SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 16, 2004

Craig Bowden

CRAIG BOWDEN: Yeah, I didn't expect her to play like she played. I mean, you know, she's 14 years old, and she beat a lot of guys. I mean, she missed the cut by a shot, and unfortunate because it would have really done something for her and the game of golf. What an attribute it would have been to this tournament. And she played good. She played great golf.

Q. Other than looking at her, would you have noticed any other characteristics that would have separated her from other players?

CRAIG BOWDEN: Well, I mean, she just handles herself really well. I know she was nervous coming down the stretch. I felt bad for her because I know what she's going through. It's hard. It's a hard scenario. The cameras are in her face and the media guys, you guys. She handles herself incredible.

Q. A lot of poise?

CRAIG BOWDEN: Tremendous.

Q. Patience?

CRAIG BOWDEN: Tremendous.

Q. She lost something with the driver, is that a matter of nerves?

CRAIG BOWDEN: Probably trying to hit it hard. That's the only thing I think she kind of gets -- she tries to really get it out there good, because that's her talk. Everybody talks how far she hits and she tries a little too hard sometimes to get it out there. And that's the only thing I could say she probably slides on it and tries to hit it hard. That's the only thing I can see that maybe something that she needs.

Obviously in time she will get stronger and she won't have to do that. It will just come natural to her. She's got all of the physical things with the height and all of that going for her.

Q. Sliding; she gets ahead of it?

CRAIG BOWDEN: She gets ahead of it. Because she's just not developed yet. She doesn't have the muscle strength to do it. Here I'm talking, and she's knocking it 30 behind me.

I'm glad because I stayed within my game. It helped me.

Q. You know what it's like to grind and try to make cuts. This is her first try and she just missed it by one.

CRAIG BOWDEN: She had a rough go in Boise on the Nationwide. And this week she's in her home state and that's obviously a big -- that's probably a big motivator for. That probably helped her out a lot. I think she's got an incredible future ahead of her.

Q. Projecting eight, 10, 20 years?

CRAIG BOWDEN: Oh, she's going to really give the ladies, if she decides to go that route --

Q. She wants --

CRAIG BOWDEN: I know. That's one of the only things I'm kind of in a disagreement with. Because, you know, I think she obviously needs to learn how to be at her level and then go to the next level. I've done that my whole career. She's got obviously -- she almost made the cut here.

Q. There's a notion that she is better at 14 than Tiger was at 14.

CRAIG BOWDEN: I don't know because I wasn't able to watch Tiger too much.

Q. There are a lot of people that seem to think that. If you take that, and then you take what she might be eight years from now, who knows?

CRAIG BOWDEN: Who knows? If she's going to put herself in that position and continue to play and compete and win and win and win and continue just to pound everybody at her level, to get the kind of confidence that Tiger was has, that's what you have to do.

Q. That's what Vijay and Tiger said last week; she has to get in that winning mindset.

CRAIG BOWDEN: There's no question. I've had to do it at every level and I'm still learning.

Q. But it's not inconceivable, though?

CRAIG BOWDEN: No, no. I think she's got a lot of potential.

Q. If you were a PGA TOUR tournament director and there, there's 48 of them, and they are all watching this and they see her miss by one here, I've got to think that she's going to get other sponsor's invites this year.

CRAIG BOWDEN: Probably will. I think she probably will.

Q. If you're a tournament director, do you invite her?

CRAIG BOWDEN: I mean, you know, she came out here and she competed this week. Obviously, we think of it as a gender, our nation as we obviously discriminate in a lot of ways. And I would have to say that something -- you know, I would say there's going to be -- she's going to have a lot of opportunity with this tournament.

She's going to have a lot of opportunities. It's going to help their tournament as far as notoriety and going to bring people out to watch and not as many as this week because this is her home state. So it's not going to be as much, but it's still going to be -- still going to be there.

You know, I think that -- you know she can play.

Q. A novelty turned into a competitive thing.

CRAIG BOWDEN: She grinded, man. She got after it. She got after it. And there was no novelty in her game. There's no novelty at all in her game. She's got game. I'm impressed. I'm impressed -- I don't even care that she's a girl. That doesn't even -- it impresses me that she is at that age. It's not even that she's a girl. It's that she is at that age and that she can play at that level.

That's the thing. It's not man, woman, child, whatever it is. It's that she is that old and she's able to come out here and compete. I personally couldn't find my ass with both hands at 14. I can't imagine. That's the way it is.

End of FastScripts.