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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 1, 2004

Patricia Meunier-Lebouc

SOUTH HADLEY, MASSACHUSETTS

RHONDA GLENN: Patricia Meunier-Lebouc is here, she finished 4-under par, after a double bogey on the 12th. You heard she had five birdies coming in, including 4 on the last four holes. Patricia, we got the birdies and bogeys out on the flash area, and we do have transcripts for you. You're a new mother, and this is a great way to start out the biggest championship in the world. How does that work out, the baby is here, and you're just kind of coming back this year.

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Oh, yeah, I am. I would think it's also, why I'm not putting too much pressure at the moment on myself. I try to, because I always want to work good and do too much sometimes, but right now I'm really trying to work on my game, but at the same time I can't expect too much from myself, so I'm very -- I think I do it the right way, I don't put too much pressure on myself, and that really helps on a sort of golf course like that. I just think it's -- it should be always that way, you know, I should always play and don't put too much pressure on myself. And whatever -- whatever it is, it's the best way to play golf, I think, because actually I'm enjoying myself so much. It's wonderful to be feeling that.

RHONDA GLENN: How does the baby fit into all of this?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Well, I have a little time for her during the tournament week, but not so much, but I'm very lucky, because I'm traveling with my husband and my mother. So I think my mother or mother, in general term, is the best person to take care of a child while you are work, and even more traveling. It's kind of tough to travel with a baby. But, you know, I have my mother and my husband, I just have the best conditions out here to be playing -- I'm very relaxed out there and I don't have to bother about, is she okay. So -- and I think it's a great experience, too. When I decided to have a baby out here, I knew -- I wanted to keep playing after I had the baby. And that's what I did pretty early. And I knew why, like today, I know why I did that because it's tough, it's tough on you, because pregnancy is tough on your body. I don't have much time to do anything for myself. But there's so much more with a baby, things you enjoy. And actually I don't have to care about little things I was before. So I just -- we have to find a way to make it work. So you just let it go more. You just don't bother too much. You can't. You can't spend that energy on top of taking care of the baby. It's a very interesting experience.

Q. How much has your golfing routine changed with your mother and your husband here? Has it changed your practice routine or are you able to do basically what you used to do before or how much have you cut back?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I did cut back, that's the whole point, because I think when I started, of course, I was not able to practice much, I was too tired, I was starting to work out again, but it's hard on you. And when I started to feel better after like 3, 4 tournaments I played, I started to do more and feel like, oh, I'm back almost to normal. And I did too much, which was still not what I was used to do. But it takes a while to figure out. And I just realized that I just need to do whatever is good for me. If I feel good doing less, but what I'm going to do is going to be efficient. I'm really going to be ail to work on what I need and that's it. Like before, because I had so much time, I was practicing a lot. And sometime my decision were getting too long, almost. And now I realize I don't have that time anyway, and I'm getting too tired. So I really have to make it the shortest I can to make me feel like I work enough and -- but I just focus on the very essentials, I mean.

Q. What do you do now compared to what you used to? Do you do 45 minutes as compared to an hour and a half?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I don't have that such a routine like I was doing, but I'm doing the same in the morning, because I need to warm up, so I'm working out a little bit in the morning to wake up, I would say. I really need that. And then I still do an hour and 15 minutes before I tee off, practicing. And it's more after that, like, let's say, last week, on Saturday I just -- I was so tired I just said, "You know what?" I was supposed to practice a little bit and I said, "You know what? I'm going to go back and I'm going to relax." I was too tired thinking about the next day and the week coming this week. And I played good the next day. Sometimes it's just -- and that's not me. I would just feel bad about just not going to practice. But I have to change that in my mind because things are very different now. I have a baby and I'm just too tired to do more than that. But it works. Because then the days I really need to work and I feel like I have enough energy to work, I really use that energy to work efficiently. I really work well. Like yesterday I had a very good practice session. I played nine holes in the morning and then I had -- I knew I wanted to stop at 1:00 in the afternoon, I was done, so I knew I had an hour -- two hours to work on my golf game. So getting out on the course I said, "I feel like putting", I know what I need to work on, so we worked together, with my husband, I said, "What do you think about doing the short game?" They have a good short game area out here, and not hitting balls. And he said, "Perfect for you." Because I was hitting the ball well enough, and the short game is well for me, and then I don't get too tired. So I did an hour and a half of short game after putting, and it was -- I had such fun. I was not getting tired and I was having fun. Instead of going out on the range and hitting balls and maybe -- it's just always a question of knowing yourself and for me it's knowing myself to do whatever I feel like. If I feel like I don't want to practice because it's going to take too much energy, and I'm not going to get anything good out of it, then I don't. And if I feel like what I want to spend an hour and a half on the short game and I don't hit balls, I do it now. Before I would -- long time ago I would have, you know, I need to do a half an hour of putt, an hour on the range or two and chipping, you know? So that's the way I was thinking that I had to do it. But now I don't. I just really -- it allows me more to do whatever I feel like. I don't have that much energy to do anything else.

Q. Approximately when did you put your clubs away, when was the baby born, and when did you first pick up a club again?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I was still hitting balls five days before I had the baby. And then 10 days before I had the baby I was still playing nine holes.

RHONDA GLENN: When was the baby born?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: February 9th. Basically I feel like I've not really stopped, because as I said, I really wanted my -- my goal was to go back on Tour as soon as I could, as I felt was good for me. And so even when I stopped from the five days before I had the baby until four weeks after --

Q. Four weeks after?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yeah, about. I needed time. I might have chipped like three or four weeks after I had the baby. And I started to hit balls at the Nabisco, I didn't play, but I was there, I started there, it was six weeks after the baby was born. I also needed time to rest and enjoy the baby.

RHONDA GLENN: What was your first tournament back?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Atlanta, Chick-fil-A.

RHONDA GLENN: When was that?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I think the baby was ten weeks old. I think so, ten weeks after.

RHONDA GLENN: April.

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I don't remember the day.

Q. What kind of shots does one work on when one is 8 months, two weeks, and six days pregnant or something like that?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I was big, but I can tell you, I've been so surprised. I could hit it, not far -- that's the only thing about it. I was so short compared to what I'm used to. But the feelings are incredible. I was able to have such a good touch, not for chipping, not for putting, I can tell you, that was impossible, I couldn't get it. But driving was the best, the best feeling I had was driving the ball. It was unbelievable. I just figured out I had to turn a lot to get my belly out of the way. And you know for the swing you need to be stable and turn first all together and then my arms, where I was finishing my rotation, and I was the best. It was so good for the swing, I was all together, a great reason, because I couldn't go too fast. And I really hit the ball with such a good touch until the end. I really was.

Q. I should try that.

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yeah.

Q. I wanted to ask you about last year -- I'm sorry, when you won the Nabisco, which was a great win and a great major for you. Then you got pregnant. You played the Solheim Cup pregnant, about seven months or so. You win a Major, and then I'm sure there might have been some people in this country, saying who exactly is this that just won the Major, because you didn't have a big build-up over here. How excited are you to get back and maybe prove that, "That was one Major and I'm capable of winning a lot more."

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I'm actually not thinking too much about that. I'm not coming back to prove anything, not even to myself. I'm just trying to build a family at the same time as I'm working hard and making a good living and enjoying myself, having fun with my family, my husband, more or less, that's already enough for me. I've been out playing professional golf for quite a while now. I turned pro in '94. And I think I've been through everything, every kind of my trying to prove, trying to do this or not or not do. And I'm really now, the way to play, like today, I can tell you I just -- why I made this putt, it's the U.S. Open, but it's first, I'm here, I am enjoying being here, hitting every single shot. And it's more for me the relationship with what I'm doing, my attitude on the golf course and enjoying what I'm doing here. I'm here to play golf and improve, because that's what it is all about for me. I'm just wanting to know about having a baby out on the Tour and knowing the way I am, I have pretty strong determination and, I mean, I like to do what I focus on. So I'm expecting quite a lot of myself, usually. And getting most of this, the baby, and it doesn't allow you to work as much on your game, knowing how I would manage.

Q. Did you used to have a temper before you got pregnant?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: No, not that I show, you know. I am not going to throw a club, not that kind of temper. I just have a strong inside, have -- I think I have kind of fire, but it's inside. It's not something that -- I'm not going to get crazy on the golf course, it's more inside. When I really want something and everything is set up the right way and I'm going there, I can tell you I just can get there any way. Now I'm trying to get there, but not any way, you know, just first the nice way, the way I want to be, just relaxed, enjoying myself. And then today, being like that, and making that score is great, because I've been used to, in my early years, as a professional, I've been used to make it happen, but a tough way, like I would get a lot of tension in my body, I would focus, but a lot of tension, I would say, the easiest way to explain things. Now I'm more relaxed and able to go there, but with playing more with the ball, playing more the game before anything else.

RHONDA GLENN: Patricia, thank you very much for joining us.

End of FastScripts.

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