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SENIOR BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 27, 2006

Craig Stadler

TURNBERRY, SCOTLAND

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Craig, you were telling the TV guys outside that you sort of got away with it, hitting only six fairways, but the putter was cooperating today. A couple thoughts about the round?

CRAIG STADLER: Yeah, I didn't drive the ball poorly. Just kind of got up in that little wispy stuff next to the fairway quite a few times. Never in the heavy stuff. A couple bunkers and had to chip out but other than that, made some good putts, made some decent 4 or 5 footers for par. Hit a lot of good putts. Made a lot of good strokes which I haven't done in the last four to six weeks. Drove it relatively well and just haven't been getting the putts in so today they went in. It's a fun game when the putts go down; it is.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Obviously the eagle on 17 gave you a little bit of a boost.

CRAIG STADLER: Well, I wouldn't say it gave me a boost. Just when you drive it where I did on that hole, you absolutely have to make 4. I only had 156 yards to the hole. But got in there made a good read on it, a good putt and had a good chance on the last. Just misread it a bit and hit two good shots there, too. So nice to get that at the end.

But yeah, just it was a pretty I could have made anything at 15. Miss clubbed there. Tried to hit a 5 iron just eased it in there from the left and pulled it. Bounced over the bunker and went all the way down into the 16th fairway on something about as hard as this (indicating table). Just tried to keep perfect just skulling something off the road I was on and left it about 50 feet short and made a good 2 putt for 4 there. I could have been there a while.

Other than that, it was probably about what it should have been. Played well and hit a lot of good irons and made some good putts.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: And you had good weather.

CRAIG STADLER: Oh, the weather is beautiful. Does it ever get cold up here? (Laughter). Haven't even thought about it the week I've been here.

Q. What club did you hit in on 17?

CRAIG STADLER: I hit an 8 iron about 15 feet past the hole.

Q. Have you had success much on this type of course?

CRAIG STADLER: No. The year Norman won, I hit it in the right rough on 14 in that long, wispy stuff, it's yay long and it was folded over and I was sitting right on the bottom of it. Little did I know there was a mound of dirt under there and I took a 6 iron and just so that was it for that year. That was it for eight weeks.

Q. Did you withdraw after that?

CRAIG STADLER: Well, I finished the round kind of one handed last four holes and then didn't play the second round. I was actually off for seven weeks. I didn't hit anything. Sprained my right wrist.

Time before that, I don't know how I played. I don't remember much. It wasn't obviously very good. And then the last time here three years ago, I just kind of, I hit a lot of good shots and kind of middle of the road ish, finished probably 20th or something, I don't know.

Best time I had here came over here for a corporate day Sam and I for a couple days, each with a couple CEOs and had a ball, three years ago, four years ago.

Aberdeen I played well. I played very well. I putted well. I made a couple mistakes with a driver on Sunday and I had a couple chip outs and I hit it in the bunker on 9 and made double. I really feel like I probably should have won last year as good as I played. The weather, I had a great opening round, shot 67 in the opener and then it wasn't that I did anything bad, just didn't quite get a couple putts going. And after 9 I still felt like I had a chance and played fairly well the rest but really felt like I gave one away last year.

Q. Did you come over early?

CRAIG STADLER: It's been good. We came over, we landed last Thursday. Played Dornoch on Friday, played Troon on Saturday, took Sunday off. Monday I played here, they went down to Portpatrick, and they all played Western Gailes yesterday. Had a good time.

Q. Inaudible?

CRAIG STADLER: No, actually Calcavecchia. I was playing the CVS thing that Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon do and just watching him on the green, probably at least three years ago now, maybe even four years ago. I was kind of inquisitive of what he was doing and how he's holding it. I actually went out and tried how he was holding it that day and I left everything short but I got every putt I looked at online. Everything was on line. Other than a few days off, I've pretty much gone with that for three or four years now.

It's a wonderful grip to take your right hand out of it, but it's very easy after a while to get lazy with it. When you get lazy is when you can break down, which is what I think I've been doing. I haven't paid enough attention to where I've got my hands, got everything backed up a little more contact now and a little bit more the eyes over the ball and it's helped. I've worked quite a bit over the last week on the putting and I think it's starting to pay off a little bit because it is better.

Q. Is that what's been holding you back do you think?

CRAIG STADLER: Yes, I think so. I've played well enough the last six, eight, ten months to probably have won. The putting has not exactly been there. The mind inaudible a lot of things have been going on the last couple of years, which I don't think has necessarily affected the golf but it affects the thought process at times and occasionally affects the golf as well, but the putting was so good the first couple of years I came out here and I had a lot of confidence with it.

I came over with my son, Chris, and with Pat Magowan and his son and another couple friends of ours; and Dornoch and Troon, both, I played with that both days and first thing he says is what's going on with your putting. I said: Well, I'm hitting a lot of good putts, I'm hitting a lot of putts over the edge, I'm lipping out a lot of putts and nothing is really lipping in. But you know, I'm afraid it's getting to the point now where I get over eight or ten feet, and you guys might have heard me a say it before, but it's true; you lose your confidence.

I said: "Pat, I get over from here to you and I can't make up my mind. I can't decide if I want to miss it left or miss it right." Typically the odds are you do one or the other.

So I've just really worked on trying to stay down and stay low on it and keep from coming off it on the practice rounds where I don't really care where it goes, just try to get a good line and I think it has paid off.

I have some confidence, I get over it from four or five feet now and I kind of think I might make it, which is better than it was. I don't know how many putts I had today but it was probably in the 27 or 28 range I would guess, which I've been averaging probably around 31 1/2 or 32. Four round tournament, you take five off a day, that's 20 shots. It makes a bit of a difference. It makes a wee difference.

Q. Peter was complaining about his hip today

CRAIG STADLER: He complains about everything. I've only just got some issues going on with my feet, that's about it. This right foot, this area about three or four inches underneath up here has pretty much been numb for about a year. Had it looked at by different people and they just think I'm pinching a nerve somewhere but it's got to the point now where I've got to get it figured out.

But Peter is beautiful. The more he complains about his hip, the better he plays. It's amazing. The U.S. Open at Bellerive, I played 36 holes with him on Sunday and we're out there hitting balls in morning and he's, "Oh, I don't think I can play, Stads. I think it's going to be a twosome." And he goes out shoots, 65, 69, wins by two. So he loves to play hurt. He loves people to feel sorry for him, too, especially the press. (Laughter).

Q. Inaudible?

CRAIG STADLER: You know, I did it twice, I don't know if it was the same year with you we had a couple days here at Turnberry with Sam and then I was with Gallacher at Loch Lomond for two days, April and I think June the same year, so it was fun. We had a great time, we had a ball. It was 12 guys and CEOs from Sun Microsystems, a bunch of different companies in the U.S., and we played against their compatriots from companies over here in the U.K. We had a great time. We had a ball. Actually Loch Lomond was wonderful. Came over here for two days and didn't play golf. I didn't bring my clubs. I just captained. I drove the cart around and made sure they had plenty of Snickers bars and Budweisers, and if things went bad, I had a couple with them. (Laughter) It was wonderful. Ivan was our starter. It was perfect.

Q. Inaudible?

CRAIG STADLER: Honestly I don't do it that often. I'm getting, I play probably five or six rounds of those a year, maybe. My younger son, Chris, who is caddying for me this week hasn't played much golf and he caddied for me at Aberdeen and he's never played over here. Then we had last week off and we just decided and Pat's son, Michael is a very good player, 15. We just decided to set up a couple of games and play some places I've played before that I thought they would have fun at and we did. We had a ball. We've played Dornoch before so we were up there for a couple of days, and nobody else had played Troon, which I haven't played there in a while, so I kind of forgot how hard that back nine is. It's a bear coming in.

But the weather was just like this every day, just perfect. It's been fun. They had a good time. Like I said they went down and played Stranraerer and Western Gailes yesterday and might go play with them tomorrow after I've gone, Glasgow Gailes or something.

Q. Inaudible?

CRAIG STADLER: Got a good start to it. I think having more patience. I was very patient today which I think has a lot to do with the fact that I don't have my normal caddie with me, I've got my son, so it's embarrassing if I'm not (laughter.) The wind was very difficult on the golf course going out, not so bad coming out, but this one tends to be a little tougher normally going out and coming in as well.

But, you know, I was very comfortable today, probably should have made birdie on the last hole. Hit a good tee shot, hit 3 wood, probably shouldn't have, but not necessarily got away with it. You know, it's nice to get a good one low to start with and don't have to dig yourself out of a hole and off you go.

We'll see what the next three days bring. If I can make birdies and an eagle every day, by the end of the week I should be okay.

End of FastScripts.

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