KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP

March 28, 2003

Patricia Meunier-Lebouc

MODERATOR: Patricia, 6-under for the first two rounds. Started a little slow out there. It was a little windy. Talk about how the conditions were, how the course was.

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yeah, the wind was actually not easy wind because kind of it drops and comes very strong and drops again, so it's very difficult. The pace on the golf course, it was very, very slow, like all the groups were very slow. It's not easy to concentrate for more than I think it took us more than five hours. It's very tough to keep going the last three holes, even in our group, it was like tough to play the shots. We were like, "Okay, we have to go and play." It felt like we were about to sleep. Just very, very slow.

I'm happy I have been able to keep going and made a few par to finish with.

Q. Annika said she thought she was pretty pleased with her 72, so your 68 must have been very pleasing for you.

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Oh, yeah. I'm very happy.

Q. How did you combat the conditions if they were that tough and still shoot 68?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Well, I think what I just tried to do today was to play really one shot after another, like it was a single shot, you know, one shot by itself. I'm going to repeat myself a bit from yesterday, but just try to enjoy every shot.

I was also trying not to care about, you know, missing it. On this sort of golf course, you can get in so big troubles, being in the bunker on this thick rough.

For example, on 16, I had a very good drive. I had still a pretty tough shot into the wind. I had a 6-iron. The pin was back right behind the bunker into the wind a little bit from the right. I just look at it. I was like, "Oh, the bunker is in play." I said, "If I'm in the bunker, no big deal." So I was just feeling more relaxed.

I hit the shot like it doesn't matter, I just hit it, and enjoy to try to make it, try to get it close to the pin. I just had fun. I really had fun again today. You know you're going to miss some shot. With this wind, too, you say gusts? Yeah, gusts. It was like amazing. Like on the par 3 14, I was just amazing. I think Annika hit a wedge, I mean, through the green, back of the green. We look at each other. I was about to hit a 9. I say, "Okay, maybe not." So Lori and I, both of us, hit a wedge to the green, short of the green. The wind just like took the ball and didn't fly at all. I did the same.

Kind of very difficult to judge the shot. We have to keep a rhythm, a routine. Usually when you play golf at this level you just have a very straight routine. It's kind of tough to get in the routine because then the wind stops or blows again, you start again. It's very tough to do everything again, just hit the shot like a normal shot. It's very tough to keep concentrated all the way.

I just think that I did the best. I just stayed there very steady. You know you're going to lose a little bit of your rhythm, but that's the way it is on this course.

I didn't get pissed at all. If you miss it, you just miss it. Here you just have not to worry about it.

Q. Great run from the end of last season, now this season, today four shots better than Annika. Do you feel your confidence is growing almost by the day?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: It is growing, yes. I don't know how you say, but I don't judge myself. You know, I just don't look at myself the same way. Like if I miss a shot, I don't say, "Oh, you're very bad." I make a good shot, "Oh, you're very good." It's okay, I am who I am. I'm going to miss shots. You know, it's just what I do. It's not what I am.

I just try to do my best out there, and that's it. It's not getting the bad shot, it's not going straight into my face anymore. Just try to keep a certain distance to it. Okay, I miss a shot. Next shot's going to be good. Out of hundred shots you hit, you're going to miss (inaudible) percentage, so you have to be prepared to miss some shots. Maybe more on this golf course. On this sort of golf course, you could miss two or three in a row, but still have to think it's not the end of your day, of your score. You made all of them together, okay, that's it. You keep going, and the good's going to happen even more if you think that way.

Q. Annika said you went at some flag sticks she wouldn't have gone at. Does that surprise you?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I think I know which ones she's speaking of, like 10th hole. The pin was almost unplayable. I was not going for it. Actually, I was right on the fairway. I got exactly the good angle to play as close as you can play. I was going maybe five, six yards right of the pin, which with the wind would have put my ball like 10 yards from the pin on the right.

But, I don't know, when you're very relaxed, play the good spot, I think sometimes I just kind of turned a little bit more into the ball, and the ball flew straight at the pin. I said, "Okay, now be good." It was just short of the green on the fringe. It's a bit softer there. If it would have pitched one yard longer, it would have been in the bunker.

People were clapping. I said, "I can't believe this ball stopped there." When I got there, I saw the pitch, I said, "I understand." That was a more lucky one. You don't go for this pin, I don't think so. She didn't even go for it.

It's this sort of day, this sort of shot, you don't know why, but you won't go for it, but your body is going. You just relax and you play the right spot. It just goes a little bit more left, it goes to the pin, get a good bounce, get there.

Like on 16, I went for the pin, but I was way left on the fairway. Like I said, I said, "If I'm in the bunker, I'm in the bunker." I go for it. I know the wind is going to take it. The wind is going to take it anyway.

A few shots I hit, the pin was in a very tough position on the right, behind the bunker, like on 15. The wind was pushing from the right. I played a little bit left of the pin. But with this wind, I should have been straight at the pin. The wind would have taken it anyway. And I didn't. That's why on 16, the next shot, "Okay, I have to go for it."

That's kind of the attitude I love to feel. I know it's not going to be every single day now of my life like that, but if I feel the way I can this way, go. If I don't feel that way when I feel good, I would never go. That's the way it is with golf, when you feel it, you have to go for it. It's the only way to have fun. I just do it.

Q. You have the lead in a major going into the weekend. How do you think your nerves are going to handle that?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I've got no idea. I'll tell you tomorrow night. I mean, I can't tell you. That's another experience so happy to have to live. I'm just thinking that way. I think I have the chance to go in the third day leading the tournament, the major. What else do you want to be living in the life, you know?

I will be able to say that I've been leading in front of Annika the third day of the Dinah Shore. I'll be able to tell you what I have to live on Sunday and the next day. Life is just an experience. I just want to learn from it. I just go and I'm just going to do what I have to do tomorrow. If it's good, great. If it's not as good, we'll see tomorrow.

But today I'm just enjoying being in this position. I'm really trying to see the positive side of it. It's just so much fun to play with Annika - again tomorrow. I will have to play with Lorena Ochoa, but I don't know her at all. I was thinking, "Wow, that's a good group. We going to have fun again." We're going to see these people have a lot of fun watching us. That's the main purpose of it.

Q. What were the impressions of the way Jean Van de Velde played the 72nd hole at Carnoustie?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: My only impression was, as I am a professional golfer, I've been through a lot of emotions. I don't know if you can, but we go through so strong emotions on the golf course. Can you believe, just try to imagine being in his shoes at this moment when he was standing on the tee with three-shot lead, going to play the last hole of the major. Your heart, you would have an attack. I really think you would have an attack.

We are more used. We are used to be -- we are trained to go through this moment, these strong emotions, like nobody else could. That's the only way he's been able to end it. Not as good as he should maybe, but I think he went through it a very nice way.

You know, when you lose, I think the way he reacted after that was just, "Okay, I should have done something else." But when you are at that moment, that particular moment, sometime you just don't think the right way because it's so many emotion, so strong. Inside your body, you don't even know where is north, where is the wind blowing from. You can repeat yourself 50 times. The distance you don't even remember one second after it. Where is the pin? What is it, you know?

Maybe it's just because he was so pumped up and he was so high level on his emotion, he was maybe too much on it, maybe not enough, "Just calm down, you have three-shot lead." He was not able to think a normal way because it was not a normal situation.

Like today, I told to my caddie the last three holes I felt like it was the last day of the tournament. Everybody was struggling. Annika was struggling. I was short on 16. That's not even the last day. We're like it is the last day. I was feeling the same. Maybe is even worse because I've never been leading a major the last day.

You have always to remember that we are going through so strong emotions. Emotions are here. When you stop the image, watch it on the tape, the last hole from Van de Velde, you can stop the tape and say, "He should have taken another club." That's actually what he should have done. But actually he couldn't stop the image for 10 minutes, relax, just come back to it. That's the way it is.

I just think he did a great job. He had the chance to play the last shot leading the tournament, even if he missed it. That was a wonderful experience for his life. He was not mean to win it, that's it.

Q. (Inaudible) conditions or slow play?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I think slow play is always the worst for players. The conditions, the wind, if you have a good rhythm, you kind of concentrate and get focused through your routine. The reason is that you are able to get (inaudible) from the fact that it's going fast. When you are waiting, waiting, it's tough to start again, even more in these conditions. While you waiting on the tee, because there's a group in front waiting, another group waiting, then you have time to see this wind dying, starting again. Now it's a 6, now it's a 7, now it's a 6 again. When it's you to start, it's very difficult to go and hit these shots, hit it, because that's what we're looking for. We're just trying to build a routine to be able, when we are in front of the ball, to release it. You don't have to think about what's going to happen. You are totally in the way you're going to hit it. That's it.

MODERATOR: Score card.

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I had hit an 8-iron. I did a good shot, but I stayed short. Was maybe seven meters, maybe more actually. Eight, nine meters.

2nd, drive in the rough again. I had to get out of this thick rough. I had a 9-iron into the wind. I was two and a half meters from the hole.

I did great shot, 6-iron. I pitch one meter on the green. I was pin-high a meter.

Q. (Inaudible)?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Not enough club. It was into the wind. 7-iron short of the green. I thought it would get more (inaudible). Two and a half meters short of the pin, missed it.

I had a 7-iron. Hit a good shot again. I was two meters.

That's the par 5. I hit a very, very good 3-iron second shot. Too good. I went back of the green in the thick rough. I did a good chip out there, but I was maybe almost three meters from the pin. Made good a putt there.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Thank you.

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