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SHOPRITE LPGA CLASSIC PRESENTED BY ACERMay 28, 2015Juli InksterGALLOWAY, NEW JERSEY Q. Hi, Juli. I've been here longer than forever. JULI INKSTER: You and me both. I'm right there with you. Q. I covered you first too. JULI INKSTER: Yeah. We're still here. We're still up right. That's a good thing. Q. Great to see you, though. Great to see you still playing. My gosh. JULI INKSTER: Thanks. Appreciate it. Q. Still playing well, too. JULI INKSTER: Yeah. I've been playing pretty good. Had a few weeks off, so we'll see how it keeps up. Q. How much do you practice when you are off? JULI INKSTER: Well, you know, I've had a couple with this Fox deal thing, so I haven't been able to practice that much. Last week I put some time in, though, so hopefully be ready to go. Q. What was that experience like, the Fox thing? JULI INKSTER: It's good. We're all new, so we're all trying to get our feet wet. Poor Mark Loomis. He has an expansion team. But you know, I think we're going to be okay. We'll be good. Q. What's the learning experience like? I know you did some Golf Channel stuff last year, but a little different role, too, with being an analyst? JULI INKSTER: Yeah. Thing like with golf, people coach you, and out there no one's really coaching you. You gotta kind of try to figure it out by yourself. I'm trying to figure out a lot of stuff. Q. How has your game been this year? I noticed you had a tied for seventh in your start down in Dallas. JULI INKSTER: Yeah. It's been pretty good. I feel like my swing's pretty good. I've been working with a new guy and he's really helped me and my short game's been pretty good. So for me it's just, you know, the concentration and the mental part of it playing. You know, the grinding. Q. You said you've gained some distance, too, with the swing changes? JULI INKSTER: Yeah. Driver, I'm a little better, and my irons I'm a little better, because I'm hitting it a little more solid. But yeah, so it's been good. I mean it's‑‑ you know, I love the game and I love to tweak and work at it. So it's all good. Q. Is that what keeps you going? I mean still tinkering with the swing, still out there? JULI INKSTER: Yeah. I mean I just‑‑ I like to compete. I like to play. You know, I always‑‑ you know, it's never a job for me. You know, it's fun. It's my passion. It's what I love to do. You know, my golf clubs don't know how old I am, so I just pick them up and play. Q. How are you able‑‑ you're playing at such a high level. I mean we won't say how old you are. We know. JULI INKSTER: Yeah. Q. We know, but how do you manage to put in the time to keep that game right there? JULI INKSTER: I don't know. I just‑‑ you know, I think raising two kids on the road, and you know, I'm really good at time management. I'm really good at, you know, budgeting my time. I don't like to sit around. I like to keep busy. I like to do stuff. And so if I've got an hour or two hours or whatever, I go out and practice or go up and play, right after lunch, or before lunch, of course. I always make sure I get lunch in there. So I mean I've always just been one to just‑‑ I just don't like to sit around. Q. What are you going to do if you qualify for your own team? JULI INKSTER: (Laughs). Yeah, that won't happen. (Laughs). I got enough on my plate. I don't need to play, too. That's for sure. Q. I know you love playing so much, but is it a little different when you're commentating? Is it tough not to be out there playing? JULI INKSTER: You know, I thought it would be, but it's not. I'm so involved in what I'm trying to do, it's like my golfing brain turns off and now I'm trying to think‑‑ because when I'm out there, you know, I'm thinking about the golf shots. I'm not really talking the golf shots. So now when I'm doing Fox, you know, I gotta talk the golf shot, so I gotta‑‑ I don't even think about playing. So it's‑‑ I was kind of surprised that it doesn't bug me. Q. What about that line, you know, when Johnny Miller first started some players got out. What about that line of being critical when you have a friend out there? JULI INKSTER: Yeah. I'm not really a critical person. That's going to be hard for me. I mean I'll tell it when‑‑ I'll say that was not one of their greater shots, but I'm not going to say, you know, the only way she's going to miss this green if she chokes, you know. That's just not my style. You know, I gotta find my own niche. I can't be like somebody else. And you know, hopefully I'll find that. Still searching for that niche. Q. U.S. players have kind of turned it around recently for the Solheim Cup. JULI INKSTER: Yeah. Q. Gotta be feeling pretty good about the way Morgan is playing, Lexi, Alison Lee making an approach. JULI INKSTER: Yeah. Paula had a great week last week, or Kingsmill week. You know, and my steady ones are always up there. So it's good. The team's kind of shaping up. You know, the 10 or 10 through 15, you know, they're stressing. I can see it. They're pushing. But it's just part of the deal when, you know, you're trying to make a team is I think sometimes you put a little more pressure on yourself than you need to, but I've been in that situation, and you know, every point, every round's critical. But my team, I really like the way they're playing. I really like their attitudes and how they're getting ready for it, how they're preparing and kind of the plan we've got going. So it's good. Q. There's so many good, young players, and it seems like they come and they're successful right away. JULI INKSTER: Yeah. Q. Where are they coming from? What's your take on it? And there's no adjustment. Like sometimes in baseball, football, guys sort of have a rookie, you know, period where they have to adjust. These players seem to be coming in now and like Brooke's third. JULI INKSTER: Yeah. Well, I mean these girls, even though they're 17 and 18 years old, I mean they've been playing really competitive golf since they were 12, 13. I mean big‑time competitive golf, you know. And you know, they have the best video cameras, the best teachers, you know, the best‑‑ they play against the best competition. I mean really it's like playing, you know, six or seven years of college golf. You know, they're just playing really high‑level competition. And you know, they develop their games. You know, they work in the gym. You know, so when they get out here, I mean they're ready to go. I mean it's just hitting the golf ball. You really don't have to learn how to hit a curve or learn how they're going to pitch hit. It's really just your game against the course. So you know, they're just ready to go. Q. Your schedule, given the Solheim Cup responsibilities, have you cut it back this year? JULI INKSTER: Yeah. I think I'm going to play 10. I think I'll get 10 in this year, and then I'll do like 7 for Fox, and then the Solheim Cup. Q. Do your Fox responsibilities start at the U.S. Open in Chambers Bay or‑‑ JULI INKSTER: I've done two four‑ball. I did the‑‑ Q. I should have watched. JULI INKSTER: Yeah, you should have, yeah. (Laughs). You're the only person that didn't. No, I'm just kidding. Q. And Morgan is doing a little commentating for them, too? JULI INKSTER: Morgan and Natalie. Morgan is going to be doing Chambers Bay, and Natalie is going to be doing Chambers Bay and the senior at Del Paso. But I'm the only one doing the women's open, and then I'll do the Women's Amateur, and so three, five, six. Yeah, and then the Franklin Templeton Shark Shootout. Q. I hate to go back in time, but you won the two years in '86 and '88. In immediate years past we would ask you about‑‑ you kept talking about having children and you weren't sure how it was going to work, you playing and raising them. How has it turned out? JULI INKSTER: It's turned out great. I mean I got a 25 and 21‑year‑old. They're doing great. One's in her final year at Villanova, and one has graduated and working. So you know, they love to travel. They're great kids, and I'm drinking with them, which is a lot better than‑‑ Q. I see that on your Instagram. There's a lot of wine on your Instagram. JULI INKSTER: Oh, my God. Unbelievable. Q. I'm thinking, how is she still playing. There's wine bottles all over the place. JULI INKSTER: It's hard keeping up with them. I have to say my alcohol game is good now, because I've been with them, and a lot of practice. Q. They're in prime shape there. JULI INKSTER: Yeah, in prime shape. Hey, mom, you want to get a glass of wine. I'm like, all right. I'll meet you. But it's fun. It's a lot of fun. I look back on it and I don't know how I did it, but it's turned out really good. Q. What was your chief apprehension going out with your young children and how did you alleviate that? JULI INKSTER: Well, I mean the hardest part I had was more mental, because you know, my mom was a stay‑at‑home mom, and I'm traveling around week to week with kids, and you know, they're sleeping in bathrooms. They're sleeping in closets. You know, anywhere it was dark, you know. But I kind of realized‑‑ and it took me a long time to realize it, as long as they're with you, they don't really care‑‑ they don't know any different. Because I remember when Hayley started kindergarten and they asked how many people had been on an airplane, and you know, like only a handful raised their hand. She couldn't believe it. She goes, mom‑‑ once I kind of figured that out‑‑ I mean it was a lot of work, but you know, mentally I was a lot better. I started playing better golf, too. Q. If you charged every time someone asked you advice on how to combine golf with kids, how rich would you be? JULI INKSTER: A lot richer than I am now. But you know what, I didn't really have a guide book to it and anybody that asks me I'm more than happy. It's not that I have all the answers, but I've been through it and kind of know what they're going through. Q. Was there a time like in the 90s after they were born where you were thinking like‑‑ and you weren't really successful on the course? JULI INKSTER: Oh, yeah. Because I felt like I wasn't being a good mom, I wasn't playing good golf, like why am I doing this. But you know, I decided after I had Cori in '94, I would just give it one more shot, and I started working with Mike McGetrick, and he really helped my game, and you know, I kind of felt like there was light at the end of the tunnel. So I kept after it, and then, you know, I had my best years after that. Q. You were the first person, I think, to come here for media day before this tournament even started. Now it's‑‑ we've had the three‑year break, but it's been here 27 years. The tour's been through a lot of ups and downs. Just how good is it to sort of see this event sort of? JULI INKSTER: Stay. Yeah. All the girls really love this tournament because you can stay right here. You know, the golf course is‑‑ it just changes day to day, and you know, where they have wind, you don't have wind. I mean I love the longevity of it, and you know, it's like I was‑‑ I came here for press day before they even had it. Ruthie and Larry Harrison. Q. Right. Right. JULI INKSTER: Yeah. And but you know what, it's great. It's great that it's continued, and I think it's just a great area for us to be. Q. Have you been to Villanova much? JULI INKSTER: I have, yeah. Q. What do you think of it? JULI INKSTER: I love it. It's a great spot. It's just a great area, and she loves it. So it's good for her. Q. What's her major? JULI INKSTER: Business marketing and international business. Q. What made her decide to go there all the way from California? JULI INKSTER: Well, me traveling, she wanted to try back east. She loved back east, and I had a really good friend in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and she got in. And I was surprised she picked it because she got in some Northern California schools where all of her friends were going, and I thought she would just pick that. And she decided to give it a shot. Q. You still keep in touch with that woman from Malvern. JULI INKSTER: Yeah. Tracey. Yeah, yeah. Q. That's amazing. JULI INKSTER: Yeah, I know. She's one of my best friends. She's coming here. So yeah. Q. How do you handle that cross‑country, having your kid on the other side of the country? JULI INKSTER: Yeah, I mean it's hard, but you know, I travel a lot, so I get out there a lot. And she comes home‑‑ she's working‑‑ she's actually working for‑‑ she's interning for the New York Giants this summer. So she's having a great time and living in the city. She's coming up this weekend. Q. This is her senior year she's going into? JULI INKSTER: Yeah. Uh‑huh. Yeah. So I mean, I have one that went 15 minutes away and then one that went five hours by plane. You know, I got a home body. And Cori, my youngest did the abroad thing in London last semester. She just likes‑‑ she's adventurous, which is good. I mean if you're going to do it, it's the time to do it now. Q. Right. Right. JULI INKSTER: You know, where you don't have any responsibilities and just worrying about yourself. Q. That's great. JULI INKSTER: All right? Q. Thank you. JULI INKSTER: Thanks, yeah. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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