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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP


June 6, 2003


John Jacobs


NEWTON SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA

JOHN JACOBS: I started with a bogey and I thought, oh, boy, here we go again, am I going to drive it back in the fairway, I am going to be in this rough all day. But I actually drove it pretty good. I drove it pretty good all day except for the last hole, the par 5, I drove it in the right rough. I saw Gil drive his ball looked -- I thought he pushed it. It was kind of off to the side. I thought I hit a good drive and the wind blew it to the right. Other than that I drove the ball good. Birdies, I started on 10, bogeyed 10. I hit a pretty good drive. Hit it in the right rough, terrible lie, whacked it out short, 2-putted. 15, just in the rough again. I think you can tell when the bogeys come up they are in the rough. I left that drive right too. Left it right on 10. Left it right there. Left it right on the last hole. 17 I hit a beautiful, beautiful 6-iron in there about 60 feet right of the hole and made it for birdie. McCord says you know, he watched me yesterday. I missed a few short putts. He says you finally got the right distance. He was right. Parred 9. Shot even par that 9. 2, I hit it in the left rough off the tee. I had to hook it around a tree and I hit a heck of a shot, got in there about four, five feet right of the hole; made that for birdie. The next hole I hit a 9-iron basically four feet behind the hole, made birdie there. 12, that was my 3rd hole. Next hole which I bogeyed yesterday too, the 4th hole, I hit a bad drive yesterday, made bogey. Today I hit a really good drive and I had so much mud on my ball. I hit it -- I told my caddie I says I have got to play just for the middle of the green with this mud on this stuff and the mud slung it, Christ, 20 yards left and I didn't have much of a chance. Pitched it up. Good pitch, missed about a 6-, 7-footer for par. 6, back up the hill -- actually 5 I missed a short putt for birdie there and then 6 up the hill I hit it in there for a gimme, foot and a half from the hole. Then I just parred out. But they put, I'd say, half the pins today were a little tougher than they were yesterday. The fairways were still wet, but the greens were beautiful. I wasted half my energy out there trying to control McCord trying to get him in -- he was starting to pout and I -- I said, you got to at least make the damn cut. So I pouted him and --

Q. You saw it firsthand, a 66 by Gil Morgan. Surprise you that two guys are able to shoot a 66 out there on the course with the conditions the way they are?

JOHN JACOBS: No. Gil drove the ball good. If you drive it good there's plenty of birdie holes because the second shots are -- they are stopping right by the hole. This course plays -- I am sure it plays way more difficult if the greens are firm, but we could pretty much shoot it right at the pin. So if you can get it in the fairway and like I say you don't have a lot of mud on the ball, you know, 66 is not I think you will see some more if the weather stayed good. I mean, if the greens stayed the way they have been the last two days, but Gil -- Gil played good. He made a couple of really good putts for pars and that's what you have to do when you shoot 66. He probably missed two or three shots today and those shots he missed he made par; you know, he played good.

Q. This is one of the two tournaments of the year that even if you want to use a cart you can't. It is a long kind of -- a lot of uphill holes. Are you guys more tired after two rounds here than you are in a normal event?

JOHN JACOBS: No. I am not tired at all. Walking is fine. The cart rule came out years ago when they had it in to keep the older guys that had won the majors, keep them playing, the fans want to come out and see them play. Arnold is 73, he doesn't get into a cart. I mean, the cart's not a big issue on the Tour. The problem that a lot of the courses we play is, you know, it could be 150 yards from one green to the next tee. We play a lot of housing developments so it's not like it's we're playing Aronimink all the time where the greens here and you walk over here on the tee. We're playing some you know, if the four of us went out and played we might not find from 3 green to 4 tee because you are going through this house and down that road and around that corner. So they needed the carts.

Q. Are you able to engage Gil at all in your rounds last two days, you and Gary, or he is kind of play separately?

JOHN JACOBS: Are we -- no, we don't let him do that. We get right on him. We make him loosen up. He probably -- he's probably enjoyed playing with us more than anybody. I mean, I don't know anybody that wouldn't want to play with Gary and I. We root for the other guy we're playing. I don't root against anybody because -- I get paid for what I shoot so I think it's kind of stupid or silly to not root for the other guy, what the hell. If I play -- if I really play good I am going to win. If I play almost good I am not going to win. So I don't -- I root for everybody. I could careless. But Gil, you know, I don't know. Gil is quiet. He's a quiet guy. But he's not going to stay quiet around us. We get him out of his shell. Which I think he enjoys it.

Q. There are six TV guys in the field this week. Some of them play more than the others. Which ones are talk as much when they are out here playing -- offer the kind of running commentary during the round than when they are on TV any of them?

JOHN JACOBS: I don't know. I play with Andy North Andy is pretty reserved, but I haven't played with Gary Koch. Maltbie is like McCord, they are not going to shut-up. They are just going to talk all the way around. I think talking is great. Talking loosens you up. You get to your ball you concentrate then you shoot -- pardon the expression you shoot the shit going up to your next shot. It is kind of fun. Christ, you can't concentrate when you get on the tee the hole is 500 yards, you walk to the tee you got 500 yards, you go crazy. They have got a big problem on that other Tour, those kids I see a lot of them in Scottsdale where I live, and I go out there and God they are like clones. They got this guy to teach them how to stretch; this guy teaches them the back swing; this guy to teach them how to putt. I feel sorry for the way golf -- the new guys -- when things go wrong I am not sure that many of them can figure it out on their own. I don't know what you asked me. How did I get into that? (Laughs).

Q. Raises another interesting question, though, or I think it is interesting, stand out there on the range now at a SENIOR TOUR event or Champions Tour event and you see quite a few players with very you know, swings that work for them. Allen Doyle, Fuzzy ---

JOHN JACOBS: I know where you are going. Listen, the guys that you see on this SENIOR TOUR they play more handsy, more shoulders/hand when they swing the ball. They kind of get a swing in the morning when they are practicing they are going to go with it all day. The kids on the other Tour they got golf coaches up the gazoo. And they got one way to play. If they go a little haywire I think they are in a trap because they -- I think it's harder for them to figure out how to score -- I think it's easier for us to figure how to hit it highm low, low high. They got clubs that are built to blast the ball.

Q. Is that good for golf or bad for golf in the long run?

JOHN JACOBS: I think it's terrible for golf. What they have done to the golf is a joke. This Titleist ball, I mean, it's ridiculous. I have some -- I have been out here since 1996 and I had some friends that had some great equipment. '96, 1997, '98, guys that were in business, they retired, they got into the club business, only because they love golf. They wanted to make money but they love golf, but they got into it and put millions -- I am talking 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 guys that I know, they had great products and USGA said this is too this and that's too that. This is too thin on the driver and this ball has got this. It's a bunch of crap. You have got a USGA group of guys that I mean, I don't know how they stay where they are because they don't have a clue what is going on. I don't know if there's something going on under the table or what. The stuff that I saw in 1996/1997, '98 that they outlawed are all in play today in 2003. But yet they bankrupt a lot of companies. So you tell me where it is going to go. I don't know. But it's got to stop here pretty soon because all the great courses that we know, the guys on the SENIOR TOUR, they are becoming obsolete and it's ridiculous. They got to put a stop on it. I think what they got to do is put it on the SENIOR TOUR see how it goes; then go back to the certain ball, certain clubs and then kick it back to the kids Tour.

JULIUS MASON: I think you guys would love another half hour of that topic, but we have someone waiting.

JOHN JACOBS: Well I think you all agree with what I am saying anyway.

End of FastScripts...

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