We are following the journey of 1994 SNGA Player of the Year Craig Barlow at the U.S. Senior Open. After round 1, he was at -4 and tied for fifth. Here is the question and answer with the media following the round.
Also, here are his personal insights from the previous few days:
Here is a link to the first post from Monday, June 25
Here is a link to the second post from Tuesday, June 26
View this post on Instagram
Q. From the stats, it looked like your driving was pretty good today. How do you feel about it?
CRAIG BARLOW: I played great. My strength coming into this week was my driver. So I felt comfortable with it.
Obviously the — I feel like our front nine, it blew harder so my driver was challenged a little more on the front. I think the wind died down a little bit. It’s still up there, but I just played a really solid round of golf.
The couple times I was out of position, I made some good par saves. I got past No. 13, that hole is like — I was totally in between clubs and kind of played it as a par-4. I hit my hybrid off the tee knowing I couldn’t get it to the green, but I knew it was an easy — somewhat of an easy pitch. I pitched it to eight feet and made it. That was kind of a round saver.
I just — I don’t know even how many greens I missed. I couldn’t have missed more than a couple greens. So I played good.
Q. Do you feel like the morning wave had a little bit more of a break because of the conditions?
CRAIG BARLOW: Yeah, obviously I wasn’t out here, but it wasn’t windy when I got here. However I can’t control what the other wave did. I did my job in this wave, so I’m very pleased how I played.
Q. Obviously you were here in 1995?
CRAIG BARLOW: I was.
Q. What was different about this course, if anything?
CRAIG BARLOW: It’s a lot longer. It was baked out then, but they’ve added a lot of tees since then. So it’s a championship golf course now.
If it was playing fast right now like it did then, it would be brutal. You know, you get good players with soft conditions, you’ll see low scores. If it was caked out right now with this length, it would be scary. I’m not upset that it’s wet.
Q. Even though it was 29 years ago does playing here in ’95 help you at all this week?
CRAIG BARLOW: It helped in the sense that I fell in love with this place, and I’ve had good vibes, like I love this place. So I played it five or six times during my years on TOUR when I would play in Hartford. That’s how much I like it here.
I came here and played four rounds a couple weeks ago, so I’m very comfortable with the golf course. With that being said, there is about — probably about six holes that you got to just golf your ball. And I did that today, so I’m pretty happy about that.
Q. Also, that stretch in there, 5, 7, 9, I know there was a bogey in there, but you had three birdies in there. Talk about that stretch a little bit.
CRAIG BARLOW: Yeah, so 5, I hit probably the best shot I’ve hit all year. It was 200 and — what was it, 208 dead into the wind, and I laced my hybrid to about 10 feet with the very challenging putt. I made that.
And 7 is one of the easier holes on the course, so if I drive that one in the fairway, that is a good birdie opportunity.
And 9, 9 is just one of the scariest greens I’ve ever played in my life, and I hit it down there like this. So the golf gods gave me one on that. I got to keep playing that hole for par though.
Q. Knowing now you get to play in the morning tomorrow, does that change how you think this course might be?
CRAIG BARLOW: Yeah, my game plan doesn’t change. I feel like you have to drive the ball in play. The greens are challenging, so it’s all about trying to hit it in the right spot on the greens.
They’re receptive right now. With the wind and maybe some dry air tomorrow maybe they’re a little firmer tomorrow.
But I think for the rest of the tournament, the greens are going to be somewhat receptive. Its defense is the wind. If the wind comes up every day, scores are going to be difficult to score.
If the wind lays down and the greens are soft, if you play well, you can get there.
