MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen,
Doug Hanzel shot a 75 today, 9 over par for the Championship, and has earned
Low Amateur honors.
Q.
Well played. Congratulations on
the Low Amateur honors.
DOUG HANZEL: Thank you.
Q.
You had a stretch there on the back nine where you were kind of going
the other way.
DOUG HANZEL: Well, it's one of those golf courses where
you're off five yards and you're in trouble, and I was off five yards off the
tee. I didn't hit bad shots. They were just five yards off. And from there, you're usually looking at
bogey. And if you don't be careful, you
get double.
And I made some easy bogeys, and I
made a double that really didn't take a lot of effort.
Q.
But a birdie on 17. What did you
hit there?
DOUG HANZEL: I hit a 5 iron. We were debating 4 and 5 iron. I saw Loren's ball come up a little
short. I just said I think I can get 5
iron back there. I just hit it right on
the button. I had perfect line. To get it back to that pin, you couldn't hit
it to the pin because it would go over.
So hit a little short, rolled up into the bowl, and came back. Loren was putting right behind me. I saw the line, and I had a good read. It's one of the few putts I actually got to
the hole today.
Q.
You're a practicing physician.
How much time did you actually have to get ready? What did you do for the Senior Open?
DOUG HANZEL: Well, to be honest, not a lot. Yeah, I did practice a little bit more, but
our golf courses are so different than these.
We have Bermuda greens. They're slow
this time of year. So it's hard to
practice your short game.
But I did come up, see my family in
Ohio last Friday, and I was staying up with my daughter in Kent, Ohio, and my
old golf coach, I talked to Herb Paige at Kent State. He said you can come out to the practice
facility and practice. I played his golf
course, bentgrass, pretty quick. I got a
little tune‑up on bentgrass and played three practice rounds.
It was interesting because the first
two days, the course played kind of soft and not fast. Wednesday, it got really fast. Thursday and Friday got hard and fast.
Q.
Anyone tell you what comes with the Low Amateur?
DOUG HANZEL: Well, I played last year, and I missed the
cut by two. And I know Low Amateur gets
an invitation back. And the thing I
didn't know that I found out is Low Amateur ‑‑ or senior making the
amateur ‑‑ amateur making the cut posting four rounds gets me into the
Senior Amateur, which is good because I was just about ready to send in my
application for qualifying. This is a
big relief.
Q.
Projecting to next year, you're a cardiac care physician. How do you free your schedule up to be able
to play in the Senior Open next year?
DOUG HANZEL: I'm actually a pulmonologist, lung
specialist, and do critical care medicine.
I've kind of stepped away from critical care medicine because of time,
nights and weekends. I'm pretty much an
office practice now. I have a great
group of guys that help cover for me. My
schedule is a little freer.
I did critical care for 21, 22
years. It's a young person's
profession. I'm to the point where I
need to slow down. My kids are kind of out
of the house, and I can slow down a little bit.
Q.
Congratulations. It's great
stuff.
DOUG HANZEL: Thank you.