WEGMANS LPGA

June 9, 2000

Dale Eggeling

LAURA NEAL: Before we start the press conference, we wanted to go ahead and give Dale the keys to her Mercury Mountaineer. There is a representative of a Mercury. After the press conference, we're going to run down in front of the marquis to get photo ops for you and your new vehicle

DALE EGGELING: Cool.

MARY BETH CHILDS: On be half of Mercury, I'm thrilled to give you the keys to the 2000 Mercury Mountaineer. Congratulations. That's a great, great job.

DALE EGGELING: Thank you ever so much. It's so great for you to have support for us out here on the LPGA Tour. To have something like this is fantastic. I've never won anything, and this is beyond my wildest dreams. I'm going to cry.

MARY BETH CHILDS: It's great to have a winner. It's even better that it was you. Good job.

DALE EGGELING: Yeehaw! Cool!

DALE EGGELING: Number 7. Probably one the worst pin placements I've ever seen in my life. It's front and right on the slope. And I mean, we watched the group in front of us putt it off the green. All three of us putted it off the green. I hit up, and hit it on the left side, and I'm thinking: Oh no. And I hit a great putt, and I couldn't even get it. I was a foot above the hole, and it rolled down off the green. So that's going to be a big key putting hole right there. If you're above the hole or sideways of it, forget it. You've got no chance, you've got no shot. The best place to be there today was short of the green and below the hole. That's the only way to be aggressive with it. The little Jeong girl hit it, lipped out and came back off the green. That was wicked. I 3-putted there.

DALE EGGELING: I don't think they realized it would be that severe. What happened, the wind was blowing so hard. The wind was a factor too. I'm sure when the pin was set yesterday. They always check the roll. It was just for today and the conditions, it was just brutal. You know, everybody makes a mistake once in a while. We're all human, but you just had to be in the perfect spot or else you were dead. I 3-putted there. And after that, that was when we started having the rain delays. Coming back in and out. Trying to get your momentum back and get your rhythm back. And you know, you're going to -- this is a great golf course, I don't care who you are. You're going to make a bogey or two. Can't get away not making a bogey for 72 holes. I said what the hell; just screw it. Got plenty of holes to go. Stay patient. Maybe they'll drop today, maybe they won't. Give yourself good birdie opportunities; and that's what I did. Want me to go to backside? Started off on No. 10. I hit a 7-iron from 147 yards, 3 feet. Made that for birdie. At this point I had my rain pants and rain jacket on. After I made that I said: Okay. The rain jacket is not coming off, the rain pants are not coming. I got really superstitious today. Because the last time I'd done this, I was in the lead as soon as I took my rain pants off, my legs got cold and it changed my swing, and I ended up making a couple bogeys. So I said: To heck with it. I'm keeping everything on. I was sweating so bad. It was so hot with those pants on. I said: I don't care. They're staying on. On No. 12, I can't read it. After you hit 40 your eyes go. That was six years ago. From 115 yards, hit pitching wedge. 10 feet of the hole, and made that for birdie on No. 12. My next birdie came on number 15. I had that 14 feet below the hole, and just got it up on that top ledge. Barely got it on the top ledge and made that for birdie. I hit the 9-iron, bumped it in the hill and got it to roll up. Then 16 -- 17, nothing spectacular -- had birdie attempts but didn't come through with them. 18. My second shot in the fairway had 164 yards left of the pin, and tried to hit a little 11-wood on there because I had mud on the ball. I knew with the long iron mud was going to keep the ball down. I tried to elevate it and get it up and got a little fat. Ended up leaving myself a 17-yard chip shot to the pin; chipped it up about 8 feet past the hole, and made it coming back. That was a key putt. That was the clutch putt there. I said: You worked your butt off all day. Don't give it away on the last putt. You can have a fantastic round, but if you bogey the last hole, you don't remember the good shots. You focus on that last hole and go away with a bad taste in your mouth. Maybe that last was the key to maybe how it turns out the rest of the week.

DALE EGGELING: I had three months of severe PMS. After finishing third in Naples, I got this wild hair I wanted to change my irons -- change everything. I wanted to go back to a blade iron. Between changing equipment, this that, threw my hole golf swing off. I'm getting totally frustrated with that. A lot of headaches and heartaches. Last week, I gave in. Came home crying to my husband. I said: I can't take it anymore. I got to go back to my old stuff. I finished top 10. Dumb idiot.

DALE EGGELING: The thing is, I love competition. I thrive on it. I love a challenge. Like I was telling the guys earlier, if I wasn't playing golf, I'd be showing competitively my horses. I love a challenge. That's what's helped me to stay out here as long as I have. When I leave and go home, I've got other things I do. And I just don't think about the money; I just go play golf.

DALE EGGELING: Yes.

DALE EGGELING: I've missed a couple, but yeah.

DALE EGGELING: Might. I've been out here 25 years now. I'm second. Okay.

DALE EGGELING: Damn.

DALE EGGELING: Yeah. It's a great golf. Course we have some of the best galleries on Tour. They're golf hungry. They have great manners. People appreciate golf around here. It's just -- everybody is golf crazy around here. You come back, and they appreciate good shots. They know when to applaud; they know when not to applaud. It's fun for us. And it's a great track too. That makes a big, big difference.

DALE EGGELING: Sure. It really -- you get really fired up. And the main thing as soon as you start walking to the next tee, you got to get yourself down. So I was doing a lot of deep-breathing exercises to get my heart rate down and get --.

DALE EGGELING: Yes. I can totally turn it off like that.

DALE EGGELING: Describe the 5th hole? Actually what happened is I told my caddie the shot I was going to hit. It's 155 yards, it's uphill. Probably playing 165. My strategy yesterday and today was if it was windy, or if I was unsure, I was going to hit a club that I could take in there low. Keep it out of winds, so the winds wouldn't affect it, and just hit the shot up there and let it run up to the hole. That's what I wanted to do. And hit to the front of green and run it back to the hole instead of trying to play it there. It was right on the stick, and I thought that's great. It's going to be cool. Next thing I know, I turn around to pick up my tee. Everybody is screaming, yelling. I thought: It's close. They say it's in. I thought it's not in. And high-5s. Even though you know it's a hole in one, it doesn't sink in. Okay. Hole in one. You walk in there see the ball in the hole; and you get really, really excited. Then the guy announced: You win a car. And I'm going: What car? It's a car?

DALE EGGELING: No. That was number 6 in competition.

DALE EGGELING: That's a good question. I'd have to think about that one. I think it was last year du Maurier. 6th hole there, par 3. I got a soapstone sculpture for that. A car is better.

DALE EGGELING: I didn't even think about it being tough. I was trying to keep hitting shots and try to stay focused, which is very hard for me to do for more than 15 minutes. So -- that's all I was trying to do. Just hit shots, and I wasn't concerned about how tough it was playing.

DALE EGGELING: Well, you know, it's like -- like my husband says, they don't write the checks on Thursday or Friday. There's two more days still, and you don't know what the conditions are going to be. Maybe nobody will make a move today, but they might make a move tomorrow. It's hard to say. You don't know. You got to take what you get and go tee it up the next day.

DALE EGGELING: No. Just one hole at a time. I wasn't thinking ahead or anything. You got that hole; you do that hole. You get done with it. You go to the next hole .

DALE EGGELING: Yeah. I'm a little bit. I've grown up a little more. I'm still not mature. I don't think I'll ever grow up. But I'm able to focus a little bit more and take my time a little bit more. And some of it -- just takes a little bit longer to age like wine.

DALE EGGELING: Nancy just had her gall bladder taken out and she's recouping. Patty has been fighting some -- it's not the flu but it's like a bug she can't shake, and her resistance is down, and she's having a hard time feeling good. So it's, you know, when you're not feeling good, this is not a golf course you can play if you're not feeling good. She needed to go home and take a rest. One of those bugs when the kid gets sick. One kid gets it, the kid gets well, you get sick, the other gets sick, and you pass it back and forth. It's just not feeling good. Unfortunate for the tournament, but you don't want to see anybody play if they are really sick.

DALE EGGELING: The thing is, unfortunately not here, but we got 140 whatever girls out here that have a lot of other fun stories too that the locals might like to learn about and have something to read about. So...

DALE EGGELING: Like Nancy and Patty, and they still could play competitively. The buck hasn't been passed yet.

DALE EGGELING: If I find myself getting really nervous, I'll turn it off and think about my son or something at home or something I need to do or I haven't done or somebody I was supposed to call and didn't do. And uh-oh, I forgot to call the Sports Illustrated guy too. You switch it off and on. If you're feeling anxious, you turn it off and think about something else and come back.

DALE EGGELING: Nobody's been able to understand me in 46 years. It's hard to explain, but I can do it. I can turn off and fall asleep at a concert if I'm tired. (Laughs.)

DALE EGGELING: Get the adrenalin, oh, yeah. You get on it like a surfboard and just ride it.

DALE EGGELING: Mm-hmm. Don't ask me how I do it. It just happens. People ask me what I think about when I swing. I don't know; I just do it. I'm a feel player, a feel person. And I do with what feels good. Makes me feel good. No set keys or set word or guru stuff. Just do it.

DALE EGGELING: Yeah. But I'm not telling anybody. That's my secret, but I do have a thing I go through.

DALE EGGELING: No.

DALE EGGELING: No, I'm not telling. It's my little secret, and I'm not going to tell.

DALE EGGELING: No, I'll never tell. Because it's embarrassing. And -- no. It's a little thing I do and worked out. Just works, so...

End of FastScripts….