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WENDY'S CHAMPIONSHIP FOR CHILDREN

August 19, 2004

Patricia Meunier-Lebouc

DUBLIN, OHIO

Q. Right now you're two back, great way to start the tournament, right at the top of the leaderboard. Just your thoughts on the day and then we'll take some questions.

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Well, just enjoy myself today. I really played great golf. I could have been more under, but I just had fun, really enjoyed the way I played golf today.

Putting is still notÃ‚Â ‑‑ I'm still not as focused as I should be. Shot a lower score, but I actually think these greens are pretty tough to putt on and feel the speed. Altogether I think I'm good there.

Q. Seems like the wind is not too much of a factor out there. Would you disagree with that? Would you expect scores to be a little lower than they are at this point?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Well, the wind was quite strong. At the end we had a coupleÃ‚Â ‑‑ it makes it tough on holes like 16 and 18. These holes are long. I hit a 4‑iron on 16 with a good drive, and 18 is maybe 3‑iron. I mean, it's not short. Well, not one of the longest ones, but the wind is a factor. Yes, it does.

And holes like 17, downhill, it's really not a deep green and the wind is supposed to be a little bit behind from the left, the trees, you don't really feel it, but it's going to push your ball, so yes, it does affect the game on this course, I think.

Q. Did you get a little bit with your club selection on 10 and 15?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: I picked the right club. I saw it well, and then when I was standing there, I didn't feel the wind because it's hiding behind the trees. You know it's there, but I thought I'd better hit it good, and then it went a little bit long, of course.

It does affect like on the par 5, the 14th, I was standing there and wanting to hit an easy 8, keep it in the wind, like have a three‑quarter shot, and I hit it that way, but it just came up and I was 15 yards short. It really does affect it today, I think.

Q. How has becoming a mom affected you out here? Has it?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Oh, yeah, it really, really does affect my life basically, but in a good way, just not the normalÃ‚Â ‑‑ I'm still not exactly well‑organized. I am not doing bad actually, I'm pretty happy with the way things are going, but I always want to do better, so my goal is to perform at the same level as I was before. I think I've done pretty good since I started to play again with a couple of very good results. I'm still not there, but it doesn't matter. As long as I know I'm on the way and I'm making the right choices and living the new experience with the baby out here on the Tour and getting the information out of it to be able to improve things the way I organize my life around golf with my baby.

You know, it's really different.

Q. Priorities have shifted in a way?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Yeah. Well, you know, I think you canÃ‚Â ‑‑ I don't know yet actually. It's funny because this year is really a year where I want to have as much information as I can out here with the baby. How do I feel, how it's tough to play good golf without practicing as much because I want to spend some time with my baby, so for sure it's not going to be ever the same as it was before, but I'm trying to figure out for next year what really I want, how can I do things, and how do I want to live my golf now and my life.

But I think it's possible to perform at the same level for me. I just don't know if I'll be able to handle the rhythm of it, and I don't know. Just right now it's too early. She's only just about six months, so it's very interesting to see how I react to things.

I feel great today, and I'd almost considerÃ‚Â ‑‑ I'm happily surprised because I didn't practice much the last few weeks, but I have to make it happen another way. It's very interesting. These are things I would have never done without the baby. I would have worked so hard anyways. You can't work as hard for a certain period of time. I still work hard, but I don't have as much time, that's more or less the thing. You don't sleep as much. Everything is so different.

I just want to find the way I want to live my life in the future, but I still want to compete. I'm still into it.

Q. Do you find yourself daydreaming out there or thinking about the baby? Is concentration ever an issue?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Yeah, it is. I'm able toÃ‚Â ‑‑ I'm thinking about my baby, of course, but I'm able to switch from one thing to another, so that's good. About concentration, I lose it very easily. I do, compared to what I'm used to. I do lose it much quicker, much faster. I said that today, like on 17, we started to chat with my father, and it's tougher for me to come back just because I'm tired. That's the simple word. I'm really tired, and it's kind ofÃ‚Â ‑‑ when I didn't have the baby, you organize your work, you know what you're doing, and you don't have toÃ‚Â ‑‑ you focus on yourself. I mean, you just have nothing else to do. It's like this, when you can rest, exactly what you can do or not, and I knew myself.

But now with the baby, even if I want to do things, sometimes I can't because the schedule is changing all the time. It's like, okay, I'm going to do that, and then, no, it's not going to work that way. So you have to be more adaptable, but I think there's still a possibility to make it happen. It's just how much you want to give to make it happen and for how long because I know I'm getting moreÃ‚Â ‑‑ I mean, it's really more tiring than it was before to compete at that level with the baby on the side. I'm learning.

Q. It had to be pretty tiring last year because, what, you were like two months pregnant last year?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: When I finished the season I was six and a half months.

Q. So playing a year ago would have beenÃ‚Â ‑‑

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: I was sick all the way, from two and a half months to six and a half months I had this morning sickness all day long, so that was something else. But I still had only myself to take care of. I wasn't able to go back and rest and sleepÃ‚Â ‑‑ I was exercising without having to lift weights, that's for sure. It's another reason really. I see my friends. You know, I'm always focusing on the best examples, and I have good friendsÃ‚Â ‑‑ mostly Swedish ladies that have babies. They came back and got the right reasons and the right organization and did very well, and I'm more focusing on these girls, and I think they are some of the women, that when they have children, they couldn't play at the same level. I never wanted that because, of course, I want to beÃ‚Â ‑‑ I think my mind is set up like that, the best example or a good example.

I think the most important is to know what you want, and I think I want to compete in golf still. You know, I'm not bored. I still want to make it. I just find it tough at the moment to really make it work like a routine. Things are still not routine. I still need to toy with someÃ‚Â ‑‑ how things work that way, and if that's not working, that's not the way it's going to be. Until I can figure it outÃ‚Â ‑‑ I will find the way I want it to work out and organize it this way to be able toÃ‚Â ‑‑ not to get too many surprises on the way. I want to be having a good life, too, on the side. Stuff is already tough when you don't have babies, and it can get pretty hard on you.

Q. We haven't had a lot of rain here for the last three weeks, and I'm wondering, you looked like you hit a few long clubs into some holes. Are they watering the fairways a little bit?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Well, didn't they have a lot of rain last night?

Q. They didn't have any rain here, though, on the course.

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Oh, really? I think so. They didn't have rain? I'm really surprised.

Q. They said it went north or south of us. We can double‑check, but I think no.

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: It didn't release the same way. I noticed that it was not going. When I played on Tuesday and Wednesday, it was goingÃ‚Â ‑‑ I was seeing a difference, going further and further on the driving distance, and today, I thought that I got caught up a little bit, but I don't know.

Q. You got shorter?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Yeah, not gaining on it. You know, when it's dry out, you feel it's dryer and dryer so you get more roll out of it. I thought they had at least quite a bit of rain yesterday. That's the way I thought. I mean, even the greens were so dry. Usually it gets dryer and dryer if you don't have rain, and I felt like it got wetter than yesterday.

Q. Did you get a little bit out of your concentration there on 17 after you and Laura had the words about her ball?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Yeah, I think I did, but I putted well. I putted there and it didn't break. I just tried to tell myself that was a good putt. It's not like I lost it totally. I was pretty happy about the way I came back in the concentration on that one, but I told myself on 18 after I hit that first putt that I stayed short again, still had the last putt for par, told myself, "you know, there's something there that you have to find out." I feel like right now if I get out of it, okay, now it's time to go back to playing or something, organize the shot. It takes me more energy to go back into it compared to what I am usually, if I'm really fit and ready to go.

I think it's good because the last shot on 18 was a big thing, make that last one, showing me that I was okay, you know. Sometimes I feel like, "oh, I'm losing it," and then it's like, "okay, you're fine, do your thing and it's going to come."

For sure today it was a question of I was telling myself on 18 green that maybe I shouldÃ‚Â ‑‑ I liked the shot, I like the others, I like to share, I like to discuss things, and it would be boring, I guess, if you just played golf. It's so hard already and I like to enjoy and get outside of it, but I have to be careful on how muchÃ‚Â ‑‑ not to get outside of it too much, and that's quite a challenge with myself right now is how much I can get out of it. I'm sure there's a way to challenge it, keep in mind the level of shots you can have and how much you can just concentrate.

Sometimes it's also good because you can't concentrate for 18 holes. That's impossible. But the way you do it is a big difference. You could really lose it by trying to relax and get out of it, and there it could be more difficult to come back. I was scared on 17 thatÃ‚Â ‑‑ I told myself, "no, you putted good. That's the way it is." Finally I hit a good drive and a very good second shot and then made the last one, so that's all the things that I am aware of and that I am noticing. I think I can feel the reason when I walk on the green, when I walked that line for the putt, the first one, I think I was notÃ‚Â ‑‑ I don't know how you would say that in English, but I didn't feel like I was really looking relaxed looking at the putt, knowing exactlyÃ‚Â ‑‑ being conscious of what I was doing. I was kind of doing my routine, but my mind was a little bit away, you know.

Then I hit it short, and it was, like, "I knew it," but you can't stop, and you have to putt it sometimes. Sometimes it would be nice to say, "no, I don't feel it, I'm not putting it."

Q. You said you were surprised by how well you played because you haven't practiced that much. You haven't played since the British Open. What did you do in the two weeks, and did you come in here feeling kind of refreshed?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Well, you know, I was back in Europe, and before I went back to Europe, that was nine months I was away from friends because I live in Florida now, and really our life is there now. We had the baby, so we didn't go back for Christmas because I was too big and didn't want to travel, so my father, my husband's father have never seen the baby. So we went back, and it's been a little bit busy. Seeing the people that you love and you have not seen for so long, and the baby itself, it took all my time. I couldn't even think about practicing.

I did work out actually a little bit, and I think that was a big key. I did like four days in a row in Lyon where my husband's family lives. After the British I stayed ten days in France in Lyon at my husband's parents' house, and for four days in a row I worked out good, and that's what I told myself on the Tour, even though it was a little thing, I really focused on it when I was there, and I really wanted to do it. It took me a lot of energy to do it because I was so much out of working and a routine that I usually needÃ‚Â ‑‑ I need to be focused on that and do it and to be able to do it and really want to do it.

But just four days of working out, not playing golf or anything, and I can feel it today, that even these little things I did were really helpful today, I really did work out on Tuesday after I finished playing and it took me a lot of energy, too, after playing the practice round. It's a long walk on the course. My feet hurt and everything, but I knewÃ‚Â ‑‑ I know sometimes you feel that that's the minimum you should do because I want to compete at a good level. I don't want to just be here to be here.

So even though I don't put too much pressure on myself, on the results itself, but if I'm here I'm going to try to do what I have to do. I'm not going to force myself, but at least I want to do a minimum.

Q. Did you say your husband is from Lion?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Yes.

Q. And the baby, where is the baby while you're playing, just in the nursery?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: That's the first time, too, that I have a week without the baby. Actually we came back Thursday from France and she was sick. I mean, she got a cold, and we did that big trip with the jet‑lag and everything, and we've been home in Florida since Thursday night, and we were supposed to be home Monday. We really didn't feel like we could ask herÃ‚Â ‑‑ she can't speak, but it didn't seem like it was good for her to travel, and my mom was there with us. She was supposed to come here with the baby to watch her, and we said, "well, you know what," she didn't mind to stay home with the baby. We have friends there, so she just stayed home with the baby.

It's kind of one thing in the process. I always hurt so much, I can't leave my baby or stay away from the baby or anything, so I was kind of worried how I would react, but I thought about what was good for the baby, it was good for her to stay home. She was feeling so much better one day after another, and I thought, too, that maybe it was time to try that, to get some information, like I said earlier, and we'd see if it was not a good decision we would not do it again, but also because I was so tired with the travel and everything that maybe it was a good thing, too, to beÃ‚Â ‑‑ to have a normal week out here, you know, be alone with my husband, which was the first time, too. It's fun and I'm enjoying it. I can't say that I don't miss her, but I'm happy. I think it was a good choice. I might do that a few times in a year. I get more choices this way actually.

Q. You need a picture phone.

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Yeah, I do have one. My husband just showed me a picture, but I'm okay with that. I have pictures. Usually it's in my yardage book, but she's in there. I just close my eyes and I see her. I can hear her laughing, and that's good, good enough for a week. I know I'm going to see her again on Monday, and I feel that it was a good choice, so I'm okay right now with it.

Q. Did your husband caddie for you?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: No, he caddied for me a long time ago.

Q. Is he here, though?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Yeah, he's here. He's following me, watching me closely. He knows me so well, we can discuss things. It's good to be able to get the things out of myself. I like to speak. I'm quite able toÃ‚Â ‑‑ I like to speak? Why did I say that (laughter)?

I need to speak what I have inside to be able to find the right direction and how I want to do things, so it's a big help.

Q. Your baby is a boy or girl?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Girl.

Q. Name?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Childine. She's American. It's funny when we travel, we have a French passport and she's got an American one (laughter).

Q. Childine, where does that come from?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: It comes from a very far country, not even in Europe. We used to play a lot of golf in Morocco. I say used to because we're here and we don't have time to go back, and we have friends there that have a daughter called Childine, but that's nine years ago, and that means "little heart" in Berber, which is a dialect from inside the country of Morocco. It means "little heart," and we just called each other this way with my husband, and we thought, "well, if we have a girl one day," and when she was there, we never changed our minds. We called her this way.

Q. What day was she born?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: February 9th.

Q. Do you know Nancy Scranton is carrying twins? Did you know that?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Yeah.

Q. What's she got to look forward to? Can you imagine?

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: Well, when I was thinking about having a baby and when I got pregnant before we knew, we were kind of joking, it would be nice to have twins and then you don't have to bother, twins, one time, then you don't have to do it twice, perfect. But now I say already one is a lot of work, and so for the first timeÃ‚Â ‑‑ I don't know if she has already kids, Nancy.

Q. No.

PATRICIA MEUNIER‑LEBOUC: No, huh? I feel like I'm in a washing machine sometimes and it's churning and I can't stop it sometimes. It's just, "okay, that's the way it has to be."

Twins, no, I can't imagineÃ‚Â ‑‑ I have a friend that's going to have twins, too, and I think it'sÃ‚Â ‑‑ for what I'm doing, and if I want to keep playing golf at this level, I think it's a little bit hard. Like I said, if you have some help, maybe you can make it. That helps, if you have somebody or even two people if you have twins.

End of FastScripts.

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