Interviews

An Interview With: The 2002 U.S. Senior Open Champion DON POOLEY

CRAIG SMITH:  My pleasure to welcome the U.S. senior Open champion, Don Pooley.  Don, it took a long time from when you started to win it.  Go through some of your emotions.  You had a 4 shot lead most of the day, you had to fight for your life and each time you got to 18 you got closer.

DON POOLEY:  I'm tired, I only got about 4 hours sleep last night.  This is a long day on 4 hours sleep.  It was a big thrill for me to have the lead in a major championship after three rounds.  And playing with Tom Watson, who I have great admiration for, and have for 30 years.  He usually beats me, but I beat him a couple of times and it's a real pleasure to play with Tom.  He's a gentleman and a champion.  I was nervous starting out the round, obviously.  I was planning on being nervous, but I made great birdie putts on 1 and 3, which got me off to a great start, and that certainly helped.

And then, I just played very solid golf.  Nobody was really making a move, and I was playing solid and I felt like that somebody was really going to have to play great to beat me.  And then Tom started reeling off birdie after birdie, starting on No. 9, I guess.  I think he made 6 birdies from 9 on and he caught me, which was phenomenal, because I was playing well.  I told somebody, they asked me what the shot of the tournament for me was, and it was my second shot on 16.  I made  my first bad swing really of the day on the tee shot on 16 and was up on the side hill, I had 177 yards in a really awkward stance and the only chance I had of getting it on the green was to thread it between the two bunkers, and I had about three yards to do that.  And somehow it went right between the bunkers, and up on the green.  I made a great second putt for par, and that was huge.  And really making par on 17 in regulation, that was an extremely difficult chip shot straight down the hill, down, and knocked that up about three feet.

On 18 in regulation I hit it in the bunker, not a very good iron shot after a good drive and made a wonderful bunker shot up there and then the playoff started.  That was fun.  It really was fun.  I thought I had Tom beaten twice on 18, but like the champion he is, he made two putts to keep it going.  And then the final birdie, just to top it off -- I can't imagine anything better.

Q.  Could you talk about your nerves out there?  You backed away from several shots, just when it looked like you were going to pull the trigger.  What was that a function of?

DON POOLEY:  It wasn't because I was nervous, I backed away because my thoughts weren't where I wanted them.  The problem with backing away is you get more nervous the next time you get up there.  Especially on the playoff, I was calm over it but my mind was going in places it shouldn't have been going, so I had to back away and collect my thoughts and get back to what I needed to do on that putt.

Q.  What was going through your mind on that last putt where you needed to back away?

DON POOLEY:  Well, I got in there and I felt like I wasn't quite lined up right and so I was trying to get set up better and I'm thinking, no, this isn't working, back away and start over, don't try to fight this.  This is a very makable putt and give it your best shot and see what happens.  So, I backed away, got a little more nervous, but I still hit the line and it went right in.

Q.  Talk a little bit about the gallery on 18 there, that last time.  Did you ever hear 25,000 or however many people it was get so quiet and then, of course, you back away and it's like this big sigh of whatever it was.  Just talk about that a little bit?

DON POOLEY:  Well, it was a great crowd out here all week, and especially on 18 coming in.  It seems like -- I think we did that four times maybe on 18, isn't that right?  Regulation and then three times in the playoff.  So we got to do it four times in a row.  It was pretty special.  And they were tremendous out there.

Q.  I actually, I was there in 1987 at the Memorial wondering what your feelings are about Fuzzy broke through at the PGA seniors after a long time and here you are, just go through the feeling of breaking through?

DON POOLEY:  Well, I thought when I joined the Senior Tour last year, I really was trying hard to win a tournament last year.  And I was playing well.  I didn't do it, although I had some good tournaments.  I was trying to avoid going to the qualifying school, which I didn't.  I had to go to the qualifying school and fortunately made it.  And having had such a good start last year in those six or seven tournaments, I thought, well, I can get off to a good start this year and really, but it didn't happen.  I didn't play well, the weather was bad and I was cold.  I'm from Tucson, I like the heat.  And at any rate it snowballed and I didn't putt well, and my game was going in the wrong direction.  I took some time off.  I went to see Dr. Bob Rotella and work on my mental game, and things started to turn around a few weeks ago, and the pieces started to fall into place.

And to win the U.S. senior Open as my first senior event, it doesn't get any better than that, that is the top.

Q.  Tom said, speaking of the Senior Open, it means as much to us as the major championships when we were kids.  Does it feel that way to you and 15 or 20 years ago could you have held yourself together as well as a 30 year old as you did as a 50 year old?

DON POOLEY:  Not a chance.  And, yes, I felt like it was a major championship today.  I've been in contention in the Majors on the regular Tour a few times.  I didn't handle it as well as I handled it today.  So, this is as well as I've played under this kind of pressure.

Q.  How does this rank in your overall lifetime moments?

DON POOLEY:  It's right up there.  As far as golf, you're talking about?

Q.  Lifetime, just lifetime?

DON POOLEY:  No, there's a couple more important than that.  My relationship with the Lord, my wife, who is in the back, there.  My two daughters and then maybe this.

Q.  Don, you said you've beaten Tom a couple of times, where was that and how did this compare to that?

DON POOLEY:  Well, the couple -- this would have been the second.  The first one we played together the third round of the Memorial Tournament the year I won.  And I played wonderfully that day.  I think I had 64 or 65 that day, the third round.  And played with Tom that day and it was great to play with him and to play that well with him.  I ended up winning that tournament.  That's the other one I'm counting, I don't know if that really counts or not.

Q.  Did that experience at all help you today?

DON POOLEY:  No, not really.  I mean, winning The Memorial helps.  Obviously, every win that you have you can draw on that for confidence and good thoughts out on the golf course.  But Tom was just a pleasure to play with.  I first played with him when he was a senior at Stanford and I was a sophomore at the University of Arizona.  And he's just been a great person to play with since then.  It's been 30 years.

Q.  You said that you thought you had Tom twice on 18 during the playoff.  Could you tell me in both cases what you thought those were?

DON POOLEY:  Well, I hit a great shot in the first playoff series of three holes on 18.  I hit it in there about six feet.  And Tom was on the far end of the putting green and he hit the first putt up short.  He probably left himself 12 or 15 feet.  And I kept telling myself, he's going to make this, don't think about having to just 2-putt this to win.  I've got to make sure that I keep my head in this, because I'm going to have to make this.  And of course hoping that he would miss it so I could 2-putt it to win.  But that didn't happen, he made it.  I hit a good putt, that 6-footer, but not quite hard enough, and it just missed.  I thought I made it when I hit it.

So we go back and play again.  And I make the birdie -- I make the first birdie and I think I have him again, he's got a 12-footer to tie me and he knocks it right in the heart.  Sign of a champion right there.  He made two great putts to stay in the playoff, and I made a great one to finish it the next time.

Q.  I'm wondering if you could talk about 17, in regulation you made what looked to be an all world up-and-down.  And then in the playoff after Tom hits that bunker shot you've got to get up-and-down there from short as well?

DON POOLEY:  You're right.  Those were all world up-and-downs.  Actually, the 5-wood out of the rough after a poor drive was an excellent shot, just to get it to where I did at the back of the green.  But that was a very, very difficult pitch.  I had hit kind of a drop shot and could only hit it about 6 feet and it landed on the green so soft.  It's as good as I can hit a shot right there.  That was a huge up-and-down.

And then, in the playoff my ball was about, I don't know, three or four yards farther up in the bunker than Tom's and I had a bigger lip to go over than Tom did.  And I was afraid of not being able to get it up over that lip.  And I played it a little cautious, I didn't quite catch it solid.  So I came up a little short.  But I had obviously a tough pitch under the circumstances and just hit a great shot.  But actually the putt was probably tougher than the pitch.  That was a four or five foot putt that broke about eight or nine inches.  It was a very tough putt.

Q.  During the playoff you and Tom exchanged looks, he  glanced at you just before the last putt that you made, you gave him a thumb's up.  Is it a richer experience to have this happen at 50 than 25 or 35, where you don't know what to do with it?

DON POOLEY:  I think so.  We all appreciate golf a lot more now that we're this age and the opportunity that we have -- have had our whole career, and now an added opportunity on the Senior Tour.  Tom was making birdies left and right out there.  And I was scraping and clawing and staying with him.  And it was just a great match.  I certainly appreciated him and I think he appreciated my effort.  It was fun.

Q.  You said you got only four hours of sleep last night.  What was going on?

DON POOLEY:  I was a little nervous (laughter.) The first three hours were great.  I slept like a log, and I woke up and I thought, oh, no.  I started thinking immediately about the tournament.  It took me a couple of hours to get the next hour.

Q.  What time did you wake up?

DON POOLEY:  I went to sleep at about 11 and woke up at 2.  And then went back to sleep at 4.

Q.  Were you aware at any time as you got later in the day how many pars in a row you made and what you were doing?

DON POOLEY:  I really wasn't thinking back or forward.  I was really focused on the shot at hand and staying in the present.  And that's as well as I have ever done that.

Q.  Now that you look back, are you even more proud of the fact that you were able to string those together?  Because Open championships, obviously par, is supposed to be a good score, but to keep doing that under the pressure?

DON POOLEY:  Yeah, that was a phenomenal stretch for me, especially those up-and-downs, those pars I made on 16, 17 and 18 in regulation.  Those were phenomenal to stay in the playoff with Tom.  I'm very, very proud of that, thank you.

CRAIG SMITH:  Would you take us through your card, a couple of the early birdies, a bogey and some of the wonderful saves for par.

DON POOLEY:  If I can remember.  I was nervous starting out but I hit a great iron, I hit an 8-iron in there on 1, about 12 feet past the hole and hit that putt right in the heart.  That was a great way to start.

The next hole, I hit my second shot up there about 6 feet from the hole for birdie and did not make that one.

The next hole was a par-5, I hit it in the bunker and laid up, hit a real good wedge in there about 12 feet and made a wonderful putt there.  So, to start 2-under on the first three holes was just a wonderful way to start with the lead that I had.

Then, I bogeyed the next hole.  I hit a 5-iron just over the green and tried to putt it through the fringe there about six feet of fringe and it got caught up and I left it 6 feet short.  Hit a good 6-footer, but misread it and I missed that.

Then, I made pars the rest of the way.  I played very solid golf all day until the last three holes in regulation.  I hit a lot of good shots.  I had a lot of birdie opportunities.  And when I had to recover I hit good recovery shots.  And then 16, 17 and 18 were probably three of the best up-and-downs under pressure that I've ever made.

CRAIG SMITH:  The last hole, done, 18, when you made birdie, what did you hit on those, drive --.

DON POOLEY:  I played it four times.  The last time I hit a 7-iron about 12, 15 feet, something like that.

Q.  Just curious, you mentioned you didn't get much sleep last night, can you tell us why you didn't get much sleep?

DON POOLEY:  Because I was nervous.  You know, I wasn't nervous when I went to sleep and I got to sleep with no problem at all last night.  But old people, they wake up at night.  And I woke up and immediately the butterflies hit.  And I started thinking about a three shot lead in the U.S. senior Open and, dang, I could not get back to sleep.  It took me -- I read for a while.  I woke up my wife.  If I'm going to be up, you have to be up here with me.

Q.  What did you read?

DON POOLEY:  I read several things.  I read the Bible.  And I read a book by Rotella.  I wanted to refresh my mind on some positive thoughts there.  And then I just turned out the light and tried to go back to sleep, it just took a long time.  But I got enough sleep, I think.

Q.  After Tom made the birdie putt at 15 and tied you, what were you feeling, what were you thinking at that point?

DON POOLEY:  We've got a brand new tournament, that's what I was thinking.  I had the lead the whole day.  I really -- I tried not to think Tom was going to miss, and he hardly ever missed on the backside.  He kept making putts, I didn't think he was going to make that putt on 15.  That broke 2 feet downhill, grainy putt.

And that was a fabulous putt.  And then when I hit that bad shot off the tee on 16 and he was right down the middle, I was in trouble at that point.  But then I hit that phenomenal shot, the shot of the tournament for me.  And Tom hit uncharacteristically a bad shot on 16 from the fairway and ended up making bogey there, I think, didn't he?

And then he came back and made a wonderful birdie on 17 to make up for it.  But it was just a seesaw battle.  It was a grind.

CRAIG SMITH:  Congratulations, and we'll let you take your trophy  and celebrate.