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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 10, 2015Laura DaviesLANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA LAURA DAVIES: If you miss a fairway, you're probably going to drop a shot and I missed three fairways early on. Actually got up and down once for a really good par. If you keep it in play, this course is really playable. Once you stray off the beaten track, (indiscernible). So I paid the penalties today, whereas yesterday I drove it unbelievably well. I think I only missed one fairway, and even that was by fractions. So yeah, I'm pretty pleased. Obviously three 3-putts so far. Disappointing because the greens aren't U.S. Open -- normal U.S. Open greens are crazy fast and unslopey. These are a really nice pace, so three putting is very disappointing. Q. How much fun is it that the crowd still follows you around even at 51? LAURA DAVIES: Oh, it's great. They were wishing me well and going on about the Hall of Fame thing. So it's really nice. I used to play obviously at the Hershey tournament years ago, and I think most of the gallery were children when I was playing over there. Now they are a bit grown up and have come to see me again. Q. Would you like to see more players in their 40s or 50s, especially who have won major championships, be here? LAURA DAVIES: People like Julie Inkster and Rosie Jones, characters like that that used to have a pretty decent following, obviously Julie is still playing at an incredibly high level. People like seeing those type players that have a bit of character on the course. They like to come and see them still playing good golf. There is nothing worse than seeing an older player playing rubbish. So I'm glad I'm hitting it good. Q. Why have you been able to hit so well for so wrong? LAURA DAVIES: I don't practice to nth degree where you wear yourself out. My wrist and my -- my knee is a little bad, but that is just from playing soccer all those years, not golf. I just don't think I wear myself out on the practice ground. I really do think that's a factor. Q. What is your travel schedule to get over to the home of golf? LAURA DAVIES: If everything goes to plan, I should land in Edinburgh at one o'clock, and then I've got to drive to Dundee to the hotel, check in the hotel, have a shower. That should take me to round about four o'clock at which stage I can have a couple of pints of cider and get on the bus to the Hall of Fame thing. There is no room for error. I've already done a little acceptance thing just in case anything goes wrong. Now I've made the cut, the weather could mess things up obviously, Monday finish. If I play well enough to get in a playoff or something then it's all over. I hope I make it. But first and foremost, I want to do well at the U.S. Open before I worry about the next bit. Q. Is it a commercial flight somewhere? LAURA DAVIES: British Airways straight to London and then connect up to Edinburgh. Q. What city do you leave from? LAURA DAVIES: Philadelphia. It's a 10 o'clock flight, so barring a disaster with the weather then I should make it. Just depends. There is nothing I can do. I didn't stage the thing at St. Andrews, the Hall of Fame people did. Q. How much longer do you want to go and how much longer do you think you can do? LAURA DAVIES: As long as I'm not making a fool of myself. If you've seen the way I'm playing at the moment, I finished 7th last year in the British Masters. Played great. I'm not saying I should have won it, but I had nine 3-putts, so putting, the short game was letting me down. And as long as I feel like I can win and I really do feel like I can win every week I tee it up. As long as that feeling stays around, I don't see any reason to not go on for another five, ten years. Who knows, I might play rubbish the rest of this year and decide that's it, I can't do it to myself anymore. Q. So you've already taped something, a speech? LAURA DAVIES: I did an acceptance thing, yeah. Q. How long did you spend working on your speech? LAURA DAVIES: I didn't. I just turned to them and said what do you want. I just said it. I'm dyslexic, so I can't read off the cue. They were going to make me write a speech, but that would be a fiasco if I tried to read. So that is not happening. It will just be -- I'm just going to wright six or seven main points down and then I'll talk about those main points. That is kind of what I did. I didn't have it written down. I wasn't 100 percent sure of what I was doing. It went pretty well. They did it in one take, so that's never a bad thing. Q. You will repeat that if it's live? LAURA DAVIES: It will be a little bit more elaborate than that hopefully. When you're staring down the lens of a camera, you've got nothing to work off. People in the audience or whatever that you might be talking about, obviously you'd be acknowledging them rather than staring down the lens of the camera. Hopefully it will be a bit longer and hopefully I don't muck it up, because apparently it's going to be live on the Golf Channel and Sky. Another reason to make a fool of myself. Q. You resisted this for a while. Now that it's here, how much are you looking forward to it? LAURA DAVIES: It was like a popularity contest before. You got voted in. I didn't want that. When they put the two majors and a certain amount of tournaments, then it became a criteria and I met the criteria. So then I said yes immediately when Charlie Meacham first put it to me, and then the commissioner rang me up and said, Look, you've been voted in. I was absolutely delighted. It's one of the highlights of my career without a doubt. I don't want to go in on a popularity contest. I don't like that sort of thing. Q. What are your thoughts on the Women's Senior Tour? LAURA DAVIES: I think it should be stronger. I know when I play in the events -- I've played in about four. The galleries love it. The girls can still play. The old ladies can still play. For some reason the sponsors aren't getting in behind us. We've got about nine or ten events and now maybe the USGA has come in and going to have a Women's Senior Open. Maybe some other sponsors want to build that Tour up and see how good we can still play. For me, the Senior Men's is great fun to watch and I don't see why we wouldn't be the same. Q. How much are you thinking about the Solheim Cup? LAURA DAVIES: I'm trying to get some points. I need a top 10 finish this week to get some more points. I moved up to 8th last week at the British Masters. I want to play in the Solheim Cup. I don't want to be commentating. Q. How much did it hurt to not make the last one after 12 in a row? LAURA DAVIES: I just missed the cut at St. Andrews. I'm driving home and my phone goes and there it is, they tell me I'm not in. I really gave her no reason to pick me, but I thought maybe for old time's sake she might have put me in. She made the right decision. They won. They won easily as well. She certainly didn't need to be picking me. You always hope in the back of your mind maybe you've done just enough to get something. It wasn't to be. The team was great. Q. Did you ever think for a second about skipping this event because of the Hall of Fame? LAURA DAVIES: No. I play golf. I don't stand on stage and people make a fuss of me. I hate it. I'm absolutely dreading the whole thing, to be honest with you. I'm really proud that I'm getting it, but I hate the thought of it. It keeps me up at night. Q. 1987 was a long time ago, does it seem like a long time ago? LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, it does now. That was literally a lifetime ago. That was my second year as a pro. It all seemed so easy. I played in 27 or 8 more U.S. Opens since then and haven't really got close. I think in Chicago when Webb won, I was playing really well then and I could have won it that year. I forgot what let me down, probably a bit of short game, as usual. Other than that, I've never really had a chance to win the U.S. Open apart from the one I won. Q. What is the best comment you've gotten from the galleries since you've turned 50? LAURA DAVIES: When are you giving up? That's what they always say. They always want to know when you're giving up. I don't quite understand it, but they always want to know when you're giving up. Q. What is it that's making you hit the ball off the tee so well right now? LAURA DAVIES: Just confidence. I changed clubs to links at the start of the year. I'm really getting on well with this Boom Boom driver. As you hit more and more decent ones, you're confident. I'm hitting it miles, absolutely dead straight like an arrow. It's just a confidence thing. It can go either way. I hit one really poor tee shot out there today. The next one is always the important one for me. If I can back it up with a good one, I'm okay again. And I did, so I was back on straight and narrow after that FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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