INTERVIEW OF BOB TWAY

DAVE SENKO:   Well, Bob, thanks for coming in, 6‑under 65.  It looks like seven birdies and your lone bogey at number 11.  Maybe just give us a quick rundown of your day, and we will get your birdies and one bogey. 

BOB TWAY:  I played pretty well today.  I hit my irons exceptionally well.  I hit a few wayward drives.  I was able to kind of recover from those and get them on the green and take advantage of the good iron shots I had. 

The only blemish was on 11 where I actually hit a very good second shot, and I hit my first putt about a foot by.  It was kind of in a footprint, and I missed about a foot putt, so that was disappointing.  Other than that, I played real well.

DAVE SENKO:   Birdies, do you remember the shot sequence?

BOB TWAY:  No. 3 was the par‑5, I hit it in the right rough off the tee and I had to lay up.  I hit a nice sand wedge down there about a couple feet from the hole. 

Fifth hole, good par, par‑4, and I hit a nice 7‑iron. Made about a 20‑footer there. 

And then the next two holes I hit it very close.  I hit it just a couple feet from the hole on each of those, so that was real nice. 

No. 10, I hit another one very close, a couple feet from the hole. 

13, the par‑3, I made about a 12‑footer. 

Then 15, the par‑5, I knocked it on in two and 2‑putted for a birdie. And the last hole, I missed the green, kind of in a bad spot by the bleachers, and I had a tough lie, and fluffed my chip and got it up and down for par.

DAVE SENKO:   How are the conditions out there? 

BOB TWAY:  It was nice. We were the second group off. So basically the greens for us, the front 9 were very, very nice.  Poa anna greens will track up a little bit as the day goes on with footprints.  An early start was good.  There wasn't a whole lot of wind when we started. Usually the afternoon the wind starts picking up.  So the backside started picking up some off the water and it always makes it play a little bit tougher.

DAVE SENKO:   You played a dozen events now on the Champions Tour, what's been your impression of the competition and how you played? 

BOB TWAY:  The competition is fantastic. It's amazing to me how well everybody plays. I mean it makes sense.  They were all the best players on the regular TOUR, and now they are a bit older, so they all play great. You really have to play well to do well.  It's fun.  Like you say, I have been out here about a half year anyway, so it's good to see all of the people that you kind of actually know better than the younger guys on the other TOUR. So it's a lot of fun.

DAVE SENKO:   Questions? 

Q.            The first two events this year, you had a T‑17,

T‑34, your best round 68, so did you see this one coming?

BOB TWAY:  You know, I played poorly the very first day in Naples. That was the day that we got winded out.  I made a couple of bad swings. I made some big numbers. 

But other than that, I wasn't disappointed on how I played the last five rounds, the last two there, and the three at Boca. It's all about basically making putts. Kind of salvaging your round if you make mistakes.  But basically you got to convert the opportunities that you have.  The greens were very, very tough at Boca, I thought, very fast, and I didn't putt well. So I worked on my putting last week and actually changed putters and did a little bit better today.

Q.            It's been a little while since your win down at Torrey Pines, do you have good vibes coming back to Southern California?

BOB TWAY:  It's been a long time since my win at Torrey Pines, what's that 24 years?  I've always enjoyed coming to California. How can you not? It's a beautiful place. Whether I play at Torrey Pines, Riviera or wherever it was, I always enjoy it. It's always fun to be here.

Q.            So you hadn't played this course until this week?

BOB TWAY:  Right.  I played three times. Practice round and two pro‑ams. You kind of get to know it.  You don't know it as well after this week because in tournament golf, you kind of always find out things a little bit differently than what you thought in the practice rounds. 

But I had a couple of local guys, members here in the Pro‑Am. They helped me a little bit about some of the breaks, the tendencies, so that was good. 

Q.            You played a dozen or so PGA events last year?  What are your plans? 

BOB TWAY:  I'm going to play mostly out here.  It doesn't really do me much good to go back and forth. I'm in limbo on both tours. I may play a few out there but I'm going to play mostly out here.

Q.            Oklahoma State guys are doing pretty well lately?

BOB TWAY:  Yes, it's great to see. Obviously they have had a very good golf program for a very long time and it's neat to see guys doing that well.

Q.            Did you see Rickie Fowler play much?

BOB TWAY: Yes, Ricky and my son were roommates, Rickie's freshman year. I played a lot of golf with Rickie. None of it really surprises me with what he does; he is very, very talented. The only thing that frustrates me, when he lays up on 15, everybody gets onto him, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of.  Actually the kid is so aggressive, that for him to not go is pretty much not the norm.

Q.            He is really long for a little guy?

BOB TWAY:  Yes, he hits it very good.

Q.            That made sense to you then?

BOB TWAY:  Sure. You look at his statistics. He is such a great wedge player.  If you see his interview, if he misses it right or left, and he didn't think he had a chance to get up and down, you just do what you feel is right.  There is no reason to criticize anybody.  If it's the last hole it might be a whole totally different thing, but he has three birdies holes coming in, 16, 17 and 18 are all playing easy.

Q.            How often do you get to play with Kevin?

BOB TWAY:  Any time I'm home. I'm only 45 minutes from campus. We try to play a lot. We played a lot this winter together. We went to Mexico for about 10 days to play golf. And Arizona over Christmas.  We played a lot of golf here the last few months.

Q.            As he develops, when you're playing with him, does any of what he does kind of rub off on your game?

BOB TWAY: I wish I was that good. They have a lot to learn mentally and stuff like that.  But their physical talent is way beyond me, way beyond what I ever had when I played good golf. 

These kids today are very, very talented.  And you see it when they come out. 

Q.            Your son's name?

BOB TWAY: My son's name is Kevin. 

Q.            Why to you think players, your son at that age, is physically beyond what you were?

BOB TWAY: It's a great question. People ask me all the time. You obviously watch them develop and why do they hit it so far. 

The only explanation that I can give is that they are probably a little bit better athlete.  Tiger made golf a cool game. Prior to that, it was a sissy sport basically. 

So if you were a talented athlete you played football, baseball, basketball, and you didn't really play golf.  Now you have better athletes.

Another reason is that we were playing with a wooden driver, and a wooden driver that was a small head, with a spinny ball, a mishit was a very ugly shot. 

Now you have a 460cc driver that misses, or not that crooked, and a ball that doesn't spin, and they just learn over time just to swing hard at it because the ball doesn't have the crooked shots that it once did. 

So I think they just learn to swing from the fences.  I think that's why they hit it so far.  Plus, you know, that's the technology part of it. But I think they are better athletes. They work out. We didn't work out. We ran a little bit, did a few push‑ups, chin‑ups and stuff, but they really work out. 

Q.            You mentioned you played a lot of golf with Kevin in the off season, anything that you worked on in particular for your game heading into 2010?

BOB TWAY: I'm always working on everything. I love to play golf. I practice a lot. I play a lot.  I can always improve on every facet, so I'm always trying to do that.

Q.            Is golf fitness becoming more of an issue for you now?

BOB TWAY:  I've always stayed in pretty good shape. I've worked out pretty hard for the last 15, 16 years.  It's just kind of part of my daily life anymore. I think a lot of it is trying to keep up with the kids. If you are going to compete on the other TOUR, you got to try to keep up, and that's one way of trying to do it.