U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 12, 1999

Kellee Booth

KELLEE BOOTH: It feels great. My mom got to the semis and never got any farther than that. So it's nice to finally catch up with her, and hopefully, go beyond that.

KELLEE BOOTH: Yeah, I did. I just made a bogey on 2 and got a little unlucky on 7 after hitting a not-so-pretty shot. And it ended up in a place where there was a lot of high grass right around; my ball kind of nestled itself under. I didn't hit a very good chip shot and ended up making bogey. And right after that, I ended up making three birdies is a row to swing it the other way.

KELLEE BOOTH: I did think I made a hole-in-one on 9. I hit a really good shot. People didn't clap very much. (I thought:) Is it close? I think it is; or where is the ball. Actually, I thought when I was walking up to the green, I had maybe four or five feet, based on the crowd reaction. And I got up there, and I had only about a foot and a half.

KELLEE BOOTH: I think I did. 8, I hit a very good shot in there. She left the door open by hitting her second shot in the bunker and missed the chip shot. I was about four feet away, and I rolled in that putt.

KELLEE BOOTH: About four feet.

KELLEE BOOTH: Club was a 7-iron. I had about 152 or so down the hill. And I didn't want to be short, so I decided to hit the 7 rather than the 8.

KELLEE BOOTH: I hit a 7-iron.

KELLEE BOOTH: I know I made birdie. I'm just wondering what club I hit. I think I hit a 6-iron in to about five feet.

KELLEE BOOTH: Four feet.

KELLEE BOOTH: A foot on 9.

KELLEE BOOTH: I just kept plugging along, because I was hitting good shots. I really wasn't making the putts that I wanted to make. And, you know, you get down if you don't make the putts.

KELLEE BOOTH: Dorothy is my main focus tomorrow; coming out and playing a solid round against her. She's been playing really well this week. Just focus on that. And I'm not even going to worry about the possibility of what could happen on Saturday.

KELLEE BOOTH: In a couple matches, I pretty much throughout in the two tournaments in the Trans and the Western, I figured: Oh, I'm going home about halfway through the match. (Laughs). There's no way I'm going to win this match. And I just kept plugging along and stayed patient. And they made mistakes, and I capitalized on those mistakes. So I think the whole deal is that I need to stay patient.

KELLEE BOOTH: No.

KELLEE BOOTH: Not really. I think she's kind of stayed out of things. She yelled at my dad a couple times about a few things, but that's normal. (Laughs.) Just because we'll get in little arguments out there: You told me this and it wasn't right, and I should have done this. So then she gets mad at him for creating controversy. (Laughing).

KELLEE BOOTH: Four. Five this afternoon.

KELLEE BOOTH: Yeah, I made some longer putts today. I also hit some shots pretty close to the hole; so, I had some good opportunities to make birdies today.

KELLEE BOOTH: About 20 feet.

KELLEE BOOTH: I didn't hit a very good chip shot. Kind of frustrated with that. Didn't quite hit as solid and carry it as far as I would have liked to. I was kind of debating between clubs and decided to go with my sand wedge rather than my 52-degree wedge. So I hit the shot, and maybe I should have hit the 52. I'm just happy I made the putt, and I don't have to second guess it.

KELLEE BOOTH: Sometimes it's more fun. Sometimes it's not. I'm sure Stephanie wasn't real thrilled that we were even par and she was one shot ahead of me. I think after -- we were even in the match, and that was through 8 -- no, through 9 and she had a one-shot lead on me. I don't think she was real thrilled about that, but it goes with the two-shot swings. You can have a bad hole and it only costs you a hole rather than two or three shots.

KELLEE BOOTH: The thing that's neat about Match Play is it brings out the true heart and soul of a player. You know, the never-give-up attitude. If you do get down, you can crawl your way back out of it.

KELLEE BOOTH: I'm going to try to get ahead tomorrow.

KELLEE BOOTH: I wasn't down in my morning match, was I? But this morning we just seemed to have every hole.

KELLEE BOOTH: I'm learning more about the greens and the golf course in general that I know where to hit it, where on greens, especially that you need to hit the ball to give yourself opportunities to make birdies or even to save par, if that's the case.

KELLEE BOOTH: Some of these greens you can hit it past the hole and not be penalized, but a lot of them, you really want to stay below the hole.

KELLEE BOOTH: I don't feel any pressure, being expected to win. I've just been playing really well; so I guess people expect me to win. I'm just going to try to keep playing well, and keep that momentum going.

KELLEE BOOTH: Is that a good thing or a bad thing? (Laughing.)

KELLEE BOOTH: That's the way I am. I might be pretty intense on the course and try to stay focused, but when I'm off the course I don't try to take what happened on the course with me. Just try to forget it and go on.

KELLEE BOOTH: I don't think so. She's kind of stayed away. I'm not exactly sure why, because a lot of the times she will be there. But I think she just doesn't want to rattle me before a round. I'm glad she's not been down there. I would have been a lot more rattled than by my dad. In the warm-up sessions, I'm just trying to warm up, not trying to hit the best golf shots I can. That's what I try to do on the course. If she would have been down there, she would have been quite scared about some of my performances. (Laughing.)

KELLEE BOOTH: The second shot on the 1st hole was just darned luck. I was just trying to keep it under the tree and thought with the lie, I wasn't going to be able to make real good solid contact with it, and I just took off straight up. Lucky it went through the tree, and I thought I hit a really good putt for birdie and just didn't read it right.

KELLEE BOOTH: A little longer than that. About eight feet.

KELLEE BOOTH: A little. My feet need a rest. So it will be nice to get a little extra sleep tonight, and I'll probably go home and put them up a lit bit and try to get off of them. And just, other than that, I'm still going.

KELLEE BOOTH: I think it's because I've played a lot, and also because of the walk it is. You're going up and down a lot. The ups aren't so bad. The downs are hard on your feet. I have been playing a lot, but I seem to -- even though I have been tired at times, I seem to have gotten through that and been able to play well.

KELLEE BOOTH: Let's see, the North South, we had two qualifying rounds and three straight days of 36 holes, one of those being one match. And then I immediately came here and played two more practice rounds.

KELLEE BOOTH: Mm-hmm. And then the tournament. I played one practice round before the North South, because they only allow us one and I walked the other course. That was 36 holes of walking that first day, too. It's pretty tough.

KELLEE BOOTH: '76. She played in two Amateurs after I was born. Then she decided I was a handful and that was too much.

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