WENDY'S CHAMPIONSHIP FOR CHILDREN

August 10, 2001

Wendy Ward

WENDY WARD: A birdie on No. 11. The Par 3, I hit a 6-iron. It was playing 160 feet. And it was right on line. I thought we almost had a hole-in-one potential, but it was about 6 feet short of the pin. We got going there. And then a birdie on 16, Par 5. Actually, I didn't hit a very good drive where I could reach it in two. It was 260 to the front, so I laid up to basically a 70-yard shot, which is a good shot for me, to about eight feet -- a lob wedge. And then made the turn, No. 1. Had a great angle into a tough back pin today. 138 yard 7-iron into a little breeze. It was about two feet from the pin. That's No. 1. I made a great save on No. 2. I know pars aren't exactly what we talk about, but I hit it in the left bunker and made a great up-and-down there which kept my momentum going and then I started my run. No. 6, Par 5, hit 229 to the hole. It was in the rough on the right side, so I hit a 5-wood, and it ended up pin-high but just on the fringe, so a nice little chip up and down from four feet. And 7, 7 was an 8-iron from 142 yards, 3 feet. And No. 8, I got my drive way down there with a 3-wood, only 76 yards to the hole and hit an L-wedge, didn't quite catch it as well as I wanted to, had 20 feet. And then No. 9 , I hit a 5-wood off the tee and hit 170 yards into the pin with a little help from the wind with a 6-iron to four feet.

WENDY WARD: I've been hitting a lot of good iron shots and just not -- you know, the putts just weren't finding the bottom of the hole. I mean, I had some other really good opportunities early in the round, some 15-footers on 12, 13, and 14 that I didn't make. A 6-footer on 17. I was there.

WENDY WARD: The greens are really soft. We came from the British last week where you're sometimes not even carrying the ball on the green, but you can be really aggressive. Like the 6-iron I hit in on the last hole, No. 9. I just decided to take a little less club and swing aggressively and go after it.

WENDY WARD: I would have said yes on Wednesday, but we had a little different wind today, so a couple of the Par 5s were into the wind. 3 was into the wind, which is usually a good Par 5 that we can reach in two. But yeah, I did have some shorter irons today, looking at my notes.

WENDY WARD: I think mostly the soft greens, yes. I haven't played soft greens in a while, so it was fun to be able to actually get a yardage and not to have to add another calculation into it about a release. You could just take it right to the pin. Test out that Callaway blue ball.

WENDY WARD: Take it as you want. I say it because I've bounced back and forth between the red and the blue all year and haven't seen a lot of difference because of the firm greens we've been playing. Now I see it.

WENDY WARD: I wasn't going to coast in when I got to four or five under by any means. I was hoping to get to four under today. Knowing it was a 3-day tournament, you have to get your birdies quick, but I wouldn't be surprised to see scores even lower. I mean, you put yourself on the right side of the fairway to get into the pins, and when the greens hold, there's going to be low numbers. It is getting warm out there, so hopefully the greens can withstand the heat, because they were getting tracked up early this morning, which is unfortunate. We didn't deal with that really when we were here in October last year, or end of September. We didn't deal with it as much, the greens getting burned up.

WENDY WARD: Well, the first question, I really like this course. I've liked it from the minute I got here. '99 was the first year. I don't know. The course sets up well for me. It's fun when you can have risk/reward situations with a Par 5 and you can even play smart and still make birdies. I just have fallen in love with the course. And then as far as -- you know, I didn't win until the end of my second year on tour and then followed it up with another win early the third year. There's been changes and, you know, trying to have a balance between pressing too hard and not pressing enough, and have been real close a couple of times this year. So I'm in the patient mode of, you know, you take care of your own business on the course, don't watch too much of what's going on around you and the next win will take care of itself hopefully relatively soon.

WENDY WARD: No, I just switched coaches, kind of got a new perspective. I just needed something a little different, needed a little change, and it's just taken a little time to get the confidence back in there.

WENDY WARD: I don't think the 54-hole part influences that as much. (Inaudible) maybe a little loose with my playing and not as tight as I would like to be, and I'm probably not going to attack some of the tough pins. But if I'm feeling confident, I might take a shot at it.