U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 7, 2003

Angela Stanford

Q. Pretty exciting day?

ANGELA STANFORD: Yes.

Q. Talk about 18 a little bit.

ANGELA STANFORD: Well, we walked up to the tee box and said, well, here we are again, birdie to tie. And I hit a pretty good tee shot, really good second shot. I was actually okay that it was in the rough, because I was going to have to land it short, anyway, so I thought, it will have the top spin on it and it will roll up. And when I got up there the way the grass -- the way it was sitting on the grass, it didn't look too good. So I hit the best shot I could and thought, well, I have one last chance, maybe there's some magic left in this green for me. I can't believe it went in. It was just a great putt. But Hilary's putt was amazing, also.

Q. Did you know it was in all the way?

ANGELA STANFORD: Once I hit it I thought it might have a chance, and then when it started curling, I thought don't curl out of the hole. And everybody was yelling -- and that's the cool thing about having fans around, is they can see every angle, so when they get louder, you know. The louder they got, the more I thought it could go in, it disappeared and I thought, I can't believe it happened again.

Q. Describe your emotional swing, after taking a shot like that, and seeing Hilary's shot go in?

ANGELA STANFORD: I was already thinking about No. 13, they told me we had to go to 13 for the playoffs. I thought which one is No. 13. I've played it how many times this week? And I'm trying to figure out which one 13 is. And I stopped and thought, she's going to make this putt. I didn't let myself get too high. She's been putting great, she left it short today, she won't do that again. I knew the line she had. So I didn't get my hopes up too high.

Q. You got yourself four or five strokes behind, did you talk to yourself or what did you do to get yourself back into it?

ANGELA STANFORD: I didn't realize how tired I was until I got out there this morning. And when I'm tired my swing is awful. And when I showed up this morning I didn't know how bad it was until I got out there. And I thought, okay, if I can just hang around, if I can keep it to two or three over, figure it out, fix this swing quick, then -- hopefully Hilary will back up a little bit. I thought if I can just get to even with a few holes left I'll have a shot. And about the turn -- I was standing on 10 tee box, I thought I've got 9 holes. That's the great thing about golf, I felt like I'm starting over. It was a new beginning. I felt like I figured out my swing on 11 tee box. And I finally started hitting good shots. And then the confidence came back a little bit in the short game, also.

Q. (Inaudible.)

ANGELA STANFORD: What did I shoot on the front? And I know I probably shouldn't have put myself in that hole, and I shouldn't have had to do that, but like I said, I was just all over the place on the front nine. And that's -- it's the one thing that I take a lot of pride in that I'm not going to give up. I'm trying to figure it out and I'm going down swinging. That's what I did today because I thought somebody is going to walk away today as the U.S. Open champion, and I'm going to give it everything I have.

Q. Did you think you had this tournament won after 14?

ANGELA STANFORD: That was the chip in?

Q. Yes.

ANGELA STANFORD: I felt like the momentum was going my way, like I really thought -- and then when I made the par on 15 I thought, okay, I feel like I can take this if I wanted it. And the putt on 16 is the shot -- the putt I wish I could have had back, because I didn't hit it as firm as I wanted to, and it was in the hole, and I just -- it just leaked at the very end, that's the putt I want back, not the second shot on 17 or the bunker shots. If I made birdie on 16, I think it would be different.

There's so much I learned the last few weeks. I've always said I'm a big believer in you learn how to win, and I learned how to win last week, and I learned so much about being in contention in a major this week, there's just -- about being patient, about not hitting it well, but still getting it around the course, course management, being in the wrong spot and the right spot, so I feel like I've taken quite a bit with me.

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