U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 31, 2008

Greg Norman

FULLAUDIOINTERVIEW

Q. Couldn't get anything going?

GREG NORMAN: No, I played well. I just couldn't get it over the hump; that's correct.

Q. How were the greens today? How was the putting out there, difficult as everyone predicted?

GREG NORMAN: The greens were very inconsistent. Some were very mushy, very soft. They put a lot of moisture in some greens and not in others. It was tough judging, especially the second shot not knowing what the golf ball was going to do.

It got into a bit of a guessing game at the end of the day and the speed of the greens were a little inconsistent because there was more moisture in some than others.

Q. How were the pin placements?

GREG NORMAN: The pin placements were very good, no problem with them.

Q. How frustrating was 15, sticking it up there and then having it spin back on you?

GREG NORMAN: Hey, I thought I hit a good shot there and walked off with a bogey. That's just the nature of the game unfortunately and probably made a bad decision putting the ball. There was a big clump of grass behind it and I really couldn't get a square contact and bad judgment in choosing shot selection.

Q. How did you respond to the heat today?

GREG NORMAN: What heat? (smiling)

Q. The weather.

GREG NORMAN: As long as you keep drinking water, it's okay.

Q. Yesterday you were talking about controlling your distance and the calculations and everything, did you feel more comfortable today?

GREG NORMAN: No, it's still a mental brain drain by the time you do your calculations and try to figure out whether it's 20 percent or 30 percent or 18 percent, and by the time you do the math in your head and then you have to figure out what shot you want to hit, it's a brain drain and you really have to stay with it, and whatever calculations you do make, you have to trust it.

Like I said to Roger Maltbie, four or five yards out is a lot here, and sometimes you can misjudge it by four or five yards and have to chip it four or five yards down the hole which is near impossible.

Q. Pleased with the 70 today?

GREG NORMAN: Yes, I am.

Q. How about the breeze, the breeze has picked up a little bit in the middle of the round.

GREG NORMAN: It was just enough to make you pay attention and helped a little bit and wasn't enough to make you think, okay, this is added extra toughness to the shot, but yeah, the way we played it coming in, it was pretty much down and right-to-left.

Q. Talking about the inconsistency, was it every other hole or a certain part of the course?

GREG NORMAN: Well, 1, 2, 3, 4, some of the back nine were very, very firm, so yeah, it was kind of like a mix-and-match, yeah.

Q. How did you feel on the back nine?

GREG NORMAN: I felt pretty good, yeah. Are you worried about my health or something? (Laughter).

No, I felt strong today all day.

Q. Can you go through your birdies and bogeys?

GREG NORMAN: You'll have to remind me. I can't remember this golf course very well.

The fifth hole, I hit a driver, sand wedge to about 18 feet and 1- putted.

The sixth hole, I hit a driver in the middle of the fairway and laid the sod over a sand wedge, chipped it onto about ten feet and 2- putted.

Ninth hole, I hit 3-wood 5-iron just short and chipped it up to about five feet and one putted.

10, I hit a driver, 8-iron in front of the green, 3-putted.

14, driver, sand wedge to about nine feet.

And 15, 3-wood, sand wedge to about 18 feet and 3-putted.

Q. Some players said it was a bit of an advantage to play in the morning and you have to play in the afternoon tomorrow; do you agree with that?

GREG NORMAN: I don't know. Let's just see how tomorrow looks. It's supposed to be hot tomorrow and I'm sure the greens are going to be a little bit firmer for us. They will probably be a little bit more consistent for us in the afternoon because they are going to dry out, for sure.

We'll just have to wait and see how tomorrow plays out. But this morning, there wasn't any problem. There was a little bit of wind, but here the wind is blowing a little stronger now, so maybe we got a little lucky.

Q. You've gone weeks without 3-putting, is it something that you have to except on a course like this?

GREG NORMAN: Yeah, these greens are huge greens, and got a lot of slope to them, a lot of grain to them. You know, you're going to have a lot of 3- and 4- and 5-footers, and you're not going to make them all. I had three 3-putts, and hopefully I don't have anymore; maybe I've had them all in one day.