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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 30, 2005

Greg Norman

KETTERING, OHIO

Q. Well, you got out there early, I guess, right?

GREG NORMAN: Yeah, they're going after me late.

Q. Can you just kind of summarize the day.

GREG NORMAN: It was just a very frustrating day really. I thought I had some good momentum going. Still kind of not on with my putter, leaving a lot of putts, 8, 9. It let a lot of wind out of my sails. If I make those two putts I'd get a little momentum going. A couple par 5s haven't felt comfortable on the tee shots, 10 and 6, and I'm making hard work of those. If I get those and capitalize on those, then the day just gets that much easier.

Q. Is the golf course tougher today than it was yesterday?

GREG NORMAN: Yes.

Q. Did the breeze have something to do with it?

GREG NORMAN: No, just the green speeds were a little quicker, greens were a little firmer. The golf course is drying out, simple as that. Some of the pin positions were tucked where you couldn't get them, five or six over bunkers, and just hard to get at. We're going from spinning the ball back to seeing the ball go 60 forward on some greens. It's just an adjustment we've made all week from the day we got here. This is more like the conditions I played in the practice round on Tuesday, but from Tuesday to today, we had different conditions all the way through.

Hopefully it'll stay the same tomorrow and we get the conditions like it is right now. We should be able to make it

Q. Will it be able to sort out the better players? They've already been sorted out, I think.

GREG NORMAN: That's normally what happens. These golf courses really start showing their teeth when they dry out. The ball is really releasing off the fairways. There's a lot of reverses on these doglegs and tee shots, so you've got to be careful and maneuver the ball off the tee. If you don't do it you can hit good drives and pay the price around here, as well.

Q. (Inaudible).

GREG NORMAN: Depends on what they finish. If they finish around 11, 12, maybe 12 would probably be tough. Six shots around here is going to be tough because you know the leader is going to shoot 1 or 2 under, so that means I've got to shoot around 64 to really have a shot at it. You never know.

I got off to a pretty good start today. If I can just get that good start tomorrow and play the back nine. I haven't played the back nine well all week, and hopefully there's one in there somewhere.

Q. When you come back after as long a layoff as you had, is the toughest thing to get back the putting, especially at big moments when you need big putts?

GREG NORMAN: Yeah, I'm just not I feel like my stroke is okay but I'm just not seeing the line from my speed.

Q. Is that because you haven't played much?

GREG NORMAN: I wouldn't blame that right now. I think I've been out there enough in the last couple of days, couple of weeks. What have I played now, about 11 rounds of golf under competitive conditions? I really should have that under control now. Just some of these greens have got a lot of grain in them, a lot of slope, and if you're on the wrong side, it's tough. And if you're underneath the hole back up into the grain, you shock yourself how hard you've got to hit it. That's an adjustment that all of us have got to make out here.

I really can't blame lack of playing anymore. I really just think it's getting out there and making putts.

Q. Any shot where you were right of the pin in the rough you carried the pitch all the way over

GREG NORMAN: I was trying to use the back slope, trying to get real cheeky, and I paid the price. I really didn't have a shot because I was landing on the downslope, so I figured if it landed just past flag high, it would roll back down, but I hit it about three yards too long.

Q. Any comments on your eagle?

GREG NORMAN: That's the only hole I feel comfortable on at the moment. I just hit a great drive down there and had 252 and flew it 250 and stopped flag high and rolled in about a two footer. That's my comfort zone right there on that hole.

Q. How does it feel to be in contention at a Senior? Is there any similarities or differences to being in contention at other majors?

GREG NORMAN: It feels exactly the same. I think we're all competing. We're all competing for a championship here, and it feels exactly the same. The pressure is there and the pressure is on yourself to perform. You know, I think everybody in the last 15, 20 guys in this field here want to win this championship more than anything else, so they're going to have the pressure on themselves tomorrow, too.

End of FastScripts.

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