THE SOLHEIM CUP

October 23, 1994

Beth Daniel

Meg Mallon

BETH DANIEL: Well, my match probably wouldn't have been one of the finer golf displays today, but personally, neither one of us played very well and we just sort of gutted it out and that is pretty hard to do. 18th hole -- and neither one of us had our A. Games going today and it was just pure gutts. It really was. And, you know, I mean, my only thought was I just wanted see if I can get a point for this team. Sometimes you don't have your A. Game out there and you've just got to play with what you have got. That is sort of what I did today. But I really did. I hung in there, I was proud of myself, and Trish hung in there too and she should be real proud of herself.

MEG MALLON: Well, I can say our match was pretty much the opposite. We both played great starting out.

BETH DANIEL: That is because you are good.

MEG MALLON: I birdied two, three and four and Pam birdied three on top of me. And we just kind of carried that along to make a birdie to win our match, pretty much. And then, let's see, on number 9 she holed a 40 yard bunker shot on me and I had hit 12 feet and missed it. It just kept going back. I birdied 10 and 11 and she birdied 12 and it was really a great match. And then we, you know, we get to 17 and I know I have to make that birdie because I figured she is going to make hers and make that putt, and then she makes it right on top of me. It was just a lot of fun, but it was a hard match. I mean, we had -- we were throwing it at the pins. We were trying to do anything we could to get up on each other and, you know, she just hung in there throughout. No matter what I'd do, she'd come back and throw another birdie at me. So it was quite a match and my hat's up to Pam for how well she played today. I was just happy that -- I didn't look at the board all day. I was happy to be greeted by my team mates to know that we had gotten a lot of points at that point in time, so it was just a great experience.

BETH DANIEL: We are instructed not to look at the board.

MEG MALLON: That is true. Ms. Carner instructed us not to look at the leader board. And she also said don't let a chip in or someone hitting a bunker shot in because it is 18 different matches, and you have to forget that hole and go onto the next. I kept trying to do that, but boy, I was getting mad. That was quite a match. But I am glad it worked out the way it did. It was great.

MEG MALLON: Well, I had turned around and the players all said we clinched it. Brandie got a halve; at least it took a lot to sink in at that point in time.

MEG MALLON: This is when I turned around and after she conceded the, you know, match to me and I turned around and all these guys were telling me the good news. So that was great.

MEG MALLON: Well, yes, I was the victim of Ms. Nilsmark the last time.

MEG MALLON: I tried to make sure that it didn't. I had to take care of my match. That is what JoAnne instilled in us. Take care of your only match and everyone will be fine. I had, what, 6 birdies today and still had to go to 18. So we both played so good. I didn't expect that at all and, you know, it just turned out where we just both played really well, and everybody did today. I -- just our team played great today.

MEG MALLON: On the 18th hole? Maybe they had to do -- they had to measure it, 18.

MEG MALLON: Pam ended up being away.

MEG MALLON: It wasn't that far, really. It was just maybe a foot or so away. In that situation, I definitely would have liked to have putted first because she had an up hill putt and a run in it. But whatever happened -- and actually, I was turning around to look for our captain because I knew that everybody knew what my putt did, and JoAnne wasn't there. So I was on my own, and I had to figure that one out.

BETH DANIEL: I wanted to tell you too.

MEG MALLON: I know.

BETH DANIEL: I'd just run it by. I wanted to tell Sherri too, and I couldn't do it.

SHERRI STEINHAUER: On which one?

BETH DANIEL: On 18.

BETH DANIEL: It was no problem. No, I mean seriously, it was 2 and a half, three feet, I had been putting those very well and I mean, I had no doubt -- there was no doubt in my mind that I would make that putt. I wasn't worried about it at all.

BETH DANIEL: You'd like to lag it a little bit better, but, you know, basically, my touch on the greens today was not good at all. I did not putt well. You know, I hit the ball okay. I drove it very well, hit my irons pretty good, but I mean, I just had no touch. I felt like some greens were quick, some were slow, and I just could not get the speed down today and, you know, that lag putt on the last hole was kind of an indication of that. And I just -- it just picked up speed. However, it was quicker than I thought it was. Meg hit a great putt.

MEG MALLON: Yes, it was lovely.

BETH DANIEL: Why should you talk about something like that?

MEG MALLON: I just birdied 2, 3 and 4, then 5 we have and 6 I get up there and she hits it in the bunker and I am up above the hole. You have to listen to this because Catrin Nilsmark had the same putt the day before or two, whenever we played them two days before. And she sent it ten feet past the hole. My only thought is how fast this putt is, will I leave it almost five feet short, now I still have a breaking putt. Well, then I hit it eight feet by again and forget it, I was shot on that hole. That is when I thought of JoAnne and said, you know, get it out of your head, that is just one hole and go on. Fortunately I went on that par 3 and hit a good shot, but I wasn't surprised I hit a 4 putt after I just putted three or four great putts before that, but...

MEG MALLON: No, I didn't birdie 7. Hit a good shot at 7 and hit a good 2-putt there.

MEG MALLON: Me? No, I did not know.

MEG MALLON: That is right.

JoANNE CARNER: You want me to exit so they can really tell you?

MEG MALLON: JoAnne was way to humble today in the closing ceremonies. JoAnne was the difference in our team this year. She gave us tremendous leadership, she set the tone in the beginning of the week when she handed out the pairs and she handed them out to the Europeans, she handed them out to everybody and said this is my team, there are no secrets, this is who you are playing, and these are the -- I mean, she said you are playing 54 holes in the practice rounds despite all of us whining about it. She had us set and regimented and said -- whipped us into shape and said, you know, this is our goal, this is the reason why we are here, we are not here just to play, we are here to win this thing, and she set the tone. And she -- like I said the other day, just fed us with tremendous stories that we will take for the rest of our lives. I want to take the opportunity to thank her right now for those experiences that we had, that we got to share with JoAnne.

BETH DANIEL: Absolutely not. I think that as was said in the closing ceremony, this is great for women's golf in general. It showcased women's golf. It didn't even showcase worldwide women's golf because we don't have the Canadians here. We don't have the Asians here. We don't have the Australians. We don't have the Africans. But the nature of The Solheim Cup is to showcase the best women's golfers, and I think that too much has been talked about who is the winner and who is the loser and who is better and who is not better. Doesn't make any difference. Women's golf won here and that is what should win because women's golf has a lot of catching up to do, and we certainly don't need to be fighting against each other. And, you know, it is tough for us as players because a lot of us are friends. It is like when Charlie Mechem stood up there and he looked at the European team and he said "this is hard for me because a lot of you are very, very close to me," and I mean that is the truth. That is how we feel about these people, and I think that the air about this has been created to have-- to win or you have to win, and it is not right because it is all about golf and it is all about women's golf. And I tell you what, the people that saw that telecast these last three days, saw some of the greatest golf shots, male or female, under pressure. That speaks a lot for the caliber of women's golf in general.

MEG MALLON: I didn't win it. I didn't lose it. The team won it. So I can't say that this was a personal thing for me. This was -- I was happy to get on the team in the first place and happy to have the opportunity to be playing with some of the greatest players in the world. That is how I will take this experience.