THE MODERATOR: Ladies and
gentlemen, we're pleased to welcome Bernhard Langer to the Media Center. He's the 2010 U.S. Senior Open Champion. He posted a 2 over today, 8 under for the
championship. Top ten finish.
Likely disappointed with your round
today, but you showed a lot of heart, made a charge there at the end. Talk about your overall round.
BERNHARD LANGER: I got off to a bad start, pushed my tee shot
on 2 a little bit and got caught under the trees.
Then I actually played a really good
shot into the green side bunker, which I was trying to do because it seemed to
be an easy bunker shot, but it rolled up right against the lip, and it was like
right up against it. And I tried to play
a special shot there, went immediately up in the air, and I caught it a little
thin. It went over the green, and now I
had more shot. So I made double bogey on
2.
Played some good shots next few
holes, had some birdie chances, missed them all. Number 7, I drove it in the rough, made
another bogey, and it just kind of went from bad to worse.
Had some chances again on 8 and 9 or
10, and nothing went in the hole. And
then 12 I drove in the bunker again. So
just couldn't make a birdie. Made my
first birdie on 16 when I almost holed my third shot. Sorry.
15, I think it was. Just had a
tap‑in birdie there and then hit it in the fairway bunker again on the
following hole.
Just didn't feel comfortable with
that wind. The wind was out of the west
today, a totally different golf course.
Didn't seem to suit my eye as well as the wind we've had all week from
the south. And finally, I hit some
really good shots coming home and at least finished tied for second.
THE MODERATOR: Let's open it up for a couple of questions.
Q.
The frustration on 2 carry over, or was it just like you said, the wind
conditions and you had some good looks at birdies that just didn't fall for
you?
BERNHARD LANGER: I tried to not let it bother me too
much. Obviously, every time you make a
double bogey, it's not much fun, but I knew there was a lot of golf left and I
was still in the lead. If I shoot under
par from that point on, I'll still be in good shape.
But I couldn't make a putt. Just the chances I had either I left short or
misread it or whatever. It just wouldn't
go in.
As I said, the only putts I really
made were on 17 and 18. I made two
reasonable putts from about 15 feet or something like that.
Q.
Bernhard, you talked yesterday about how a four‑shot lead wasn't very
big. It's really hard to protect the
lead. We've seen that a lot in the
PGA. Can you just maybe address how
difficult ‑‑ even with a four‑shot lead, it is to try to hold that.
BERNHARD LANGER: Well, as I said, a four‑shot lead is not
huge. You can lose four shots in three
or four holes. I made bogey. Somebody makes birdie, that's two shots
gone. You can easily lose four shots in
not 18 holes, you can lose it in six holes or whatever.
It's happened before, and it will
happen again. So I knew that. My goal was to shoot under par. I said yesterday, if I shoot 1 or 2 under, it
will be hard for the other guys to catch me, and I didn't do that.
It was for me to win the
championship. If I had shot 1 or 2
under, I would have won the championship, but I just didn't play well enough to
do that.
THE MODERATOR: Bernhard, thank you very much.
BERNHARD LANGER: You're welcome.