U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 6, 2003

Hilary Lunke

Q. Wow.

HILARY LUNKE: My words, exactly. I'm exhausted, definitely. Craziness.

Q. Talk about, I guess, especially those last couple of holes, when everything went on in front of you and then coming down with those --?

HILARY LUNKE: Yeah, when we watched Annika make that putt on 14, my husband turned to me and said, "Game on". You could hear the crowd screaming and you knew that she was coming back. When I saw that Robbins posted at 1 under, I knew that that was probably going to be the number that I needed to make sure that I had or hopefully. But those last -- once you make the turn at No. 11, it's so hard coming in. And pars are great scores. And unfortunately I made a couple of bogeys on 13 and 14, but just tried to hang in there and made some clutch par putts coming in. That shot out of the sand, I don't know how I hit that. I don't know how that went on the green, but I'm glad that it did. Obviously I wish I had hit the last putt a little harder, but I'm glad I didn't have a four footer to be in the playoff.

Q. Talk about the emotions of going for a putt to win it outright, but you're still in it?

HILARY LUNKE: Right. Exactly. And that's the thing, you definitely want to give it a run, and I kind of thought I had a slightly downhill putt, and it was actually a little uphill. But you definitely want to give yourself a chance of making it, you don't want to leave it short, but at the same time I've got 18 more holes tomorrow, and I just want to make sure I had the speed.

Q. Your feelings at that moment, right before that putt, heart pounding, or were you surprised at how calm you were?

HILARY LUNKE: Absolutely not. I was not calm. My heart was definitely pounding. Mentally, I actually felt very calm. But physically my body was telling me I was not calm. My palms were sweaty. My throat was dry. My heart was pumping, and I was just -- just wanted to try to see the line and try to stroke it down that line. But it's tough.

Q. Talk about being in the playoff with Angela?

HILARY LUNKE: Yeah, it's going to be fun. I can't believe we have to play this golf course another day. It's just going to be all that much more difficult. But, yeah, it's going to be a fun day tomorrow. It's just another day of golf. It's just golf. I'm just going to go out and try and have a good round. I wasn't really as pleased with my ball-striking today as I was yesterday so, hopefully to go the range and get a few things worked out so I feel good going into tomorrow.

Q. Have you ever felt pressure like you felt on that last putt?

HILARY LUNKE: Not really. But at the same time it was a nice feeling of pressure, because I did know -- I did have the cushion, where I didn't have to make it. I still had a chance to win it tomorrow. So, yeah, it was definitely a lot of pressure, but at the same time it was a nice feeling -- once I got on the green, really the most pressure I felt was on the second and third shots, because I really -- after that poor drive, I really had to crunch a 3-wood to get it up to the fairway, and unfortunately I hit it in the heel and hit it to the right. So that was when I was feeling the most pressure, waiting back in the fairway, wanting the wind to switch directions, and unfortunately it switched the wrong direction for me. So, yeah, most pressure I definitely felt was on those shots, not necessarily on the putt, because I did have a cushion.

Q. What were you saying to yourself before the putt, that putt goes in you're the champion?

HILARY LUNKE: Yeah, you practice putts like that all the time, to win the U.S. Open, that's what you practice them for. And my dad used to, when we'd practice all the time, he'd say it's a 2-putt to get into a playoff. So that was in the back of my head, too. Because a lot of times when you're under pressure, your speed, you completely lose it. I just wanted to make sure I put a good roll on it, gave it hopefully a chance to go in, unfortunately it didn't. But I wanted to make sure I was going to be there tomorrow.

Q. (Inaudible.)

HILARY LUNKE: I was about 15 or 18 feet. Angela -- we were about the same distance on the last hole.

End of FastScripts....