U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 25, 1997

Graham Marsh

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, obviously, the win last week is a great morale booster, but clearly you prepare for this tournament, U.S. Senior Open and the TPC, and because they're clearly better tournaments. We call them mini majors if you want to, but they're the ones that you aim for. They're the important titles out here on the Tour. So, you know, having run second down in Pinehurst, and fourth last year, I think 9th at Congressional, I think that, you know, it's always hard to predict exactly when you're going to play well in any given week. But, I feel like I'm ready with a chance to contend at least.

GRAHAM MARSH: No, I don't think I've prepared that much differently. I've always aimed towards playing well in the Majors. The fact that I haven't won one -- last year, I didn't play in the TPC. I had to withdraw because of injury, but I always get myself up mentally for these tournaments, because I know it's going to be a long week. And, I think that given the fact that it is a four-round tournament and a four-round tournament is considerably different than a three-round tournament. It's much more pacing. More of an X factor comes into it with an early draw and a late draw, whereas, in a three-round tournament, everybody, even on the first day, is grouped somewhere near each other. Then you go to an automatic draw the last two days, the same as you would do here. Certainly, you can get hurt in a Major with a poor draw, which doesn't happen in a three-round tournament. So preparation is no different. I worked very hard on my short game from 100 yards in, because I think that's where -- that's critical in major championships. Even on a golf course like this, despite the fact that the rough isn't as long as what you would get in the U.S. Open, if you start missing fairways around here, on many occasions it's going to be a chip-out or a layup, short of the green out of some of the rough that's there. So, getting it up-and-down is a critical factor of winning any major championship. You can say it's the same every week, but it's not. It's just because the driving is a greater premium in a major championship.

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, when you're just going through the motions of playing in a normal golf tournament, I think you continue to -- I mean, it's nice to win, but if it's not happening, you -- in a three-round tournament, sometimes you sort of get ready and try to prepare for the next week. You may take chances that you wouldn't ordinarily do. But, in a major championship, you know that it's going to be a slog -- personally, I think, of all the four rounds that we played in, in the four majors that I've played in, four majors I've been playing for the Senior Tour, this U.S. Senior Open is one tournament where maybe even par or over par may win. Now, all the others we've been -- I think the winning score has been something like 8- or 10-under par, 7, 8. I mean, Weiskopf won 14-under par at Congressional. Last year, the winning score was 9-under par or something, wasn't it? That's interesting, because we've -- we tend to sort of have many of our tournaments where the scores are under par. But this week, I think the score is probably going to be very much closer to par.

GRAHAM MARSH: Because of the golf course, the way the golf course is set up. It seems like every year, it's just getting that little bit more difficult, even on the regular Tour, regular tournaments, it's getting a little more difficult. Pin placements, length of golf course. So, you know that you're going to be in for a tough week. I mean, even in regular majors, the same thing applied. Mentally, I just try and get myself to the point where I just -- I'm trying to get everything else out of my mind getting very calm for the week and just preparing myself for the situation where if we get those conditions or adverse situations, that you stay very calm about it. And you know the double bogeys are probably going to occur out there if you hit a few loose shots. It's just a -- you try to get a feeling of calmness that nothing is going to get under your skin that week. You're not going to change your gameplan very much that week to start thinking about further down the track. This is the week, and you have to scramble and scrounge. If things aren't going your way, you try to get everything that you can out of this week while you have the opportunity, because it only comes around once a year.

GRAHAM MARSH: That's right, 11-under. The year before, Weiskopf, 14-under. And I don't think those scores are going to be appropriate on this golf course this week.

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, for start, it's a par 70. So when you take two par 5s out of contention, it means that you're probably taking, maybe, one or two of them that you can possibly reach in two. So you're taking that sort of 30-, 40-yard shot out of the game. Two par 5s, and one of them here that I don't think anybody is going to get up in two, unless it's downwind. That's -- what is it? -- out the backside there, 13 or 14 or something -- 13, which means that you're going in with longer clubs. Very few of the par 4s here that you're going to be hitting wedge shots into. Maybe mid-irons, a few blind holes, and certainly with the way the greens are constructed around here, there's certainly the element of a defensive approach coming into those greens. You just can't afford to get above the hole or behind the hole, over the green on some of those holes. So there's going to be very much an element of defensive play around here. I think that's the guy that manages himself well this week. You say that's the same in all Majors, but I think on some courses, it's more appropriate than others. I don't think this is a golf course that you can go after and attack. I think it's a conservative play, and it's going to be defensive much of the time. And because of that, I think those scores are going to be closer to par.

GRAHAM MARSH: Same guy that's out there every week: Hale Irwin, he's the guy to beat. I think Gil Morgan, this is going to be an excellent golf course for him. They're the two hot players this week. I don't quite know how -- Jack's been playing well, obviously. Better than he has been the last year with the hip injury that he's carrying, so he clearly has to be a contender if he's in form. Of the other players, I would -- two other players that come to mind that I think are real potential winners, David Graham, who has had a very good year. This is the kind of golf course where if he's driving the ball well, which he does, and hits his irons well, because of the fact that I think he's going to be defensive on the greens and the fact that even par is a chance to win, he's a very good case and point to win. And two other guys -- I said two, but I meant three -- I think (Isao) Aoki has a great chance to win here, and John Bland is a potential winner. And I would say that those five are the -- if I had to pick where the winner was going to come from, I would pick one of those five.

GRAHAM MARSH: Yes.

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, I don't think that that -- for the players that are playing here regular all the time, I don't think that's a disadvantage to them at all. Most of the time, they're not going to be paired with them, and not that that would -- should be a disadvantage in any case, except if a guy is taking, you know, a very big score or all this controversy in the group. But, the only difference in this golf tournament, compared to what we would be doing most of the time with the larger field is, it's going to take -- and, again, getting back to the mental attitude, it's going to take a long time to play the first two rounds here this week. They are going to be slow because this is a tough golf course. And I would suspect that by the end of tomorrow and the end of Friday, we'll be looking at minimum five- to five-and-half-hour rounds. Plus, there's a tremendous amount of walking between greens. You're playing 19 holes anyway. You play the 6th hole, you play it once, then you walk back up the hill again. We're playing 19 holes for start, and that doesn't include the walks between greens and tee on the other holes, so five-and-a-half hours, could even go to six hours if things -- if we get a windy condition, if we get windy conditions out there. That's the only thing. So we have to keep our wits about us.

GRAHAM MARSH: Oh, huge. Huge advantage. No question about it. If you're asking me whether one of the guys can win that doesn't play the regular Senior Tour, for a guy that doesn't play the regular Senior Tour to win the championship, you can get all the money you want from me.

GRAHAM MARSH: Well, you know, when you get into a championship like this, and you're just going through, you know, one time a year, for those guys that probably -- I mean, if they're mortals, there's a certain amount of nervousness and a certain anticipation that they're going -- because most of them, I don't think, unless they have played in, you know, in other golf tournaments and had the opportunity in other events, would have played a golf course that's going to be quite like this. And, the only thing that you could really do under those circumstances is just -- is go with your natural instinct. If you try to get too cute about what you're doing or try to outthink yourself, second guess yourself, around here, you might still be here next week. So, they've just got to play their natural game. They have to go by instinct, and most importantly, go out there and enjoy it, and not think that by having a big score around here that that's any kind of disgrace. Because, you know, when you see what golf courses that the USGA set up do to superstars and then see what these guys are faced with, I mean, we're not saying it's a U.S. Open, but this is a much sterner test than we face in the course of the year. And these guys are not doing it every week. So they have to be realistic about it. And, just enjoy it and go out there and play and not be intimidated by it. That's what I would say.

GRAHAM MARSH: There's a couple of holes here that have been converted, and they are always the difficult ones because you take a hole like 16, for example, that's been converted from a par 5 to a par 4, but it's a par 5 green. And it's a tough par 5 green, because of the undulations, and you're going in there -- we're going to be going in like we were yesterday, into the wind. Bear in mind, if it's not the 16th, it will be the 17th or the 18th or one of those others because it's a great mix of directions on the golf course with those longer holes. It doesn't matter. Whatever wind direction you have, we're going to be faced with three or four of those kinds of situations, long irons into severely sloped greens. And, I mean, you're just trying to get the ball -- I mean, that stage, when you have that club in your hand, okay, you might take one club and try to knock it past the flag, but you're still faced with a difficult putt or difficult pitch. I wouldn't single out any one hole here as being extremely difficult because it's all going to depend where that wind comes from. There's always going to be five or six of them that are going to be extremely difficult just to get the ball in position. We will go back to understanding the real value of a par this week.

GRAHAM MARSH: Oh, absolutely. I mean, on the 16th, if we're into the wind, if you don't drive on the fairway, you better seriously think about laying up with that water in front. I mean, that may be the best way to make a par. That's one thing I've never been afraid to do. I learned that very clearly in my golfing career from a couple great golfing greats, Kel Nagle and Peter Thompson. And Kel Nagle, I remember him telling me -- he came very close to winning the U.S. Open. He lost in a playoff to Gary Player one year. Because the skill level, if we're informed, what we have, with a pitching wedge we can get it in to 10 or 15 feet. You start hitting it and hack it up on the green and leave yourself a difficult angle, the best you can get is 30 feet or 40 feet. Now, you're looking at a potential double-bogey. So never be scared to hack it out and leave yourself with that 80- or 90-yard shot. There could be a bit of that going on here this week.

GRAHAM MARSH: No, I'm not changing any of that. I'm looking at the possibility -- I don't carry a 2-iron. I carry 3-woods and start with a 3-iron. I'm looking at maybe putting a 2-iron in the week for some of those long par 4s. But haven't decided that with one practice round and one wind direction, I'm not confident enough to make that decision at this stage, but I will know a little bit more today. I may even make that decision throughout the course of the tournament.

GRAHAM MARSH: Thanks guys.