U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 6, 2006

Mark James

RAND JERRIS: Mark James with two birdies on the last two holes to finish at 2 under par.

Q. Really steady U.S. Open type round out there with 14 pars to start your round. How were the playing conditions out there?

MARK JAMES: It wasn't easy. It was enough wind to make it interesting. Not too sure exactly how far the ball is going to go, so you have to be very careful. It was tough.

Q. Walk us through your two birdies on 6 and 7.

MARK JAMES: 6, I hit a driver, wedge to about 30 feet and holed it. Which was a nice surprise.

7, I hit drive, 7 iron to about 30 feet, two putts for birdie.

Q. Does this course feel like a British links to you?

MARK JAMES: Well, it's not too far off. If it wasn't for the six inches of thick rough just off the fairways, but they have to do that. The course is 6, 6, they don't want us to tread all over it. It's probably the best way to make it tough is to grow the rough up but keep the greens a little softer.

Q. Are there any holes in particular that remind you of links golf? Was there any

MARK JAMES: You got the huge dunes. They all you know, they all sort of smack of it a little bit when you got big dunes and you know the tees are up on the dunes elevated quite a bit there.

So, yeah, I mean, it's obviously at one time the sea was quite near here. It must have been an interesting landscape then.

Q. Do you like the cooler weather and maybe a little drizzle to give it kind of a links feel?

MARK JAMES: No. The less like Scotland it is the better for me. I like it in the 100s.

Q. Talk about your round. To come away with that type of round, which is just right down the middle pretty much, it's got to be a good feeling.

MARK JAMES: Yeah, I played well. I haven't played great lately. I've been putting really badly, and I incurred a couple of injuries on and off. So it's sort of shaking everything out of my system today. It was it felt really good. I hit, I think, 15 greens and two of the them I was putting from just off the fringe. So, yeah, it felt pretty solid.

Q. You play in the morning. Is that an advantage since the forecast is calling for the wind to pick up a little tomorrow?

MARK JAMES: In theory, but it hasn't changed much the last couple of days. In theory it might be, but I can shoot 78 even when it's dead calm, so...

Q. When you saw the course, did you like your chances to maybe shoot a low score?

MARK JAMES: Not really. I am having to club down quite a lot. I rang myself a pretty good driver most of the time, and there's a lot of holes we're not hitting driver out there, so it sort of takes the driver out a little bit.

But you still got to be fairly careful. You got to hit good shots with other clubs. But, no, I wouldn't say it suited my game particularly.

Q. How many drivers did you hit today?

MARK JAMES: I don't know. Probably about six or seven.

Q. People talk about the doglegs being so challenging because kind of the visual effect there is not a whole lot of depth perception because it is more of a links style course. How do you play those doglegs after three practice rounds and a round out here? How do you approach hitting balls off the tee on those kind of holes?

MARK JAMES: Well, it's trying to judge exactly how far the ball's going to go. And the fairways are a fairly nice firmness. If it was wetter it would be a lot easier to hit them. But you just got to try and pick the line that suits your game, or the line that you want that suits the club you want to hit. So it's not easy.

I messed up on a couple of doglegs, missed the wrong line, and it's difficult. Everyone is going to miss a few fairways and then you're in that stuff, you know.

Q. What's been bothering you physically? Injuries?

MARK JAMES: I pinched a disk in the back earlier in the season at the Legends, and I was struggling the first day. Then I hurt my hand in Birmingham playing out of a water hazard. Then I hurt my back a few weeks ago in Des Moines and couldn't really swing there.

It's just and then I went into a bad putting patch. So it's sort of all happened at once in a way. And before you know it, you're sort of in a slump. But, no, hopefully this is the start of at least a slightly better run.

End of FastScripts.