THE SOLHEIM CUP

September 13, 2003

Patty Sheehan

NEAL REID: The pairings are probably five minutes away from being here. We can go ahead and get started, get your overall impressions of the day and how you feel going into tomorrow.

PATTY SHEEHAN: Well, typical morning. We struggle in the morning year after year, round after round. We try to put people in that I think would play well together, that I think would be successful, that I think would enjoy playing with each other. I guess I'm just not very good at it. Afternoon I thought we played really well. I really only had one group that didn't feel that they played very well, but everybody else played really well. It was a great match at the end. And Cristie and Kelli's match was awesome. They really won it on the last two holes. Kelli hit it close on 16 and Cristie hit it close on 17, and that's what the difference was for their match. I feel that essentially everybody is playing well. I'm glad to see that Laura Diaz has gained some confidence. It's not fair that everybody gets to see them before me. It looks like they've stacked theirs on the top and I've sort of put mine all over the place. Great matches here and there. It comes down to tomorrow as always. I'm looking forward to it. Good looking matches.

Q. Which one intrigues you the most?

PATTY SHEEHAN: I think Juli and Carin will be great. Kelli and Janice will be great. Heather has had to -- she's played with Annika I think her two matches. So she's used to going up against the Swedish darlings. Meg seems to always play Laura in the singles. That's a good one. I'm hoping it goes down to the very end, obviously. It will be interesting.

Q. What's the mood like amongst the players? Does it deflate morale playing catch-up?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Not at all. We're used to coming from behind. Every year we do this. We just go out there and do our best.

Q. The way that the match ended today, where it was so many wild swings in such a short amount, so many highs and lows, how do you see the carryover, if there is one: Momentum for Europe? Or do you think this causes more introspectiveness on your part that everyone digs deeper?

PATTY SHEEHAN: I just think we keep going back to history. We seem to always be behind going into the last day. Last year we were two behind and played very well. Obviously this year is difficult because the crowds are enormous. My players don't hear a lot of hollers for Americans. Sometimes that's difficult to hear. But they have fought hard, I'm extremely proud of them. And they are going to be up tonight. They are going to be motivated. They're going to go to bed excited and they're going to get up excited. They can't wait to get out there. They know that we've come from behind essentially every year. We've been in this exact same position, nothing different. Nobody is panicking. We're just used to being here. We're used to being in this position.

Q. Do you think Europe knows it, too?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Absolutely.

Q. Have you ever -- I wonder if we could talk briefly about Laura Diaz? Have you talked to her? Have you guys been in a meeting at all?

PATTY SHEEHAN: I talked to her briefly.

Q. What about a spot like that where she comes off hitting maybe two of the best shots of her career given the circumstances and she walks off with the last shot being a miss. What kind of frame of mind would you expect her to be in for tomorrow? You mentioned a minute ago that you were glad to see her have some confidence.

PATTY SHEEHAN: She feels really good about her game right now. When you miss a short putt like that in a crucial situation, obviously it's intense, there's a lot of nerves happening. Things like that happen. She feels good. She talked with her father, and her father is her main teacher and inspiration in golf. And he told her, he said, "Laura, you're back". And that's all she needed to hear. Whether she won that match or not, they were thrilled by the way she was playing.

Q. How would you rate your chances to win tomorrow? How highly percentagewise?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Oh, I'd say it's -- I'm not a betting person, so I don't really know how to do that. Despite the fact that I live in Reno, Nevada. I think we're going to do well tomorrow. I have enough confidence in my players. I think they're all playing well. We need to talk to a couple of people. I feel good. I feel confident. I'm going to go back there and have dinner with them right now. We're going to have a good time tonight. We're going to -- we're all going to be very inspired. I'm looking forward to it. All I can do tomorrow is watch just like the rest of you. And we'll go from there.

Q. Do you think it's a shame that purely for television it's starting as early as it is tomorrow?

PATTY SHEEHAN: I don't know. I don't even have a clue what time we're on. So I can't answer that.

Q. It starts at 8.

PATTY SHEEHAN: 8:00 European time, huh?

Q. So they can show the European Tour men's event in the afternoon. Annika said she didn't think it was showing women's golf the respect that it deserves?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Well, we never get the respect we deserve. Let's face it. It's week in and week out. We get tired of it.

Q. What do you think it will take to change?

PATTY SHEEHAN: We deal with it every week and we don't like the fact that we have to deal with it every week.

Q. Do you ever see it changing?

PATTY SHEEHAN: I see it changing right now. Look at the crowds out there. I guarantee we have better crowds than the men's tournament, any men's tournament in the world we have better crowds. We have more respectful people coming out to watch us play golf than any of the men's events in the world right now.

Q. Is this the most you've seen in a Solheim Cup in all the ones you've played in and been to?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Yes. I'm grateful I haven't taken anybody out in my cart. It's wild out there.

Q. Have you come close?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Yeah, I've come real close.

Q. I wonder if you're surprised or could comment on the bottom half of Europe's draw. You've been out there and surely watched. Laura is hitting it in several different directions, probably not on top of her game. Patricia didn't play at all today. Mhairi struggled. It looks as though you've saved a lot of your strong players for the bottom and she didn't.

PATTY SHEEHAN: Well, obviously they wanted to stack it up there on the top and get as many points as they could early and see where it went from there. I feel badly for Patricia and Mhairi and Ana-B, because they've only played one match. That's a hard thing to take. I try to give all my players as equal time as I can, because we're a team. I feel very strongly that that's the right thing to do. My father who was a coach for 22 years taught me one of the most important things about sport, and that is respect. I respect every one of these players, all 24 of them, and I think they all deserve the respect from their captains.

Q. Are you suggesting Catrin didn't show them respect?

PATTY SHEEHAN: I'm just a little bit surprised that Catrin didn't give them a little bit more playing time so they could feel a little bit more comfortable about tomorrow.

Q. Where did your father coach?

PATTY SHEEHAN: My father coached the Olympic ski team for the U.S. in 1956 and he was a several sport coach in Middlebury College, Vermont.

Q. Could you make the argument because this is a team, whereas golf is an individual, that another team sport have stars that could play all four quarters of both halves in order to get the win, and that's what the goal is?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Certainly that's what the goal is, yeah. That's my goal, too. But I also feel that it's appropriate and the right thing to do to play everybody as much as I can. Because every one of my players is great. I couldn't pick a person to sit out three matches. I couldn't do that.

Q. We could be getting into a philosophical discussion here.

PATTY SHEEHAN: We could be.

Q. Isn't that what a captaincy, with respect, isn't that what captains are supposed to do?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Captains have different philosophies. That's just my philosophy. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. It's just my philosophy.

Q. More than anything you want to be remembered for doing the right thing in your captaincy?

PATTY SHEEHAN: I certainly don't believe that winning and losing is everything in this world. Certainly I love to win. I've been a winner of a lot of tournaments. I'm a Hall of Famer and that's what I always strive to do. But I wasn't the type that was the winner at any cost type of person. I believe in fair play and I believe in respect and I believe in respecting your fellow competitors and your fellow teammates. It's just me.

Q. Of course that brings up the question would you have reacted differently at the Loch Lomond incident where Annika was asked to replay a shot? You will remember that.

PATTY SHEEHAN: I'm not even going to answer that. Sorry.

Q. Along with playing everyone, was there anything in your mind in keeping everyone fresh for Sunday? Do you think there's any possibility that some might run out of gas tomorrow?

PATTY SHEEHAN: It's possible. Yes, it is. I feel that everybody needs a rest, whether they're in absolutely phenomenal shape or not, they need a rest.

End of FastScripts.