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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP


June 29, 1995


Raymond Floyd


BETHESDA, MARYLAND

LES UNGER: I would assume that 2 under on the first day of an event like this is something you are fairly pleased about?

RAYMOND FLOYD: I am very pleased, Les. I know you have heard the cliche many times that you can't win a golf tournament, especially a major, in the first-round, but you can lose it. I am very happy to get off and shoot 70. I had the best of the conditions, I am sure, playing early, the opening round; basically, no wind. The last 4, 5 -- maybe the back 9 you felt a very light breeze that made it comfortable. As far as playing conditions, they couldn't have been better. I played well from tee to green. I hit a lot of greens, and I also putted well. So I am very pleased to get off with a couple under at the opening round.

LES UNGER: Questions, please, for Raymond.

Q. Playing early, was the ball rolling a little bit better than it has?

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I had less traffic playing early, that was part of the statement. I obviously had the best of it getting out in the morning. It will be flip-flop tomorrow. The group of us that were early today goes late tomorrow and that -- they try to make it even doing that, but I think it is always better, if you can, to play early the first-round. You want to get out and get started. I putted the ball very, very well. I hit the putt solid; I had hit going at a good pace. I think if you got out there and you missed a few putts and you didn't get a feel for the pace of the greens, you would have some serious trouble. But fortunately I didn't, and I was very comfortable with the greens.

LES UNGER: I neglected to ask to you, please go over your birdies.

RAYMOND FLOYD: I started with a birdie at the first. I hit a 3-wood and a 9-iron about, oh, about 6 feet and made it for birdie. Then I bogeyed the fourth. I hit a 3-wood into the left rough; I hit a 5-iron in the -- short in front of the green in the rough, in the wall of the bunker. And I made a terrible pitch, about 20 feet and 2-putted for bogey. And then I bogeyed 6, I hit a real good drive there, and came off of a 4-wood second shot and put it in the water and then wedged up about 25 feet and 2-putted for bogey. Then I birdied the 7th. I hit an 8-iron, oh, about 15 feet and made a real good putt coming down the hill breaking to the right. Then I birdied the 12th, I hit 3-wood and 7-iron in there about 5 feet, and made that. And then the 17th, I hit 3-wood and 6-iron, I'd say, about 32 or 33 feet and made a marvelous putt -- putt there breaking to the right; maybe a couple of feet of break.

LES UNGER: Any par saves?

RAYMOND FLOYD: Technically, no. I guess when the greens hit in regulation will show at the 11th green I was -- I didn't hit the green, but I was in the very short fringe and I 2-putted from there and the same thing at the other par 5, 16, I did the same thing there. I hit my second shot in the rough and hit it just through the green, in the short rough, so basically, I missed the fourth green and made bogey. I put it in the water at 6 and made bogey and then I 2-putted, I don't really call that saves.

Q. I missed your first few words I hope you didn't cover this. How are you playing compared to Shinnecock; have you brushed anything up since then?

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, Tom, I have been playing very well. I have had a marvelous run of golf from tee to green and my putting has been getting better and better. I feel very good about my putting. I have been working hard, and it is starting to pay-off. So I am very comfortable with my golf game. And I think it showed that today. I think I missed only a couple of fairways. I think I missed -- in fact, I think I missed three fairways. And I missed, well, technically I missed 4 greens but in fact really two, so I think that is the way you have to play; four days to have success the way the USGA sets up the golf course. I did not do that at Shinnecock the first three rounds. I drove badly and put a lot of pressuree on my golf game, and I think looking back, it was playing in the rain and the practice and my -- I lost my rhythm. I got tight. I wasn't taking a backswing and fortunately by Sunday, I got it back and felt good about the last round.

Q. Were you hitting a lot of 3-woods off the tee today because you don't need to hit driver or because you had been slumping with the driver at Shinnecock?

RAYMOND FLOYD: No. No. The holes that I hit 3-wood on, the holes get too narrow for me if I were to take a driver. The first hole, I hit a driver -- a 3-wood and 9-iron. If I had taken a driver I'd bring the right bunker in play and it forces me to go over the left. The third -- the 4th hole, I can hit -- I hit the 3-wood through the dog leg there. So there are a lot of holes; I am just forced to playing it from the up tees like we are. If I hit a driver, I am going to go through the dog legs or down through the narrow part; it puts too much pressure on my drive.

Q. Describe a little bit more the putt on 17 and also do you have to get the negative thoughts out of your mind about these greens when you play, and how do you do that?

RAYMOND FLOYD: The putt at 17, I had been putting my ball really well all day, as I said earlier, I had a real good pace and a feel for the speed and I was very positive all day putting. I had a good feel over the putt, but I did over a lot of others, and I just kind of got up over it and saw a good line that I wanted to roll the ball on. And when I looked up, it was kind of cracking right on the spots that I had picked out across there, and it just went right in the middle.

Q. Is it sidehill, downhill?

RAYMOND FLOYD: It was -- actually it was a little up and then it crowned and then it started down breaking to the right a little. But, yes, you must be positive on these greens. You can't get out there and say, "Well, these are terrible greens; I am not going to make anything." If you have that feeling, I don't think you will make anything. There are going to be guys that putt well all four rounds, and I want to be one of those. I don't want to be one that has one or none. But I have had one good putting round, and I hope I can continue doing that.

Q. You said some guys if they miss their first couple can have a problem?

RAYMOND FLOYD: I think if you got out there mis-hit a couple of putts or lose your feel for speed and that was the problem I had in practice. Practice putting, I was never getting anything to the hole. I have putted a lot on the putting greens, so I have picked up the feel for the speed now and I think that is the most important thing.

Q. Raymond, if you keep playing the same way you would anticipate being in the last group on Sunday, who do you think will be playing with you, if you are in that last group?

RAYMOND FLOYD: I am not very good at that. Maybe a "Ringer" could win it.

LES UNGER: We avoided that one earlier.

Q. "Working hard on your putting," when you say you are working hard on your putting, are you working on muscle memory, or getting back to a technique?

RAYMOND FLOYD: Actually, what I have been working on, Dick, is my routine more than anything. I think I got too technical with my putting for a while when I started putting poorly, and I have always been a feel player, not only on the greens, but on the golf course, and I think I got away from that. And I have gone back to the basics and really I am practicing my routine, which gives me a rhythm, so I have -- it is just help. It has taken the pressure off of elbow up, body open, all the stuff that overloads the computer.

Q. Did the course play as long as you anticipated it?

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, I made a statement yesterday I don't know anything relative to not playing long. I came in here and played Tuesday and it has been raining, so the golf course is playing the length that I know it. I don't have anything to equate it to. So the golf course is playing at a length -- I would hope that it is not playing long. I am having to hit 3-wood on probably 50% of the par fours to keep it from going through. So if it gets faster, it is going to pull me back more. I am going to have to hit some irons off the tees.

Q. Washington thinks of itself -- it has a lot of golf fans and it hasn't had a Senior Open before, what does a Senior Open mean to a player like you who has won a U.S. Open; is the adrenaline as high, compare it if you could?

RAYMOND FLOYD: Well, to go back to your statement, this area deserves major golf. You know the radio what, 100, 150 mile area, you have got a tremendous population, and it is a big golf area, so this area dis -- is very deserving of major championship golf. The Senior U.S. Open is not a U.S. Open, but for guys like us, it is the next best thing. I think we all will tell -- we will all say that what separates players are major championships and winning tournaments. So when you come to a U.S. Senior Open it is the ultimate in the senior arena; so it is the biggest event, so you want to win that one a little bit more than you do any other. I guess that is the best way I can explain it.

Q. The 35, 40 footer on 17 is that about right, 35 feet?

RAYMOND FLOYD: It was under 35, I'd say, probably just over 30.

Q. It looked like it rolled real well for you. Obviously you put a good stroke on it and it didn't bump; is that the kind of putt that you have got to make and that you couldn't have made yesterday or the day before, not so much because you were working on something with the putter but because the ball would have bumped and maybe bounced off --

RAYMOND FLOYD: Oh, I don't think -- I think if you put a good hit on your ball, it has got a chance of rolling. And too, if you have had your ball solid, it might come off the ground on occasion but it will still keep its pace. I think it is when you have not hit a putt real solid when you get it bumping and get something off of line. But I did happen to see that replayed on N.B.C. when I was up there with them and it looked like the ball stayed on the ground the whole route. But I think guys, when they play holes, when they finish the hole, when you are leaving the green, if you just walk -- as you are leaving, if you just tap down around the holes a little bit and be courteous to all the other players it would help tremendously.

Q. Raymond, is there an advantage to playing in a U.S. Open in the near vicinity of the Senior Open? I mean, did it help you to play at Shinnecock and then come here within two week's time?

RAYMOND FLOYD: I don't know, Jerry, I don't know that I can answer that. I didn't play last week and I didn't play golf two weeks prior to the U.S. Open, but that -- that is hard to say whether it is helpful or not. I can't -- I'd be honest, I wouldn't know how to answer that.

Q. The courses are different when you have a U.S. Open and Senior Open, I thought maybe there was a correlation there to get the mind set --

RAYMOND FLOYD: The U.S. Open is so much longer if you miss the fairway in the U.S. Open, plus the rough was longer and stronger and deeper than here. Basically, if I missed a fairway at the U.S. Open, I couldn't reach the green so was wedgeing out. Of course today, I missed -- I only missed two fairways and -- no, three fairways, one of them was in the short cut so it didn't affect it. The one hole I made a bogey, and then at the 9th hole I put it in the fairway trap off the tee, so I really didn't have any rough problems.

Q. How does the rough here compare to the normal PGA Tour event rough, main Tour?

RAYMOND FLOYD: I would say that this rough is probably about like a PGA Tour event rough, in this area. I would guess because it is blue grass you have blue grass rough and you have bent fairways so you have got blue grass rough and it is a little bit damp, I would say that it is probably pretty much like a regular Tour event rough. But that is much deeper and thicker than we play as a normal senior event and I think a lot of people think that the reason the Senior Tour players play so well is length of golf course. I think that is fourth in the equation. I think the number one reason is that The Senior Tour basically plays, what I would be calling a members rough and in most cases on the Senior Tour when you drive your ball in the rough, you can reach the green unless you are behind a tree or something.

LES UNGER: Okay, we thank Raymond. We appreciate it. Continued good play. Thank you.

RAYMOND FLOYD: Thank you.

End of FastScripts....

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