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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 31, 2004

Tom Kite

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

Q. We're talking mostly about what it's going to be like to play 36 holes tomorrow.

TOM KITE: It's going to be a long, difficult day for everybody. Big old golf course, soft golf course, the zoysia grass is thick, and it's hard to walk through anyway, and now it's thick and wet and holding a lot of water, so it's kind of like walking in soft sand on the beach or something. It's difficult going, and now that it's going to get up in the high 80s tomorrow with the humidity well into triple digits, I mean, humidity is going to be way up there tomorrow. It's just going to be a marathon day. It's going to be interesting. It's going to be fun.

Q. As good a shape as you're in, vis-a-vis everybody else on this Tour, you've got to feel that's got to be an ace card for you.

TOM KITE: I'm looking forward to it, I really am. Obviously, it's going to be difficult for me but it's going to be difficult for everybody. I know I can play 36. I went through 36-hole qualifying to get in the U.S. Open at Houston and played well there and had some strength coming up those last couple of holes and did some nice things the last few holes in qualifying. It was hot in Houston and rainy and muggy, so that was good. You know, I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. Do you do anything special to conserve energy?

TOM KITE: Yeah. Every chance you get, you find some shade, you sit down a few more times than normal. Basically you just do everything you can to take it nice and easy. There probably won't be nearly as many balls hit warming up prior to the round. There probably won't be many or any hit in between the rounds. Basically just knowing that there's going to be a -- you need to save as much energy as you can for the golf course.

Q. That Open qualifier, if I recall, you wore shorts.

TOM KITE: I did wear shorts. I wish we could wear shorts tomorrow. That would be sweet.

Q. (Inaudible).

TOM KITE: Actually I'm on St. Louis time. I'm not having any problem with the jet lag at all. I'm feeling good.

Q. A significant advantage having played the morning round to have the afternoon off before tomorrow?

TOM KITE: I guess if you played late this afternoon and then drew an early morning tee time, they're talking about the first time maybe being 6:45 or 7:00 tomorrow, so if you had a 2:00 o'clock tomorrow today, finished up at 7:00 and then drew a 7:00 o'clock tomorrow morning time, that wouldn't be very pleasant, that's for sure.

You know, you can't worry too much about the tee times. They just kind of fall where they are. This is probably a pretty good break playing this morning.

Q. What do you think about the leaderboard?

TOM KITE: Pretty attractive, isn't it? It is a very attractive leaderboard with a lot of guys that have a lot of talent and that are playing some wonderful golf right now. Peter obviously is playing well, Jay is playing fantastic and is a threat every week that he plays on the other Tour, much less on this Tour, and Gil Morgan and myself, the guys that have played there, and then there will be some coming from this afternoon group, add them to the leaderboard, get them up there in good position.

36 holes is going to be a shootout. The good thing about 36 holes is if you get it going in the morning -- a lot of times when you play 18 holes and you shoot a good round, you wish you could keep going. Now you get that opportunity to keep going. If you really get it going in the morning, you have a chance to really build on that and carry it forward for both rounds.

Q. You mentioned you likely wouldn't hit balls necessarily between the morning and afternoon --

TOM KITE: I'm not exactly sure how much time they're going to give us, so we may not have an opportunity to hit any balls.

Q. Will you change clothes, shoes, that kind of stuff?

TOM KITE: A lot of it depends on how much time. I don't know what they're looking at there. A lot of that is going to depend on how large the field is as to how many people make the cut as to how much time they give us in between. Sure, I'll bring a change of clothes and hopefully be able to take a quick shower and cool down a little bit.

Q. When you were out today after the bogey at 14, you made birdies at 15 and 16, two of the toughest holes. Is that something you were focused on after making that bogey?

TOM KITE: It's funny, I got off to a good fast start and was 2 under early on and playing well and really feeling good about it, then I got kind of in a funk in the middle part of the round where nothing happened. I hit some good shots and wasn't able to make the birdies, and then I hit a couple different shots that just barely missed the shots, and I had easy up-and-downs, but I took myself out of the opportunity to make birdies.

Then I hit a bad drive on 14. I've been driving it very well, but I hit a bad drive on 14, blocked it to the right. Actually I had an open shot but I had a tree that limited my follow-through, and I had a big stick right behind my ball. I had to hit the stick first and the ball came out shooting to the right. That was disappointing.

I kind of set my jaw a little bit tighter on 15 and hit a couple nice iron shots on 15 and 16, 7-iron in about six feet on 15, and then I hit a beautiful 3-iron about two feet on 16 for birdie.

Q. How about 4?

TOM KITE: 4 is the first par 5, yeah. I hit a good wedge in there about six feet to the left of the hole.

7, I made about an eight-footer there for birdie.

Q. (Inaudible).

TOM KITE: That was a 6-iron.

End of FastScripts.

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