done up to now applies to this golf course. This is a very difficult course. It is playing long, and I don't think it is going to change. I think we are seeing the way it is going to be the rest of the week. I will say this about the course: The changes in the golf course, I played this golf course, not the original course, but certainly the one in the '50s before. They had 36 holes and then I played I guess in the Mid-Atlantic Amateur here in'62 or'63 just after Mr. Jones, Sr. Rebuilt the front 9 and added the back 9. So I played that golf course. And of course, I got my first look at the new golf course this Monday and played yesterday and today and I have to tell you that the job that Rees Jones has done here on this golf course is terrific. It is a thousand percent, in my opinion, a better golf course. I was not real fond of the other golf course simply because it had a number of blind shots and unless -- there were days that it was reasonably friendly for somebody of my talent. When it is playing faster, you can run the ball down some hills; it didn't have downhill lies into uphill greens. But if you played it on a day like this, the old golf course, it was torture out there. So I applaud everything that he has done here. I think he has made a terrific improvement, every hole that he has touched improved. I did like the old second hole. I thought the old second hole was really a neat hole, but the present second hole is a really good golf hole. So I don't argue with changing it. I just like the old number 2 hole, and I think philosophically he was working because it was a green you couldn't see and he wanted to see everything; so he changed it so you could see everything. I won't argue with that. Here he is. How are you doing? But I thought the old second hole was a neat old hole, but this number 2 is a very good golf hole. You could see every tee shot. You could see every second shot. What you see is what you get, absolutely straightforward golf course. And I think -- my congratulations, as I told you last night, I think it is a marvelous job. You should be congratulated.

DEANE BEMAN: The golf course is going to play very long. You have got bentgrass fairways five, six inches of rain here a few days; it is not going to clear up maybe until the weekend. And even if it clears up, it is still going to play -- it is going to play hard. I don't know the kind of player that will win here. Sometimes these kind of golf courses surprise you; that you make an assumption that only the longest hitter on this kind of a golf course is going to do real well. And I don't know, you know, the longest Open course in history is Houston, The Champions and Orville Moody was first and I was second with Bob Rosburg and you know, probably the top 4 out of 5 players that finished in Houston were not considered long hitters. So you just don't know. You never know. The golf course is playing very well. I am playing, I think, reasonably well. My game continues to improve. My health is improving, so I feel fit and ready to play. I am looking forward to it, just great to be here. Played my first golf tournament here about 1951 or'52 and Frank Emmet Jr. Golf Program. I shot 100 -- can't remember if it was 112 or 114.

DEANE BEMAN: It could have been: I shot 114 and put down 112 - I don't know.

DEANE BEMAN: That is correct. But I have always liked the Congressional Course. It is great coming back here and playing home. I have played a lot of golf here. I did play very well on the old course back in the early '60s when it was first rebuilt. I won the Mid Atlantic here that year by about 12 shots I think.

DEANE BEMAN: Yeah, early --'62 or'63, I think it was late in the year.

DEANE BEMAN: Actually, no, I don't -- well, I take a little aspirin and all that. But I am just -- I am at the stage that I am feeling a lot better, but I really have to restrict my practice and some people say that is probably good. I like to practice. I enjoy practicing; I get a lot of confidence by practicing so I don't subscribe to that. But I hit a few balls before I go off and today I hit about 15 to 20 shots after I finished. First time I really practiced in about a month and so I have hit 20 or so 3-woods and drivers. That is the extent of my practice other than warming up before I play. But I am playing pretty steady and my short game is pretty good. I am really looking forward to the week.

DEANE BEMAN: Well, I was supposed to start in Key Biscayne and I went down there and I couldn't play. I had -- I had an intercostal muscle coming down the rib cage that was acting up and I just -- I literally couldn't swing there. So I took that week off, and then I started playing in Naples and played the first five or six tournaments I played in Naples and Tampa; then played in California, with some pain. I was taking a lot of painkillers when I was doing it and working on it. But the intercostal muscle around the rib cage has really been a problem. Very difficult injury to get over as the trainers tell me. But I kept stretching and doing all the things that you are supposed to do for it, and I couldn't really practice very hard. And it turns out, I shouldn't have been practicing at all. And I was stretching. I was doing rib cage stretching, all that which I shouldn't have been doing. As soon as I stopped the extent of stretching, which was back when I played in New Jersey and I was really in a lot of pain up there, the following week in Philadelphia and then in Pittsburgh for two weeks, I was terrific. I stopped stretching. Apparently, I was hurting it everyday. Every 24 hours it was getting better then I'd get up in the morning and hurt myself. So it doesn't sound very smart, that is what you are supposed to do, stretch for that kind of injury and that was really hurting it more. So I was in pretty good shape for a couple of weeks. Then I made a really bad golf swing in Birmingham and pulled a muscle underneath my right shoulder blade, which is the thing that I had to withdraw; I have been home for a couple of weeks. And so I came out last week and I couldn't play. I couldn't. Hadn't played a round of golf since I had been home and I played one or two holes Tuesday, practice round and finally my first full round was Wednesday at the Pro-Am last week. And I have just restricted my practice and restricted the amount of work I do, and I am able to get it on 18 holes comfortably and enjoy. So it is going to take me a while. I am on a good physical fitness program. The fellows in the trailer have helped me a lot and it is helpful. If I don't have to hit long irons and woods -- I have got a few, you know, I have looked at the golf course here and the kind of shots you have to hit and I have gone to another wood in my bag. I have substituted a 7-wood, 5-wood and 3-wood and dropped out my 3-iron. On the wet ground, it just doesn't make any sense. I am not -- I am not the kind of 3-iron player. I am a pretty good long iron player if you don't have to carry it in there and if you don't have a lot of forced carries. I don't think the USGA is going to put the pins in the middle of these greens, in the middle of all those openings. I don't picture that as something that they are going to do. They got their way of setting up the golf course, and I put a 7-wood and I have got a 7 and 5-wood in my bag, not a 3-iron which is a lot easier for me to carry to some of the uphill greens.

DEANE BEMAN: The thing that probably is most surprising is, Steve, I have always been -- even when I have played as little as I played over the last 20 years, I have always played a lot better than I have played for the last year, even if I hadn't played for a couple of months. But I hadn't had the series of injuries and I kept playing after a couple of injuries, and as a result of favoring my injury, I really got a couple of bad habits in my golf swing and I ought to be smarter than that, but I just wasn't. But I am enjoying it. I am still -- it is not -- I like to work at it. I like the competition. I don't like playing badly and I don't like hitting bad golf shots. Usually some shots that I can really count on that I can hit which I haven't been able to hit them until really the last week or so.

DEANE BEMAN: Well, I had actually about last a year ago, March, my first injury was my left forearm. I pulled a muscle deep in my left forearm about 18 months ago and I was trying to work out of it and talked to all the experts. They said, hey, listen, stretch it, exercise it. It was really getting worse. Then about this time last year when I was going to play in the Senior Open; played some tournaments, I literally couldn't hold the club with my left hand. And so I just took the summer off. I didn't start playing until September at all. I wasn't able to play at all and I started practicing in August, got ready to play Lexington. Once I felt a little better I went out a little too fast; that is when I had pulled this intercostal muscle and I had to pull out of Lexington last year. I withdrew three, four weeks in a row there; then I played four events last year.

DEANE BEMAN: I don't know. I really don't know. But I would -- was going to play maybe 12, 15 events last years and I played in four and not -- not too bad that you can't play a couple. I couldn't play golf at all. I was just doing nothing. So I have had a little bit of a frustrating start, but you know, it is just like hitting a golf ball, you have just got to take what is dealt you, it is not -- nothing you can do about it. You have got to have patience and perseverance. I have got a lot of both of those. And I am not happy with the way I performed in the tournaments I have played in, but under the circumstances I have to look at it realistically and say I had haven't done too badly based on those circumstances. It is not as if I am 6'3" and weigh 190 pounds and carrying 260 out there with an injury and crank down a little bit and the injury doesn't bother me. I am -- what, I am, 5' 7"; never been any bigger than that. I don't have a reserve of power and so when I am not able to really use a full swing play, it is -- it kind of overwhelms your game and it causes me to get into some bad swing habits which I am now sort of getting rid of. But I am enjoying it. I am enjoying the company. I like the players. I have enjoyed being out there. I'd like to have played a little more, but I'd probably end up playing a couple of more tournaments if I had been real smart in Birmingham when I really hurt myself if I had quit; if I had just -- when I took that swing on the front nine and I hurt my right side if I'd just picked up, but there isn't much pick-up in me. And I was a couple over par at the time. I picked up a couple of times, but I have always done it when I was playing well. It just kills me to play badly and pick up. And if I had been one under par at the time and made that swing, I swore I would have picked up and walked, but I was a couple over par and I was about to make some other bogeys, and I did, and I just wasn't -- just not quitting --

DEANE BEMAN: I was just barely getting around. I was taking 16 Bayer-- whatever, super ibuprofen a day just to be able to function.

DEANE BEMAN: Well, full schedule for me, I was hoping to play in somewhere around 20 tournaments; that is what I had hoped to be able to play. I am going to play in about 20 tournaments this year. That is what it looks like. Even though I couldn't play earlier in the year, I am still going to play in about 20 events before the year is out.

DEANE BEMAN: I am going to play for -- I am going to play for a couple of years, Steve. I made a commitment to play for a solid three years of good competition and you know, you have got to assess how you are doing. I know I am capable of performing at a level that would reasonably satisfy me. Now, whether I am physically capable of being able to do that is beyond my control, but I am going to do everything within my control to bring my physical capability up to match what I believe my golfing capability is.

DEANE BEMAN: I wasn't, Steve. It was -- you got to remember, now I am 57. That was seven years ago. There were a lot of things going on then that were -- that I felt I wanted to see through to what I say reasonable maturity things that I started. Just begin the Nike Tour; the Senior Tour was just really starting to get rolling. And I just felt those things really needed my attention and so it wasn't until the last couple of years that I felt comfortable -- we were also in the throws of -- that was when the real estate market was just going south and we were in -- our tournament players club operation, we were deeply involved in a lot of those situations and it required every day attention and so I just -- it wasn't something that I focused on because of my primary responsibility clearly was what I was doing there as commissioner, and until I felt comfortable that many of those things I was involved with were at a level that were not -- that I wasn't turning over a problem to someone who would come after me; I wouldn't have been comfortable.

DEANE BEMAN: Looking back, sure, at 50, I have lost seven years of playing. And seven years that you know, at the time when I was 50 I was -- my career earnings would have made me eligible to play back then. And so you know, you just -- just one of the things that you decide to do and I decided that my own personal desire to compete which has never diminished was secondary to the responsibility that I had assumed a long time ago. Now, a year or so ago when I decided to retire, I felt the -- we had several years of television contracts already done; tournament players clubs -- all the clubs were on a profit making basis. All of them were making money. The Senior Tour was well on its way and reaching maturity, the Nike Tour was over its first years of difficulties in getting established and those things, you know, everything is pretty good -- never going to be a time that you don't have problems, there are always problems. But there weren't major business ventures that I was responsible for starting that had problems. We got problems of from the outside in that are not of our making. You are always going to have those in any sport. Any commissioner is going to have his share of problems on the table, either IRS or FTC or legal problems; it is just a part of what you do for a living, which is to cope with those problems. So I am not uncomfortable with the position that I left the job when Tim took over at all. I am very comfortable.

DEANE BEMAN: No, I just --

DEANE BEMAN: I didn't set the day. I didn't really started thinking seriously about it until about two years ago and finally -- I finally decided -- looking at if I wanted to play a little competitive golf at all anymore and also spend sometime with my children and grand children that I had neglected since they were babies and do a few things that I'd like to do instead of circumstances set my calendar and my schedule instead of me being able to set them myself. I have just seen too many people work like I worked all my life too hard for too long and retire in their '60s and all of a sudden either themselves they or their wife somebody gets sick and you can't do the things that you used to talk to each other about doing. I decided I wasn't going to do that. And so-- Here I am, and I am enjoying it and we have a terrific commissioner. I am very comfortable with the transition. He is a very bright and articulate and smart individual who can handle any problem that comes along. And I am enjoying what I am doing, enjoying the challenge. Not doing as well as I'd like to, but I like every minute -- I loved every minute of what I did for the last 20 years and I am liking every minute of this, even the bad. You know a bad day on the golf course beats a good day most other places.

DEANE BEMAN: That is his problem --

DEANE BEMAN: The way I feel about it is that this is a USGA tournament and they can set the rules however they like to. And they have decided that you ought to walk and I support that. I was opposed to carts on the senior Tour in the first place. I understand why it is. I was in the middle of that. Philosophically, I disagreed with it. In fact even though -- if the players couldn't take the cart, there are some individuals that it would be a real hardship, no question about it. But overall, across the spectrum of players, the longer you keep walking, the longer you are going to maintain your golf game, because when you lose your legs, you lose your swing. And the longer you jump in the golf cart, the more often you jump in the golf cart and don't keep your legs in shape, the less likely you are going to sustain your talents down the road. So I was always trying to convince players that it is really not in their interest to use a cart. Now, having said that, there are so many that use a cart when I am playing on The Senior Tour, I take a cart everyday. I don't use it very often. My caddie uses it all the time. I played last week -- I am not sure, except for the first-round in the back 9 when my back was bothering me, I had to ice it; I had to use ice on my back last week; I road in a cart so I could lean up against it, the back of the cart for ice on my shoulder. Other than that, I didn't use a cart at all last week and I try not to use a cart. I like to play golf walking. If you don't have a cart out there with you and you get in a situation where you get a little behind, you are in a disadvantage; have to really rush and hurry up, so you got -- almost have to use one for self defense out there a little bit. But I don't -- I support any tournament that wishes to have set their own standards. USGA has set their standards here for their golf course setup and the course they choose and the carts and they have set -- and I support that. I don't agree with everything they do. They set the standard for shorts this week, and I don't think that is professional. So I don't agree with everything they have done, but certainly on the golf course, I don't have any problem with the carts.

DEANE BEMAN: I am doing much better. Listen, I have no complaints. I am feeling great.

DEANE BEMAN: Looking forward to the week. Thank you.