INGERSOLL-RAND SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 4, 1999

George Archer

GEORGE ARCHER: I've been driving real good. I got a new driver about three weeks ago, and I've really been -- I don't know today if because it was cold or whatever, I started out the first, didn't drive very well. Hit some bad drives. Almost the first six holes, didn't hit any good drives at all. And finally like on 7, my caddie tried to hand me a 3-wood and said -- I'm not going to start backing off, and made a beautiful drive on 7 and got a birdie. And then hit a real good drive on 8, knocked it right on the front of the green in two and got a par. And birdied 9. And just kind of turned things around a little bit, from not hitting it good to start driving good. And I hit some real good drives on the back nine. And then the last one I guess I tried to hit too hard. That 18th was playing so long the last few days in the Pro-Ams and things. I pushed it out to the right and hit a 4-wood in the bunker and made a bogey. 11, I knocked it about a foot and I birdied 16 and 17. So I had two bogeys and six birdies and it was a good day. Hit some nice irons. I had the ball around the hole all through that middle stretch there very nicely. You know, I had good birdie putts every hole almost.

GEORGE ARCHER: For me it does. If I can drive well that, means I'm swinging well. When I'm -- very seldom I'll drive bad and then hit a lot of good irons and things like that because I'm not swinging right. I think the cold weather -- I've been playing where, Sacramento was warm, Hawaii was warm, L.A. was warm. So I've been in warm weather for three weeks, and I think today this little cold air -- of course, yesterday I was taking a 4-wood from 170 yards and just chipped it -- it was so cold yesterday. But I did play well in the middle of the round. And just hit one bad drive on the last hole, but hit a lot of good drives in the middle of the round and things; so I was pleased. I hope tomorrow I can get off to a good start and start hitting good drives early. It's really fun. Golf has really become fun for me. I have picked up about 20 yards on my driver. I'm using a much longer shaft, and I've got a big old club now. I feel like the first time in my life, I've got a club that fits me. I keep saying: Don't try to hit the ball, just swing the club. And I got the old habits of trying to hit the ball. But with this big old club, I'm just swinging. And boy, it launches them. It's a lot of fun.

GEORGE ARCHER: It's called a Cubic Balance. Calvin Pete's been with the company for a long time. They told me the company is 21 years old. They have made a club that ten years ago was unheard of. It's 48 inches long; it's 10 and a half ounces total weight; and the swing weight is D-2. So those numbers, ten years ago, was -- if you went back to a guy and said, "I want a club like those," they would look at you and say we can't do it. But with the new shafts and the light heads they can make now, this head is so big, I'm not scared that I can't hit the ball. When I tried Rocky's deal a long time ago, I could hit that club far, but I was afraid I was going to roll the ball on the ground because the head was so small. With a 49-inch shaft; it makes the head look really small. But this head is so big now, I don't ever think I'm going to miss the ball. It looks like a watermelon down there. That's why I'm able to use that 48-inch shaft. And with a longer shaft, you will hit the ball further.

GEORGE ARCHER: That's true, but so what? If you're hitting them in the weeds, you're going to shoot bad. Instead of shooting an 80 you shoot an 85. But if you're playing good -- and I've really driven the ball well. Floyd was -- I played with him in Sacramento. I was in the driving range when he was trying one. When He showed up in L.A., I've got to get one of those things Archer has. He said, look at Archer, he's gained 20 yards. And I can fly this thing 250. It's nice. That way I hit a nice drive on No. 2, it was in the sand trap, but I saw the measurement; it carried 250 yards. On the last measuring hole, I hit it 311 yards. So I'm getting a kick out of this. It's fun.

GEORGE ARCHER: You do lose quite a bit. Like this morning, like on No. 2 I hit a nice drive it was straight it didn't go very far and I had 170 yards to the hole and I hit a 5-iron it only went about a 170 yards because it was still pretty cold. The next hole I knicked it and I hit a 4-iron into that hole. But early in the morning, the ball doesn't go. As soon as the temperature starts to warm up, then the ball starts going better. The temperature means a lot of distance in a golf ball. I live up in Lake Tahoe. If I go out and play in the mornings 8:00 when the temperature is let's say 60, I don't hit the ball very far. But by 2:00 in the afternoon with the high air and the temperature gets up to 80, I can hit a 5-iron 200 yards up there. So it does make a difference. Temperature and altitude are the two things that really affect the flight of the ball.

GEORGE ARCHER: 4th hole, what's the 4th hole? Okay, yeah. I hit a bad drive in the right rough, and I hit a 4-iron down short of the water and I hit a wedge about four feet and I made a birdie there. Then I bogeyed 6. I hit it into the tree and had to chip out sideways, missed the green, chipped up and made about a 5-footer for a bogey and came right back on the 9th and parred 8 --.

GEORGE ARCHER: About 15 feet maybe. 13 to 15 feet and then on No. 9, I hit a 4-iron and it bounced off the hill there about 12 feet from the hole and I made that for a birdie. And then I parred 10 and 11. I knocked it about a foot from the hole with an 8-iron and got a birdie. Then I went right along parring until 16. I hit a real good 7-iron in there about five feet, four feet and made that for a birdie. And then 18 (sic) I took too much club and went over the green and chipped it in. Then on 18, I bogeyed I hit it in the sand trap and knocked it out about six feet and missed the putt. But (-under) is not bad score now because the guys were all dropping it in front of the lake so they will be happy with five, won't they.

GEORGE ARCHER: No they moved the tee up a little bit one thing but the fairway is so wet. We got to lift, clean and place on two holes today, 10 and 13, but we really should have got to do it on 18. It has some serious footprint, and that fairway is really mushy where the guys are hitting the ball, too. A guy can get lucky there and hit a bad lie -- try to knock it over the water, but that would be really -- not right, but we'll see.

GEORGE ARCHER: A long time. I still don't play sand shots anywhere near as good as I used. One time I was a really good bunker player, and with this leg being a quarter inch longer I still just don't hit sand shots the way I once could. Maybe I need to get a longer sand wedge.

GEORGE ARCHER: Funny thing. I lost my heel on a pair of shoes. I had brown shoes on and going to the 16th tee. I went to step over the rope and it caught my heel and tore the heel right off my shoe. That hole I played, the 15th hole, I played that par 5 with no heal on my shoe. That's a funny sensation, especially since this one has an extra bit of a longer heel to offset for my longer leg; so I was really hopping on that hole, but I got a par. Had to bring my other pair of shoes.

GEORGE ARCHER: No. I used the four -- standard was 38 inches in a 2-iron; I used a 40. So my irons are longer but I think this winter I'm going to experiment with graphite shafts and try to make them longer because the way I'm hitting this driver I've already tried to make up a 3-wood that's longer. I want to make all my clubs longer because these new shafts, really you can do that. I think I really need to do that. I know Terry Dill, Rocky Thompson, these guys have all gone to really longer clubs, and they say it's so much easier to hit the ball. A lot of people are telling me, when I stand up over this 48-inch driver, I look like a normal person now. I don't like I'm bent way over to hit the ball the way I used to. And I'm getting very comfortable with this club. And, you know if I just quit trying to hit the ball and just trust swinging I can get some beautiful shots with it.

GEORGE ARCHER: I really feel that I've never played with the proper equipment. I go to the Masters dinner and you've got from Gene Sarazen, how many guys -- 30 guys, 27 guys, and it's unbelievable how many of these guys are 5-foot 10. And now you say to yourself, why in golf does a 5-foot 10 guy have such an advantage? It's the shafts. The shafts are designed for a 5-foot 10. And what do you do? Say well we can make them longer, but they don't really. They have never gone in and did the research and development to, or because there's very few six-foot five guys playing golf. So the shaft companies don't want to spend that money to develop a shaft for such a small market. So they just doctor them. They take the shaft that's designed for a 5-foot 10 guy and they extend it, and say, here, try this see if you like it. Because if you ever lose a graphite shaft that you like, you can't ever replace it. You can't find the same shot. Each graphite shaft is hand made and it's got it's own little personality, and you get to like it. But, when they first came out, I know one of the companies was saying we now we can match anything. I said, fine I had those (inaudible) heads. I want a backup driver just like it. And they couldn't come close. It was just a difference of night and day. I just had to stick with what I liked, and if I ever lost it, I'd get another one. But now, with the fibers in the shafts and everything, strengthen them, they know so much more now about shafts than they did ten years ago that I do think that the big guys are going to get a better deal from now on. But like I say, you know Chi Chi has gone to 56-inches shaft after his heart attack, and he can't hit the ball -- he's really lost a lot of strength since that heart attack, but now with this great big long shaft he looks like a different man; takes this thing and the ball flies. So there is ways you can get around. I can't believe I've turned 60, I tell people him hitting the ball 250 in the air. The best I ever did was 240 and that's when I was 30 years old my best used to carry 240 yards because that's with a shaft that weighed 13.5 ounces and swing weight about D-6. Now I've got a driver that ways 10.5 ounces swing weight is D-2. When I was younger, I think I could have done a lot better.

GEORGE ARCHER: My wedges are about three inches over standard. Then I have to take so much weight off the heads that I -- it's hard to get them to feel good. You know, I have very light wedges. So there's that problem again. That's why I need to get some extra light shafts and do some little experimenting and try to add another inch to my irons go with the 41-inch -- instead of 40-inch.

GEORGE ARCHER: All the different companies. But AJ Tech is making the one that's best for me. I wasn't even looking for a driver. Guy walks up, says: Hit this thing. Tried it in Sacramento; man I don't need another driver. That's the best club in my bag now. For two years, I've been driving good. He says just try this club. I stayed out there and hit about two to three hundred balls that afternoon because I wasn't laying that day it was Wednesday and I just kept hitting that thing all afternoon. I says, by golly, I've got to try this, too. It's in the bag. It's so long I have to carry it on the airplane; it won't have to fit -- I've had to order another bag. You know what I'm saying? I can only put a 46-inch driver --

GEORGE ARCHER: I've been flying around with a driver in my hand.

GEORGE ARCHER: I'm really, like -- I've been really kind of halfway thinking and going fishing and hunting more and playing with the grandkids more because I was losing a little bit. I've lost probably a half a club in my irons and I used hit the ball 240 with a driver and now I was down to about 235. Now all of the sudden, boom-jumped backup I'm 250, maybe 255 with this driver. It's like, hey, I'm getting a second youth deal again here. So I'm really excited about it.

GEORGE ARCHER: Not so much. One or two tournaments doesn't. They were asking me on the television room there, what's kept me in golf so long. I've had seven operations I've had a ton of excuses to quit. Different times when I think about quitting, last year I thought about it real seriously I was over in Germany with my wife for two weeks on a vacation, and I started saying, hey, you know what, this is really nice. I don't say to myself: I have to go practice or I have to watch what I eat or I have to exercise. I'm just vacationing. You know, I says, why not just vacation all the time. So I told my wife when we came back from Germany, I would think about it for a month about retiring; and within that month I won that tournament. She says, "Well, that ends that, you're not going to retire." Well, now forget about it. Now I've got this new club -- golf is fun for me again. I'm hitting the ball, you know, like today, it wasn't like I was -- I watched Fleisher sink all those long putts I want doing that. I was knocking the ball close today and making my birdies and I -- when I get going, I can knock putts in. Not as good as Bruce; he's ten years younger than I am, but when I get hot so, so I would -- I'm going to maybe play a little more golf than I would have next year just because of this club. It will be fun to win again at 60. Not many guy versus done that out here on the TOUR. You've had Player, Charles, Powell, is that it? You've had very few people who can win out here, and Nicklaus is coming back next year and he wants to win again with that hip, see; so he'll be -- he'll be out here playing. I they might play 15, 16 tournaments out here. I wouldn't be surprised. That's what he's been talking about. So I'd like to win once -- one more time since I'm 60. That would be something that would be fun to do again.

GEORGE ARCHER: In Hawaii, I had a little fun over there. If anybody can tell me what this stands for I'll give you a thousand bucks. Nobody can figure what it stands for; so then I started showing people it says inside the hat what it stands for, but I ain't going to tell you. I walked into the pro shop over in Hawaii. It was raining; it was cold, and I had to play with a friend of mine. In all honesty, I don't want of one of these little new hats. I want the old big buckets. So he went in the back, and: "I found this. You can have it; take it; I can't sell this hat over here." What it stands for, I don't know, CH. Colby said it stands for Colbert Hills. But everybody asks me that what does that stand for. So then I'm having a lot of fun with it. I ain't telling anybody what it stands for. See if anybody comes up -- if anybody gets it I'll show them.

GEORGE ARCHER: You never know. They have got a helluva club, I'll tell you that. For big guys they have got one fantastic club. No doubt about it.

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