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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 2, 1998Leslie SpaldingKOHLER, WISCONSIN RHONDA GLENN: Ladies and gentlemen, we have with us Leslie Spalding. You just heard the announcement. Leslie is from Billings, Montana. This is her third nights Women's Open. She is the leader in the clubhouse with a score of 2-under par, 69. Leslie, first of all, tell me your general impressions of your round today; how you were playing; also the conditions out there on the golf course. LESLIE SPALDING: I played very well today. I hit every shot that I needed to hit today. I hit my driver well. I hit my shots into the green very well. It is a course where you have to think on every shot and hit every shot where you want to. And I think I did that. I putted very well. I made a lot of second putts that were kind of long and made some scrambles, so it was a good solid round today. RHONDA GLENN: Let's go over your card. I see three birdies on the front 9, surprisingly one on the 7th hole, and if you will go over it, just maybe cover your birdies, your bogeys or any remarkable saves or terrible disasters. LESLIE SPALDING: Well, I birdied 2, 4 and 7. 7 was a great birdie because I wasn't sure if I would be able to reach that green in 2 in the practice round so I was very happy with that. RHONDA GLENN: What club did you hit into 7 and how long was your putt? LESLIE SPALDING: I hit a 4-wood and my putt was about 15, 18 feet. RHONDA GLENN: Let's go over the other birdies in that way also. Beginning with the 2nd hole, what club did you hit for your third shot? How long was your birdie? LESLIE SPALDING: Hit 6-iron on No. 2, par 5, I had about twelve feet, I think. Made that and then No. 4 -- Q. Why did you hit the 6-iron? Was that because it is so long or because you were in trouble? LESLIE SPALDING: Because I am not a very long hitter. And I didn't hit a very good second shots - decent but not great. RHONDA GLENN: And then No. 4? LESLIE SPALDING: No. 4, I have to think about No. 4. I hit a good drive, right where I wanted to, and then my second shot was a 9-iron. I had 111 yards, I believe, and uphill, and maybe into a little breeze and I didn't hit a very good -- I kind of skanked it up there, but it hit on and I had about two feet left, so made a birdie there. RHONDA GLENN: What does "Skanked" mean? LESLIE SPALDING: That means a little thin. RHONDA GLENN: Then on 7 you hit 4-wood to the green. LESLIE SPALDING: 4-wood into the green, I hit it right where I wanted to. Right in the neck and I faded it in and kicked right and had a downhill left-right putt and made it. RHONDA GLENN: That was about twelve feet, did you say? LESLIE SPALDING: That was about 15, 18 feet. RHONDA GLENN: Then double bogey on 8. You were 3-under par going into that hole. LESLIE SPALDING: Yeah, I didn't quite concentrate. I had a 6-iron in and I wasn't thinking how I had been thinking all day long and the wind was right-to-left and I aimed it at the pin and pulled it a little bit and the wind got it and it was -- I pulled it quite a bit. RHONDA GLENN: Did it go down that bank? LESLIE SPALDING: It was down the bank. I had to take an unplayable lie and chipped it out which was a good chip because there is no easy way to do that besides taking it back to the tee. Chipped it out and hit the pin and I 2-putted from there. Q. Where is the pin today on that hole? LESLIE SPALDING: The pin is back right. Q. For you, does that tree, you know, that -- LESLIE SPALDING: It doesn't come into play. No, it won't come into play. Q. When you are on the tee, where are you going? LESLIE SPALDING: You aim it over the left edge of the tree, left side of the tree which is in line with the pin. Q. Where did you -- LESLIE SPALDING: I pulled it left and it kind of kicked left and went down, I had no shot. RHONDA GLENN: Were you in the high grass? LESLIE SPALDING: I was in the high grass and there was a bank. I was right at the base there and there was no shot. RHONDA GLENN: Leslie is referring to that big tree which is to the right side of the opening to the green on No. 8. There is a tree to the left and one to the right. She is referring to the one on the right. Then you had steady pars, 9 through 17. Were there any really good saves in there? LESLIE SPALDING: 16, I hit a poor second shot and I had an uphill lie going into the green, it was fine. But, hit a really good shot there. RHONDA GLENN: What did you use? LESLIE SPALDING: I hit a 9-iron. RHONDA GLENN: Were you to the right away from the big tree? LESLIE SPALDING: Yeah. Way away from the big tree. And, hit that up. I had about 30-footer and left that about eight feet short and made that. RHONDA GLENN: 8-footer to save a par. LESLIE SPALDING: Yes. RHONDA GLENN: Then on 18, great birdie, long hole. LESLIE SPALDING: Yeah. RHONDA GLENN: Good drive in the fairway. LESLIE SPALDING: Yes, and which I got no roll. I mean, it plugged, kind of. And then I had 175 into a little wind and hit a 7, got up to about eight feet, seven or eight feet and made it. RHONDA GLENN: You say you are not a long hitter. What is your average tee shot, would you say? LESLIE SPALDING: About 230. RHONDA GLENN: How was the course playing out there? Obviously played very well for you. What were the conditions like. LESLIE SPALDING: The conditions were good. A little breeze which didn't affect too much. The greens are holding pretty well. Some of them you have to kind of run it up. But, they are putting very well. They are perfect. The course is perfect. I guess we got a little rain last night so it is a little softer out there. Q. What time was your wake-up call this morning? LESLIE SPALDING: 4:45. Q. How did you feel about your second wake-up call after you double bogeyed No. 8? LESLIE SPALDING: Just kept me aggressive. Had to stay aggressive out there because if you don't stay aggressive and focused you will hit poor shots and you can't hit poor shots out there. Q. The you only made 6 out of 17 cuts coming in here. Anything that gave you a sense that this might be coming; that you might have this kind of round? LESLIE SPALDING: I love the U.S. Open. It is my favorite tournament. Tough conditions, it plays long and I am a scrambler. I can get it up-and-down. I think it plays, you know, certainly makes it easier for the longer hitters to get on the greens in 2, but if it plays tough, then I think I can play that kind of course. Q. Could you talk about playing in the first group? Were you just really tired when you got to the tee or were you glad that you didn't have to sit around all day waiting for a tee time? LESLIE SPALDING: I was happy that I didn't have a 3:30 tee time. 6:45, it was great. We didn't have to wait at all. In fact, we got timed out there on the back 9 a little bit. I was very, very pleased with my tee times. Q. Leslie, I was reading this right that you are actually a PGA -- you belong to the PGA of America also? LESLIE SPALDING: Yeah, I do. I used to be a club pro in Tampa for two and a half years and earned my PGA membership; went through my interview and quit the next day to play. RHONDA GLENN: Leslie, you said that you were inspired to play golf because the shot that you hit to the final green in the 1995 Women's Open at the Broadmoor, tell us about that circumstance. LESLIE SPALDING: I think I finished second to last in that tournament before the cut and I didn't make a birdie the whole time. I didn't hit the ball well that week. But on the 18th hole I had to finish my round on Saturday morning and the crowds were really big and I had never played in front of that many people before. And I hit a 7-iron to about foot and a half and, to me, it was like everybody jumped up and screamed, so that was really exciting; made me want to do this and made me want to compete on the LPGA and in the U.S. Open. Q. You shot a good round in the last round last week, 67; was it? LESLIE SPALDING: Yeah. Q. Any carry-over from that as far as your confidence or something you had been working on all of a sudden clicking? LESLIE SPALDING: I have been playing better. I have been working on my swing quite a bit and I think it is getting better. Yeah, I mean that plays into confidence quite a bit. I made lots of birdies that day and very few bogeys. So any time you can do that, you are going to score well, and I think for my game, the reason why I am playing better at this year's U.S. Open is I am very comfortable with all of my woods in my bag. I feel confident that I can hit them where I want to. That helps out here. Q. Looks like there is fans crawling all over the place. There is an hour-long traffic jam out on the road. How many people actually were here at 6:45? LESLIE SPALDING: I didn't have any of that. (laughs). I mean, when I got done the guy said: Do you want me to take you to the locker room afterwards, like walk me up. I said: I don't know how many people are here. So, yeah, it is nice to play in front of big crowds like this. That is why I like coming to the U.S. Open because it is -- you are at a different site, so it makes it special to that area and it brings big crowds. I think that is a lot of fun for us. Q. There was, what, 10, 100 people at the first tee at 6:45? LESLIE SPALDING: There were about 10, 15. Q. What were you thinking after you were 3-under after 7? LESLIE SPALDING: Keep this going and stay aggressive and on my tee shot, I didn't stay focused like I should have. Q. Going back to the PGA, was it your intention to quit after you took your interviews? LESLIE SPALDING: Yeah, I got the job because I needed time to improve my game before I could really compete on the LPGA and I really used that time -- I worked like 12 -- I worked in the pro shop for about six hours a day and then I worked on my game for the rest of the day, so, it really helped. I got to play some mini-tour events each summer and I tried to play as much as I could with the thought of playing out here. Q. You wanted to finish your whole -- LESLIE SPALDING: I wanted to finish that. I hadn't qualified for the Tour yet, so if I had qualified for the Tour, I would have definitely quit my job. But, I hadn't qualified, so, I got that and quit in April and played a mini-tour, the Gulf Coast Tour for five months. Really prepared myself for playing out here. RHONDA GLENN: They were talking about the difference in the crowds when you began the day and when you finished your round. Could you see any growth of spectators as you were going along? LESLIE SPALDING: Yeah, there was definitely a lot more people; especially on the home holes, like 16 -- yeah, 16 and 14 or 13. 13, where -- near the parking lot and all that, where people walk in. RHONDA GLENN: Did you have a pretty big crowd around the 18th green when you finished? LESLIE SPALDING: Not really. There were some, but a lot more on the 9th green. RHONDA GLENN: Leslie, congratulations. Thanks so much. LESLIE SPALDING: Thank you. RHONDA GLENN: Good luck for the rest of the week. LESLIE SPALDING: Thank you. End of FastScripts.... |
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