MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY AIG

June 23, 2001

Wendy Ward

WENDY WARD: I can't believe we got done. Thought we were going to have a couple rain delays out there with the dark clouds. Bogey on No. 2. Hit my drive left centre of the fairway and had 170 in. Kind of confused on the wind if it was going to hurt just a lot or a little and it came up short and hit a chip shot five feet past the hole and missed it coming back. 8, came up short on that tee shot, too. The wind was -- I'm sure it is a common theme today but the wind was swirling around. I hit a 4-iron from 190. I was just trying to play it to the front and let it bounce up. Really just didn't make a good swing there, to be honest with you. Chipped it past the hole nine feet and left it right in the jaws. Then bogey on 10. Hit my drive right down the middle of the fairway. We were kind of questioning the wind again. We had a lot of shots like that. Tom and I were frustrated that we didn't pull the club on any of them. Just trying to punch a sand wedge in there and shoot it in low and not have much spin on it and it hit probably 15 feet short of the pin and then just came all the way off the front of the green. 9-footer I missed for par there. So by that time, you can imagine I'm pretty hot. And then we get to 11 and somehow I think I can reach it in two, even though it is -- how long it is. Anyway, we hit driver and then 7-wood from 290, just a perfect lay-up to 75 yards. Hit a lob-wedge to nine feet and made it. 12, I absolutely crushed a drive. Only had 100 yards to the pin. Hit a smooth sand wedge in there about ten feet. 13, hit what I thought was a great shot. It carried front yardage about two paces on the green and then just the slope is kind of a false front right there and it just came right off the front and I chipped it to about six feet. Actually, the putt did something different than I thought. The whole chip shot rolled right and I left it short five feet and then the putt went left. Then 15 was quite exciting. I don't know how many of you saw it. Kind of came out of my tee shot and hit what I would call a wide right and actually -- I didn't even know there was a hazard over there, but apparently there is. I was on the right side of the hazard and kind of -- and I was standing in the hazard and just punched a little 7-iron. I had 140 to the front, which was all I was interested in. 156 to the hole. Punched a 7-iron up there, it was probably a 35-footer left of the hole, which you should not be left of that hole because you've got an unbelievable swinging left-to-right putt, and I made that for birdie. So, that kind of started some momentum for me. Then 16, we tried to cut my drive around the corner and basically hit it dead straight right over the top of the bunker, but my lie was good. I had 220 yards to the pin and hit a 5-wood to the back fringe. I was probably only about 25 feet from the hole and basically 2-putted there.

WENDY WARD: I felt like I hit the ball really well. I felt like I made some great swings off the tee and off the fairway, but I felt like Tom and I made some bad club selections. It was 50/50 effort on that part and both of us were very disappointed at the end of the day that we could not club ourselves any better. But that's an area that basically -- that's probably the only thing that we need to improve on for tomorrow because we stayed tough. I mean, we grinded it out. I made a comment to Michelle's caddy. I said, "Man, I'm grinding hard today." He says, "Well, who isn't it?" That's kind of the nature of the beast this week is just to grind is out to the finish. We definitely have to make better club selections tomorrow if we are going to make up the ground we need to.

WENDY WARD: I think it was just with the whole front that is passing through, and how the storms went around us, I do not know. But yeah, it would be strong and then it wouldn't exist and then it would be coming at you, say, off the right and then you're about ready to hit your shot and you throw up a piece of grass and it's behind you from the right. So just kind of playing those little games with your mind -- I'm pretty good about picking a club and committing to it. But then when you feel like you've made the right decision and made a good swing, it's frustrating when it doesn't pan out the way you intended it to.

WENDY WARD: I did. In fact, when we made birdie on 15 and I was a little unsure about trying to hit the cut around the corner on 16, Tom kind of says, "I think we need to hit," hit the driver; that's what he meant by we need to hit. And the first thing I said is, "What's Karrie at?" I felt like if we were two or three behind, which we were, I needed birdie -- birdie was like par on that hole, but we needed eagle to make up some ground.

WENDY WARD: Looks like we are in trouble. (Laughter.) You know, major championship, it's hard to make up ground. So I did see her drop to 10(-under) at one point, and, you know I was kind of able to take a breath. But at that point I think I was three behind. So she's not out of sight, but there's no room for error tomorrow. I told Tom, I said: "Summary for me today is we were not sharp." I had a lot of 20 and 30-footers out there. You are going to make a couple of those, or you hope to each day, but you are not going to make a lot of them. Not enough to make up three shots. Par is your buddy out there, but right now, we are going to need birdies to catch her tomorrow.