U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 30, 2005

Loren Roberts

RAND JERRIS: We're now joined by Loren Roberts, the championship co leader at 11 under par. Loren with a round of 2 under par 69 today.

Maybe you could just start us off with some general comments about your round and the playing conditions out there this afternoon.

LOREN ROBERTS: The golf course in my mind totally changed today from the way it was the first two days. The greens were a lot faster, and they had firmed up quite a bit. There were still some soft ones, but they had really firmed up, and the golf course played much tougher. They were a little closer to the edges. They tucked several of them. Obviously the pin on 16 was the talk of the day, I'm sure.

But as far as me personally, I didn't drive it as well today as I did the first couple of days, so I struggled, made a few more bogeys today, but basically my whole round is capsulized in my third shot at 10 when I made eagle.

Other than that, it was just kind of give and take all day.

RAND JERRIS: Would you walk us through the birdies and bogeys on your card.

LOREN ROBERTS: I started out on the 1st hole, drove it in the right rough, made bogey the 1st hole. Thought I hit a good shot out of the rough but it didn't quite get on the green and rolled back down on the front and I didn't chip it within 20 feet. I bogeyed there.

Knocked it in the right hand bunker on 6, the par 5, in two, and made a great up and down there, made about a five foot curling putt there for birdie to get back to even.

Then I hit a really good iron shot in there about eight feet, seven feet at 8, and knocked it in for birdie to get to 1 under for the round, and I figured I've got things right and got it going and then promptly drove it in the rough at 9 and made bogey there.

Making the turn at even par, hit it in the right rough over there on 10, trying to sneak one around the corner, and laid it up to 70 yards exactly and knocked it in, and that was with a sand wedge.

That basically was kind of my whole round. I had a good stretch, I hit it in the left bunker at 13, though, and that was an impossible up and down. I couldn't get the next one on the green from there. I made a pretty good 4.

Then birdied the next two holes. Hit a driver and a wedge to probably about six feet behind the hole at 14 and made that for birdie.

Then my next best shot of the day besides 10 was probably the 2 iron I hit at 15 to I think three feet there and made birdie.

Then I drove it in the right rough at 17 and hit the tree trying to come out of the right rough and dropped down and made bogey there. Didn't get my third shot on the green, either, but I got it on the fringe and two putted for bogey. It was kind of an up and down round. I was in the right rough a lot today off the tee, and then but I hit some good shots, too, and made some birdies. I'm going to go out and work on my driver a little bit this afternoon and see if we can keep it in the fairway tomorrow.

Q. How important was the up and down for par at 12?

LOREN ROBERTS: That was pretty important. You know, I didn't want to I got off to a good start obviously on the back nine with the eagle. I didn't birdie 11 after I drove it down there. I only had 83 yards to the hole. Didn't make birdie there. Then hit it in the left bunker and kind of was underneath a tree there and kind of pulled it left of the green. But it was a key putt there because I hit a good shot from down there, but I was way down left of the green, but it was about a 10 , 12 footer for par. I knocked it right in the middle. That kind of gave me a little confidence there. That was very key.

Q. When you're standing out there at 10, you're 70 yards from that pin, what are you aiming for? I mean, I know you're aiming for the pin. How much farther did you want to hit it than the pin?

LOREN ROBERTS: Well, I had 63 yards to cover the front edge, and I think the pin was on 7, so obviously I know the green is going to be firm and I'm a little bit closer than I wanted to be to the green. You know, obviously I'm trying to ideally you'd like to land the ball about 64 yards and have it skip and do what it did. But you're going to hedge your bets and try to play a little bit longer there. As soon as I hit it, I knew it came off dead perfect. It was right on line with the flag and it came off just what I felt like was the right distance and the right speed. It just happened to go in.

Q. Didn't you make a trip to the hospital here or something the other night?

LOREN ROBERTS: Yeah, I knew that would eventually get out. I kind of didn't want that to get out. About 9:30 Thursday night I kind of came down with a kidney stone problem, and by about 11:00 o'clock it got to the point where it was pretty unbearable, and my buddies that are here with me at the tournament took me over to the emergency room and then they hooked an IV up to me and I finally passed it about 3:00 o'clock in the morning, and so I got back to bed at 3:30 and promptly got up at 5:30 for my 7:49 tee time.

Q. What hospital, do you recall?

LOREN ROBERTS: The one down the street right here.

Q. Kettering?

LOREN ROBERTS: No, you come out the Marriott, you hang a right and it's right there.

Q. Miami Valley.

LOREN ROBERTS: There you go.

Q. Were you feeling something bad the day before?

LOREN ROBERTS: No, uh uh. It just kind of popped up and hit me.

Q. On two hours' sleep

LOREN ROBERTS: All us guys went down to the Irish pub downtown and had dinner on Thursday and I came back, and all of a sudden about 9:30 I was in pain.

Q. You've never had that before?

LOREN ROBERTS: I've passed a couple of them before but not this serious.

Q. When Craig was in here earlier I asked him about how difficult it is when you guys have played have had to adjust your game to two different sets of conditions like twice in three or four days. He said it's not that big a deal because you do it every week out here. But when the course gets fast like this after playing it soft and slow for two days, how long does it take you, I guess, to come to grips with

LOREN ROBERTS: You kind of know what to expect. I mean, I knew that today I played early in the morning on Friday, so we still basically had the same conditions that we had Thursday. I knew today playing late in the day that the golf course was going to change. I just didn't know how much. You know, there were still some pins the greens were still holding pretty well. You could still pretty much hit it in there, get your yardage to the flag and play to that distance. A couple of them you couldn't. Tomorrow is when I really expect to see a big change. The only difference today, the ball was hitting, jumping and stopping, much like the practice round, I think, on Monday and Tuesday.

Tomorrow I'm going to guess that the greens are going to probably be even firmer and faster. They're going to be releasing a little bit more. It's not that big of a problem. You come to expect that.

Q. You're obviously a little bit physically tired from the kidney stone.

LOREN ROBERTS: Yeah.

Q. But to add to it, you're at the top, now you go through the mental mind games. How mentally exhausting is it to go through three rounds with one more round to go?

LOREN ROBERTS: Well, you know, that's I've put that behind me. Obviously I came out Friday morning and played very well. I hit the ball great and really could have probably shot a lower score if I had made some putts. I played very, very well, so I just put that behind me. It's not that big a deal.

Q. Loren, when you do come out like you did this morning and you are expecting different conditions, how long does it take you to figure it out?

LOREN ROBERTS: Well, I mean, it was the first hole. If I hadn't have driven it in the rough on the first hole, I'm sure I would have realized on my second shot. All you've got to do is walk on the 1st green and you can tell. The 1st green, the pin was kind of middle right, just really on the downslope going away there, and you could see that it was a lot browner and a lot firmer, so you just take that into account.

Q. I'm wondering, you were on such short sleep the night before. Last night you had a great night's sleep or you had to catch up or what?

LOREN ROBERTS: Well, I'm suffering with a bad cold right now, too (laughter). I went and got some cough syrup with some codeine last night and I slept pretty good (laughter).

Q. With how firm the course is getting, what will it take tomorrow score wise to come out of this with the title?

LOREN ROBERTS: Well, I don't know. I mean, there was such a big change today from yesterday when I played, but, you know, I would think that you get out there there are some birdie holes. I mean, the par 5s are all reachable out here by just about everybody in the field, especially the guys that are at the top. I'm probably the shortest hitter of all the guys that are up on the top that have a chance to win. You know, I can reach them all. You take that into account, there's three birdie holes right there, and then you've got the 3rd hole is a short iron hole, the 4th hole is a short iron hole, 7 is a short iron hole if you drive it down there. You've got some birdie holes out there. 11 is short, a wedge hole. You've got some birdie holes. It's just a matter of where they put the pins on them, and you take advantage of those and you try to play the tough holes like 13 and 12 and you play those solid, and I would think that I would think the score would be about 14 under, would be about what you're looking at now.

Craig and I are 11, obviously we have the best chance to get there. But there's a couple of guys is 8 the next best or 9? You know, I would think 13 or 14, probably 14, would be the number that Craig would probably want to try to shoot tomorrow.

Q. Loren, as soon as you took that shot on 10, I mean, you knew it was right on the money right away and you saw the whole thing, or just what did it do to you?

LOREN ROBERTS: I couldn't see it from where I was. I was down below the green. As soon as I hit it I knew it was on the perfect line and I felt like it was the right distance I needed to hit it, and I kind of waited for the gallery's reaction behind the green. I just happened to see the replay on TV. I thought I was too close to the green to get that much spin to be able to bring it back, but I guess it came back just enough to get in the hole.

Q. We always hear the guys between 45 and 50 on the regular Tour say that they can't wait to get out here because they think it's going to be easy pickins for a while. I wonder if you thought that you were going to do as well as you've done the first couple weeks.

LOREN ROBERTS: You know, it's never easy pickins.

Q. Compared to what you're used to?

LOREN ROBERTS: Well, I mean, all these guys out here can play because they're all past champions, so they know how to win. I mean, there's a difference between being a really good player and knowing how to win. Obviously all the guys that are out here, all the guys in contention, are winners. It's never easy.

Q. Did you think (inaudible)?

LOREN ROBERTS: Personally I would think so just because I'm probably the youngest guy out here right now, but obviously that will change in a few months. But I just enjoy playing golf.

I think that's the big thing that I've noticed just in the two weeks that I have played in the over 50 tournaments is that it's a lot less pressure. You know, all the guys out here, they've had a career. They've made it, you know. And so a lot less pressure to enjoy playing golf. That's what I want to do, enjoy playing golf. I think when you take that attitude, you tend to play a little better.

RAND JERRIS: Loren, congratulations on your fine play, and we wish you luck tomorrow.

LOREN ROBERTS: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.