ENERGIZER SENIOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 7, 1997

Hugh Baiocchi

HUGH BAIOCCHI: Well, I am having fun. I am enjoying it. It is a really nice golf course. As a lot of fellows have mentioned already, it is one of the -- certainly one of the best courses or better courses we play all year. And, I am enjoying the golf course. It is fairly generous off the tee, but you have got to hit very precise iron shots because the greens are very subtle. The contours on the greens are subtle, so you have got to put the ball on the right spot. But, I have managed to do that. Certainly I had a very nice run in the middle of the back 9 today which made today today's round -- yesterday, I hit the ball very close most of the day without making too many putts until the -- again the back 9, I played the back 9 in 3-under yesterday. But, I was saying earlier that I had four pretty awful weeks -- not awful weeks, poorish weeks because I had been playing very well obviously; and had that good spell in the middle of the season. And, then I had four weeks where I couldn't get -- break into the top 30. I think I just played too much golf. I was mentally a bit fatigued. I maybe should have taken a week off, but I pushed through it all and finally today, in back 9, I finally felt that I was sort of finding some form again.

HUGH BAIOCCHI: No. I just tried to make my golf swing the swing that I have been kinds of using all year. I had been kind of getting in my own way. It was a mental thing, I was mentally fatigued, I think; as a result I was hitting poor shots and then I started to worry about my golf swing. And, it is a snowball effect, as you fellows are all aware, and I finally today tried to relax and just swing at the thing instead of trying to place it on the fairway and on the green, I just let the ball get in the way of the golf swing and see what happens.

HUGH BAIOCCHI: At 2 I pull-hooked it into the trees it was some kind of cold this morning and I tried to get clever and hook it around the trees. It is a sharp dog-leg left and I hit the tree early on and it dropped down. I was way away from the green. I could only come up short in 2. Pitched it ten -- twelve feet past the hole and missed the putt to bogey.

HUGH BAIOCCHI: 13, the par 5, I hit -- went around the corner, hit driver and 3-wood across the water and a sand wedge from 80 yards to about 10 foot, I guess, and made that. Then I hit two very nice shots on the next hole, drive and 5-iron to eight feet; knocked that in. The par 5 down the hill, I laid up my second shot - the pin was way up front - and I hit a sand wedge which went quite a way past; in fact about an 18-footer. I knocked that in. That was a really good putt. Then I hit a 2-iron and 8-iron to 16, came 15-foot short, but I made it. It was a good putt. A big turning putt right-to-left. In fact, 17 I hit it very close as well, probably 10 foot away, but it was a big turn left-to-right. That is not my favorite putt. I missed that one. I had a chance at five in a line, five in a row, but I choked in the last one.

HUGH BAIOCCHI: What stood out? Well, the fairness of the golf course. The fact that you can -- if you play good golf, you are going to be well rewarded. If you hit it all over the place, you are going to be severely punished, which is my idea of the perfect golf course. That is why we play the game - if you hit good shots, you get the reward. If you don't, you play the penalty.

HUGH BAIOCCHI: 11 is a great hole. 11, I really think is a superb golf hole because it requires a very precise tee shot; then a medium iron to a pretty well thread green with, of course, all the water on the right. Although, the water is not that close, it is intimidating. So, that is a great hole. 13, I am not convinced about because it is kind of -- there is not a lot of option. You just smash it; then you smash it again and trying to pitch it close to the hole. The green is a bit severe, the huge thing in the green is a little severe, I feel. Not that I, by any means, am an expert on the subject. But, in fact -- in fact, I made two birdies on that hole yesterday and today, so maybe I shouldn't be too critical about it. But, it is kind of just a couple of smashes, as I say, then a pitch. But, there is not a weak hole on the golf course. Every hole has got something. The par 3s, particularly, are superb holes.

HUGH BAIOCCHI: Yes, I saw that green up there. Is -- that is where the green used to be? Sort of a straight shot?

HUGH BAIOCCHI: It is a beautiful hole now. Superb golf hole.

HUGH BAIOCCHI: 250 leaves you probably a 7-iron into the green.

HUGH BAIOCCHI: You don't want to go too far down the hill. These long hitters -- I played with John Jacobs and Bruce Summerhays yesterday anyway - today was into the wind but they were knocking it almost into the water hazard where it crosses right in the bottom of the fairway down there. But, you have got to shape the tee shot as well because the think slopes left to right, you have to really position--

HUGH BAIOCCHI: Either that or my shot I try and cut it off the trap on the left. Slide it off the trap.