SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP AT GAILLARDIA

October 25, 2002

Larry Nelson

Q. Was it the Black Diamond or the Intermediate Run today?

LARRY NELSON: It was intermediate for about 17 holes, and I got up to the Black Diamond on the last hole. It was not very much fun yesterday for the first four and a half holes; and this morning for the first 20 some odd holes. It got colder in the middle of the round today, and the sun popped through as we were walking off 18, which is about perfect. I'm really happy to be 5 under and to have a chance, you know, this weekend.

So, the golf course, there is a lot of mud on it today and the golf course played fairly long, and sometimes even if you had shorter shots, through the mud sometimes you couldn't predict where the ball was going to go. On 10 I had a pretty good shot, but I missed the green 30 yards. It's tough when you throw in the wet fairways and the cold day.

I'm happy to be in the press room.

Q. Okay. You just want to take us through your afternoon round. If I can, you had all pars until the 6th hole and made birdie?

LARRY NELSON: Right, the par 5, I hit I guess it was the L wedge about six feet.

Q. Then a bogey at 7?

LARRY NELSON: Actually a 15-footer for bogey in 7.

Didn't have a very good line. Hit the 4-iron, hit the lip and popped it up and over the green on the fourth shot and chipped it by coming back about 15 feet for a bogey, so it was actually a pretty good bogey.

Q. Then you birdied 9?

LARRY NELSON: Actually I hit a 7-iron a foot left of the green and putted in probably about from 18, 20 feet.

Q. Okay. And then 11 and 12?

LARRY NELSON: 11, I hit I guess it was an L wedge -- not L wedge, sand wedge about a foot and a half; and then 12, I hit a 7-iron about -- actually closer than that, probably about a foot and a few inches.

Q. Okay, 16, the only birdie of the day?

LARRY NELSON: I hit a 3-iron about 8 feet. Probably hit the best putt I hit the whole day.

Q. And then the last hole?

LARRY NELSON: It was kind of a dumb thing. I tried to go left. You really shouldn't do that because you couldn't knock it on the green anyway. I pulled it a little bit, and it got in the high stuff. I was fortunate enough I could drop it a club length to where I could hit it out and hit it out in the fairway, hit a 5-iron on the green for a bogey.

Q. Okay. Is there a drastic difference from this morning to this afternoon and did it play any more difficult this afternoon?

LARRY NELSON: I don't think it played any more difficult. I think given the difference in the weather from the morning and the afternoon, no matter where they put the spins probably wouldn't have been any more difficult, so I couldn't -- it seemed like the spins were pretty much the same for me.

Q. How about controlling the ball on the green, (inaudible)?

LARRY NELSON: I just didn't hit a full shot in there with either an L wedge. The only time I did that was on number 11. I knew I had to fly it past the whole. If you go down one club and hit it easy, it is not going to spin back as much. That's what I did. I didn't have any problem spinning it back. I mean, you know, some of the shots you know you're going to spin it. 18, it's straight back down a hill, so if you hit the shot with any kind of a spin, it's going to come all the way to the front of the green. My 5-iron there didn't have much spin on it.

Q. A lot of guys consider this as a mini-major. Do you agree?

LARRY NELSON: I think when I say mini-major, you know, when you -- other than the Senior PGA and the Senior Open, the other two is just a matter of designation, so to me this is probably one of the more important tournaments we have. For a long time I thought the Tour Championship, Players Championship was one of the best deals of all the tournaments, all the major tournaments, and I think this one, with the exception of the fact you only have 31 guys or 30, they're the best 30 players I guess this week. I consider it, if not one of them, then at least the fifth.

Q. Larry, how had you been playing coming into this week?

LARRY NELSON: My year has been kind of -- probably the best way to put it is lethargic. It hasn't been very exciting. It hasn't -- it seems like nothing -- I have not had too many weeks where I did everything well. It seems like I either drive the ball well, hit irons well or putt well but never two of them. A couple of times I did drive and hit the irons well but not putt well. It's just the old theory if you putt well, you can have a good week every week, but if you don't putt good, it doesn't matter how good you hit it, you're not going to do well and that's kind of the way it's been. I have putted well when I've hitted poorly, so I think it's kind of been one of those years. I guess everyone has a little bit of a down year. I don't feel it's like the 55 Syndrome. I feel like next year I can have the best year I've ever had. Things were kind of out of sync this year, and I think it's -- it will be fine. This week, you know, I think it's a good indication of what can happen or what I can do. Although we have two more rounds, I feel very comfortable on this golf course, and I'm kind of excited about playing the next two rounds.

Q. Are you ready for the weather to get better?

LARRY NELSON: Yes, and you ask three different people and they tell you three different things about what it's going to be Sunday. I heard the first of the week was going to be rainy and yesterday cloudy was all it had on there. I talked to somebody a few minutes ago, they said Sunday is going to be bad. If Sunday is going to be bad, we've got to play good tomorrow.

Q. Larry, thank you very much.

LARRY NELSON: Thank you.

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