SYBASE BIG APPLE CLASSIC PRESENTED BY GOLF MAGAZINE

July 20, 2001

Karen Stupples

KAREN STUPPLES: Started on the front with a birdie. Nice way to start off the round. Then I birdied 3 also. The first hole I hit four sand wedge and I had about 85 yards to the pin and I ended up with a 10-foot putt and made that. It bogeyed a little left or right. in the third hole, I ended up in the rough with my third shot. I was a little short of the pin. I hit a sand wedge again. I hit about -- I think it was 24 and I made that one. So you make two good putts on the first three holes, you feel pretty confident for the rest of the round. Made a good save, actually, on the 4th hole, the par 3. I missed the green. Put a really good chip in it. Again, confidence is building. I just pared in from there. I don't think I made any more birdies or bogeys. Good pars. Birdied 10 and 11. On the 10th hole, I hit an 8 on. I had 130 yards to pin, so I hit a little (inaudible) and I was on an uphill lie, so it went and flew really high and tapped off to about four foot. The 11th hole had a -- I hit an 8-iron again. I had 135 yards this time. That also went to about four foot. I made that. 12 was okay. 13 was okay. I bogeyed 14. It was a little unfortunate. I hit a 3-wood off the tee. I hit a 6-iron that pitched by the flag, then just took a big hop over the back of the green into some thick rough. Couldn't really do much, just try and get it on the green and just take your medicine. That's what happened there. Came right back with a birdie on the par 5. Just hit the 4-iron onto the green and took two putts, said thanks very much (laughing). 16, it's also good to make a par on 16. I was very happy there. 17 was a good par. And 18, I hit a laid up to 90 yards and hit a little pitching wedge down just a bit short and had a 10-foot putt there for my birdie.

KAREN STUPPLES: Absolutely. That's really there. 15 is an easier hole. You'd almost rather have 15 as par 4 and 14 as a par 5. Because the green is so high. The trouble is for me today, I couldn't hit a driver off the tee for fear of running out into the water. And then you've got a layup with your 3-wood which leaves you -- for me, I had 150 yards to the pin, up hill, really firm green, over a bunker. You are really struggling to get that one close. So you think -- you just hope that you can maybe try and stop on the fringe and leave your chance. But mine just hopped on through into the thicker stuff. And it's thick (laughing).

KAREN STUPPLES: I changed coaches back in October. I see a guy called Chip Koehlke at the Nick Faldo Golf Institute in Orlando. Janice Moodie coached by the same guy. And we've been working really hard on a lot of things. And it's almost taken me until the middle of the year to really become accustomed to how to play with the changes that we've made. I feel I'm a much better player now than I have been. I've had top 10 last year and the year before, but I feel that this year I'm really starting to come into some consistency with my playing.

KAREN STUPPLES: It's just a confidence thing as much as anything else. I finished off last year really badly. And just -- to overcome that as well as the swing changes, it was big thing to do. As soon as you have one good round, you get that one round under par, which I had in Atlanta, then you start to think, okay, this is okay. I can still shoot under par. I can still do this.

KAREN STUPPLES: Chip Koehlke. K-O-E-H-something or other. (Laughing) You can make that up as you go along (laughing).

KAREN STUPPLES: Coach Chip at the Faldo Institute. How about that? Sorry. I've never been known for my spelling (laughing).

KAREN STUPPLES: Yeah. I can't keep my eyes off the board. And it was pretty exciting. Because it was nice to be trying to make it. You know, and you put yourself in that position. Well, if I'm in this position on Sunday and I've got to make this putt to tie the lead to get into the playoffs, it would be a really -- it would be a good thing to do. I tried to put that on there and it worked out this time. So hopefully on Sunday if I'll be in the same position, I'll do the same.

KAREN STUPPLES: I'm getting there. I'm improving. I think today I hit some pretty decent driving. I'm there or thereabouts on a lot par 5s around here. I've also worked hard on my short game recently, which has really paid dividends. Those little finesse shots between 45 and 100 yards out. I've really worked hard on those. Those help out around here.

KAREN STUPPLES: I love it. I really love watching it. It's been a big part of my life growing up. I grew up on a course which bordered one of the Open courses, and my dad and I just -- when we were young growing up, we used to watch it all the time. When it was on the TV, it would be on the TV all day long. My mum and my sister, poor things, were not into golf. But we made them suffer through it, too. But, yeah, I watched it all morning. I loved watching. It's good to see Monty doing really well. There's nobody that I want to see win that more than him. I feel that he deserved it. He's played in -- won so many tournaments, and to win a major and especially the British would be great.

MICHELE REDMAN: I grew up near (inaudible) Georges, where they are going to hold it in 2003.

KAREN STUPPLES: Did you really? Did you have fun?

KAREN STUPPLES: Princes. Oh, yeah. I'm a member at (inaudible) but I group up at Princes. My dad was a member of Princes. So we played those courses.

KAREN STUPPLES: Definitely. You know, it's taken me a while. There's so much still that I need to learn. And I really realized this year how much I didn't know about playing golf. I came straight from amateur golf into the LPGA. It is a huge step. It really took me totally by surprise. All of a sudden, I've gone from being a big fish with the amateur golf to being in the same locker room as Nancy Lopez and Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam. And it was like, wow, it really took me by surprise. I've been fortunate that I've managed to stay out here. I've played well enough to stay out there. I feel now that with the changes I'm making, I've gained a bit of confidence. Now is the time to really start moving up and try and get myself in the top 50 and the money list and start thinking about things like that.

MICHELE REDMAN: Yeah. He's still here. Still carrying my bag. David, yeah. He does really well. He couldn't caddy for me last week. He had a bad foot. I really miss him. So it was great to have him back on the bag. He works really hard. That's probably unusual. That's unusual to hear that from a player having, you know, a husband, I think, that they still get along and don't argue (laughing).

KAREN STUPPLES: With David and I, we really try and keep whatever happens on the golf course at the golf course. And just this year, we've had to say to each other, I'm going to be really nice to you today. No matter what happens, I'm going to be really nice to you. And whatever happens, we must try and figure it out at the course. If we have a bad round, then we can't leave the course until we've at least got everything out of our system. Because I don't want to be in the car with him with him still going on about how things have gone. I'd much rather get it out the system, that way we can go back to bed husband and wife outside of the golf course.

KAREN STUPPLES: Which doesn't contain my bad words (laughing)? Let me think now. I -- we really -- we rarely have any arguments on the course. We very rarely -- we always try and keep that aside. And he's really good. Because he'll just stand there and he'll take it. After the round, we'll have words. But during the round of golf, he's really good. He just keeps his head on and keeps giving me the numbers and the reads on the paths and just keeps going. He just keeps going. In the car afterwards, we've had a few arguments. I left him at Publics once. I let him at Publics once (laughing). He was still going on about something, and I said, All right, that's it. I'm going. And I got in the car and he had to -- that's was the only time really. Poor guy has to put up with a lot.

KAREN STUPPLES: No, no. This is when we were back home. We have a place in Orlando where we live. So Publics is only just around the corner. It wasn't too bad of a deal (laughing).

KAREN STUPPLES: Yeah. We live opposite. Right opposite it, which is very handy.

KAREN STUPPLES: Do you really? Nice guy. Everything I miss about home, I can get right there. I can get my tea bags; I can get my custard and my pudding. You name it, I can get it. He can go for his beer. They have British pubs. He can go get his beer down there. He's pretty happy.

KAREN STUPPLES: Yes. Only get nervous (Inaudible).