U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 10, 1997

Susie Redman

SUSIE REDMAN: Well, actually I was relieved on 14 to make par. And I think that 14 is such a difficult hole that I had hit a 5-iron just short, between the trap and the water hazard, and then I 2-putted from there, and I think I had a little momentum going on 15, just kind of relieved that I passed 14 with par. I stepped up on the tee, and had 156 yards. My husband had said -- I said, "Do you like 6-iron?" He said, "Well, that's a good one." I know when he says that, that means don't leave any behind. And I was just really relieved when I looked up that the ball was going straight, because usually my tendency, if I'm trying to jump on a club, I'll pull it. It was nice to look up and see it was coming straight off the face, and it took one bounce and went in, and everyone was real excited. I never had a hole-in-one, so I didn't know how to react. I've seen Tiger Woods get all excited, but I guess I'm a little calmer, and I just slapped a high 5. So it was a lot of fun.

SUSIE REDMAN: Actually here not. Last week we were Toledo and my brother was caddying for me. We decided it was a long trip to Portland, Oregon, and I'm playing in New York next week, so Grandma and Grandpa have them and they're in Alabama. I think today was just a day that I went out and my husband and I, we talked a lot about the kids between shots, and we just tried to stay into my own routine and try to do that from the first hole to the 18th hole. And every hole is so demanding that you've got to just keep going forward and not look back, and don't look guard and just take what you have at hand.

SUSIE REDMAN: Actually that's better. I noticed if I start with a birdie I don't seem to -- a bogey is better for me. I don't know why that is, but it kind of calms me down, and makes me realize that I've got a lot of holes to go, and try to get a little bit more focus on what I'm doing.

SUSIE REDMAN: Well, let's see. I drove it really good down the middle, and on my second shot, I'm trying to remember what I had. It was either a 6 or 7-iron until the first hole and I put a good swing on it and pulled it left, that's my tendency. I hit it in the bunker, and I thought I hit a pretty good shot. It was probably five or six feet and missed it coming down. And then I went from there and I hit 5-iron on the Par-3 the second hole and hit a good shot there and had about a 15-footer -- 15 to 20 feet, somewhere in there, or maybe even 12 feet. It was okay. And I drained that putt. And I hit it real firm and it hit the back of the hole and dropped in.

SUSIE REDMAN: 14 -- I can remember 14.

SUSIE REDMAN: That was a really good hole for me, there, too. I actually drove it left in the left bunker, I guess left was my play today. And then I had 4-iron out of that bunker and I hit it dead-on straight. And I was probably 15 to 20 feet from the hole, just above it and made a really good putt there. So didn't expect that one either. It was one of those once you hit it in trouble, you're just trying to put it back into play. And on No. 13 actually the ball was sitting up really nice in the bunker, and I was far enough back. I had missed my drive enough that the lip was not -- there was not any concern for the lip, and I hit a really good shot.

SUSIE REDMAN: My husband's name is Bo Redman, and we've been married for 11 years. He's -- actually met me out here playing the LPGA Tour, and we have three beautiful children.

SUSIE REDMAN: We do this off and on. He works for me off and on, and then I have my brother come out and work for me off and on. But we've been doing this throughout the years. We've been trying to do this so that we keep our family unit together. I guess when we grow old we'll have a lot of stories and a lot of laughs.

SUSIE REDMAN: He's a PGA golf professional, Class A PGA golf professional.

SUSIE REDMAN: Not at this moment. But he's been a golf professional at different golf courses throughout the years. And he's actually really -- it's good, because I think in a tournament like this, this kind of tournament, you know, going into it I wasn't -- I didn't set a goal. When I say like a number or something like that, I think my goal basically the last few weeks I've been playing better, a lot more consistent and I think the key for a player like myself is just not to go on an emotional roller coaster and realize that bogey on some holes are good, and when you get a birdie opportunity, hopefully you're rolling the putter good, and you can make a birdie. And just kind of stay even, as much as you can. It's 72 holes. It's a long tournament. And my husband is really good for me, because he's known my game and we talk about the kids and we just kind of -- it's like a walk in the park, even though this park is got a lot of trouble.

SUSIE REDMAN: Nothing that jumps out in my head. I actually went to look at the stats yesterday and said I was 145th in putting, but in greens hit I'm 39th. And I thought, wow, that's a big -- and then I guess in rounds under par, I guess I was in the top 30 in that. So I don't know. I'm not sure who said it, but basically -- Nancy Lopez, actually I remember her saying this last week, just hitting the ball and going to find it. I've been on the Tour 13 years, and I've had a lot of things in my life. My little boy had cancer a couple of years ago, and a lot of things that in my playing career, three pregnancies, whatever, I think that I'm just a lot more calm and I'm hitting the ball and I'm going -- and I'm finding it and I'm hitting it again. And I'm not putting any value on any particular shot. And I think for me that's really helped and it's taken a lot of pressure off me.

SUSIE REDMAN: I did. It was a lot of fun. It actually hit -- I fixed my ball mark and it hit, I guess, six feet short of the pin and went right in.

SUSIE REDMAN: It was my baby. Two years ago he was five months old and he was diagnosed at the tournament in Oldsmobile Classic in East Lansing, Michigan, he was diagnosed it neuroblastoma. It's a childhood cancer. It's a solid tumor. And he was five months old at the time. So I didn't get a chance to play that fourth round. And I guess I was two shots out of the lead going into the last day, or two shots out of second. I was pretty high up on the finish. And that was two years ago. So we had started our chemotherapy and our radiation and our protocol. And we went through four months of doing chemotherapy and we went back home for Florida to do our treatments and actually we were advised that Jesse wasn't responding to the chemotherapy. They might have to put him on high risk chemo; the tumor didn't seem to be getting smaller. And at that time I went out to the Rail Classic which was in September and I had met up with the Mayor of Peoria, Illinois, and the tournament director of the Rail Classic and these two people put me in touch with St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. And that is where we went and they saved Jesse. They did surgery on Jesse and he's well. He's doing wonderful, he's two and a half. He's actually bigger than my four year old. He's great. So that was -- it seems like ten years ago now.

SUSIE REDMAN: He had the surgery, I think, in October. They removed the tumor.

SUSIE REDMAN: No, he's two and a half now, so it was two years ago. It seems like --

SUSIE REDMAN: Yes. So last year when I came back on Tour, I walked around with probably just a big smile on my face just happy to be playing. Because they had put him on ten month protocol of chemotherapy. We were really blessed that things turned out so well.

SUSIE REDMAN: I've probably shared my story to a lot of different families and a lot of news people, and I've told the story so many times that it has, it's gotten older, just because I've said it so much. And it's kind of a thing that with Jesse, I've really, truly believe that he's a miracle. And I think that now to look at him, I don't see him as a five-month-old baby, sick with a disease. He's two and a half, and I think you see through the eyes of your child just how quick life goes, because of how quickly they change and develop. So I think that's why I'm saying ten years old. My oldest is 7 and I have a 4-year-old and now two and a half year old. It seems so long ago, because now they're doing so many things. He's not this little baby that I had that was barely breathing.

SUSIE REDMAN: I think so. It's amazing, like if you go out and watch me play. Now, today I was a little aware of people that were on the backside of me today. But rattling change doesn't bother me. For me I'm blessed to be out here playing golf. I can't imagine what the alternative would be, of taking care of a sick child, not even be able to do what I always wanted to do, and that is to play on the LPGA Tour and win a tournament and to be able to do both, be a mom and also a professional athlete, which is nowadays, we are so lucky that we can do that. We have a wonderful LPGA day-care that we've got 50 children on our LPGA Tour. We are really lucky that we can do both.

SUSIE REDMAN: Every week pretty much. How did I hear? Well, actually I was -- on Friday at the Oldsmobile Golf Tournament I had got a call from the hospital and they said that Jesse was diagnosed with bronchitis and croup and they released him. I was told as soon as I got done playing on Friday, come get him Friday night. That night I called and said I don't understand about croup. This child can't breathe. They said croup sounds this way. The next day on Saturday I'm on the second hole. The LPGA comes out to the golf course, I'm on the second hole, and they say we need your child in for a CAT scan immediately. I said, ". What is this? What are you talking about? For what?" "We found a growth in his neck." "Is it life threatening?" They said no. We just need him in immediately. So all along -- they had done a x-ray on Friday but they didn't send it up to the radiology department who was supposed to read the x-ray and get a diagnosis. So. It's a long story, but anyhow, then the next day they realized they messed up, actually they caught it that night and the next day they couldn't find me. I'm on the golf course. I had finished playing, because they told me it was not life-threatening and they walked in the door and said your child has a malignant tumor and within days he's going to die. He had about a pound and a half number or in his airway, and it was quite a large tumor in his chest. It's quite a long story. But again, it's been so long ago that now I think I have a different perspective because there are a lot of Susie Redmans all over the country dealing with sick children. And I just think that I'm really lucky and if I can be there to listen to a parent that has a child with cancer I would tell them to go to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. I think there was a reason why my little boy was diagnosed with cancer so that I can continue to play and travel the country and represent St. Jude's and Target.

SUSIE REDMAN: It was in his chest. It was above his nipples and below his cheek bone.

SUSIE REDMAN: It was a golf ball that ended up sticking out of his neck the next day. It started in his chest and went up to his neck and below his cheek.

SUSIE REDMAN: N-e-u-r-o-b-l-a-s-t-o-m-a.

SUSIE REDMAN: It actually wasn't. St. Jude's is phenomenal. They had a neuroblastoma specialist, his name was Dr. Rau. He had told me that probably going to be two surgeries, and they went in and it's amazing. He has a small incision just above his clavicle bone, I think this is what this is, and he went in and pulled it out. They can do -- he sees neuroblastoma all the time, so he knows exactly what to look for. It was incredible. He told me if there was any live blue cells he'd go back in and open the chest and get the rest of it. But he went in and the chemo did what it was supposed to do and shrunk the tumor and necrosed it so it was dead.

SUSIE REDMAN: Yes, he's in remission doing great. He's two and a half; it will never come back again. We were just really lucky we caught it when we caught it.

SUSIE REDMAN: Actually Friday --

SUSIE REDMAN: Right. Bronchitis and croup on Friday and on Saturday a malignant tumor, within days he's going to die but this was two years ago so now it's a long time ago for me.

SUSIE REDMAN: It was Ted McGraw and Faith Hill, I don't know what the song was, every time I hit a shot I'd start singing it. My husband bought the tape last night. Can I keep it up? I don't know, 72 holes is a long event. I'll keep doing what I'm doing, it's nothing spectacular. I'm picking a target, I'm hitting at my target, and that's all that I have control of. So I'll continue to do that and I'll add them up when I'm done, and hopefully I'll see you guys again tomorrow.