U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 11, 1999

John Inman

JOE INMAN: Well, I am somebody who is supposed to make a lot of pars, and I made, the first day, I made no pars on the back nine. I had four birdies, four bogeys, eagle today. Had four birdies, four bogeys, and a par. So I was like the little girl in the nursery rhyme: When I was good, I was very, very good, and when I was bad, I was horrid. I played some good holes, bad holes, never could keep anything long enough to catch anybody. I just kept holding my ground, that is all I was. I made bogeys, then I just gave them right back. I made one par on the par 4 on the back. It is hard to make any headway, but I made some fantastic birdies. So it is just, you know, I can't get over that I was so inconsistent. The whole week I did the same thing.

JOE INMAN: When I got to the last hole -- I wasn't anywhere near the lead. When you get into the last couple of holes, you start: Well, where is everybody? So that, you know, they pay for second, third, fourth and fifth, so I was looking at it to try to figure out where I was. But I just -- I made the greatest, the two 2s I made on the back were unbelievable 2s. Then to bogey the last hole, to bogey the 10th hole, to bogey 13 when I drove it perfect right where you have to have it, landed on the green like it was a trampoline just bounced right through the green. I just couldn't keep anything going. I am glad I make six birdies.

JOE INMAN: Well, the course -- the layout is fantastic. The greens -- they are greens. I don't know. My job is just to play it. I can't -- I am not a golf course architect. I just know that I stood over three-quarters of the putts I had this week and I looked at them, you just didn't know where it was going. I mean, they have so many little humps and bumps and rolls, you just don't know exactly where the ball is going. I never really felt comfortable but a few putts.

JOE INMAN: That is why they play the game. I mean, if I'd been betting, it would have been Irwin. You got to go who you think. That is why they play the game. That is why tennis is a game that is nowhere as near as golf because the No. 1 ranked player beats the No. 50 ranked player every time or 99 times out of 100. In golf, you watch it in a Match Play, the 64th or where was Jeff Maggert? 20-something'th last four players, none of them were in the Top-20 or whatever it was. In golf it is very unpredictable. Very difficult to control. You can drive it right down the middle be in a divot. You can hit it and a puff of wind will come out and knock it down. There are things that are totally unpredictable in golf. That is why they play the game. I mean, that is why I love it because they are better than me, I know. That doesn't mean they are going to win all the time. I like going out there and finding out if this is my week.

JOE INMAN: No, what I did was I left my putter-when I got my score card I left my putter, I leaned it against the scorer's table; took the thing off, signed my score card like I always do in the markers, put it in my pocket. I thought my caddie got it. He was standing right there. We walked off the first tee without my putter. Dave Eichelberger's caddie, he has got one just like mine, he putt it in the bag. Now if he tees off with that putter in his bag, that is a two-shot penalty. So they hadn't teed off and Rich comes running back up the fairway. When I reach in there he goes, oh, my God, where is the putter? He went running back up there. They got it out of Eichelberger's bag before he teed off. That would have been -- unpredictable.