U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 27, 2000

Dave Eichelberger

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Pretty hectic there for a couple of weeks after winning last year. Then it slowly died down a little bit to where life is close to normal there for a while anyhow. Here just -- until I got to the Open at Pebble Beach, and then everything kind of came back to me. It was the highlight of the year so far with the Pebble Beach Open.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: I played -- did the Media Day here back in May, then played today, second time.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Oh, I think it is an absolutely beautiful golf course in perfect condition. The rough is medium. I'd say you can hit an 8- or 9-iron out, it seems like, but that is about it. I don't think you can be hitting many 5- and 6-irons on the green. Greens seem just a little bit slow. I mean, the whole place is like -- it's kinds of wet. Not really dried out and hard.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: It means maybe low scores at least at this point. However, I have seen places like this before. If they just turn the water off and it doesn't rain anymore and you get a little breeze, then everything changes. But as of right now, it is fairly friendly place.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Oh, man. It seems to be quite a bit friendlier. I mean, that was -- when I got to Pebble Beach and played my first round there, I shot about 85 and really was worried that I was going to embarrass myself if I didn't really find something and play a little better. I got it in that rough a couple of times around those bunkers. There was some kind of native grass around all the bunkers at Pebble Beach that was just absolutely impossible. I think you saw Tiger get in it there on the 3rd hole one day; and man, when you are in it, you could not hit it out. I was really -- at least I couldn't hit it out. I was really kind of glad to see that he couldn't either. I mean, if he had gotten in there and taken a swing at it and blown the ball up on the green, I was going to think he could walk on water. No, he was having trouble with it too; so, no, that place was as rough as any as I have seen. I played in the Opens there in 1972 and 1982, and it was pretty much like those from what I could tell. Second-place score was about the same as it was in those Opens, I think, 287 or something like that. So it was really tough.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: I don't think there is any, really any extra pressure. I feel like it kind of might even help a bit. I think just the main thing just depends on how you are playing at the time as far as what happens that week. I feel like right now I -- just in the last couple of weeks, my game seems to have picked up just a little bit. I have had like two Top-10s there on the SENIOR TOUR, and then the experience at Pebble Beach was at least -- had one good round out of all that, which boosted the confidence a little bit. Really feeling pretty good right about now except for the cold. If it goes like all the others I have ever had, it should be pretty well a lot better by Thursday.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: You can pretty well just look at the list as who is playing well the last few weeks there on the SENIOR TOUR, plus guys like Irwin and Kite and Watson, I guess they will be playing in there -- well, Kite and Watson will be playing for the first time. I kind of look for those three. And, man, oh -- Lee looks pretty good after last week. Never going to count him out.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: I don't know if it's an advantage, but certainly it helped my confidence a little bit to go out there and, you know, play fairly well for some of the older guys, make the cut. I had one good run; kind of made my whole week for me there. But it just -- it helps the confidence a little bit. I don't think it really gives me any kind of real advantage. I don't see that. Just personal confidence, I think. That might be a little advantage, I think.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Those greens were hard. Hard as brick. The 12th green out there was -- I never, in any of the groups I have played, I never had a ball stop on it. 14, same thing there. Just couldn't make the ball stop on the green. These greens are fairly soft compared to those. But like I say, if it quits raining, cut them down just a teeny bit more; they will be plenty fast.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Oh, I don't know. I mean, I guess it might change just sort of the way you feel about yourself or your career, I guess, maybe. You get somewhat of a sense of accomplishment there from that. And as far as changing my life or anything like that, it really hadn't done that.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: No. I have always loved to play the game and play a lot. I loved playing tournaments. Play when I am home. Just work -- keep working at it and trying to improve really, just do the same thing I have always done.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Oh, not surprised. I just -- I can tell that it is like there has been a lot of rain and the course is fairly soft, and I don't think they have cut the greens as low as they can go. I suspect things can be a little harder and faster on Thursday than they are now. But at this point, I mean, the course seems soft and a little slow.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Well, like I said, it just depends on how I am playing. I really feel like I am playing well and actually feel like I have got a chance to do it. I did it once, and that kind of gives me the confidence to know I can do it. So see the way I am playing, I am kind of -- I feel -- I am not going to say I am going to win, but I just feel that I have got as good a chance as anybody right now.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: I am driving the ball really well, a lot straighter then I was at this time last year. Drive it in the fairway. Putter kind of comes and goes, but in the past usually I will have one day, if not two, where I really make a lot. Then two where I kind of just am mediocre with the putter, then two good days. So drive it well and putt well, I feel like I can do it.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: I don't know any particular stretch of holes that are, you know, particularly important; not like at Pebble Beach where you had to get by 8, 9 and 10 there, were kind of a big key there. This place, it doesn't seem to have -- there is no stretch of just back-breaking holes here, and the length is not just, you know, really, really strong. I mean, you can tell it is for Seniors rather than for Tiger.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: I definitely feel their presence when they are around. Actually I have played with Watson a couple of times this year and I am really impressed with the way he hits the ball. He hits it as well as I remember him doing it, you know, 25 years ago. His putter is not quite the same, but you know, he is somebody that I definitely keep my eye on him and he and Kite, both. I mean, they are somebody you kind of watch every week. They certainly had the success as they have started on the SENIOR TOUR. So I would look for something out of them.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Well, somebody -- I asked what Larry Laoretti had shot in 1992. They said, 9-under was what it was. I am going to say 10 to 12 maybe.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Right now, yeah. The thing is they say it is going to rain some more, so we will see.

DAVE EICHELBERGER: Oh, yeah, a lot more rough here. The rough out there looks like maybe it is four inches, something like that, the main rough, and we don't have rough quite like that on the regular SENIOR TOUR events.

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