U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

May 31, 1996

Laura Davies

LAURA DAVIES: Very pleased with that.

LAURA DAVIES: Well, obviously yesterday's game was horrible. So it wasn't hard to improve on 4 over. I had a great start. I felt confident. Every time you miss a fairway out here you're in trouble, but luckily today I missed very few fairways. And usually had not a short putt for birdie, but a lot of long birdie putts. You never know in Open greens if they're so true if you pick the right line you can knock a couple in. Unfortunately I didn't, but managed to sneak one in on 18.

LAURA DAVIES: Yes, just the driver off No. 1 and No. 10, the two par 5's. Everything else is a 2-iron. Basically it's just keep it in play on the par 4's. I don't mind hitting a 4 and 5-iron into them, as long as I have a shot from the fairway. That's basically what happened on 14. That was a bit of a silly tee shot there, and then again on 15. It's the only two fairways I really missed.

LAURA DAVIES: Okay. The birdies were on No. 2, with a 2-iron and a 9-iron to about 20 feet -- well, 15 feet and made that. No. 3 I hit a wedge to about 20 feet and made that one up the hill. No. 4 was a 2-iron off the tee and a wedge to about 10 feet. Bogey on No. 6. I hit a good tee shot, actually, six inches off the fairway, had a flyer through the green, and ended up in a little hole and had to chip it down the hill and missed about a -- I suppose about a 12 foot par-putt there, so that was a bogey. Bogey on 14, tried to be too clever on the tee shot and hit a rank 2-iron along the ground, basically and still had a 4-iron into the green and put it in a green-side bunker, came out to probably about 12 feet. Hit a very good putt but missed it. It went right across the hole, so a bogey there. And then 18 was the 2-iron and the 9-iron to about 15 feet.

LAURA DAVIES: It's identical. I think the greens are getting a little bit quicker, as I thought they would. I think they're going to be quicker tomorrow and quicker on Sunday. You've got to be more and more careful where you miss the greens. I'm definitely - if I'm going to hit a bad shot, I want it to be short. Although I look at Matthew, sometimes when we come down a bit too short, it's still sensible not to go along on these greens.

LAURA DAVIES: Well, I don't know. I'm obviously -- I'm not. I can only speak for myself. And I'm hitting my 2-iron a good way. I'm hitting it upwards of 240 yards, maybe 250 on a couple of them downwind. And that's leaving you, even into those last five holes, which are particularly long -- 17 is probably the longest hole, I think, the way it plays. It doesn't play downhill at all, it's dead flat. I left myself 195 yards off a good 2-iron. So I can only say that's the one hole I feel really long. All the others are really pretty much 2-iron, wedge, 2-iron, 9-iron. You'll have to ask the other girls why they hit woods in. (Laughter).

LAURA DAVIES: I've got a minus 1-iron at the moment. (laughter). No. I did, actually, a few years ago go with a zero iron. I think it was Tommy Armour came out. I don't know which one John is using at the moment. But, no, I'm happy with my 2-iron. It goes long enough. It's a tough club to hit, a true zero iron like that.