Interviews

An Interview With: TOM KITE

MARTY PARKES:  It's my pleasure to welcome Tom Kite to the interview area.  Tom, earlier today we had Hale Irwin in and he talked about what it was like to be an a U.S. Open champion and then win the Senior Open.  I assume that's a goal this week.

TOM KITE:  That's been a goal ever since I got on the Senior Tour, is to win a major championship.  I was fortunate enough to win the tradition to start out with my first win.  But you're right, to be a U.S. Open champion and then win the Senior Open would have to be a high on everybody's list.  And I would love to win this week or any one of the Senior Opens.  It's a fantastic tournament, and I'd love to.

Q.  Let me continue that thought.  Your timing couldn't be better than this year, because if I'm counting right your U.S. Open was '92, and for once you'll be looking for one?

TOM KITE:  Well, '92, 2002, I'd have taken 2001, I wouldn't have been all that upset.  I'm not really all that particular about which tournament I win, I'd love to win them all, for sure.  But certainly, this would be great.  It would be a neat thrill, obviously I have some very good friends here at Caves Valley, Dennis Satyshur has been one of my best friends for a long time, so it would be good to win here.

I've spent a lot of time up in Baltimore, I've gotten to know a lot of people here, did a redesign on the west golf course over at Baltimore Country Club a couple of years ago and for just a lot of reasons, mainly because of the good friends that I have here.  This would be a special week to win the Senior Open.

Q.  Tom, how much does your familiarity with this course give you an advantage this week?

TOM KITE:  A little bit, not much.  I haven't played it that much.  I've played it a few times, usually when I'm in town to see Dennis or to go to a ballgame down at Camden Yards or something like that.  I may go out and play a few holes, but usually, I'll come in and just kind of practice and goof around.  Certainly the way that the golf course is going to be set up this week is entirely different than what we normally see here at Caves Valley.  The greens are going to be not so much yet, but certainly I think they're biding their time.  It's hard to cut the greens down and firm them up this early in the week, but certainly before the week is over, these greens are going to be the texture of this table up here, and probably close to the speed of this table.  I think that will be one of the major defenses of this golf course is the pace and the firmness of the greens, once the tournament gets going.  They don't normally see this, every time I've played here the greens have always been soft.  So that's going to be quite a bit different than what I have seen the few times that I've played here.  But I have played it more than most, so there are a few things that should help me a little bit if I'm smart enough to apply some of that experience.

Q.  Another possible advantage type question, you're arguably one of the fitter guys on the Senior Tour.  And we're experiencing some pretty hot weather and the walk at Caves Valley is not exactly an easy one, how does that fit to your advantage?

TOM KITE:  You're being quite generous, when you say it's not exactly an easy one.  This is one of the more difficult golf courses that we ever have to walk.  The distance from the green to the tee is significant in a lot of cases.  A lot of times it's up-and-down hills.  And this golf course is a lot better than the original design.  The superintendent, Steve Glossinger has come in here and made some significant changes on this golf course from Fazio's architectural design that have improved this golf course significantly in terms of getting from a green to the next tee and making this golf course more playable and more walkable.

But it's still a major task to get around this golf course when you're walking, especially when it's 95 and the heat index is in triple digits.

Q.  Just repeating myself from a couple of other questions, can you talk about the state of the Senior Tour in general at this point?  Doug Tewell was just talking about some guys would like to see -- possibly see a commissioner just for this Tour.  Any thoughts on that, just the state of it in general?

TOM KITE:  I think the Senior Tour is -- I think it bottomed out last year.  I think there were a lot of negative things that were written about it.  I think there was a lack of enthusiasm, a lack of -- well, even on some of the part of the players, a lack of desire to really show our best foot forward.  I think what happened last year with all the negative things that were written about the Senior Tour, hopefully, the premature prediction that the Senior Tour might not exist in a few years, I think those things really hurt.  And I think they woke everybody up from the Tour staff to the players to the television to everybody involved, really got a heavy dose of slap-across-the-face, shall we say.  That, "Thanks, I needed that."  We probably did need it, but it hurt when so many things negatively were written about us.

This year there are a lot of good things that are happening.  You know the television ratings are up over last year, significantly.  And approaching what they were the last few years that ESPN had us.  There's a lot of enthusiasm among the players.  We've had some great finishes among the tournaments, we've had a lot of competitive stuff.  There's been some great drive shown out here.

Unfortunately, the one thing that we don't have, and will never have, won't have for a long, long time is the one thing that everybody wants to write about, everybody wants to talk about, and he's not coming out here for a long time (laughter.) So there's nothing that we can do about that.  But we can put our best foot forward.  And I think you've seen a tremendous amount of redirection, refocus, energy, all the things that really get us going in the right direction.  And I think it's just a step forward.  I think there will be some new things that will come on next year that will enable us to even move up the ladder a little better.  So, I'm very encouraged about where the Senior Tour is, where it's going, the direction that we have taken this year.

Q.  The Commissioner issue?

TOM KITE:  I really don't have an opinion on that.  However we put our best foot forward and whatever it takes.

Q.  If you could win the U.S. senior Open here, obviously it would be a big deal for you.  Where would it rank for you career wise?  Would it be just below winning the U.S. Open at Pebble in '92?

TOM KITE:  It will be below the U.S. Open, for sure, but it wouldn't be below too many other things.  There are a couple of things that rank up there high, obviously being named captain of the Ryder Cup team in  '97 was a tremendous honor.  Being given the Bob Jones Award from the USGA in 1978 was a tremendous thrill.  That's their highest award they give.  Winning the U.S. Open obviously would be up there.  My first tournament win on the Tour.  My first tournament win as a junior golfer, when I was 11 years old.  All those things rank up there, but if we can go into the future and have me win one of these senior Opens, that would be very high on that list.

Q.  Can you talk about the last four holes and a couple of guys have mentioned that -- I think Jim Thorpe said it's the toughest finishing holes -- I don't know if he meant he's played out here or he's ever played in this kind of tournament: How do they rank up there?  Are there any other courses under the circumstances that have four tougher holes?

TOM KITE:  Probably not on the Senior Tour, not that we see.  There was a pretty good stretch in New York a couple of weeks ago that finished out pretty strong.  That 15, 16 and 17 at Bethpage was pretty strong, 15, 16, 17 and 18 were awfully good.

Yeah, this is a very difficult stretch, and the timing of it, especially with the heat.  You just can't talk enough about what's going on with the weather.  They keep talking about a cool spell coming in, but still, if it cools down to 89, it's still hot.  And I don't see it going in the low '80s for the highs.  So, this time of year you're going to have some pretty oppressive heat in this neck of the woods.  So having played a long -- not only is the golf course long, but it was designed for carts.  Unfortunately or -- that's the way a lot of architects do it.  They don't take into consideration the walking golfer.  This golf course probably had no consideration, even though most of the members here walk. They have a great caddy program.  I think they only have 20 or 25 carts here at Caves Valley.  Everybody walks.  The golf course was not made for to be a walking golf course.  The placement of the tees to the greens is significant.  So you've got a long walking golf course, even on the front 9 where it's relatively flat.  And all of a sudden you get on the back 9, and you have steep hills and it goes up-and-down, and some pretty serious climbs and then you've got 16, 17, 18 at the end of a long day.

It's going to be very difficult to maintain your concentration and your exposure and remain physically competent to be able to play those holes.  And you better be ready to go, because disasters can happen on any one of those four.

Q.  How much of that at that point becomes mental and how much of it is just pure physical exhaustion?

TOM KITE:  I don't know how you quantify that.  Both, physical, mental and emotional will all play a part in that, no question.

Q.  What do you do to mentally prepare for a major championship or any tournament, be it the night before or right before you tee off on No. 1, what is it that you do to put yourself in that mind set that says, "I'm going to go out there and give it my best today and I'm not going to get in my own way?"

TOM KITE:  You have to do it before you get here, a lot of it.  You have to be rested.  You have to be ready to go.  You have to be -- you can't come into a tournament like this where it's going to be a difficult week tired.  You have to be ready to play.  You have to be enthusiastic and excited about it.  A lot of guys took last week off for that particular reason.  It's unfortunate that -- for the tournament over at hey fields that it fell that way.  But everybody knew this was going to be a difficult week and is going to be a difficult week.

So, it's very important to come into this week rested up.  And then, obviously, there are some -- you just play the golf course over and over in your mind and you keep trying to hit a bunch of good shots in your mind and hopefully those will translate into good shots on the golf course.

Q.  Is that something you do the night before or --?

TOM KITE:  Night before, week before, month before, years before, yep.

Q.  What about playing Bethpage and what Tiger did?  Hale was in here and we kind of reflected back to Bethpage and sort of got the sense that he would like to be 30 years younger and playing Mr. Woods on Sunday afternoon, to see if he could hold up, how about you?

TOM KITE:  Well, I think -- Bethpage was awesome.  I thought it was a great golf course.  I thought the rough was probably as penal as any rough that I've ever seen except for when that rare case when you'd see somebody miss it way, way off line, 30 yards right of the fairway, nobody had a chance to advance it or very few places that you could advance the ball.  I was -- it's a golf course that I was really excited about.  I wish I had gone in there.  I wasn't playing particularly well, wasn't driving the ball well at the time, I am now, but I wasn't driving it well then.  But it's a perfect golf course for me, because -- Tiger is a great player, he's going to play well on any golf course.  You put it on a pitch and putt and he's going to play great.  I was not surprised that a player like Faldo or Maggert played well on that golf course, because if you get a player -- I've had some of my best tournaments on courses that everybody said were too long for me.  I've won a lot of golf tournaments on courses that everybody said, it's way too long.  And when I was a really short hitter.  Because what a long golf course does in a lot of cases is it forces those guys that are long to hit driver.  On a short golf course the longer hitters can hit irons off alot of those tees.  A golf course like that forces everybody to hit driver, and I think I can drive it straighter than -- and Jeff Maggert and Nick Faldo proved that they can drive it as straight or straighter than a long hitter can.  And with the rough that penal, being in the fairway is paramount.

Let's take Jeff Maggert for example.  Jeff Maggert can probably drive the ball straighter than Tiger Woods.  He cannot drive it straighter than Tiger Woods can hit a 1-iron.  So if Tiger is forced to hit a driver, in my opinion it plays into the hand of some of those medium hitters.  Not a short hitter, obviously you can't be too short and play that golf course.  But I was not surprised at all that there were a couple of medium hitters.  I read some articles about what a major upset it was for Faldo and Maggert, and that didn't surprise me.  I thought it was -- but it was a fantastic golf course.  I was really -- I know the USGA is going to go back there.  I'm sure the PGA, it probably opened their eyes, they'll be going back there in some future years, but magnificent golf course.  It deserves to be in the rotation for a major championship.

Q.  It's only been a couple of weeks since the Open, what has changed in your driving?  You said you're driving well now, and you weren't then?

TOM KITE:  I had gotten too steep in my swing.  Sometimes my flaw in my golf swing is that I tend to take the club inside on the back swing and then I get it lifted, go in and up.  And when I do that I'm not very good.  And I've been that way for a couple of weeks.  I didn't drive the ball particularly well at Firestone in our Senior PGA and I didn't drive it well at Bethpage.  And now I've got the club on plane and working around.  So I'm feeling good about it.

Q.  Can you address the stamina issue, very hot, over 50 crowd out playing a difficult golf course?

TOM KITE:  Well, this is going to be a difficult week.  The heat, the golf course, the four rounds, the major championship, all of it is going to play a huge role, and it's going to be a difficult week for everybody.

MARTY PARKES:  Thanks for coming in and joining us, we hope to see you back in here.

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