U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

May 29, 2001

Karrie Webb

KARRIE WEBB: Thanks, Rhonda. Well, it's really good to be back at the site of my first U.S. Open. I feel like my game is in as good a shape as it's been all year. I put in a really hard working week last week and I feel that my game is really coming into shape and hopefully is going to peak sometime Thursday afternoon through Sunday would be good. But, no, I feel really good about things. I played the course today. And obviously with the rain that we've had the last couple of days, it is a little soggy out there. The fairways -- there's not a lot of standing water. But you're not getting a lot of roll. It's definitely playing its full length. The greens are quite soft right now and not putting as fast as any of us really expect. But I'm sure by Thursday with a little bit of sunshine the course will dry out and firm up a little bit and play probably pretty similar to the way it did five years ago.

KARRIE WEBB: I think it was the top-20.

KARRIE WEBB: I definitely think it does. I think with the added length I think that -- I think -- you're definitely going to see a ball striker or a few ball strikers in contention. And I wouldn't be surprised that someone that hits it fairly long and is quite a good ball striker is going to win the tournament just because -- I do like the course being as wet as it is on the fairways, just because -- I hit a lot of 4, 5, 6-irons today into a lot of the par-4s, which with the greens, if they firm up a little bit, it's a good test to get it onto the green in the right spot. Because obviously Donald Ross greens, half of the green is what you're aiming for, the rest of it runs off away from the pins and off the green. So I think -- I lost my train of thought there. But I think that a ball striker has definitely got a good chance of winning this week. And obviously same rules apply for hitting fairways and greens and not try to get into too much trouble.

KARRIE WEBB: Obviously we hit those during the course of a round on the LPGA. But not nearly as many times as I did today, which I think it eliminates a good majority of the field when it is playing that long. Just because I feel like I'm above average in length and I'm hitting 4, 5s and 6s in there. And there's people out there that are struggling to get their 5-woods and 3-woods to the green. So I think -- and -- if those players play well and they're on the green, they're going to be in as good a shape as I am. But fairways and greens.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, throughout the whole process of that case I think that I have seen both sides of the story, and I think considering where both players are coming from. But ultimately I think it would be pretty hard to disallow someone that's been born with a disability and obviously has overcome that throughout his life to be quite an established golfer. And just because he can't walk 18 holes, I think it would be pretty tough not to allow him to participate on the PGA TOUR, the Buy.Com Tour, whichever Tour he's on. I think that he stuck it out for -- I don't know how many years it's been now. It's been at least a couple, four years, really. And throughout that whole time he has -- he's played some pretty good golf and he made it onto the PGA TOUR, I know, last year. And I think it's good for him. I'm sure it's a big weight off his shoulders. And I really don't think that if the PGA TOUR sets the right regulations, I really don't think that it's going to be taken advantage of. I think that it's something that he's been born with, he's been born with the disability, it's not like it's happened throughout his life and just has a bad back or something like that. It's something that he's overcome. And he's a lot less fortunate than most of us sitting in this room. So I think it's great for him to have that opportunity.

KARRIE WEBB: I don't know about that. I think I've got to put a good tournament together to really say that. But I've gone into the U.S. Open last year, I didn't think my game was in good shape at all, and I won the tournament. I feel a lot better about my game than I did leading up to the Open last year, so I feel like if I can just get off to a pretty good start. And Thursday and Friday I feel like things will be rolling pretty well.

KARRIE WEBB: It was something that I had been planning back in September, October last year, when I knew what the schedule was going to be this year. I had a four-week break at that time last year. I just added one more week to it this year. And I think the last couple of years really have caught up to me. It's been a tremendous couple of years for me, successwise on the golf course, and there's a lot involved, not just playing good golf and keeping your game in good shape. It's obviously a lot of extra things go into that. And I think just the build up of everything caught up to me just a little bit. And I did need that five weeks off. And I think it's also -- it's also good to have that five weeks off, because we have not only this week, we have a number of big tournaments coming up on the LPGA, as well.

KARRIE WEBB: I think that's the No. 1 key for anyone, I would think. And obviously I talked about that the last couple of years at the Open. And I think it's always a big key for me is not to -- probably heard this line many times, you can't win the tournament Thursday and Friday, but you can lose it. So just go out there -- I don't anticipate, even with -- if we were starting tomorrow and the course is wet and the greens are a little slower and a little softer, I still don't anticipate this course to be low at all. I think anywhere around -- if you're anywhere around par come Saturday or Friday night, you're definitely in for a good shot winning it throughout the weekend.

KARRIE WEBB: I'm a veteran now, I'm a 26-year-old veteran. But it's great to see. I really -- I was talking to the TV guys out there before I came in and when I was 13 I was just happy to break 80. I couldn't even imagine playing a U.S. Open. I mean, that's just -- I can't imagine what is going through Morgan's mind. I know the twins have both played in LPGA events, so they've had that little bit more experience. But it's definitely -- I know when I was 21, I was very overwhelmed to be at my first U.S. Open. That's eight years older than what Morgan is. I just hope that she just really enjoys the experience, because not too many kids her age get to do that. And just not to be too hard on herself. I think the fact that she's here is an accomplishment of its own.

KARRIE WEBB: I definitely would be. I think as popular as golf is today, and as much as it's changed over the years, you do have to be an athlete. You have to be fit to play golf. And I think there's instances in every sport where there's probably someone that isn't as fit as others that's successful, but not nearly as often as the fittest in their sport. So for me I think just the whole Olympic experience would be something. You watch the 100 meter sprints and the men and the women as a favorite, and the favorite normally wins the golf medal. Golf would be totally different, because the favorite doesn't always win a golf tournament. So it would be great just to -- my whole experience would be just to be able to stay in Olympic Village and stay with all the different athletes that are the best of their sport from their respective countries and just to walk out on the track in green and gold and be with all the other Australian athletes. To me that would be the experience -- that would be the reason I'd want to be in the Olympics, just to experience that. Because we get to play in big tournaments, like this tournament, every single year. For a lot of those athletes that's one of their biggest events for their whole life. I'd just like to be around that and just to be able to witness all of it.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, first question, I didn't really necessarily work on anything specific, just the things that I've been working on all year. I just felt like it's been a gradual progression, and felt like the two weeks that I was out on the LPGA Tour in Nashville and Dayton, I was going to have plenty of time to really work on my game. But mother nature didn't want me to do that. Last week I probably worked a lot harder than I ever anticipated. But it was really good. I saw a lot of good things throughout my whole game that just really needed to put the hours in. And like I said, I feel a lot better coming into this tournament than I did last year for this tournament. Well, I think that -- I'm trying to think where it starts. I guess from 13 through 18, you play those at even par, you're probably going to have a pretty good round.

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, I think so. The finishing holes are some of the toughest, just because of hole after hole after hole, from 13 through 18, there isn't a hole that you get on the tee and say I can play this pretty aggressively. You've just got to put in good swing after good swing. Because I think bad swings on those holes are where you're going to get penalized the most. But there's some holes that set up -- I don't ever think you can play a U.S. Open hole and think that you can birdie it. Both par-5s are pretty reachable. I think one is less reachable -- the yardage is reachable, but because it's your first hole of the day for the most part, except for one round, you're not about to get up there and jump all over a drive on the first hole. So it's not as reachable as the yardage seems. But 10 is definitely reachable. And there are a few shorter par-4s out there that you want to try to take advantage of. But like I said, you take those for granted and make silly bogeys on those holes, it makes the other holes really tough. I just play every hole as tough, and if I make a birdie, I'm pretty happy.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, I really can't -- I had no control over that, believe it or not. She did that all on her own. But I think that for me personally I didn't expect to be the No. 1 player every single year I was out here. I know that there's some people that expect that of the top athletes. But for me, personally, I don't believe that that's a possibility, as much as I would like it. I think that I've been fortunate enough to have two really successful years. And this year is not over by any means. The biggest tournaments are yet to come. And if I play pretty decent throughout the summer, I still feel that I'm going to end up with a pretty good year. I'm not too disappointed with the way things have gone this year. I feel like I've played pretty decently. I just haven't done what I've done over the last couple of years. And I didn't really expect to do that every year. The last couple of years have gotten off hot the first few months. And this year may be different. Maybe I'll play June, July and August pretty well. All I can do is work hard and put 100 percent in it like I've done the last five-and-a-half years. And if things work out in my favor, that's great. If they don't, it's someone else's turn.

KARRIE WEBB: The five weeks you mean? I took three weeks off from touching a club, pretty much. I did a couple of photo shoots for sponsors where I had to swing a golf club, but I didn't have to care which way the ball flew, because they weren't watching that. But pretty much three weeks off without touching a club. And then in that time tried to do a little bit of fishing. But it was pretty windy in South Florida for about three weeks, so didn't get as much done as I would like. But other than that, the last couple of weeks just worked on my game and tried to get things back into shape to come back out on Tour.

KARRIE WEBB: That's hard to say. You can play your very best golf and someone could just play better that week. That's hard to control what other people do. But I know if I play my very best golf, I'll have a shot at it on Sunday.

KARRIE WEBB: Me as a person and away from the golf course, I don't think too much has changed except that I've gotten a little bit older. I think I've matured on and off the golf course. But for on the golf course I think just the maturing factor has made my game better and better every year, because I'm not -- I'm still very hard on myself, don't get me wrong. But each year I'm less and less hard on myself to the point that I know if things are going to be good sometimes, and things -- they're going to be okay, and sometimes they're not going to be good at all. And I went throughout my career with finishing 1, 2, 3 or 4 on the money list every year, then I'm pretty lucky. But I know that's probably not going to be the case. And I think a sign of a great player is a player who when they're not playing so well still manages to finish all right at the end of the year. As far as how my game has come from '96 to now, I just think that because I have matured, I don't let certain holes get to me as much. But trust me, there's still times where I'm still a 21-year-old rookie out there sometimes and make some rookie mistakes still. But I think everyone does that. And I just think I make a lot less of those. And it's less and less every year.

KARRIE WEBB: I don't really know -- rivalry because the last five-and-a-half years we've both finished relatively -- one of us has finished No. 1 in the money list or 2 or 3 or 4, but we've both -- since I've been out here, I haven't finished any less than 4th. And I don't believe since I've been out here she's finished any worse than 4th, either. Rivalry, because we've played so well for such a long period of time that we're bound to look like we're rivals because we're always trying for the trophies. And more often than not there's a few tournaments where we're in the last group together or where on the last hole of the tournament, maybe if we're not in the last group of each other, we're within a couple of groups of each other and we're one and two in the tournament. But I think that's as far as it goes. Obviously Annika has told people that my last couple of years motivated her to get her game in better shape and play better each year. And her play motivates me -- I don't think I can work any harder on my game. I feel like I put 110 percent into it already. I know there's always room for improvement, and I'm always constantly trying to do that. Whether or not she's doing what she's doing, I'm going to be doing what I'm doing. And the fact that she's doing what she's doing does make me want to get back to it sooner rather than later. But our relationship is obviously -- we're two very competitive people and we both know what we want and where we want to go. And I think we're pretty friendly. I like playing with Annika. I know that when we're both paired together, that you're going to see some good golf out of both of us. But off the golf course I think we don't socialize a lot together. But I don't really think a lot of people expect two people that are at it as much as we are on the golf course to go out and socialize every night of the week.

KARRIE WEBB: You know, I don't look at favorites. I think everyone has a chance to win, everyone is capable of playing good golf. If I pick one or two people out, then someone is going to come up from behind me and take everyone by surprise. So I look at everyone as capable of beating me. And if I do that, then I'm not going to let anyone -- I'm not going to take anyone for granted, and I'm going to put 110 percent into it and at the end of the week if someone is better than me, then I can't do anything about it.

KARRIE WEBB: Well, obviously for me personally I carried the Olympic torch on the last leg of the Thursday night, which was the night before the opening ceremonies. So for me personally, that was my highlight of the Olympics. Just to be able to participate in the Olympics was -- in any form was definitely a big thrill. But I was at the opening ceremony, so I felt very proud to be an Australian. It was just such a great success. And I just look at it -- all the athletes, they were just tremendous. Anyone that won a medal, there was so much pressure on our top athletes down there to perform well in their home country, that I was just astounded by their performances. I think that I do this every single week. And some weeks are good, some weeks are bad, but when it comes down to just one week for them in their home country, and it's just -- it was simply amazing.

KARRIE WEBB: No, because I think that -- it was more than just Cathy. But I think what added to her pressure was that the rest of the world was watching, too, not just Australia. Until the opening ceremonies -- she's a household name in Australia. But until the opening ceremonies she wasn't a household name in the rest of the world's houses. After the opening ceremonies she was. There was so much more focus on that race than there normally would be. I think that she came through and Susan O'Neill and Ian Thorp was unbelievable. We take for granted the women's hockey team. We just take for granted that they're going to win the gold medal every year. Just everyone that performed the way they did, it was great. I was so glad that I was down there for the most part of it. And the second part, the second week was back here in the States, which was a little frustrating, because we already knew what was going to happen. But other than that, it was a tremendous experience. I was really glad that I took the time to be down there and just to watch some of it was great.