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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 31, 2005

D.A. Weibring

KETTERING, OHIO

RAND JERRIS: We're now joined by D.A. Weibring, runner up for the championship at 9 under par.

D.A., if you can just start us off with some general comments about the afternoon.

D.A. WEIBRING: Sure. Well, it was a great week in Dayton. I thought NCR did a wonderful job. The golf course probably got more certainly the back nine yesterday and today, the way the USGA probably wanted it to play. There's obviously a lot of contour in these greens. We had perfect weather conditions. They were warm with a very light breeze, but they started to get a little bit crusty yesterday I thought on the back nine and today, but they were still fair conditions, and I think it made for a good championship.

When you have somebody who comes from the pack and shoots a great round as Allen did, 8 under par, that shows you that the golf was out there to make good shots and make good putts but yet it was challenging for those of us in the mix coming down the stretch.

I played very well all week. I kind of moved myself each day going in the right direction, and I played a really nice round of golf today. It just didn't work out the last two holes the way I would have liked. Do you want me to go through the round?

RAND JERRIS: Yes, please.

D.A. WEIBRING: No. 1, hit a driver and a little 8 iron inside ten feet probably, missed that putt.

2, I hit 6 iron that almost went in the hole, landed maybe a foot short of the hole. I don't know how it missed the whole cup or the pin but it kind of went by and trickled over the fringe. I actually could have bladed with my sand wedge but I chipped it, but really played a good shot there.

3, 3 wood, 9 iron to about 15 feet left of the hole. Pretty good breaker there, two putt.

Next hole, my hybrid club off the tee, sand wedge right over the top of the flag behind the hole, 15, 18 feet, two putt.

Drive at 5, where that pin today was, it was really almost a sucker pin because all the balls funneled to the right, but I thought I could take my 4 wood and kind of scoot it back in there, but I blocked it to the right a little bit, hit a really nice pitch up there kind of around the bunker about 15 feet. Didn't hit a very good putt. Par.

Driver, 4 wood right over the top of the flag at 6, rolled up on the slope and then rolled all the way down to the left side of the green. Had about a 40 or 50 footer. I putted it up about two feet and made birdie, got 1 under.

Perfect drive around the corner at 7, little three quarter 8 iron just short of the hole. Once again, in that 15 to 20 foot range, two putt.

8, 8 iron just right of the hole. This was my one putt of the day. It was probably a 20 or 25 footer. It was a good putt from the middle of the green, that left corner pin, for birdie.

9, perfect 3 wood off the tee, real good kind of cutting 7 iron in there that came up a little short 20 feet or so, good putt. Just rolled by the edge, tapped it in.

10, drove it through the fairway, thought I hit a perfect tee shot. It didn't, I guess, cut enough, and yesterday I laid it up I'm going to be thinking about one a stroke here and a stroke there for a few days. But I laid it up there yesterday after a good tee shot right in the middle of a divot and I had to kind of play a bump and run and I got it to the back of the green and three putted.

Today I got more aggressive and laid it further down the left and had a pretty good angle and played a nice sand wedge from about 55 yards to about two feet and made birdie.

As I looked up at the board at that time, I noticed that because I saw, I guess, Craig was 13 early I'm not one to really watch a board, but I won't hide from them, either. I was thinking going to 10 I needed to make some birdies. It looked like the lead wasn't going to come back. I looked up and saw when I made that putt I was tied for the lead.

I played a really good 3 wood at 11, sand wedge over the top of the hole, hit a pretty good putt from 15 feet, didn't make it. It was hard to get the ball real close to the hole. I'd be curious if Allen made eight birdies how long his putts were today because, I mean, the greens were good. You could make putts, but it was hard to get real close to the hole.

12, 3 wood, popped it up a little bit into the fairway, 6 iron just past the hole coming down the hill about 20 or 25 feet, two putt.

13, if I hit a poor shot the back side, it might have been this one. I was trying to cut a 4 iron in there and I pushed it a little bit and it carried over the bunker. It may have even caught in the fringe and slowed it down and wound up behind the hole about 25 feet, a pretty good shot. Raymond actually played a better shot to the middle of the green and gathered momentum and rolled off the back edge.

But I had a 25 footer coming back up the hill a little bit, two putt.

14, 3 wood off the tee, I put it in the apron, intermediate cut on the right side of the fairway, hit a good 9 iron right at the edge and it kind of hit up on the edge and kind of backed off. Raymond did the same thing. He had a putt in front of me, and it was an uphill putt, and I did notice on the board I think at that point maybe Loren and Craig must have made bogeys, as well, so I had a one shot lead. But my mindset was to get another birdie or two. I got a little aggressive with that putt up the hill and ran it by about three and a half feet or so and I had a huge spike mark right in my line, but I stayed in there, hit a good putt and made it coming down the hill. That was my second best putt of the day.

I made a really good swing at 15 with my Adams hybrid club, 3 iron, it must have rolled reasonably close by the hole but went just off in the back fringe but I was putting back up the hill right where you want to putt from, hit a really good putt and the ball just broke away from the right, good speed, hit it the way I wanted to.

16 hit a perfect tee shot, a little cut down there, took driver, had a pretty good feeling where the pin was kind of in that swale on the back left there on 16 and hit 8 iron in there and kind of hooked it in there right below the hole, and I really thought that that was the putt. I thought if I could because I know 17 is a little quirky fairway and 18 is kind of an odd tee shot, almost an S tee shot for us, I thought if I could get one more, not knowing what anybody else was doing, but just one more to satisfy me, and my caddie saw it going a little bit to the right, I didn't. I thought if it held speed it would be in the hole. As it turns out, it just got to the hole and broke to the right. I mean, I really thought I hit a good putt. That putt was severely uphill. But I hit it the way I was trying to. It didn't go in.

17, I hit 4 wood off that tee all week. I thought about dropping back and hitting my 3 iron and my hybrid club just because that fairway is crowned and it was getting firmer, but I thought I'm going to stick with my game plan and hit the same shot, and when I hit it, I just hit a really good, solid 4 right down the middle of the fairway, and I think the wind must have turned it over a little bit because I remember the fairway the marshals' reaction and the people's reaction, and the ball turned over and hit in the left side of the fairway and ran off into the rough, and I had driven the ball in the fairway a good bit this week. I hadn't been in the rough very much.

But that was probably one of my worst lies of the week. It was real thick, ball above my feet. I only had 100 yards over the bunker, hit pitching wedge, it came out just a little thin I was trying not to force it out of there. With the ball above my feet, if I try to force it and the hosel turns over, I can really pull it left. I was aiming at the edge of the bleachers right center of the green and it just came out thick, wound up on that upslope.

What you may not have seen is that there was a leaf kind of wrapped around my ball there that I really couldn't get close to. I changed my mind on the pitch shot, I went back from my lob wedge to my middle wedge because I was so severely uphill and played it as good as I can play it. I aggressively worked up that upslope and the ball came out with a little spin but released right under the hole, ten feet maybe.

It was one of those putts Bob Murphy was talking to me on the range this morning, and he from him playing here in 69 to observing now, he has noticed that we've misread a lot of putts from that four to 12 feet range. You think it's going just right edge and firm, and I thought I hit that putt pretty good, and the ball obviously got left pretty quick.

But, you know, there's a bogey. It was maybe a bad break with a bad lie. It certainly wasn't a bad shot off the tee. I played a couple of decent shots, but that happens.

My mindset on 18 was try to be aggressive with the driver. Raymond hit first, pulled it left, which I know that's not the place to be, in that bunker over there, and you've got a little more room to work with. I was kind of trying to hit a high drawdown the right side and I kind of just got in front of it, hit it solid, and it wound up in kind of a dried out area that had been trampled by the gallery, which was a good break.

The ball was sitting down I don't hit that many fliers with these Adams irons, and I was more concerned with the ball coming out kind of soft. I didn't want to leave it way on the front of the green, 148 to the front, 178 to the hole. I was trying to put it in the middle of the green, in the belly of the green, knowing it could work its way up and actually kind of work its way to the right, just kind of give myself a longer putt. I couldn't go at the flag. I hit the 7 iron and it was a huge flier, just really jumped. It must have carried I guess it carried past the flag up there. You guys probably saw it.

But it went up in the grass, against the grass, and I had another bad lie. I was kind of proud of the flop shot because that was a shot that you could leave well short, but I swung at it aggressively and got it at least down there, got it below the hole. I don't know if it was 15 feet or whatever. But I hit a very good putt exactly on my line. The ball never broke. But I hit it the right speed. It had a chance to go in, and some things just aren't meant to be.

I'll always look back unfortunately thinking I bogeyed the last two holes, but when I think back on how well I played, I got a little bit better every day, and I played my way into position, and things just didn't work out.

Q. At what point today did you realize that this course had changed characteristics so drastically from the first three days?

D.A. WEIBRING: I realized it yesterday. The back nine yesterday there were a couple questionable pins, 12 and 16, I thought, and I knew they had a few more today, that would be pretty challenging. I just knew I really had to put the ball in the fairway and you had to put the ball in the right place on the greens and you had to be a little bit smart on your putts, couldn't be overly aggressive.

You know, it doesn't surprise me that somebody posted a good score. You had some pretty good players out there on the back nine trying to get that thing in, and the golf course hung in there pretty well. It was firm conditions, fair but challenging. There weren't too many birdies, I guess, made on the back side by anybody.

Q. Could you talk about given the tough conditions today, how remarkable was a 63 by anybody?

D.A. WEIBRING: Well, it's a great score. We saw Allen get off to a great start. My caddie pointed it out to me maybe after six or seven holes. It takes momentum like that. It's a great score. Is that the course record here?

Q. Yes.

D.A. WEIBRING: I'm sure it's the competitive course record. Did Watson tie it at 64 the other day?

Q. Craig.

D.A. WEIBRING: Stadler had 64. Well, it's a great story for a tournament record, final round, great field. Allen Doyle is a remarkable player. He's proven what he's done on the Champions Tour. He's beat all comers, and nobody works any harder than Allen does, and I'm happy for him. Is this his first Senior Open? Yeah, first one.

Q. I was wondering what you think of his swing. It's pretty unorthodox.

D.A. WEIBRING: Well, if you look up and down the Champions Tour practice tee, you'll see a variety of swings. It's a little more homemade on this Tour. Allen certainly has a homemade swing, but it repeats, and he can play shots. He knows that his strength is driving the ball in the fairway and scoring 100 yards and in. Nobody spends any longer around the chipping green, the putting green. He's out there every week, and he's earned everything that he's received. But, I mean, if you think about the swings, Chi Chi and Lee Trevino and Ray Floyd and there's a variety of swings that guys have truly understood, a little more homemade.

Q. Coming into today, what was your mindset pretty much because you were obviously behind two guys that were playing pretty well?

D.A. WEIBRING: Right.

Q. And then also just to follow up on something you said, on 17 when your ball got up on the slope there, would you have rather seen that ball in the bunker?

D.A. WEIBRING: No, I was okay given it was going to be such a long bunker shot, I was okay with it there. Coming into today three back, I just knew if I played a good round today, I could control what they would do, as long as I kept moving forward, that I'd have a chance, and I felt pretty good about that because I felt myself, I had had two weeks off, I didn't play the British Senior because of a variety of reasons, and I felt I was getting a little bit sharper every day, and I did.

I got sharper today, hit the ball better today. The one thing I didn't do was hole any putts. I holed a couple good putts yesterday, two real good par savers on the back nine, 16 and 12, that kind of kept my round going, and I just didn't get it done. When you look back on it, you need to hole a couple putts to win, and I didn't do it. But I played well. I'm proud of that.

Thanks, guys. Enjoyed being here.

End of FastScripts.

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