U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 6, 2006

Dave Barr

CRAIG SMITH: Dave Barr at minus three for the first round of the championship. One bogey, four birdies.

Q. Dave, this is your best round in five 2006 U.S. Senior Opens. You must feel pretty comfortable out on the golf course.

DAVE BARR: You are never totally comfortable at a U.S. Open. I just happened to keep it in play most of the day. I think I only missed two fairways. I missed maybe one or two greens. When I miss a green, if I'm putting, I count that as a green. Like on 8 there I was just on the fringe, but I only had to like chip ones after missing a green.

So overall play, ball striking, keeping it just patient, really. Not trying to get overconfident or the old cliche, fairways, greens, fairways, greens, and kind of play to the center of the greens. Hopefully you can make a 15, 20 footer.

Q. You were in a group there with a bunch of guys that were 3 under par, and then the wind kicked up just a little bit. A lot of them came back and you held onto yours.

DAVE BARR: Yeah, I think that probably the back side is a little bit more susceptible to the wind, a little bit more difficult than, say, the front side. And that's what I was finishing up on was the front side. There's still a couple good holes there. The two fairways that I missed was 5 and 9.

I made bogey over at 5 there, and I actually got just a perfect lie over on 9 rough and hit it on the green and was able to 2 putt it.

But you just try to just stay patient and don't go gunning for pins. And even if you are 15, 20 feet, those you're going to make one or two of those a day. So hopefully you just keep hitting a lot of greens.

Q. (Inaudible.)

DAVE BARR: No, hopefully I'll be talking to you guys tomorrow at this time. You just kind of go take what the course gives you, or what the wind gives you. Certain holes out there today where in practice rounds I hit drivers off them I was going with 3 wood and a utility 2 iron. Just kind of keeping it in play.

Because like on 7, I guess it is, I hit 3 wood off the tee there and a utility 2 over the green. So you kind of got to gauge where you want to be aggressive and other holes where you just kind of keep it in the fairway, fit it in the fairway and go from there.

Q. You hit it in the rough, not the junk but the

DAVE BARR: Well, that four and a half is a little bit longer than four and a half. But it's like a wire brush. And in the practice rounds, if you could hit a nine, maybe an 8 iron, and chase it down the fairway there. But as far as getting it to the green from a bad lie, it's like slim and none.

But hopefully you just keep hitting the fairways and play smart golf.

Q. You talked about the 7th hole. Could you walk us through your other three birdies out there, clubs and yardages.

DAVE BARR: Yeah, I birdied the first hole, or the 10th hole, which was my first. Made probably about a 25 footer there. Straight up at the hole. I had a 7 iron into the green there.

Then over on 14, hit kind of a pull pitching wedge there and rolled in about a 30 footer. Good running right through the middle of the gully there. The pin was down in the bottom of the gully there.

And then 17, I went at it with a 3 wood and left it off to the right in that kind of long hay stuff. And I actually hit a pretty good soft little pitch shot up there to about four feet and made that for birdie.

Then over on 5, I hit it just in the first cut but up against the second, the long wire stuff. I think what happened there is the toe of the club got a little turned open there and I kind of fluffed it off to the right there, to the right of the bunker. And then I pitched it long and left; hit a pretty good putt, but it just didn't break.

Then at 7, 3 wood off the tee and a utility 2 iron from 237 and got a little unlucky. It flew into the up slope in front of the pin, but it was going so hot that it rolled through the green. I chipped it up there; it looked like it was going to make it there, and it went by about two and a half feet and I tapped that in.

Other than that, I really didn't have any other major scares. Maybe the last hole, being in the rough there. But when I got up there, it was sitting so good from 203 yards that I was able to get a 4 iron on it and chased it up the middle of the green. Had maybe a 30 footer up the hill against the grain, but then when it got up on top it was down grain. Those are the tough ones out here.

It slid by about four feet, I guess. But I made that coming back. That really was the only kind of other scary time where I threatened bogey. So a good solid round of golf. I haven't been playing much, but I'll take it. It's the consistency end of things right now. I've only played this is my fourth tournament of the year. I just had past champions category out on the Champions Tour.

Q. What have you been doing with your time?

DAVE BARR: Greens keeper on my lawn at home. I play twice a week at home with the boys. Hit balls a couple times. And when there's a tournament coming up, I maybe start hitting balls for a week solid.

Q. Does that give you the freedom to just play and give up the expectations now that you did this?

DAVE BARR: Well, with the way the Champions Tour is going next year, they're going to take away the school and throw those into the Monday qualifying. They're going to have nine spots out on Mondays instead of two. I'll probably go and chase that nine spots one more year. I made a million six in the last three years but got nowhere to play. I missed conditional status by one spot last year, and so then it drops me down into past champion's category. I'm a usually about 10th or 12th alternate every week. And I've been able to get into three tournaments so far.

Q. If you do 3 under every day here, there's another way for you to get in?

DAVE BARR: Well, a win takes care of a lot of business, you but you can't be thinking about that right now. You got to take it one day at a time and break it right down, one hole at a time, one stroke at a time.

Q. How important is a Major Championship Tour resume right now? You came close with the U.S. Open back in the '80s, but...

DAVE BARR: Oh, I don't even think about it. You got thinking too much of that and you get playing head games with yourself. So you just you try to treat it like another tournament. But I think that the Major you got to be a lot more patient and not get gung ho and don't get too excited. If you play good and if you have a bad hole or two, you know, par is usually a pretty good figure, especially at a U.S. Open.

So just you just go about your business and whatever happens come Sunday, at least I hope I'm here on Sunday. I mean, there's been guys that have been leading after the first day and then miss the cut at a bunch of tournaments. So anything can happen, and it could happen to me, too.

Just not playing a lot and not having a lot of competition under my belt this year, anything can happen. But hopefully I've got it figured out enough to where it will, where I can get it around the golf course smartly.

Q. You made it here through qualifying?

DAVE BARR: No. I was exempt from winning the Royal Caribbean in 2003. That gives me a three year exemption. This is my last exemption for the U.S. Open, so I have to go Monday qualify or qualify next year, if so be.

Q. Long time since you played at ORU, right?

DAVE BARR: 32 years.

Q. Can you remember much about that?

DAVE BARR: I remember playing at down in Wichita at the university golf club there at the great plains invitational. I had won the individual that week, and we lost a playoff to Oklahoma State back there when Oklahoma State was one of the powerhouses.

But yeah, it was good times. I went there for four years and kind of made my roadway into professional golf that way. I had a little bit of success. I won about five college tournaments while I was down there, so...

Q. How many?

DAVE BARR: About five. I got to be second team all American in '73. And finished like fifth at the NCAA at still water that year in '73.

End of FastScripts.