THE NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP

March 23, 2000

Beth Daniel

BETH DANIEL: Pars on the first three holes. Birdie on the 4th hole. I hit 7-iron to five feet. Then par on 5; par on 6. No. 7, I hit 6-iron to 23 feet; made that. No. 8, 5-iron to eight feet; made that. And that was the end of my birdies. And I bogeyed the 15th hole and actually got it up-and-down from the rough, just on the front fringe, the rough there, for bogey. I drove it right into the trees, pitched out and then hit a sand wedge short into the rough just short of the green there. Chip, it was in the long stuff.

BETH DANIEL: Let's see, you don't want to know all the other up-and-downs, do you? You don't care? What's that? Up-and-downs, I hit -- I only hit 11 greens. I made a few up-and-downs. The 2nd hole, that was an up-and-down; 5-footer. 9th hole, I chipped out of the long stuff to a foot. 10th hole, I holed a bunker shot for par. The bunker shot, probably 30 feet, 30-footer. 12th hole, I got it up-and-down from the bunker. 16th hole, I got it up-and-down from the bunker. And the 18th hole, I belly-wedged it from the back fringe and got it up-and-down from there. So front nine, I hit a lot more fairways on the front nine. I drove it much better; so, that was a much easier nine holes of golf. The back nine, I started leaving my driver out to the right and getting in the rough, and it's very, very difficult to get these balls on the greens from the rough.

BETH DANIEL: Well, this is the longest it's ever been setup. I don't know if it's the most difficult it's ever been set up. But certainly, it is the longest. The greens are probably as firm as I've ever seen them. I have seen the rough worse, but not a whole lot worse. It's definitely set up pretty tough.

BETH DANIEL: I'm just older (laughing). You know, I was relaxed today. I don't know if you're talking about today or if you're just talking about in general. Yeah, I probably am. I don't feel like I really have to prove anything out here anymore, and I'm certainly not as intense as I once was. So those factors combined probably make me seem like I'm a little more relaxed.

BETH DANIEL: I remember just about every shot. Alcott won. The way it was blowing on Monday was about how it was blowing on Sunday that year, and I had the lead going into the final round and I shot 76 in about 40-mile an hour winds and Alcott shot even par to win, which was an incredible round of golf under those conditions. I finished second. I've finished second here at least twice. But overall, for all the majors, my record is probably the worst here than any other major as far as finishes go. And I don't know why. I mean, I really like the golf course. You know, there's no reason why. But, you know if you looked at my finishes in majors, it wouldn't -- it would not be -- my record would not be as good here.

BETH DANIEL: I'm thinking I was like two shots ahead going into the final round. I'm not -- I am not sure.

BETH DANIEL: What's that?

BETH DANIEL: Well, I actually believe Shell is one of the most expensive gasolines. I tell everyone that so they can pay my contract. No, I'm about -- I'm about 1.73 per gallon these days.

BETH DANIEL: Well, that's a very good question. That's something I'm searching for, because, you know, I still want to play golf and I still feel like I'm capable of winning, but I'm really, really having a hard time drawing up that fire at times. That's something that I'm really struggling with at this point in time in my career.

BETH DANIEL: It could be because it's the first major of the year. You know, it's like maybe I'm just not quite ready; my game is not quite ready by the time I get here. Certainly, I have not played a lot of competitive golf this year coming into this event. You know, I just -- I played last week after taking a month off, and, you know, I don't feel like I'm on top of my game right now at all. So that could have something to do with it, just being the first major. I usually play a lot better in the summertime.

BETH DANIEL: My best Louise Suggs story? I don't know. Can I think about it for a little while and let you know? Okay. I've got some good ones.

BETH DANIEL: Well, the LPGA TOUR's Hall of Fame induction is April 1 for me, yes.

BETH DANIEL: It's going to be in Charleston, South Carolina.

BETH DANIEL: We're going to have She-Crab Soup, though, which is a Charleston specialty. So She-Crab Soup is on the menu, but -- She-Crab Soup, it's crab meat from female crabs. No, I know I said at one point in time that I would have it on a shrimp boat, but there are too many people that have it on a shrimp boat; so, it's going to be indoors.

BETH DANIEL: Louise is going to be there. Actually, eight Hall of Famers have RSVP'd at this point in time. Louise is one of those.

BETH DANIEL: Actually, the LPGA has been doing a lot of hard work on it. So it's, you know, just a matter of -- I've got a lot going on right now as far as that goes, because the RSVP's are still coming in, even though it's two days past the deadline. So the next thing I have to do is I have to do seating at the tables. So it's going to be a nice party. It will be really nice.

BETH DANIEL: Yeah, this year is my parents 50th -- well, actually they just had their 50th wedding anniversary February 18th. And they had a big bash that I went home for; so hopefully my party will be better than theirs, but their party was pretty good.

BETH DANIEL: Rachel's a very steady player. I actually have been paired a lot with her in the last couple of years. She just does not make a lot of mistakes. For instance, today, I mean, she may have missed one or two fairways. She just -- real steady, hits a lot of fairways, hits a lot of greens, and, you know, has a game that's set up for a golf course that's playing the way this one is this week. She's a very good putter, has a very good short game. So I've seen her play a lot of good rounds of golf.

BETH DANIEL: Well, I mean, if I had any regrets, I mean, I wish I had won more major championships, but, you know, it's not like my record is horrible in the majors. I only have one major to my credit, and to me, that's kind of hard to believe. But, you know, I'm -- I'm the type of person that I'm kind of a perfectionist, and no matter what I were to do in my career, I would have thought I should have done better. But, you know, it's been a really good career, and it's been a lot of fun and there's been a lot of stress at times and a lot of up-and-downs, but overall, no, I probably wouldn't change much. I think it's probably been pretty good.

BETH DANIEL: Yeah, I think -- yeah, I definitely think that Rachel has been a bit overshadowed by Karrie and Annika. I would say that Rachel's game, to me, is very similar to Annika's game. They do play an extremely similar type of game. I mean, Karrie right now is in a league of her own. What she's doing is absolutely incredible, and, I mean, she deserves all the credit, and more, for what she's doing.

BETH DANIEL: Well, I mean, obviously Lopez was as dominant as Karrie was. That was the year before me, though, '78. I mean, if you look back in the record books, Mickey Wright definitely was as dominant. I think you'd have to say Louise, maybe JoAnne Carner; Pat Bradley, the year that she won three out of the four majors. And then maybe I'd even put myself in that category the year I won seven LPGA events, '90. The thing that Karrie's done is she's done it, you know, not just one year, she's done it over a series of years, and that's much, much harder to do in this game.

BETH DANIEL: Well, I don't know exactly how she's feeling, but I know if I got -- when I got in a tournament, I thought I could win every tournament that I entered that year. And when I got on the leaderboard, I actually felt like people sometimes got intimidated a little bit, and if I got on the leaderboard, I just felt like I could march my way right up to the top and win. And that particular year, it happened a lot.

BETH DANIEL: That was Centel at the time.

BETH DANIEL: Sure. I think the game of golf depends a lot of confidence, and I think that you can get away with, you know, kind of an off-day if your confidence is there. You can make that day into a much better day. You know, I think the incredible thing about Karrie right now is I don't think she's playing that well. I mean she's not playing as well as she can play, because she's still winning because she's making it happen and getting the ball in the hole faster than anyone else is doing. And I think if you were to ask her, she would probably say she's driving the ball really well, but I don't think she's hitting her irons as well as she's capable of hitting them right now. Yet, she's still winning golf tournaments. So it takes an extremely confident person to be able to work their way through that. And when you're riding a wave of confidence, it's much easier to work through that.

BETH DANIEL: No, skill has a lot to do with it, because Karrie is very skilled. In a day and age where players are not ball-strikers because of equipment, Karrie Webb is a ball-striker. Karrie Webb hits golf shots, and a lot of younger players don't hit golf shots anymore. So she's extremely skilled. But all I'm saying is that on an off-day, her confidence can carry her through because she feels like she could be at the top right now.

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