U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

May 29, 1996

Karrie Webb

KARRIE WEBB: It's a fantastic feeling to be here. On Monday I just chipped and putted around the green. And just the atmosphere around the clubhouse, it was unbelievable. And then yesterday I played the course and I really enjoyed it. It's a great course, and I'm excited. I can't wait to play on Thursday.

KARRIE WEBB: Electric, I think. Just to have people out here in practice rounds to watch us play practice rounds. I don't understand what people get out of watching practice rounds. It's good to have people out here every day.

KARRIE WEBB: I think it's definitely set up for the longer hitters. I think I was hitting a fair amount of long to mid irons yesterday. But I think it's a fair course. If the pin positions aren't set too tough, then it's not going to be that -- the greens are forgiving enough that you can get up and down. You can miss them in certain spots that are going to be tough to get up and down, but the majority of the places around the green are quite fair. And I know by Thursday that the greens are going to be a bit faster than what they are now. But they're rolling true. I love putting on fast greens, so I'm really looking forward to it.

KARRIE WEBB: Definitely. Well, the wind comes up, it's going to be tough because the greens will dry out a lot, and they'll make it a lot faster as well. And approach shots coming into the green aren't going to hold as well. But at the moment with the rain that we've had the greens are holding very well. It's not that much of a problem to hit a 5 or 6-iron in, it holds the greens quite well. But if the greens firm up, it's going to be a lot more difficult, I think.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, it's definitely been a great year, and it's something that I never expected to happen to me so early on in my career. But I don't think anything's really changed except I have to deal with different things that a lot of the rookies I don't think have had to deal with much. I've had to learn to organize myself a bit better than what I normally am. But I'm really enjoying it and I've been welcomed by all the LPGA players. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the year.

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, I try not to think about it too much, because I am definitely very excited and nervous about playing my first Open. I try not to think about teeing off on the first tee until I actually have to, because that's going to be nervous enough for me as it is. At the moment I'm just trying to -- I play the course once more today and fine tune my game for Thursday.

KARRIE WEBB: It's been great. I don't think the media have really taken to women's golf since Jan Stevenson. Jan Stevenson was well-known in Australia. And I think since then there hasn't been that much press. It's definitely good for me that the media have been so good to me, but also to Australian women's golf. We only have two tournaments in Australia, and it would be great to get a few more at the end of the year.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, I don't know. I really don't sit down at the start of the week and look at who the favorites are. Everyone in the field has a chance to win. I have to go out there and play my game, and if I have a chance to win whoever is ahead of me.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, I think definitely longer hitters are going to be at an advantage this week. People that have the 9-woods and the 7-woods, because they're going to be coming in a lot higher. So I think players that -- well, definitely players that hit the ball straight, as well, because the rough, it doesn't look that long, but once you get in it, it's hard to hit a long iron out. That's why I think people like Laurie Norman, I can't think of who else has a lot of woods in their bags, but people that have a lot of woods in their bags will be easier for hit shots out of the rough. I only have 3 woods, so I'm going to have to make sure that I keep it on the fairway.

KARRIE WEBB: In a way it did, because I sort of tried to -- I tried to do sort of what Annika did, because she won Rookie of the Year in Europe, and that was my goal last year, and she won Rookie of the Year over here, also. But I don't know about the Player of the Year thing. But Annika had a great year last year, and she's a tremendous player, and I'm looking forward to playing with her tomorrow.

KARRIE WEBB: A million percent better than what I thought I was going to do.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, I just wanted to try to win Rookie of the Year, and there's a lot of good rookies out here this year. And I knew that would be a tough race, but I just got off to such a great start that it jolted me a bit. I really only wanted to try to finish in the top 40 with the Order of Merit. Right now I think I could stop playing and I would finish in the top-10 or 15. So it's just -- I'm not -- really don't have any other goals for the rest of the year, I'm just going to try to play every tournament and see what happens.

KARRIE WEBB: Greg and I are pretty good friends. Well, I've known him since '92, I think it was. And he's such a great guy. He's been my idol my whole life. And to be friends with your idol is probably something that very few people have been able to have. But he's very supportive of me and he's always -- I've read a lot of articles where he's been interviewed about me, and he's always encouraging. He's a great guy. He's really good for the game of golf.

KARRIE WEBB: I actually haven't spoken to him. I really -- I was so down for him, myself, I really -- I didn't know what to say to him. I didn't know if I could find the words that could be encouraging and not hurt him at the same time. So I haven't spoken to him since.

KARRIE WEBB: No. The last time I spoke to him was the week before the Masters. And I saw him at the Masters on the Saturday, but only briefly, and he was just congratulating me on my year. That was the last time I've spoken to him.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, women's golf in Australia wasn't very big when I was growing up, except for Jan Stevenson. We never heard of any of the LPGA players until probably the start of the 90's when Australia started getting a few tournaments and players like Jane Geddes was coming over. And that's when the Australian golf magazines started putting results in the magazines or in the papers and you just got to see the names, and rarely you got to see photos of the players. So up until probably two or three years ago I didn't know what some of the players looked like. So I haven't really had a female idol to look up to. I know what Nancy Lopez and Beth Daniel and all the famous ones have done, but I've never looked up to anyone like that. I look up to all of them now, but I've never grown up looking up to them.

KARRIE WEBB: I went home for a couple of weeks after the Healthsouth in January. And I've been over here since the Hawaiian Open.

KARRIE WEBB: That was a great feeling. The whole -- well, the whole tournament I played great golf. And the last day I knew that I had to shoot, I thought, a 67 to have a chance. And as it was I had to shoot 66 and it's probably the best round of golf I've ever played under the pressure and the circumstances. Then to make that birdie on the last hole when I had to is something I think about all the time. I really couldn't believe I hit the shot and got up and down with a birdie.

KARRIE WEBB: I wouldn't say overwhelmed. My agent has been with me since I started, since I've turned professional, so he sort of handled things, and I haven't had too many hastles like that to worry about.

KARRIE WEBB: It's definitely quite a bit easier than Europe. Last year we drove to a lot of tournaments on the continent and flew to a lot of other ones we couldn't drive to. The travel over here is much easier with the aspect that everything is in English, the food is the same and the currency and things like that. I haven't found adjusting to this very hard at all. And I can't understand why girls that live on the west coast can't go home more often, because they think that flying for 6 hours is too far.

KARRIE WEBB: Annika and Kelli Kuehne.

KARRIE WEBB: I'm definitely excited about playing with Annika, the defending champion, and I believe Kelli beat a friend of mine, last year in the finals, so I'm really looking forward to it.

KARRIE WEBB: I think I'm -- it's more or less the same. I've probably added one tournament where I wasn't going to play, but other than that everything has stayed the same.