Interviews

An Interview With: TOM KITE

CRAIG SMITH:  Tom, great second round.  A whole bunch of birdies, and some of the things that stand out here, all those greens in regulations.

TOM KITE:  Well, I played well today.  I played well so far the first two days.  Today was really a good round.  I hit the ball very solidly, and I putted it well.  And except for a couple of errant drives where I was actually kind of fortunate to get away with them, it was a good, solid round.  I was very pleased.  I hit the irons very well, and for the most part hit the driver quite nicely.  And now I've got to keep doing it for two more days.

CRAIG SMITH:  Just take us through the birdies.

TOM KITE:  Okay.  I started on the back 9 and I hit a 5-wood off the tee on 10 and an L-wedge about five feet and made that.

13, that was the next birdie, and that's one of the ones I got fortunate, I pulled my drive left of the left bunker, I had to play a duck hook around a bunch of trees.  I shut the blade on a 9-iron and turned it way around there, and barely got it in the edge of the fairway about 130 yards from the hole and hit a 9-iron in there just left of the pin -- actually it was a couple of inches off the green, but putted it from there and made it from about 18 feet.

Then 15, hit the best shot of the day.  I hit a 4-iron, 211 to the hole, hit a 4-iron a little less than a foot, made that for birdie.

Then, bogeyed No. 18.  The pin was on the right-hand side.  I hit a nice drive and pulled a 5-iron left and it caught that ridge and went down on the left-hand side of the green, and I ran my first putt about 8 feet by and I missed it coming back for bogey.

I birdied No. 2, hit sand wedge about 8 feet, made that.

And birdied No. 3, hit 4-iron just left of the green and chipped up about two feet and -- three feet and made that.

And then, pars all the rest of the way in.  Good opportunities with some good putts that hit the holes, but weren't able to get anymore to go in.

Q.  Your opinion of Caves Valley, and how did it play today?

TOM KITE:  It played easier today.  That little bit of rain that we had last night really softened up the golf course quite a bit.  I actually had one thing that I've never seen on a USGA event, I had a ball embed on the green today.  The greens kind of got a little bit soft.  It was on the 8th hole where you're hitting down the hill, so it's coming almost straight down on the iron shot, but still you usually see them bounce a little bit.  But that rain, it wasn't much, I guess, but just enough to soften them up a little bit.  And I think that's why you're seeing a little bit lower scores today.  Plus you have a little cloud cover, making it more comfortable out there for everybody.  It's not the scorcher that it was earlier in the week.

Q.  Was it an advantage or disadvantage to have to finish up your round from yesterday before getting under way today?

TOM KITE:  Well, I was -- I hit a very poor drive on 17, which was the hole where they called it, put it up on the hill on the right-hand side yesterday and tried to play -- I thought I had a reasonable lie where I might be able to chop a 5-wood out of that rough and squirt it up on the front of the green.  And I kind of went underneath it and I put it in one of those front bunkers, and then they blew the siren.  I got thinking about one of the those nightmarish shots you can have all the time, this 40 yard bunker shot off an upslope to a pin that you have to carry it all the way there.  So, I tossed and turned a little bit thinking about that one particular shot all night last night.

But I got it on the front of the green and 2-putted.  So I made bogey, and that's about as good as I could expect from the position I put it in.  And finished on a nice par on 18.  I was pleased with the round.  I have to hand it to the USGA, a lot of times when you have to finish up they start you out so darn early and then you play a hole or hole and a half or however many you have to go, and then you have 40 minutes or an hour wait in between the rounds.  And they did a really nice job of timing it where you could come off of that finishing up that round, I had plenty of time to sign the score card, step in the locker room if you needed to, and then go right to the tee.  So, that made the transition from the first round to the second round very nice for us.

Q.  You made hay on the backside today, but that seems to be the tougher nine.  Could you tell me what makes it a little more difficult, as opposed to the front?

TOM KITE:  You only have the one par-5.  You have two on the front nine.  And one of those is reachable.  Actually, holes where you really need to make hay are usually 1, 2 and 3.  Those are the good holes where you're going to hit a short iron into 1, probably a wedge into 2 and then, 3 is a par-5 that's reachable.  So you've got a chance to do some nice stuff there.  After that, the game is on.  And you're right, the back 9 -- the golf course just keeps building and building as the round goes on, finishing up with four of the toughest finishing holes we've got.  I can't explain why it plays a little better on the back 9 than on the front, or scored better.  I didn't really play better, but sometimes those putts go in, and sometimes they hit the hole and lip out.

Q.  You said 1, 2 and 3, you've got to make the hay.  3 seems to be yielding a lot of birdies, is that the easiest hole on the golf course?

TOM KITE:  No question.  Matter of fact, I think it was one that they actually considered playing a forward tee and making it a par-4.  I know some people considered that as a possibility.  It's a nice hole.  It's a nice par-5, but it's a reachable par-5.  And then, you've got two other par-5s that are big and long and very few guys will be able to reach them.  So it's a nice balance to the golf course.

Q.  You've always been known as one of the game's best ball strikers.  And this year is no exception.  Are you doing something this year to sustain that?  What do you work on when you're in your practice rounds?

TOM KITE:  I'm really not doing anything with my swing at all.  I'm pleased with where my swing is, it's just a question of keeping it there, getting in position and trying to keep it as consistent as possible.  I'm really not doing anything different.  I'm continuing to do it, pay attention to my health and work out during the off-season intensively and I continue to work out throughout the season some.  But really putting in the time during the off-season and it's helping out.

Q.  Can you tell us how you met and became friends with Dennis Satyshur and how that relationship has grown over the years?

TOM KITE:  You really want to know all that stuff?

Q.  Yes.

TOM KITE:  No, you don't.

Q.  Is there a good story?

TOM KITE:  There's a bunch of Dennis stories, but we're not going to talk about those, he's too good a friend to have all that stuff done, he might lose his job.  We met together at -- when we went through -- when we graduated from college, he graduated from Duke and I was from Texas.  Before we had a chance to go through the Q-School at the end of the year we went down and played a mini Tour down in Florida.  And I was real good friends with Jim Simons, who is from Pennsylvania, and Dennis who is from Pennsylvania, originally, so Dennis knew Jim.  And through Jim we got to be really good friends and have just been tearing up that friendship for a long time.

Q.  Do you think this week more than most, being fit will matter by Sunday afternoon?

TOM KITE:  I don't think there's any question, especially if the heat builds back up, like it was early in the week.  It's going to pay huge dividends.  This is a big golf course, it's a very hilly golf course, and as we talked about earlier in the week there's some tremendous distances and some difficult walks in between the holes.  So, not only are the holes difficult to walk, but getting to the holes is very difficult.  So, it's a week that's going to require -- I look for somebody that's in good shape to play well this week.

Q.  Just wondering when you came out today there was like a 7-under to still kind of shoot for.  And tomorrow you're probably going to be at the top, does that change the way you're going to approach the golf course or are you going to continue to play aggressive and maybe set a pace rather than maintain one?

TOM KITE:  Well, I think the golf course gave up some good scores today.  So, I think you had to be a little aggressive.  But it's not giving up good scores to everybody.  And there are some challenging holes out there, and you're going to have to hit some good shots and you're going to have to play well.  So, I think maybe you can get a little aggressive.  A lot of it's going to depend on what happens to the greens the next couple of days, how much firmer they're able to get them.  They're having a tough time drying them out, because the humidity is so high, with this humidity up in the 90's or high '80s, it makes it difficult for them to get the golf course as dried out as they'd like.  And a lot of how aggressive we get on the golf course is what they're able to do in that regard.

CRAIG SMITH:  Tom, thank you, well done.

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