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Pressbox > Kite isn't closed to being in U.S. Open
Photo credit: Matt Sayles, AP
"Nothing has changed just because I'm getting older," says Tom Kite, who won the AT&T Classic on the Champions Tour in March. "I'm a golfer who has wanted to play in the Open since I was a teenager. Just because I'm on the Champions Tour does not mean that I shouldn't want to play in our national championship."
Tom Kite is 56 years old, but his opinions about playing in the U.S. Open have not changed since he was a teenager.
It's the USA's national championship, and as a lifelong golfer, he wants to compete in it. So this year, Kite, a former Open champion, will compete in the qualifying process with the hope of playing in the Open on June 15-18 at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y.
"Nothing has changed just because I'm getting older," Kite says. "I'm a golfer who has wanted to play in the Open since I was a teenager. Just because I'm on the Champions Tour does not mean that I shouldn't want to play in our national championship."
Kite was one of the 8,584 entries announced last week by the U.S. Golf Association. He's not the oldest. Ordean Olson, a professional from Hollywood, Fla., will turn 76 before the Open begins.
The youngest entrant is Ryan Simpson, 13, from Mechanicsville, N.Y.
"I think I'll make it," says Kite, who will try to qualify at a site in Houston. "At some point in time, I don't think I'll have a chance. Right now, I feel good about my chances."
Kite has played in the Open 33 times, making the cut 24 of those and winning it in 1992. It's one of his 19 victories on the PGA Tour.
As a senior golfer he has won eight tournaments, the last coming in March at the AT&T Classic in Valencia, Calif. He won by five strokes and ended a 19-month period without a victory on the Champions Tour.
He tied for second Sunday at the FedEx Kinko's Classic. He shot 9-under par, but Jay Haas won at 11 under after a final-round 65. Kite will be in Birmingham, Ala., this week for the Regions Charity Classic, which begins Friday.
"I'm definitely playing better," Kite says. "I'm optimistic."
For those who say senior golfers should aspire to the U.S. Senior Open, Kite says, "I'm not playing for them. I'm playing for me."
So once again Kite will tee it up in Houston, looking for one more chance at the Open championship. In recent years he has worn walking shorts while competing in the qualifier, and he expects to wear them again this year.
"In the summertime in Texas it's 100 degrees every day," he says. "Down here we either wear jeans or shorts. And shorts are a better choice in the summer."
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