THE SOLHEIM CUP

September 9, 2003

Patricia Meunier-Lebouc

Q. How are you feeling?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Okay.

Q. It was your first long walk for a while.

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: But it was nice. I've been very happy. I won the match. So it was fun.

Q. Who were you playing with?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I played with Sue Pettersen.

Q. Against?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Against Sophie and Iben. It was fun to be out there and getting the rhythm again. For me it's been a few weeks now. I've been disappointed not to go every week. That's good actually because then I got rested for this week. I just need to practice maybe a little bit more and play again tomorrow and the day after and I'll be fine.

Q. You're saying your best for the big one?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yeah. Have to.

Q. How are you finding the pregnancy affecting your swing?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Oh, it does affect it a lot. But I played with Carin yesterday and she gave me some very, very good advice. That helped me so much. I just found out what was wrong because I was not -- I was losing a lot of distance, and that was not fun at all. She just told me what she saw and why because of the pregnancy. She just explained to me. It made so much sense. I just worked on it and today I hit really, really good shots. I was playing with the three longest players on our team. So I was maybe 40 or 50 yards behind them. They hit the ball like crazy. It's no fun, but I hit it very steady. I was very happy.

Q. Being the Solheim Cup, do you think she should give these tips to you?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I said to everybody, because it's pretty nice out here, you don't hesitate a second. You just give any tips you can to your partners. That's the best part about the Solheim. That's why it's so exciting, because you don't keep everything for yourself. You can't do it. It's great. It's a good experience to give, really give to the others. It's a lot of fun really. It's very different from a normal tournament. It takes a while to get in the regime of the Solheim. We are all together. But at the same time you're so used to doing your own stuff. It takes a while to get really into it and share with the others. We're going to get there. It's very normal like we always do in Europe. We always have a good spirit on the team. It's not going to change this time. That's for sure.

Q. How many matches do you think you'll be able to play?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Today I think I will play once a day max. There's no point for me, I think, to think about playing 36 holes on this course in this condition with this wind and from what I've been through the last few weeks. I would love to, but that's just the facts. I just have to deal with it. I think once a day would be -- I couldn't play twice. I don't think it would be good. I don't think I could keep my attention so long. I think it's better for me to focus on 18 holes and really give everything for one match than try to play two and give half of it. Today that's how I feel but you never know.

Q. Do you feel like playing now? You stopped being sick?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I still do. Like yesterday morning I was not so good waking up, but this morning I managed much better. And on the course -- I was good in the morning. And then on the course I started to be a little bit dizzy. But I managed. I've been used to be like that for two and a half months now. At the British I dealt with it pretty well. And the weeks before, Evian, everywhere. It's just a question of knowing what you can do at that time and what you need. So I need to eat something and of course drink a lot so I feel like I'm eating a lot. I don't actually eat a lot of things, but like small portions, I have to eat pretty often. That's what I deal with, simple nausea. It's just no big deal for me now. It's part of my life.

Q. Was there any time over the last few weeks that you thought that you might have to pull out?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yeah. Of course.

Q. When did you decide to come?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: To come? What happened is I had two tough weekends where I was pretty sick. The last weekend I was bad on a Saturday was just -- the weekend, not the weekend before the Solheim, but the weekend before that. But it was not that far from the Solheim. On the Monday I was so much better and really felt good. I spoke a lot about it with my husband, and I just realized there's a big chance I won't be there. I'm going to try everything I can to be there. So we decided that that week before the Solheim I would try to really get into the regimen again. Because I had to if I wanted to get ready to not only be here, but be able to play. And we did that. And I managed pretty well. I was not playing very good and striking the ball very good over there in Florida, but I didn't play for three weeks before that because of being sick. It was kind of normal. The week went okay. So I just said, okay, we go. I didn't know how I would be here after driving, the jet lag and everything. So I really managed well. I'm very happy because I think I'm going to be -- I'm okay finally. It's a big thing for me. I just really am glad to be here. I'm just going to have fun.

Q. Is your coach here?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: It's still the same team, the same people I'm working with, Antoine Lebouc, my husband. I'm still working with my aunt when I have a chance to see her because she came to the British. I can spend time with her. They walked around together. He worked with her when he was a player, too. It's very easy for them to communicate. It's a very interesting job for them to do. He's still 100 percent of the time with me. It really helps a lot even more in these moments where I kind of really need more support than any other time.

Q. Do you have other family here this week?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Antoine and my mother come on Thursday. Basically that's what's going to happen here. It's fun to watch. If there's one tournament you want to see, I think it's this one. There's so much excitement. There's much more strong feelings even for the people watching. For the players it's amazing. It's four times the feelings you can have when you play your own tournament when you win. It's kind of a different feeling and it's very, very strong. I think the crowd feels that. It's always different when you cheer for a country, a team like that. It's always been so different than cheering for one person, I think.

Q. How often do you get back to Europe, to France now that you live in America?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Not that much. Well, not that much. I still like to go. I went for Evian, so I went two weeks before Evian because I've not been there -- I left France end of January. And I came back just before Evian. So it was quite a while. I was supposed to go either last week or next week, but the way I felt I just said I'm going to go straight through to Solheim and come back to the States. I'm going to go back to France in October because I'm not going to play in Asia, Japan, and Korea. It's too far. I'm not going to go I'm going to go back to France.

Q. Where are you going to have your baby?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: In the States. We live there. We moved over there. Our life is over there right now. And I think it would be a shame not to give the opportunity to the baby to have an American passport. You never know in the future. Maybe in 20 years we'll still be living there. Maybe in two years we go back to France. I don't know. But at least I really think it's interesting, too, for the baby to have this opportunity.

Q. Do you have any plan to play the Tour Championship?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yes. I plan to play the Portland, Sacramento, and Texas, the World Championship.

Q. Just not the Asian?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Just not the Asian ones and then the Tour Championship. And then if I can't manage, I might not play Sacramento in the middle if I'm too tired. Solheim is a very tiring week. We have a very tight schedule. We don't stop for a minute. You don't have time for yourself. The way I feel now, I might be very tired after the week. So we're going to go back straight after that, and the jet lag to the States, we'll have a week to rest, but if it's not enough, I might just play Portland and maybe not Sacramento. My plan is to play everything. If I'm not feeling too badly. I need to get used to playing again. It's no big deal. I've practiced so much in my life, I'm usually one of them that goes out on the range and then go again after and putt. In three months I've not been practicing, maybe 10 percent of what I was practicing before. So it's kind of changed, but it's a good experience, too, because I can still play decent golf without practicing, which is not what I'm going to do in the future when I will be able to practice again. It's good to know, to open your mind to something different. It's very interesting situation.

Q. Catrin said that she hopes for bad weather. You played Loch Lomond. Do you hope for bad weather as well?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: She hoped for bad weather? I think if it's windy, it's bad enough. I wouldn't imagine this course with no wind. That would be a shame. I think the course should be in this condition like today. That's how it has to be. It's tough. You have to think every single shot is really important in this condition. You really have to focus and organize your thoughts in a really good way. There's not much room for approximation, like it's just about here. No. You really have to focus and imagine the shot you have to do. It's much more interesting, too. I think for the public, too, it's going to be much more interesting to see what we're able to do even in these conditions. We did matches today and we did some pretty nice things already. The course is very tough. I think we played well. It's going to be very interesting to see. I don't think that -- me myself, the rain I don't think brings anything to the game. I don't mind wind. But if it rains, it rains. I don't mind. Whatever comes this week, we have to deal with it. It's not bad for us anyway. If it's really bad conditions, it's always better for us because we play in the bad weather. If it's just the condition we have today with the wind, it's tough enough. And the greens are very fast, and I'm sure they're not going to get slower because of the wind. It's very interesting conditions.

Q. Do you still work with your aunt?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yes.

Q. Are you still seeing her regularly?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yes. Now I'm not that much in France anymore. She came two weeks in April she came to see me in the States. The thing is when I go back I see her longer. So I don't see her as often. And I speak a lot -- I can speak a lot with her on the phone. We can work on the phone on certain things. She knows me so well. We communicate very easily. When I go back in October, I'm going to work a few days with her. Yeah, I still do, yes.

Q. Is she still in Dijon?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yes. She's still in Dijon.

End of FastScripts.