TYCO/ADT CHAMPIONSHIP

November 13, 2001

Karrie Webb

KARRIE WEBB: Obviously, I think anytime can you wake up in your own bed when you're used to waking up in a hotel room is definitely a bonus. This is a very special tournament, too. I'm glad that the season-ender is down here in Palm Beach County. The course out here is really nice. I think for a course that's only two years old, it's very mature for being so young. The facilities are great. I think the course is going to, you know, require some good golf this week to get around. I think if the wind gets up, it's going to be difficult to shoot low.

KARRIE WEBB: I played it a couple times in April. I've been out here a few times last week before the tournament week started.

KARRIE WEBB: I don't think so. I think you've just got to be hitting the ball well, not getting into too much trouble. I think the longer hitters that can go for a few more of the par 5s and the 6th hole, the par 4, depending on where the tee is, they've got to be hitting those risk/reward shots well. I think the reward isn't as great as the risk. If you are going to take on a couple of the riskier shots, you've really got to be hitting the green because there's not a lot of bail-out in any of those holes. Your penalty for miss-hitting a shot is a lot greater than making a birdie because you can make a birdie the conventional way.

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, I think just knowing your game that week. You know, standing up on a certain shot, knowing, "I can pull this off when I'm playing really well, but maybe not today." Or knowing that you can do it, trusting that you can do it. I like the way the course is set up because it gives you a lot of options. It gives the longer hitters a chance to play aggressive, if they want, or play the way the short hitters are going to hit it and still have, you know, on par 5s hit your wedge into the green instead of going for the green. There's a couple of really tough par 4s out there, as well, that depending on the wind are going to play pretty long. I really like it, too, just because I think I just about hit every club in my bag this week, and we don't get to do that very often.

KARRIE WEBB: I'm playing in December, as well.

KARRIE WEBB: I'm going to stick to -- as far as working out, I've been doing it for a couple of years. The fact that you can do it, you know, for four or five weeks solid, that's probably going to benefit me both health-wise and come probably September next year. But I am going home to Australia for Christmas, which I do normally every year. I'll probably work with my coach down there just because I've had a few weeks off now. I've just got the matches in December, so I feel I'll be ready to, you know, put in a few hard weeks' work there. I can still afford to come back over to the States in January and still have a couple of relaxing weeks off, then get back into it, as well. I'll have a few weeks over here practicing, then I'll head back to Australia again, work with my coach for a week or so, play the Australian tournaments in February.

KARRIE WEBB: No, we're definitely very spoiled this week from start to finish. I mean, everything, obviously from the hotel to the courtesy cars, just the food that we get at lunch. I mean, we get white linen napkins, a menu to pick from. I mean, not that our food is bad from week to week, but we don't get this spoiled too often. You know, this tournament is already a reward for good golf. The fact that he has made it that little bit more special is even more of a reward. The girls have talked about Malago. I haven't heard much about it until early last week, and some of the dress codes that normally occur there. They won't know what hit them when the LPGA turns up (laughter). No, I think everyone feels very comfortable there, are enjoying it.

KARRIE WEBB: I mean, it just really it's an up-and-down thing. I think it's just what people want to write about from week to week and talk about from week to week. I think, you know, I'm so used to being like compared to someone else's year that it doesn't really bother me anymore. I just go about and do my own thing, be satisfied with the stuff that I've been achieving.

KARRIE WEBB: Not at all. You know, I think you've even heard Tiger talk, you know, it's a year that you don't repeat every year. It's one of those years that most people don't even have in their career, and I've had one. I've got plenty of years to go to see if I can do it again. I think it's too hard to compare every year to that year because if I ever beat that year, it will be something that I'll find very hard to believe. The fact that, you know, at the start of this year I looked at certain things that I wanted to achieve. I was really excited about defending the US Open at Pine Needles because I played there in '96 and I really enjoyed the golf course, so that was my first US Open. I wasn't mature enough to understand what it took to play well in the US Open. But I remember the course. I knew it was going to set up well for me if I came in there with a good game. So I was excited about that. Hopefully I wanted to defend that. You know, then McDonald's, I knew at the start of the year I had a chance to complete the career Grand Slam. I wanted to try and think of all the good things about Dupont Country Club, not all the bad, go in there with a good frame of mind. Obviously, winning the US Open a couple weeks earlier really helped me get off to a good start in that tournament. I played well through the weekend, achieved that. Those are the only two tournaments I looked at at the start of the year as really important for me to play well in - not necessarily to win, but play well and give myself a chance to win. I did that. After June, it was hard for me to really focus on what I wanted to achieve. I mean, I went out and tried my best every week, but the two tournaments I wanted to play well in, I'd already done that. I just found it a little hard to focus on being really up to play every tournament.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, this one at the end.

KARRIE WEBB: No, it's not one of the reasons why I'm living here. I'm living here because it's the exact same climate that I grew up in in Australia. I love to fish. I wanted to live on the water. It had nothing to do with golf, trust me (laughter). As far as no Florida tournaments, it is a little disappointing because I think this is one of the -- the state is one of the golf meccas of the country. I know this is just going to be an odd year for that. I don't think Florida is going to be without a Florida swing in years to come. I just think this is just the way the scheduling worked out and a few companies that had a little financial trouble. It was I think coincidence that all those tournaments were in Florida. As far as the shrinking of the schedule, I think it is a double-edged sword because most people that aren't on this tour would look at that negatively, pick the negatives out of that, how the LPGA is not growing, here losing tournaments, not replacing them. I think as a top player myself on this tour, there's a lot of pressure for us to play in every event. We can't possibly do that. We're still playing for the same amount of money next year, just fewer tournaments. We probably will pick up a few more over the years. Right now I think it's good for our tour, we're going to keep the sponsors and tournament directors of other tournaments happier because they're going to get a better quality field than some of the smaller events that haven't been getting that. I just think -- I don't know. I don't really see it as a negative. I think in all sports, you're not going to see as fast a growth as you've seen in the last five to ten years. I think it's got to slow down.

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah. There's too many -- some of those like baseball, basketball, there's going to come a time when an owner can't afford to pay those salaries. The salaries of those guys are going way up. Their percentage increases more than inflation. It's not something -- I think you'll see a cooling-off period on the PGA TOUR, Senior Tour. I don't think you're going to see the PGA TOUR jump in prize money in huge amounts in the next three to five years. I think it will probably level off a little bit. I don't see companies having that money to spend as much as they did in the mid-'90s when everything was growing.

KARRIE WEBB: I think once I came back from Australia, I talked about it a lot the day I won McDonald's. That's about all I've talked about it. As far as my golf, I don't think that it's affected me that much. I mean, it's part of my life now. That's all I really want to say about it.

KARRIE WEBB: I think it's a fantastic year. I'm happy for her because she's really, really put in a lot of hard work. It's paid off for her. A lot of us have put in a lot of hard work, and some of us aren't as fortunate as others. You know, she really wanted to be the best. She went out and did it. I mean, I'm happy for anyone that puts in that amount of work and does what she's done this year. I mean, I don't know what money is this week, but she'll probably be the first person to go over $2 million, which is a mark in the LPGA history. To me that's just a sign of how much the LPGA is growing, too, the fact that a woman on the LPGA is going to earn $2 million in a season. That's a credit to her, too, because she's won eight times. She's just played consistently well through the whole year. She really hasn't had too much of a down period at all. You know, I think it's great. I mean, I think when she shot 59, it brought more attention to the LPGA, just what she's been doing all year has brought more attention to our tour.

KARRIE WEBB: I don't know what's in store for Annika. She doesn't know what's in store for her either. I think she's going to work just as hard as she -- next year as she did this year. It's just the way tournaments fall. She could have just as good a year statistically and not have as successful a year. It's just the way golf is. I think she could win ten tournaments next year, but she could only win two, she might win none. She's not going to try any less -- she's not going to be less determined next year, I don't think. I can tell you now, I will eat my hat if she wins eight tournaments every year from now on. I knew I wasn't going to do it. I'm pretty sure she's not counting on winning eight tournaments. As much as she'd like to win eight tournaments every year, I know she's probably not counting on it either.

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, I'd have to say the US Open was very special because it's the best golf I played all year. Even though McDonald's was the career Grand Slam, I think the US Open is always the biggest tournament to me. If I had to choose out of the two which one I would have wanted to win this year, it would have been the US Open. The fact that I got my game into peak shape at the right time, I was really focused for that tournament, ended up winning it, that's really special to me.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, I could say she should just hang up the clubs for a couple months, then just come back fresh (laughter). I wouldn't do that either, no. I don't know. Just to keep doing what she's doing. There's going to come a time where she's going to need to take a break because I think she's got to be exhausted. I know I was at the end of last year. I think it definitely caught up with me early in the year this year. I think she's fortunate that the tour doesn't start till February. She has a little bit of time off. But she knows she -- she doesn't need any advice from me. She knows what she's doing.

KARRIE WEBB: You're right there. I think I really wanted to have my game ready for the majors. I wouldn't mind it being good for the whole year like I've had the last couple years, but more importantly to me was, you know, I contended in every major. I had a chance to win every major this year. That was really important to me to do.

KARRIE WEBB: Not really. It involves just a little bit of good timing, a little bit of luck to get everything to come together at once. Even though Annika wasn't ready for the US Open, she was ready for Nabisco, and she won that. I think that her start to the year, it probably didn't take her by surprise by any means, but to win as many tournaments as she did early, just to be in contention that many times and then win takes a lot out of you. She was there every week at the start of the year with a chance to win. By June, you know, she either was going to have it or she wasn't. I mean, it wasn't going to be in between. Mentally she had to be pretty tired by June. That's why I give her a lot of credit for finishing the year off as well as she has. I got off to a good start last year, as well. That middle part for me, by June, I was tired. The US Open that year wasn't till July. I had that time to get ready for The Open, whereas The Open would have come so quick to her. The start of her year was such a whirlwind that at the end of May, here is The Open, have to be ready to play The Open. If she probably would have been more ready for The Open if it had been in July, as I was the year before.