May 24, 2009
AN INTERVIEW WITH:
LARRY MIZE
KELLY ELBIN: Larry Mize, ladies and
gentlemen, the runner-up in the 70th Senior PGA
Championship at Canterbury Golf Club. Larry shot
67 today for a four day total of 276. 4-under par,
two shots I understand I behind the champion,
Michael Allen.
Larry, congratulations on the play this
week, your thoughts on the round today and
finishing second in your first Senior PGA
Championship.
LARRY MIZE: You know, it's kind of two
emotions at one time. I'm very pleased with the
way I played all week. 67 today I feel very good
with that. Just caught the wrong guy on the wrong
week.
And so there's a little disappointment, from
not winning, but overall, I played really well. And
take your hat off to Mike, he played really well.
KELLY ELBIN: If you would quickly, you
had four birdies on the front. Just give the
distance on the on each of those putts, please.
LARRY MIZE: I knocked it in there 1 and
made it from about I'll say six feet.
I made it from about 12 feet at 2.
7, I made it from about eight feet.
8, I made it from about probably 18 feet.
KELLY ELBIN: And that hiccup that you
had on 12, what happened there?
LARRY MIZE: Drove it in the right rough,
caught a horrible lie, all I could do was wedge it in
the fairway. Hit a pretty good gap wedge in there
and missed the putt and made bogey there, which
I guess is my only bogey.
Q. How far was the putt?
LARRY MIZE: The putt was about 15 feet.
KELLY ELBIN: Open it up for questions,
please.
Q. You had to feel pretty good at the
turn, I suppose, were you 5-under at that time
turn?
LARRY MIZE: Yes. I did feel good at the
turn. And I wasn't sure what everybody was doing
at the time, I just knew that my game plan was to
keep trying to make birdies and get myself, give
myself chances. But I did feel good at the turn. I
just wanted to continue to do it and unfortunately I
couldn't make any birdies on the back.
And I think that the not birdieing 15 was
tough. 15 was playing easy and missing birdie
there I think hurt me.
And I hit really good putts at 16 and 17 and
just didn't get either one of them to fall. And that
kind of took care of it for me.
Q. I'm sure you would have thought
before the day started that you shoot 67 today
on this golf course the way it's been playing
and that easily would have been good enough.
LARRY MIZE: Well, you know, I would
have liked my chances. Definitely. That's why I
just, I can't compliment Michael Allen enough to
come out here with the lead and shoot a 67 himself
I think with a birdie at 18. To do that and to play
the 18th hole the way he did is very impressive.
So my hat is off to him. I thought 67 today would
have been awfully tough to beat.
Q. Did you know much about Michael
Allen before this week?
LARRY MIZE: We have played a lot
together on the TOUR. Michael's a nice guy and
he's a very good player. And so it's just, I don't
know if, had he won? I can't remember.
Q. No. Not since the Nationwide Tour.
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LARRY MIZE: Yeah. So you know, it's
just a matter of time. I played with Michael quite a
lot and he is a very good player. So obviously I'm
disappointed for myself, but I'm very happy for
Michael. He played great.
Q. Just talk about your game, you were
on this week, how do you feel about it and did
something get you on this roll?
LARRY MIZE: I've been playing well.
Actually, it goes back to when we were down in
Cap Cana. Even though I finished like 30th or
something, I started playing better.
I went to Augusta and played well. I went
to Tampa and played well. The Legends, the team
event it's hard to tell. And then I finished fourth last
week and second this week.
So I've been on a nice roll. I've really been
playing well. And I was just trying to carry the
momentum into this week and I did a pretty good
job with it. But I've been playing well the last
couple of months.
Q. Clarification, 16 what did you hit in
there?
11 is a, you would like to have had those
putts for birdie rather than par. But, no, I wanted to
continue to keep it going and just wasn't able to do
it.
Q. Michael said several times this week
even if he wins he's going to go back to the
PGA TOUR. Just wondering as a fellow player
out here, if he were to stay out here, what do
you think he would do and would you kind of
hope -- what would you advise?
LARRY MIZE: Obviously I think he'll do
well out here. But I think that guys struggle when
they still have an exemption out there playing out
there versus playing out here.
I would think he'll still come out and play a
few events out here. But I guess he still wants to
play out there. But it seems like a lot of times guys
do that and it's not too long before they start
coming out here. Because it's a wonderful TOUR
out here.
I'm still in my rookie year and I just, I think
it's great out here. The guys are great, the courses
are good, the competition's great, it's a wonderful
TOUR.
LARRY MIZE: Sand wedge.
Q. And at 2?
LARRY MIZE: I hit a 5-iron.
Q. What about at 7?
LARRY MIZE: I hit a 9-iron.
Q. Obviously the difference in the two
nines, very short front, long back, did you feel
like you kind of maybe had thrown a pretty
good knock out blow and Michael and
everybody else and that maybe that in itself
might have psychologically been something
that would have helped you?
LARRY MIZE: I really didn't think that. I
didn't know what everybody was doing. I did see
the scoreboard on number 7 tee and I saw that I
was five and maybe Michael was three. So I kind
of, I knew. But it's just too soon.
And I knew that I had to keep going. My
ideal game plan would have been to shoot another
2 or 3-under on the back and get it to seven or
eight. But it's a tough golf course.
Drove it poorly on 12 and I drove it poorly
on 11 too. So those two holes, even though I
parred 11, you know, all of a sudden it kind of just
couldn't get anything going there.
Q. Talk about your third shot on 18.
You missed the green just right we figure, oh
he's chipping, this is over.
LARRY MIZE: Say that again now.
Q. You're known for when you miss the
green right you chip in occasionally?
LARRY MIZE: I putted it. I should have
chipped it, I guess. I've been putting well. I had
my sights on making that putt and obviously it was
a little faster than I thought. And I ran it by quite a
bit and I was very happy to make the putt coming
back, because I didn't want to give him a bigger
cushion than he already had. Because I didn't
know what he had done on 17 when I finished 18.
Q.
So you weren't thinking you
necessarily had to make that from off the
green?
LARRY MIZE: No, I didn't think I had to
make it, but I wanted to give it a chance. And
obviously I didn't think -- I just misjudged
the speed. I was definitely not trying to hit it that
hard. I was trying to get it up around the hole and
give it a chance to fall in.
And I think once it got up on top it was a
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little quicker than I thought. But I was very happy
to make the second putt coming back.
Q. First Major, did it feel like a Major?
Did it feel like the pressure of a Major? What
was going through your mind?
LARRY MIZE: It definitely did and the nice
thing for me it was my second Major, since I played
Augusta. So I really used that as a positive. So I
said I had already played one Major and so I kind
of rode that out as well after playing well there.
But, yeah, definitely it felt like a Major
coming down the stretch. I mean it was, the
intensity was there and it's a good golf course.
You had to put the ball in the fairway, hit your irons
good.
Q. What were you feeling as you came
down the stretch? Was it fun to you, was it, did
you feel nervous?
LARRY MIZE: Yeah, I was nervous, it was
a lot of fun, I couldn't get enough water because I
had a cotton mouth. I couldn't, you know it's funny
they say you want to be so nervous you can't spit
and I don't think I could. And I've never, I've got, I
get, everybody gets nervous different ways and
this is the first time I've had this dry of a mouth, I
think.
But it was a lot of fun. This is why we
practice, coming down, this is why you work hard
to get in this position and trust your game and let it
go. And easier said than done.
Q. Do you think you had that birdie putt
at 17, it looked like it was the last second just
kind of broke away.
LARRY MIZE: It looked good. I didn't
know I had it. My caddie and I were both unsure
on the break, whether it was going to break hard or
not so hard and we picked a line and I hit a good
putt and it just rolled a little harder than we
thought.
Q. Your putting was so nice and out
here on this TOUR we see so many different
and unusual styles of putting, people trying to
get the ball in the hole, how have you been able
to keep your putting stroke to be so smooth
and silky?
LARRY MIZE: I don't know. It is just the
way I do it. I guess my swing everything I do kind
of has a nice rhythm to it, it's kind of smooth. And
it's kind of funny, if you watch me bowl, it's the
same way. I don't know. It's kind of an ingrained
in me. I just have that -- I'm fortunate with that
good tempo.
Q. When you bowl?
LARRY MIZE: Oh, yeah, it's funny, I bowl
the same way, the long and slow and throw it down
there. But most guys ram it down there and I just, I
don't know it's kind of a joke, but it's true.
Q. What's your average?
LARRY MIZE: My average, oh, I don't
know. I have -- I have broken 200 twice. So, but it
could be ugly too. I'm very inconsistent.
Q.
When is the last time you broke
200?
LARRY MIZE: I don't know, it's been
awhile. I haven't bowled in a while, actually.
Actually, the time I bowled 234, I went with a buddy
of mine in college and we had to take the sheet
back up to the guy because we couldn't keep score
right, I didn't know what I made. He said I bowled
234. I said, okay, that's good.
Q. Good thing you don't have that
trouble on the golf course?
LARRY MIZE: Thank goodness.
KELLY ELBIN: Larry Mize, runner-up on
up in the Senior PGA Championship. Thank you.
LARRY MIZE: All right, thank you.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
Q. I just wonder if you can imagine
playing 334 tournaments without winning,
would you still be trying after all that time?
Like Michael had?
LARRY MIZE: Oh, yeah I think so. And
you take your hat off to him, but he may not have
won, but he's had some good tournaments and
he's played well. It's good perseverance, but
hopefully I would still be doing it, yes.
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