U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 8, 1997

Annika Sorenstam

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I feel great. It's great to be here, I really look forward to this week all year. And I played the course for the first time today, and I think it's in fabulous shape. It's probably one of the best golf courses I've ever played, so I'm excited to be here.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: It's been a lot of attention, but I think it's a lot of fun. I have the opportunity to do something nobody has. That's a great challenge. This is fun having all the attention.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: First of all, it's in great shape. I think the layout on the holes -- I can't remember a bad hole out there. They're all good golf holes. They all have a meaning. You've got to strike the ball really well. There's a lot of planning around this golf course. I like when the greens are small, you can't just hit it on the green; you have to place it. A few holes where the greens are undulated, if you're on the wrong side of the green, you might end up 30, 40 feet away, and I like that kind of golf course.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I'm working on it. Today was a day where I get the feel for the golf course. I want to see the layout, figure out what kind of shots you need to play and the speed of the greens. Tomorrow I might score out there, get a better feel for the course out there. I feel like I'm ready, I've prepared as good as I can for this tournament. I look forward to playing Thursday. I'm not going to change anything. Hopefully my rhythm and my swing will be there when I need to. I'm just waiting to get going.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: No, I haven't. I've been here 7 years and I don't really feel much of a foreigner.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think winning for the third time would obviously inspire women to play golf, but maybe golf overall. And I think about that. But most of all I do this for myself. And that's the only thing I can do it for. If I want to win I've got to work hard and work towards that. I hope that if I do win, that it will give women's golf a big kind of kick and maybe more women will play golf and get a little more attention, and maybe a little bit more on TV. I hope it will be the result. But I can't control that part of the game. And I can just control me and what I want and my goals.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I see movies. I do shopping and go on the beach. I do play a lot of tournaments throughout the year, probably 30 tournaments. When I don't play tournaments, I do other things. I try to get away from the golf course and try to enjoy myself.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think so. The way I started this year was just incredible. I still can't believe it. It's given me a lot of confidence. I know when I go out to a tournament nowadays that if I play I can do well. And that's important. That's probably the difference this year coming to the open than last year. I know I can do it and when you finish well in tournaments it gives you so much confidence.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: No, I don't think so. People come up to me and they say, "Good luck. We hope you can do it," but I don't really talk to anybody about the tournament. Everybody gets so into it; everybody is focused. It means a lot to everybody. So I don't think everybody talks so much about it, share ideas or strategies or anything like that.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Yes, they have.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I am, it's been one of my goals and scoring average means a lot to me. I take all my scores on a computer, trying to dice it up and figure out where my strengths are and where my weaknesses are. My goal is to lower my scoring average, and I think that shows a lot how you play. Sometimes you can't just measure in wins or how much money you win. I think scoring average and the way I play means much more to me.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: No, I don't have a feeling at all. Last week I was relaxing a little bit. I did play a little golf. I didn't overdo it, just practice a few hours, played a little bit. My parents came and spent some time with them. I've been trying to just get rested and be ready. This is going to be a big week for me. And I'm just excited to be here. I think it's great. And I don't see this press conference as something that's just over with. I think it's very important.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: They're on their way.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Just enjoy herself. First time you play in the open, it's quite a different tournament, the atmosphere, the course. It's just a great week. I told her to just enjoy it and play the best you can. You've got to play in this tournament for many years, so just take it easy.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: It's very different how I feel every week. Sometimes I'm ready to play several weeks in a row; sometimes I need a break. I plan on how I feel. If I'm ready to play, I play. This year, the fact that a lot was going on, I needed a week off to get ready, and I think I made the right decision on that.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: It's got the glamorous parts. It's a lot traveling, maybe that's not so much fun. There's a lot of work in the sense we hit a lot of balls, work on the short games. The weeks are long or the days are long. Eight hours a day is probably what I spend on a tournament day or practice day, even. On the weeks off I don't do a lot, luckily. That's when I charge my batteries. But a week like this, it's probably 7:00 in the morning until 7:00 in the evening for 7 full days.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, I think overall I'm so consistent nowadays. I worked a lot on my weaknesses, which has been my short game and my putting. I'm not afraid of missing the greens anymore. I know I can make an up-and-down. I've been putting a lot better this year. Obviously, I have a lot to work on and I do work on that in my spare time. I feel very confident in my game and I have a lot of patience this year. This tournament is a 72-hole event, and it's all right if you make a bogey on the first or second hole, there's so many holes yet. I think that's the change I've done this year is stay mentally there and prepared, and don't worry about bogeying the first or second, just keep running along, there's going to be birdies out there.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Sorry? Am I a computer?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I don't know, you tell me?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: No, I have a computer with me.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Yeah, I go on-line, send a lot of e-mails. I don't always do my golf on the computer. It sounds like it. But I mess around on the computer. It's a fun way to get away from golf. But it's a good way to keep up with technology. That's the world, everything is computerized, so I've got to learn something while I'm on the golf course.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think so. Karrie is a great player and I get inspired with playing with her. She's a great ball striker. It's fun getting paired with her. Obviously I check how she does in tournaments. If I don't play with her, I see what kind of score she shot. It will be fun. I'm looking forward to that pairing.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think maybe. Time is what we need. We need to play together for a few years, and hopefully both of us can play really good, and maybe we'll get that. But I think time is the most important.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think that's important to think about.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I didn't play yesterday, so I don't know. It was playing longer than I thought it would. The greens were softer than I thought they would be, too, maybe not as fast. I don't know if it was the rain or the way the course was set up. But I think it will dry out tomorrow and Thursday might play a little different, maybe shorter, maybe faster greens.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Sure, I think they're great finishing holes. There are some tough ones. 14 is a long par-4. 16 was pretty tricky today. I hit a 5-iron where the pin was in the front. Same thing with 17. There are really good holes going. A lot of it is going to be determined in the championship on the last four holes or five holes.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Today a hit a driver and hit a 7-wood and laid up to 80 yards and hit a sand wedge. I think the creek will come more into play in the future, if I will be able to reach it in two. It seemed long today. It will be fun to see tomorrow. Hopefully it will dry out.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: 7-wood.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, what I'm going to do this afternoon is work a little bit on my woods, 5-wood, 7-wood and 3-wood from the fairway, I think I need those on the par-5s, a little more accuracy there, maybe. My strength is my irons right now. I feel like I'm hitting my 7-iron, 8-iron, 9-iron really solid, so I don't have to work so much on those.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, I think the targeting is very important. But I think I need the driver for the distance. I few holes are pretty long if you don't hit driver you're going to have a long iron in or even a wood in. You need accuracy with the driver here. The greens are, like I said earlier, they're small and it's very important with accuracy with your irons, so I think it's very important with the driver.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I have 5-iron down to sand wedge or lob wedge, so 8.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: A 9-wood.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: About 170 carry.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think so, definitely. I needed last year, maybe as a year where I started getting my motivation back. The way Karrie played made my inspired, I wanted to work hard. I wanted to win the money list again, and that was my goal this year. And I started out really well. Hopefully I can continue this year. But I'm still working really hard on that. I think it's great when somebody like Karrie or Laura is having a good year, it makes me want to work harder.