U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 8, 2006

Jim Thorpe

CRAIG SMITH: Jim Thorpe, 7 birdies and a low round of the championship thus far, 65.

JIM THORPE: Hey, guys. Let me just start off saying that I think I had a good day today. We had a little wind but a little rain also to soften the greens up. This golf course is not overly long, so it gives us a lot of short irons. I had some pin placements today that we could get close to, like one, two, three.

That's a pin placement that you can really take dead aim at. The greens are still definitely tough. I left four or five birdies on the golf course that I thought we would make, but 65 is not a bad round. Just the idea that the greens were a lot softer today than yesterday evening and yesterday, it was very difficult get I think it the ball close.

Today, if you could put it on the fairway, I think the only two bogeys I made came from missing fairways. To me, when you miss the fairway, three, four yards, you get more punishment than missing 30 yards, you know.

So if you can keep, if the guys can keep the ball on the fairway today the pins are setting where they can go very low. I'm looking for someone I shot 65. I'm looking for somebody with a hot putter to go even lower, because I don't think the golf course is really we got a wind today. It's not maybe downwind, it might be a club wind, maybe against it might be a club wind.

But the golf course is set up for scoring today, and I think you'll see some low numbers.

Q. Did conditions start to change in the second nine as compared to the first nine? You got off to such a great start. Did it start changing in the afternoon?

JIM THORPE: I think it started changing somewhere around No. 6. I hit a driver on No. 6 and had only about 70 yards to the flag. I had no idea the ball was going that far, so I think the wind started picking up a little bit there. And 7 played very easy. We hit driver 6 iron from just in the right rough.

8 played very short. Then 9 didn't play long today either. Hit driver 5 iron to 9 today and the wind had picked up a little bit, but they moved the tee marker up there a little bit too. So they get the pins where you can make birdie, because the pin is sitting about, I don't know, 12, 15 on, and the center of the greens got this knob there where the balls break to the pin there.

And I hit it there about 10, 11 feet and missed the putt there. So yeah, I think there's going to be scoring lower today than any day this week. I know the wind is going to blow, but for some reason today probably the toughest pin on the whole golf course I would say is No. 12. They got No. 12 sitting on that little right crown there, you know what I mean?

I thought I hit a pretty decent shot there and missed the green to the right. That's very, very difficult. Plus that green is very slow chipping that way. So that hole might cause some problems. 15, they got it sitting on the crown also.

I got lucky. I hit a wedge that went past the flag and it spun back up the hill there about four feet from the cup. And I was very, very lucky there for that to happen. But other than that, I don't see where the guys can have some tough pins. 17 is probably the easiest we can get it. Sitting middle of the left there, there's that's pretty simple.

18, is the easiest pin placement. I was telling my brother, we're hitting 9 iron there, I wanted to hit pitching wedge, but everything hitting short is kind of feeding back down the hill, so we played the hole just a little bit long. But, you know, from our perspective I think I got it back in position where if the guys don't go low today maybe go out tomorrow and get another low round. You never know what will happen.

Q. Did you hit a driver off the fairway on 17?

JIM THORPE: Yeah. I was trying to chase it up there. My wedges are spinning a lot. I'm one of those guys I don't know how to hit the wedges without making them spin a lot. So I knew if I leave it up there 50, 80 yards I'm just going to spin it all the way back.

If I don't try to hit some type of knock down shot, so I had a real good lie on the fairway of 17. I figured if I could chase it up there I could get it up there where Des got it, which I thought was perfect.

But the chip shot, he had had three or two or three crowns there. Just the idea of dropping it to the right and hope it skates back there. But yeah, I think this U.S. Open here I played in a lot of U.S. Opens, and I think that here I understand they can't get the greens as fast as they want to. If they did, we probably couldn't finish. But the greens look a lot quicker than they're rolling. They just look a lot quicker and that's why I think the scores will be lower. I mean guys like Watson who is such a strong player, whether the wind blows or not, if he gets his putter going he can go low today.

Q. How bad was your lie on 16? You went into the bunker from there.

JIM THORPE: You know what, actually I made bogey on 16 every day. Actually that lie there wasn't really that bad. It was there, I could chase, like I could chase what I call my Heavenwood up. I was trying to chase it in the gap there and I think I had enough on it to get it all the way to the flag, but the rough is so high it just wraps the club up. Once you make contact with the ball, it just kind of wraps the club up there. And, you know, I think tomorrow what I'll do on 16, I'll probably hit my utility club off the tee there. I think if I can get it somewhere around the green you can hustle par there.

So I think maybe 17, 4 or 5 iron for the second shot there and I think that's the way I got to play the hole. The hole just doesn't set up good for me. And I drive it okay and get to that hole and for some reason I bail out to the left. I don't know why. But, you know, it's a great golf course. I'm looking for the scores to go low.

Q. Jim, when you're 5 under after 10

JIM THORPE: I'm looking to go low.

Q. what are you looking for?

JIM THORPE: I'm looking, I'm definitely thinking birdies now. You know, like I say, I hit a decent shot on 11 there. 11 played straight down wind. It played so firm. Especially off the birdie on number 10. It plays straight down wind there. I hit a utility club off the tee and hit 6 iron from 192. And once the pin was on the right side just over that bunker on the down slope I had to kind of play to the center of the green. So I had about a 10 footer there. Just looking for a routine 2 putt, if you make it, you take it. But I actually took a routine 2 putt.

But I started No. 12, I really thought the golf course opened up some. I know 12 is short hole, I hit a good 4 iron off the tee there and hit a good looking pitching wedge and left it two or three yards out. And that's all it takes on that green to get it off the green to the right there. And, anyway, I hustled good out there.

The next hole I hit a big drive up there, only had like 107 to the hole. I hit a pitching wedge just straight down the flag pole there and hit up there and spun back down off the green. And I'm not smart enough after playing golf about 50 years to hit it past the flag and let it back up. And, yeah, I thought we would birdie 14.

Made a decent putt on 15 there.

And I really thought we could birdie 17.

I seen the pin on 18, and I really thought if we put it on the fairway there with a 9 iron or wedge you could really get it close.

Q. What was the pin placement like on 14?

JIM THORPE: 14? Let me think. 14. 14. 14. 14.

Q. You stopped a wedge for a birdie.

JIM THORPE: 14 they got it sitting on that crown. And I think that we had like 70, maybe 78 yards there. And I flew it just past the hole and based on what one of the spectators said it went down and come back up the hill, you know, about four feet there. But that's a very, very tough pin. It going to be hard there to get that close there today.

And I think the surprise is going to come on the next hole the par 3. The pin sitting on like the right front there, and that putt's a lot quicker from the right side than it looks. Because I blew it past the hole about three feet there. And that putts a lot quicker, so I think a lot of us will get fooled on that one.

But I still think the scoring will be low today. I think today will be the lowest scoring of the championship round.

Q. On 12 tomorrow the USGA may put the tee up and make it 320 to the hole.

JIM THORPE: I'm going for green. I have no choice. I mean, you know, you're trying to win the golf tournament you almost got to go if he they put it 320.

Q. Will most people try it, do you think?

JIM THORPE: I don't think. I think if you got a one or two shot lead I don't think you'll try it. You'll probably hit a 7 iron off the tee and 9 iron to the green. And then, but, yeah, if you're two or three shots back, why not take a shot. Plus, I think the closer you hit it to the green that's why I hit driver off the ground on 17. My lay up shot I got 186 yards to lay it up to 80 yards so my lay up shot is just as tough as trying to hit the driver off the ground and try to chase it up there.

So, I was telling my brother, the closer we get to the green, if it's in the rough we can still play. It might take birdie out of play, but I had a decent birdie putt there about 10 feet short of the hole, we just misread it. But I think the guys will take a chance there.

Q. They can take it up over the top of the trees there?

JIM THORPE: I think we'll hit more of a bullet shot, something to chase it, you know what I mean? Actually, that's the way I would play it. I would try to chase it. I wouldn't try to go over the top of the trees because based on what the wind is doing I would try to get something on the ground and running. The fairways are releasing the ball very well. And it's just amazing because in the practice rounds we didn't feel that the golf course really played as short as it's playing for the championship. But for some reason the ball is really chasing up now.

Q. You had a good dual with Watson at Ridgewood in the Senior PGA a few years ago. Are you surprised he hasn't won one of these U.S. Opens out here yet?

JIM THORPE: I'm very, very surprised personally. Tom is a great guy and we love him and we want him to play more. And I personally think that's the whole problem with Tom. He doesn't play enough golf. So it's a lot like Tiger Woods, you can't play once every six, seven, eight weeks and keep your game sharp. You can practice all you want back home, but you need the competition to stay sharp.

And I think if he came out and dedicated himself and played just a little bit more golf, versus playing 10, 12 times, play 18, 20 times, Tom would be very tough to beat.

Plus, I think Tom is probably the best ball striker out here. And we know he can win, I mean, hell, he's won his whole life. So we know he's got the winning attitude if he can get it going and he'll be very he have tough to beat here too. He's playing in front of a lot of his home crowd and he's swinging very, very well and if his putter is working, he can be hard to beat.

End of FastScripts.