BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES

March 15, 2000

Arnold Palmer

ARNOLD PALMER: Okay, well, good afternoon. I can remember when this area was less than one-fourth the size it is today, which certainly shows some progress. As far as the tournament, the golf course, I don't think that it's ever been better. The golf course is in top condition. We're working on the greens. We are not going to cut them as close as we might. However, we are going to roll them and we think that that will get them down to the speed that we want. In years past, we cut them, I think, a little too close and lost some of the speed in them and that is not satisfactory. This year, we're going to keep them just a little longer in the cut and hopefully speed them up by the rolling that we do on the top. Overall, the rough is also better than it's ever been. It's thicker, and it will be a challenge. If you get in it, it will be tough. As far as any new things we've done to the golf course, we added a tee at 6, which will make the guys go over water, initially, all the way. And we've added another tee at 11, which will make 11 play just a little bit longer, not a great deal. And we flattened the tee at 12 on the back a couple yards there; and a couple yards at 17, which is not significant at all and made that tee larger. And that's really all the changes that we've made in the golf course.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, the question about my flexibility, that's a personal thing and it really doesn't amount to anything except that I've been stretching and doing a pretty rigorous stretching program and only trying to increase my range of motion body-wise. I hope that makes a difference. I'm doing it, hopefully, to hit the ball a little further and to be able to play golf courses like Bay Hill.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, I guess it's just about as long as any. Laurel Valley is my club in Pennsylvania, it's longer. But on The SENIOR TOUR, 6,600 yards, basically. Laurel is 7,200 and we're close to that here now if we play the middle to the back tees.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, that's a good question. There was some question whether I would play in my own mind, simply because my game, number one, is not good enough; and number two, I'm not playing that well on The SENIOR TOUR. So I just figured that it probably deserved some thought as to whether I would play. My people here sort of put me to the task and insisted that I really should play and I think that's probably the bottom line as to why I'm playing.

ARNOLD PALMER: Am I glad I'm playing? Well, I'm looking forward to playing with Colin Montgomerie. I haven't played with him, and I will enjoy that. Yeah, I'm glad I'm playing. I just hope that I can play a little better than I have in the past -- recent years.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, I suggested if it worked out (Laughter.) I didn't put any pressure on. (Laughter.) And I would like to play with Colin.

ARNOLD PALMER: It wasn't -- it wasn't totally -- I wasn't the only one involved, how's that. I was appreciative of the fact that he's coming to play, and that's how it came up.

ARNOLD PALMER: I don't have an opinion. I think all of you know how I feel about golf carts and I'm not going to get into that. That's a long spiel. We are abiding by the law and the rules of the game and that's what we'll do.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, of course I think it's not amazing to me. I think the thing that we're seeing happening on the TOUR and it's been in the process of happening over a long period of years, and that is that these people are -- and they have to be in absolutely top physical condition to play, number one, and to be competitive, number two. There's not -- I think the golfers that are doing very well on the TOUR generally are guys that are -- have a physical training program or building themselves into a condition that is comparable to any athlete in any sport, and maybe even higher level of competitiveness is coming out of that conditioning that they are doing, whether it be Tiger Woods or Duval, David Duval or who it might be. And I think that that is the trend. It's going to be a trend that is going to be part of golf as much as it is any sport in the world, and, of course, knowing golfers as I do, they will probably go to the extreme physically to play better golf.

ARNOLD PALMER: Oh, there were a few. I did a little in the early days. I ran and I did weights -- not weights, physical weights, but chin myself and things like that because that was a family ritual kind of to do those things. But I would say to answer your question generally, very, very few. Their routine was probably having a beer after a round of golf more than it was doing physical exercise and that stuff. It was rare. Of course yeah, you did have a guy like Stranahan who really was a physical -- he worked out from the first time I ever saw him at Pinehurst in the 40s, late 40s. I remember him checking into the hotel in Pinehurst and the bellman came out to pick up his bags and couldn't pick them up, they were full of weights. And that's true. That is a true story. But Stranny worked out forever. He never stopped and still is doing. It.

ARNOLD PALMER: That is also a good question. I'm seeing that and it's amazing. I think the mental attitude of these young players is far more mature than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago. I think although there were some pretty young, good players in those days, I think the training that these people get, not just on the golf course or in golf, but in school and the advanced maturity of these people at young ages is a factor that's startling to me. They are very seasoned and very poised for the game and that does surprise me a little bit that they have reached that point at such an early age.

ARNOLD PALMER: What did you call that? A charisma bypass?

ARNOLD PALMER: I'm afraid that is the nature of the beast. I think that we're going to probably see more of that as these kids start training in high school to be golfers and part of the -- that training is to mind your business, keep your mind on the game and get your schooling done and then go play golf. And in doing so, they kind of bypass that other part of what we're talking about. I don't suppose that it's much different than a man training to be an accountant or a chief executive officer. You know, look at the personalities you return into in that situation and these people are doing somewhat the same thing. They are getting themselves hyped up to play golf and nothing from the outside should interfere, I think that's the case.

ARNOLD PALMER: You know, I don't know whether it will or not. I suppose that we need the personalities, we need the variety in personalities. And whether it's going to get to the point where we're not going to have any personalities we're just going to see guys tee it up and know them by name and let them go play, I don't think that's going to happen. I think we'll still have the personalities. These young guys, a lot of them I know -- not a lot of them I know, I know some of them pretty well and in their own right, they do have personalities and they are pretty nice guys to talk to. So I'm hopeful that they don't cut themselves off from that other section of what we've known in golf as being a part of it.

ARNOLD PALMER: I think Tiger has done a tremendous job in the last two years, two and a half years. I think he has started to handle himself a lot better. I think he is handling himself better with you guys, the press, it appears to me from what you write, and I think that's a good sign. And I think it will help his -- the bottom line for him, meaning his golf and his regularity on the TOUR and his game.

ARNOLD PALMER: I see a possibility that he could -- because golf is such an individual sport, I see the possibility that he could lap all sports, sort of like tennis or boxing, it has kind of a special niche that is easier to write about than it is to pick a guy on a team and say how good he is. So there's a possibility that he could become as well known as anybody in the world of sports.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, I was pleasantly pleased with being asked to become a member. Have I taken advantage of it, actually, I haven't played there much more than I did before. I was there for the First Member'S Party and I enjoyed it very much. I haven't been back since, only because my schedule and circumstances surrounding me at the time made it impossible.

ARNOLD PALMER: The answer is yes, I did. I felt like I could win every week, and I felt that if I could get things -- the ball going the way I wanted to and I think every player has to feel that way if he's going to win. But I didn't tell anybody, I tried to keep it to myself. But I did -- I had confidence in my game and there was a period of time when I was astonished that I didn't win more than I did.

ARNOLD PALMER: Surprise me, I don't think so. I think I've played enough golf with Tiger that almost anything he does on the golf course he does right now would not surprise me. I don't know that I've ever seen anyone go through the ball quite the way he does and with the speed that club head is going through. And just knowing what happened to me at times when I wasn't playing my best golf, probably has to happen to him a little bit, too, and that is you just have times when things weren't clicking and body chemistry isn't working the way it should and you're going to hit some bad shots. I think the guy that probably did that the best was Byron Nelson and having known Byron for as well as I have for a lot of years, I've talked to him about it, what happened to him when he was playing that well, and reading his book and reading what he wrote about the game of golf and the streak and so on. And the consistency with which he played, and, of course, he admitted that he had ups and downs on certain periods of time, but he also said that, without much disagreement, he was sick in his stomach almost every time he went out to play golf before he teed it up. And that kind of tells you something that the intensity and the -- he was so high all the time that that kept him being consistent and it happened every time.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, I'm not familiar with the club you're talking about, but my -- I suppose my feelings are that the golf ball should be slowed down a little bit. But, you know, when you think -- and I've been in this conversation on and off for the last few years about equipment and I haven't really concentrated too much on the legality of a golf club, whether it be square grooves or springs off the face of the club or what-have-you. I have looked more at the ball. And when you think about it, and we talk about the golfers in the United States or the world, probably less than 10%, probably less than 5% of the golfers in the world have ever looked at a rule book. You've got to think about that. Most of them don't even know that there is a rule book in existence that tells you what the specifications off a golf club should be or the specifications of a golf ball should be. And if you think about that, and let's just say, for an example, there are 50 million golfers in the United States -- and I have been chairman of the Associates Program which has changed now to some other name, but there are probably about a million people that are members, out of 50 million. Now think about that. That means that there are 1 million that make some effort to know what's going on, join the golf association. But the rest really don't know. And that is a very significant factor. So when we talk about controlling a golf ball or controlling a club, you have 40 million out of 50 million golfers that can't break 80. And all of the sudden, you're telling them that you want to slow down the ball and you want to take the spring out of a golf club, it's a good thing it isn't a public company because you'd have problems with it. And that's the trend. So you've got to look at it a little bit that way, who are we trying to control. Well, we're trying to control the professionals, and that's basically what you were talking about. I suppose that if I were on a committee that was to say what to' do, I might, like my friend Charlie Mecham, said, I might just hand the pros a golf ball and say, "You play this golf ball every week and let the amateurs that are buying and paying for golf balls and let them play whatever they want to play."

ARNOLD PALMER: That's a question I cannot answer. I don't know. I wonder I suppose that there would be a percentage of people that would want to play with the golf ball the pros are playing with in the tournaments, and I think that's something that you have to look at. And a lot of manufacturers certainly think so because they pay the pros a lot of money to play their equipment, and if you put that into perspective that we're talking about, they have got a good point.

ARNOLD PALMER: I have a very definite feeling, to answer your question. I'm going back for the 46th appearance this year, and I'm looking forward to it very much. And I have written a note to the powers at Augusta and said that since I am now a member, I'd like to play the members tees. (Laughter.)

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, I think that's -- again, what you're suggesting is that he should quit, or are you?

ARNOLD PALMER: I think Tiger at this point in time -- when he is 35, I think he'll still be a factor in winning golf tournaments. So my advice would be to just keep on working and hitting the ball and enjoying it. Once you stop enjoying it, don't do it. But if he's enjoying playing and he's competitive at 35, he should be playing and enjoying the game. You know, I played a lot of golf with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, and I saw them both come up from 19 years old to their present age. And at one point in that whole scenario of aging and getting on with it, we were playing I think Big Three golf in the late 60s and they were -- I was a little older than both of them and they were around -- they were getting around 35 years old -- that's the reason I'm bringing up, that was about their age. And, of course, both of them unconditionally told me by the time they were 40, 45 years old, they would not be playing competitive golf at all, and they would not play -- and I promise you, if you ask them, they will tell that you, too, right now. But they are both playing more golf than they have ever played in their life right now and they are long beyond that age limit. So it's hard to predict what a person's going to do. I think what Nelson did or Jones did is a very difficult decision to make, particularly if you love the game.

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