MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY AIG

June 8, 2002

Beth Daniel

BETH DANIEL: I understand we have to do this fast because the race is almost on, getting ready to start, so see if we are going to have a Triple Crown winner.

Comments on the round, I mean, obviously I am very pleased. You know, I went out there today playing with one of the best players in the world and, you know, basically felt like I matched her shot-for-shot and, you know, so that's pretty gratifying.

My goal today was just same as all week, try to hit fairways, hit greens, play smart golf, and the front 9 I did that very, very well. Back 9 I started to not drive it quite as well, so I was in a little bit of trouble and I had to scramble a little bit.

My short game held up for me, so same game plan tomorrow. It's very important to hit fairways and greens. Believe me, you can be out there -- I looked at a couple lies I had today, and I thought they were pretty decent, and just turned the club right over, so that rough is tough, and I hit it left on 10 -- I hit it in the short -- the first cut on 10 and it turned my club over because the (inaudible) cut the long stuff, and I thought I would never finish that hole. That might be the best bogey I have ever made in my life, on 10.

Q.: Beth, you said on TV you got some breaks and Karrie didn't. Can you give --

BETH DANIEL: Well, not that I feel sorry for Karrie, because she has had a pretty good career, but she just got -- she got some lies in the rough where a couple times in a row she had to just pitch it out, she had to sand wedge it out, and, you know, I hit it in the rough on -- well, 14 both of us hit it in the rough and she had to wedge it out. I was able to advance it at least to a green-side bunker.

So, you know, I just felt like, you know, I have played a lot of golf with Karrie, and I don't think she played her best golf today, but she certainly played well enough to score a little better than she did today, but, you know, just a couple of situations where the ball was just buried in the rough and she has got to pitch it out instead of having a shot at the green.

Q.: Beth, you have been in a position to -- recently, last year, twice in the lead going into the final day. You haven't won since '95. Does the memory of the 32 wins sort of kick in at this point or is it going to be a little strange for you?

BETH DANIEL: I will tell you what, I am not thinking of 32 wins or anything, I am thinking of one shot at a time and I am trying to just focus on one shot at a time. I am trying not to let anything bother me, and that's exactly what I will do tomorrow.

Q.: This is a difficult course, obviously, and you are playing today with Karrie, who felt, essentially, outplayed. What kind of shot of confidence does that give you?

BETH DANIEL: Well, pretty good shot of confidence, because if you look at my record this year, Saturday has been a pretty bad day for me, generally, that's where I have shot most of my bad rounds. So just mentally, to get past a Saturday is a shot of confidence for me.

You know, really, it was a good pairing for me today because Karrie and I are friends so, you know, we have a lot in common, we talked about a lot of things, so that's kind of a relaxing type pairing for me, even though it's a final pairing.

Q.: Beth, your putting, you must be particularly gratified with that.

BETH DANIEL: I will tell you a frank story about my putting. I am walking from 8 to 9 and I just made like a 40-footer on 8, and this couple and their -- I guess it's their daughter were walking along, and they didn't know I was walking beside them to the next tee, and the wife says "I just don't -- you know, I don't understand that long thing," talking about my long putter. As a matter of fact, I think she called it a "long dong." She said, "I don't understand that long dong. I could never putt with that."

And the husband goes, "Well, I think I am going to try one, as well as she is putting."

And then the daughter is like, "Oh, no way, I could never putt with that."

So I looked over and said, "Be careful, don't say anything bad about my putter," and they were like, "Oh, I am sorry, I am sorry."

Q.: The long dong, huh?

BETH DANIEL: Yes. You get all kinds of comments about the long putter, but somebody called it a hockey stick earlier in the week.

Q.: When did you start putting with that?

BETH DANIEL: April 2000.

Q.: Beth, it seems like a couple times that you got in trouble you responded well. Do you think that was the key to the round?

BETH DANIEL: Well, I call those momentum -- you know, they keep the momentum going, momentum builders, when you can hit a bad shot or get in trouble and come out of it okay.

You know, number 10 -- like I say, number 10 was probably the worst trouble I had been in all week, and, I mean, I was in rough so deep over there left of that green, and then you are looking at a green that goes totally away from you, and then I leave it in the deep rough and then hit a great shot out of that deep rough to about 8 feet, made the putt for 5.

I mean, I was looking at 6, maybe even 7 on that hole, and giving up, you know, all the birdies that I had made prior to that, so that was huge, that hole was huge.

Then I come right back on 11 and make birdie and get it back, so, you know, that's the thing. I am making a lot of birdies. I feel good over the putter, I am making a lot of birdies, and, you know, that makes up for a lot of mistakes.

Q.: Why did you go to the long putter?

BETH DANIEL: Well, various reasons. Do you have a year? I will tell you about it. But -- a number of reasons. I mean, I have gone through the yips in my career, or a form of the yips -- I am not sure if I had what you would really call the yips, but several times in my career I have gone through that, and my teacher, Mike McGetrick, said, "You know, Beth, you have to try the long putter, I think it's really good." And I am like, "No way, I will never go to that."

And we worked where -- actually, my putting with the short putter was good when I switched, and we went -- the morning of my Hall of Fame party, April 1st, 2000, Mike was in town for my Hall of Fame party and we went out to my club where I grew up, the Country Club of Charleston, and he gave me my first lessen with the long putter there, and I putted with both putters, you know, practiced with both putters for like a month, and then finally in Atlanta that year, about a month later, I said I am going to try it.

So the day before the first round I am like, I don't know what's going to happen, so I had two putters in my bag, I had a long and a short putter in my bag, I took my 3-iron out, but I putted well enough with the long putter.

But, you know, it's been about a year before I really started feeling really comfortable with it, because it's a new skill, and it's not -- and people think it's easy. It is not easy to putt with a long putter, it's actually harder to learn it, to learn how to putt with a long putter.

But the thing I like about it is I have a lot of back problems so it doesn't -- I can putt longer, I can practice longer, it doesn't hurt my back, and I see the line so much better standing up than I did when I was down with a short putter.

Q.: Did Mike call it a long dong?

BETH DANIEL: No, he didn't call it a long dong. He probably still wouldn't call it that, just that lady did.

Q.: You were maybe jokingly annoyed earlier this week taking about the 45-year-old Beth Daniel, et cetera, but, you know, a win tomorrow makes you the oldest by two years to win a major. Would you find any gratification out of that?

BETH DANIEL: It would be great, but I was thinking Tom Watson won Colonial. He was 50 at the time, wasn't he, when he won --

Q.: 48.

BETH DANIEL: Was he 48? And then Nick Price just won a few weeks ago. You know, I think it would be -- I think it would be a great story.

Q.: Beth, you will be, obviously, grinding tomorrow, but are you going to be having fun tomorrow?

BETH DANIEL: I don't know. I don't know if I can call it fun.

Q.: Are you on those -- will you be kind of watching the leader board tomorrow or are you one of those that wants to just put it --

BETH DANIEL: No, I have watched the leader board all week, so I will probably look and see, but I think starting out I have just got to kind of get into my routine, get some things going, hit some fairways, hit some greens, you know, kind of get into my round and try not to get caught up into that.

Q.: Is it easier to hold a lead on a course playing this difficult or would it be easier on an easier course?

BETH DANIEL: I don't know if it makes that much difference, really. The thing is, you can give away a lot of strokes quickly on a course like this. On an easier course, you know, someone is going to come from behind probably and shoot a low number, but there were some low numbers out there today. I thought the course played pretty tough today and there were a lot of low numbers, and particularly the greens got extremely fast, like the last five holes, I mean, really fast.

Q.: Talk just a little bit about your surgery. Was that in '97?

BETH DANIEL: '97.

Q.: How bad was the shoulder and did you -- how was it to come back from that?

BETH DANIEL: Well, I mean, every shoulder surgery is different, and it basically was left shoulder, I had what they call an aggressive chromoplasty. Basically, what they did is they made more room. My shoulder was too tight, so they had to make more room for it. (Yelling in background.) You think he won? You think War Emblem won? Is that what the yelling is about? Who cares about this, go War Emblem.

Q.: They don't have any more cheeseburgers, I think.

BETH DANIEL: Ronald McDonald made an appearance. So they had -- the tendon was -- I had a -- I can't even think now.

Q.: Injury?

BETH DANIEL: I did, but I had a bone spur on my aggressive chromium process and the tendon was rubbing on that and it was tearing the tendon, so basically what they did, they went in and they shaved part of the bone out and then took out the part of the tendon that was torn.

And it takes a long time to heal. It took me -- it was right at a year before I felt like I had the strength back in my shoulder, and, you know, Dr. Andrews told me to just come back and play, the best way to strengthen it is to play, but I played so poorly when I first came back from it that I don't know if that was a good thing or not. I mean, I know what he was trying to get me to do, but confidence-wise, it really hurt my confidence.

Q.: You were 40 at the time you had the surgery, thereabouts, probably?

BETH DANIEL: Yeah, that would be about right. Not quite. I would have been 39.

Q.: What's the outlook on your future at that point, once you are 40 and surgery and --

BETH DANIEL: Well, I mean, yeah, the thing is, I didn't have a choice -- I didn't feel like I had a choice, my only choice was surgery, because I literally could not take my arm in front of me and lift it up. I had to do this (indicating.) I just couldn't do it, I couldn't lift it on its own.

And it affected my golf swing and everything, so if I wanted to -- the way Dr. Andrews put it to me, if I wanted to play -- if I wanted a normal life, to be able to just go out and hit golf balls at some point in time later in life, that I needed the surgery. So that was a no-brainer to me.

And he told me that, and the next afternoon I was on the table, which was good, because if I had had time to think about it a little more, I might not have done it.

Q.: Want to do your score card now?

BETH DANIEL: I put it away. Okay. I birdied the fifth hole. The par 3 I hit 6-iron to 4 feet. And I bogeyed 6, I drove it in the rough.

Q.: That's what happens when you bogey.

BETH DANIEL: Yeah, okay. Bogey. I came up short and left of the green. I actually hit a really good pitch shot up to about 2 feet and I missed the putt. It's one of those putts where I hit it exactly where I wanted to and I missed it. So on to the next hole.

So 7 I birdied, I hit an 8-iron to 1 foot.

8, I hit 5-iron to 40 feet, made it.

And 9, I just had a pitch shot from short of the green, knocked it up a foot from the hole, made that.

10 is the hole that I was talking about that I could still be out there, but fortunately, I am not. I missed it left, missed it left again, left it in the long rough, pitched to 5 feet, made that for bogey.

11, I hit a sand wedge to 12 feet, made that for birdie. 12, I drove it in the fairway bunker with a 3-wood, left it short on the front fringe, had a pretty easy chip, just hit a bad chip, left myself about a 12-footer and missed it.

And all the rest were pars, except for 18, and I hit a 3-iron to 25 feet and made it for birdie.

End of FastScripts....