Senior PGA Championship 2015
Friday, May 22
Press Conference
Tom Lehman
BOB DENNEY: Ladies and gentlemen, we're joined by
Tom Lehman, your second round leader at 4-under par.
67 today here which is his lowest round in his six
appearances at the th Senior PGA Championship
Presented By KitchenAid. He's the 2010 Senior PGA
champion. He is the 36 hole leader by one stroke.
Tom, just go through your round for us today and how
you held it together.
TOM LEHMAN: Well, it was a beautiful day to play golf.
Much nicer than yesterday. A bit breezy to start, but I
was very fortunate, had a great pairing playing with Jay
Haas and Colin Montgomerie, two great guys and
extremely good players. They were both playing well. I
was playing well. So it was a very comfortable round.
We seemed to kind of pull each other along the whole
day making birdies and some pars and shooting good
scores. So it was good, but I hit the ball very well. I
was looking at the stats, I hit 16 greens today as
opposed to yesterday where I think I hit one green in
the first 11 holes. So it was quit a bit different today
than yesterday.
BOB DENNEY: Questions?
general I enjoy. I happen to really enjoy his style of
architecture. I like the way he thinks. I like the way he
makes the player think. And I seemingly over the over
my career have played his courses extremely well. I
mean, TPC Sawgrass was one of my favorites. I had a
lot of good tournaments there. There's something
about the way he designs that appeals to me.
Q. Coming off a few top-5 finishes, where do you
feel like your game is right now and do you feel like
you're kind of ready for that break through this
season?
TOM LEHMAN: Yeah, I've had two seconds in the last
three tournaments. Lost one in a playoff. So, I was
fifth at the Tradition, so my game is good, obviously.
I'm doing enough right to be in contention and just
enough wrong to not win. So, there's still a long road to
hoe here. There's a lot of really good players all
bunched up. But my game is good and I'm feeling
confident. My putting feels pretty good. If I -- there's no
change to my game plan, I'm just going to keep on
doing what I've been doing. Golf is golf and a swing is
a swing. And whether it's here on French Lick on a
Pete Dye course or Shoal Creek on a Nicklaus Course
or Houston at the Woodlands, I mean it's all the same.
So, just keep on swinging.
Q. I think you birdied three of the first four. How
much does that help to get you going on a tough
course?
TOM LEHMAN: Well, especially that 10th hole. That's
a tricky, tricky, tricky hole. That little green up there is
so perched up. And to come out of the box and hit a
really good 9-iron in there to about eight or nine feet,
that was a nice way to start. Then to make the putt.
The next hole was playing relatively easy. Made a
birdie there. The par-5 was playing short. Hit a good
tee shot and got green side in two. So then the next
hole, par-3, hit a really good shot and made a birdie
there. But the course with the way the wind was
blowing to start the round, the wind was helping quite a
bit the first several holes. And then it kind of gives you
a chance, I think, to get off to a good start. As
opposed to playing right off the bat straight into the
wind on every hole.
Q. After yesterday when everybody struggled, did
today feel more like golf that we expect, because
there were a lot of 60 scores today?
TOM LEHMAN: Yeah, well the course was set up, I
think, very fair. It played a lot shorter. I mean, it was
nice to see a ball roll finally. We have been here for
five days and I think we haven't seen a ball roll more
than five yards on any shot, ever. So it was nice kind of
seeing the ball kind of doing some scooting today. So it
played shorter. You have to kind of pick your poison
out there. Are you going to try to lay it back in the
fairway but give your self a longer iron shot or are you
going to take some chances off the tee to shorten up
those iron shots. I think that's really the choice you
have out there. So to watch a ball roll in the fairway
today and get some run, kind of shortens the course up
and made for some shorter shots.
Q. Generally does this course fit your eye off the
tee and into the green?
TOM LEHMAN: You know what, Pete Dye courses in
Q. A lot of the caddies have been preaching to their
golfers patience. How do you balance patience
with being aggressive out there to get those easier
putts?
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TOM LEHMAN: Well, I think there's a number of greens
where I have a number that I'm hitting to, no matter
where the pin is. There's probably three or four greens
where I have a number written on my yardage back
and so I figure out the yardage to that spot. And I don't
care where the pin's at, we're hitting to that spot. From
that spot we can make a par or birdie all day long, I
think. So I think that's kind of what the patience thing is
all about. Knowing when to go for something. There's
some back pins today that if you had a 7-iron in your
hand, I would never think about going at that back pin.
But if I had a wedge or 9-iron, then I probably would.
So that's what I'm talking about, in terms of where are
you going to take your chances. And I kind of feel like
a lot of times taking more of a chance off the tee, leads
to a much easier approach shot which is the way to
play some of these courses, play more aggressive off
the tee, more patient with the irons.
Q. Is that why you played your chip out to the right
on 18? You just didn't want to take a chance?
TOM LEHMAN: No, I looked at it, I walked up there, I
felt like if the ball got up into the green it was going to
go straight sideways all the way down to the hole. But
the grass has grown so much today that the ball just
didn't run. And even the putt wasn't very fast. So I just
kind of got fooled. Yesterday I hit a shot where the pin
was back left that just barely trickled to the edge where
it starts to fall and it ran all the way down to where pin
is today. So that's what I was thinking, hey, as quick as
that was yesterday, I'll just put that chip up there and it
will run back down to the hole. But it didn't. So, it's late
in the day, grass is growing, greens slow down, so it's
unfortunate.
BOB DENNEY: He is our 36 hole leader, Tom Lehman.
Thank you.
TOM LEHMAN: Thank you very much.
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