U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 11, 2000

Laura Myerscough

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Finals, finals, I made it.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Wow. Gosh, I don't know. It's funny. I think my mom and dad are freaking out ten times more than I am. My mom is like bawling. I'm like, "It's okay, Carol, relax. We still have a lot of golf tomorrow."

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Yeah, off the green. My father called on the cell phone. Probably wasn't supposed to have that phone out there. Wow, this was the goal coming into the whole tournament. This is what you want. This is what you work for. It's like pressure is your friend. This is what it all comes down to. Tomorrow, I mean, wow. I can't even explain it. To have the chance to win this tournament like this, to set yourself up for this opportunity, it's just, wow, it's what you work for.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: I never let her gain on me. I never let her have a few holes. I was always at least one up, two up, or we were all square. I never let her get one up on me. I thought that was really key for my confidence, to not let her get confident on me. That's what happens when you let a player get a lot of holes on you. All of a sudden, they're feeling good, they're feeling up, where you're feeling down. They're going to probably be hitting better shots than you. I think the key was, man, I rolled in this long putt on 15 from off the green when I pretty much hacked it on the fairway short of the green, pitched over like the pin and off the green. I made this unbelievable par putt. She didn't get up-and-down, and she bogeyed it. I went two up. I bogeyed 16. She parred, back to one up. But then she hit in the trees left on 17. I was feeling good. I was just like, "Par 17 in, you'll probably have it." Yvonne, she's a great player, great player, great young gal. 17 years old. She has a future ahead of her, for sure. She's from California, really sweet. I mean, great competitor, sportsman. Couldn't ask for a better competitive match.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Pretty long. It curled about three feet to the right, too. I was just lagging to get it close, make sure I didn't wham it by. Probably a good 25-footer, I would think.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: I was a good foot into the fringe. I couldn't line up my ball or anything like that. I had to feel it in. It rolled in. I was, whew, felt good.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: On 15, I hit one more club, but then my feet were a little bit below the ball. I knew I should choke down on the club a little bit. The ball was kind of on a mound. I hit down on it. I took a big chunk. I just chunked the heck out of it. It ended up way short. I had a free drop from the sprinkler head. Hit a crappy, really bad pitch. I hit the putt for par. I'll take putts like that any day of the week. It was like Braveheart, there you go. It was a good one.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: 16 I hit in the bunker, short right. I had a downhill lie in the bunker. It wasn't a hard shot. I just decel'd through the shot, left it in the bunker. She just lag putted it real close. I just gave it to her for par. We just went on to the next.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: She hit a good shot on the green, real short. Lagged it up close for the easy par. Shoot, I didn't have to hold my bunker shot for the par.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Well, 17, it was a good drive. If you hit your drive a little too far to the left on 17, it either goes in the bunker there or underneath some tree limbs. You don't want to go right on that hole. You don't want to go right. She didn't hit a bad drive by any means. It rolled into the rough behind some tree branches. She had to hit a low shot out. I was sitting pretty in the fairway. Kind of tough to take your medicine even though it was a good drive.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: I thought it was going to lip out, for sure. It was, oh, Lord, just a speed putt. I played that thing probably like I would say eight feet left of the hole, had to let it slide back in. It just caught the lip, went right in. That was big. I was feeling really good after that. Of course, I hit my drive left, bad on the next hole for some reason. That's all right. Yeah, that was key. I was feeling very confident there. I knew I had got her a little bit there. She hit really a good chip that rolled a little past, probably six, seven feet past the pin. It was a great chip she hit. She could have easily made that uphill putt for par. I knew I had to lag it closer, make it. I did.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: This morning, I wasn't too nervous really. I mean, I've been more nervous at other tournaments. I was pretty calm. Yesterday, I hit a pretty good drive, but it just went a little to the right. I was pretty close to the road under the tree on No. 1. I knew the pin was way right. I wanted to keep that drive a little to the left. I wanted to make sure I was lined up correctly. Just let it go. There's nothing you can do. Just trust it.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: On No. 1, she was in the middle of the fairway, great drive. The trees that overhang on the right side of the green, she hit the tree, kind of dropped in the rough down by the road. Impossible chip. She 3-putted it. I just took a 2-putt for par and walked off.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: I'd have to say that was the most boring year of my life. Really, fall semester, I tried to qualify for the first couple of tournaments. I was playing well. I wasn't playing great, but I felt like I was striking the ball well, but I still couldn't make the lineup last year at Arizona. Really, I pretty much wasted my freshman year, played like two tournaments. I didn't play well. I knew sophomore year I didn't want to waste the year, especially when I hadn't qualified for the first three tournaments of the year. I remember Todd asking me for the last tournament of the fall, "Are you sure you want to red shirt? Do you want to try to qualify? We need somebody to get in there." I just decided to red shirt. Then pretty much in the spring, Todd had the Top 5 practicing together, just the top 5. I mean, the rest of the team was, if you weren't those top 5, you were off to do your own thing. He wanted team unity for those five, which was good. He did a great job, because they killed, the title, everything. Really, I mean, it was a very lazy year, I'd have to admit. I would hit balls. I'd play like nine holes whenever I wanted to. It was very, I'd have to say, boring because all I would do is practice. I wouldn't really have anybody to practice with, except maybe a teammate or two. It was kind of sad because it felt like the team was very separated. They had the top 5, then you had the rest of us, the other five, that were half red shirts, a couple freshmen on our own.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: I think we had three.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Christel Cuzon from Tahiti. She had an eagle. She had an injury. Ann Lee, freshman, she didn't red-shirt. I knew I had this summer. The summer was what I really needed to get ready for. Summer always was key because if I wasn't going to come back to Arizona this fall and play, I knew I couldn't stay there.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Well, I think the girls, they won one of their first two tournaments there in the fall. Pretty much Todd, last year's coach, if they win the tournament, he'll automatically take those next five to the next tournament. I don't think they won the first tournament, but they won that second tournament. We had qualifying for the second one. I didn't qualify. They won the second tournament. He automatically took the same five to that third tournament. I don't think we won the third tournament. I was just like, it was the last tournament, "Why waste it?" I would have wasted the whole fall and played one tournament. I was just like, "Don't do it." I wanted to play. I went to Arizona, but I knew it was going to be hard to play. This is the year. I've got to break into that lineup. That's the thing, that group. Every player is a player, just the best. If you're just off a little bit, you're not going to make it. It's pressure, but it's great because you're playing with the best. I think you build from that. Look who I got to play with. Jenna Daniels, Jill Gomeric, Julia Christensen, all the greatest players. It also helps you with confidence because you're playing with them, playing just as well. In your mind you're saying, "These girls are awesome." You're sitting there playing well. You've got to be pretty good yourself.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: That was spring more. Spring was pretty much Top 5 only practice together.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Oh, no. Not in the spring.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: There was no motivation. It was like, "I'll go hit balls today." That's what I'm saying, it was so boring. I had no tournaments to get ready for, except for summer. It was very hard to motivate myself.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: No. My dad is a big help. He gets my schedule all settled. I mean, I started off my summer tournaments with the futures, a pro tournament. I had made goals from, shoot, back earlier in the year. I wanted to make the cut at the Futures. I started off good, made the cut at the Futures. Played well. The Women's Western, I had goals for every tournament how well I wanted to play, what I wanted to shoot. I was making my goals. I think my confidence got back up. You just get back into competitive golf. I can't really explain it. Either I have a great tournament, turn it on a little bit, get in that lineup, or I knew I just couldn't stay at Arizona.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: This fall I was thinking more than anything. I definitely want to go back to Arizona. I mean, it's a great school. I love it there. I love the people there. But also I want to play some golf. I mean, I really do.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: I was.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: I want to play at Arizona. That's it. I'm there and I want to play, and I'm going to play. Last fall I was really thinking, "Let's just not deal with it anymore." I was like, "Okay, let's just red-shirt, give it another year." I'm glad that I did. Red-shirting this last year was the best thing I could have done.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Jerry.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: I knew more than anything it was just my mental aspect. I mean, my freshman year, I really struggled. I wasn't used to getting beat so badly. I mean, really, I wasn't. You go from being a top junior into those collegiate golfs, some top junior players come in and they're great right from the start. But, man, I mean, some of you just get knocked down, and I did. It's just reality, I think, is what really set in. I was like, "I need to work ten times harder." I had a long way to go. It's like there you are, you think you're hot stuff as a junior, and you're nothing. It was really good for me. I mean, I think it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. To see those older girls, see how much harder they work, how much more focused they are out there, how many less mental mistakes they make on the golf course. I'll have to say, it's helped me tremendously.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Jenna was really, really sweet about that. She was like, "You've got to be patient." Jill Gulbis, from Bellevue, Illinois, St. Louis, two hours from me, I knew her from junior golf. She was great. All the girls on the team are great. But there's nobody -- they want to beat you more than anybody. They can't be too comforting. "Don't worry, you'll play better tomorrow." It's not like that. They want to beat you more than anybody because they want to get up on that lineup just as much as you do.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: In Illinois, I belonged to two country clubs, Charleston Club and Mattoon Country Club.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Oh, Lord, no. If we have no rain for a long time, they'll be like this fast. I mean, they're really nice country clubs, but I think the greenskeepers --.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: And Mattoon, M-a-t-t-o-o-n, Country Club. Nothing lightning fast. I'm not used to unless I go up to Chicago and stay with a friend for a while. Just nice little country clubs, nothing like this.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Really, I didn't lag putt very much at home. There that first week, I was kind of gearing myself up. "Oh, we got the US AM, two weeks." I was really anticipating coming. "When am I going to leave to go to Oregon?" I was anxious. Then at the beginning, I was like okay, playing a lot. Then I got tired. "Man, I don't want to go play today." I had a week before coming to Oregon. I think I took two, three days off where I would go hit some wedge shots. Mentally I think I was just exhausted. The last couple days before coming out here, I went out with my coach and caddie, Mike Moncel, we worked on some stuff. We didn't really work on lag putting because we knew it was going to be so much faster, these greens. They were. That's one of the first things we did when we got here, took a lot of time working on lag putts, which is pretty key on these greens.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Mike Moncel, M-o-n-c-e-l. He's my golf professional back in Mattoon, Illinois. He's been my coach since I was like nine years old. I'll be with him forever, never switch.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Central, eastern Illinois. An hour south of Champaign. It's a small town. Corn fields. More cows than people. That's what people say. I'm kidding.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: It's like 20,000. 10,000 of those are college students that go to Eastern Illinois University. It's a cute little town.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: I was dying to get home. I mean, once finals were over, and that's the thing, my dad and I drove home from Arizona. It's like a two-day drive. It's so funny. My dad is like, "When you get back, we have to start practicing." He thinks we're like attached, it's our goal, like "we." It's so cute. "We've got start practicing, go putt, we have the Futures Tournament." He's gung ho, gung ho.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Matchplay, I mean, I really do love playing. I mean, you can be relaxed at some point. If you have like a really bad hole, it's okay, it's just one bad hole, one down, whatever, it's okay. Then you have a birdie, I mean, just things can go different. You can shoot 3-under and still lose to a girl that shot like even par. That's just matchplay. There's nothing really to it.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: I would hope so. I mean, I don't really know, I can't really remember Greg too much. I remember him from some AJGA tournaments. He's a fun-going guy, whereas Todd was really strict, "No talking, don't laugh." I hope, in other words, that this year it will be more fun. I talked to the girls from the Texas team, they're like, "We have hoola-hoops out for practice. We have all these games". I'm like, "Gosh, we never have that." Sometimes Todd will put colored tees. "That's all we get." "We get hoola-hoops and baseball gloves to catch balls." I'm like, "Practice can be so much fun." I'm really looking forward to seeing Greg come in. He's going to be great. He has two little girls. It's going to be so much fun. I can't wait.

LAURA MYERSCOUGH: Yeah. Lorena who I played yet. Nancy Abicuneus, Natalie Gulbis, three coming back from next year, Ann Lee, Christel Cuzon, myself, all the red-shirts from last year. It's a loaded gun really.