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LPGA CORNING CLASSICMay 20, 2008Cindy RarickCORNING, NEW YORK ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Cindy, thanks for coming in and joining us. 1987 Corning Classic Champion, welcome back. And can you just talk about your memories of the win here? CINDY RARICK: Sure. Well it's hard to believe it's already 21 years ago. My gosh how time flies. But the win was really thrilling. It was unexpected. Everybody thought, Where did she come from, because I birdied the last four holes, so I came from behind. And, you know, quite an exciting finish not only for myself but for the fans. So it was a lot of fun. ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Do you have any favorite memories at Corning? I mean aside from your win, can you just talk about the years that you played here and what that tournament means you? CINDY RARICK: Well there's just so many great people that live in the area and there's a lot of beautiful things to do. I mean the whole area is gorgeous. Me being from Arizona, it's just totally different scenery. So I've had a lot of fun going up to the lake, doing wine tasting or just going up and down Market Street or going to the Y and working out. It's just such a neat little town and the community's so close. And it's just a lot of fun to go around and see things. And I even take rides -- I've got friends that live in Gelton which is about an hour and fifteen minutes, and that's beautiful. They've got a place called the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania or something. There's a lot of beautiful countryside here that I think that people around the rest of the United States don't even know about. ASHLEY CUSHMAN: I agree with you. Questions for Cindy? Q. Is that why you come back? I mean you are a former champion so I'm sure that is an attraction, but would you still come back even if you hadn't won here? CINDY RARICK: Yeah, I would. Because I just enjoy it. The course is fun. But it is just such a, kind of a peaceful place to come and play. It's not hectic. You know the airport's small. There's not a lot of traffic. It's just a -- it's more quiet kind of relaxing atmosphere. And it's more fun. In years' past when a lot of my former players that I was out on tour with, you know, we use to have so much fun going to Upstate Tuna Company for dinner and going to Amelia's for pizza and just doing a lot of fun things. Even going to Storages and just doing some neat little things around the town. But, yeah, I think out of the 20 -- this is my 24th year on tour and I think I've been here 23 out of 24 years and it is because I like the place. I just think it's great. I've of course gone to the museum. I've even blown glass. I've gone to Rockwell Museum. I think I've done everything in the area, all the attractions you can do. Last year I even stayed at, I forget what they call it, the camp grounds, the fern grounds up in the hills. That was fun. That was an unusual experience. So, yeah, just a lot of different things to do. It's just a lot of fun. Q. I think there's a job in tourism marketing here for you when you retire. CINDY RARICK: Yeah. Q. Cindy, looking at how the season looks like, it's been kind of tough. Where do you see your career now? CINDY RARICK: Winding down. I mean it's been, you know, I've loved playing the Tour. The Tour's been great to me. I still love to golf and I still love competing, but, obviously, I'm pretty frustrated with where my game is at. Although, I keep working on it. And I realized for the last six or seven years I've been working on the wrong thing, so therefore, that's kind of set me back. Because if you're working on the wrong thing and ingraining the wrong thing, then it takes longer to get out of them. But you know every once in a while I see a few glimpses of things, but I still overall -- you know, I'm wining down my career, absolutely. The travel is not as easy. Like I mentioned before, most my friends that were out on tour when I was out having a lot of fun aren't playing anymore. They've retired. I'm probably going to play between five and ten events this year. This is, I think, my seventh. I'll only play a couple more. Next year maybe a couple; you know, five or less probably, if that. In the meantime, I'm still very active with golf. I do an awful lot of corporate outings and clinics and very active with junior golf. I sponsor a junior event over in Hawaii that I've done for 17 years. And real active with the group out in Arizona with junior golf. So you know there's just so many different avenues you can still be in golf and not necessarily be playing to the Tour and doing the traveling. I mean the traveling's what really takes its toll. Q. Can you explain what you were working on that was wrong? CINDY RARICK: Oh gosh, it's very difficult. As you know, they say it's game of inches. Not only is it a game of inches with where the ball ends up, in or out of the hole, it's within the swing. If you are a little bit inside, a little outside, if you lifting, if you are dropping; it's just all kinds of things. All of a sudden if you start steering the ball and your lower body doesn't move like it's suppose to, the shots are errant and you are losing distance. So I've lacked distance and accuracy and it's just been frustrating. Because I stay physically fit. I really believe that that-- you know, Annika's done a lot for our tour just like Tiger's done for the PGA Tour, but at my age I feel like I'm in as good a shape as a lot of the girls that are a lot younger than me. I don't feel like I've lost strength, but yet my distance isn't where it needs to be. That's because of my technique, you know, my fundamentals of my golf swing. So all that being said, I'm still trying to work on it. Because with golf, everybody knows it's a work in progress. Even Tiger, the number one player in the world, is constantly working on his game. There's always something to work on. But I love the sport. There's nothing like it. Q. Speaking of Annika, can you talk about -- can you tell us your reaction -- CINDY RARICK: To her announcement last week? Q. Yeah. CINDY RARICK: I'm thrilled for her. She's had such an unbelievable, fantastic, I mean, not unbelievable, just fantastic career. She's obviously put her heart and soul and every inch of her into her golf life that accomplishing what she's accomplished at her age, good for her that she's saying, you know, it's time for me to walk away and start a new chapter -- get married again and have a family and do some other things that she wants to pursue. I think it's marvelous. Some of us have other dreams and desires. And, you know, I've got things I'm going to do and pursue after I'm done. But I'm glad she is doing it now. She is still young enough to have kids and do all that. I think it's marvelous. Q. Will it hurt the Tour you think? CINDY RARICK: Actually, I think for the rest of this season it's going help the Tour. People are going say, Gosh, if this is the last year Annika is going to play, let's all go out and watch her; let's see what the greatest player is like. We had unbelievable crowds last week in New Jersey when the weather was terrible. I think that is going to be a good factor. As far as really hurting the Tour, not necessarily. There's so many, many great players coming up there's always somebody new and great. Lorena has kind of stepped into those shoes already. I mean she's phenomenal. She'll be missed just like when all the other former hall-of-fame players stepped down and walked away from playing the Tour. Yeah, they're missed, but does it hurt the tour? I mean does it hurt the Tour that Nancy Lopez still isn't playing? Not really. It would be nice if she played every once in a and she still does, or a Jan Stevenson or Joann, whoever. But I don't think it will hurt the tour necessarily, no. Q. You've seen some peaks and valleys to your career on the Tour. Maybe as a player it's hard to pay attention to that, but when Nancy was at the top of leader board and Annika came around, now Lorena is talking about maybe in a couple years she may want to start a family. Is there enough strength out there, do you think, that one or two stars leaving isn't going to affect it? CINDY RARICK: You know, it's always sad when a superstar leaves. I mean, because they are definitely superstars. I mean a career like Annika's had and even a career like Lorena's had in the short time frame, you know, it will be sad when they leave the sport so young. But, like I said, there's always somebody new and coming up right behind them. I mean, you know, people that play golf and the ones that are really driven and want to be number one in the world or whatever, I mean, they will always be driven and people will -- I mean the depth of the field out here anymore are fantastic. I mean there's just -- golf has just expanded so world wide that people are starting younger and younger. They're getting better and better at younger ages. If they're pursuing professional golf, this is me place to play. And I don't think it will hurt the tour. Q. You talked about getting stronger, feeling you are physically able to stay up with the younger players. Have you noticed are the players gets that much stronger now? Talking about 300 yard drives. CINDY RARICK: Yeah. I mean, they really are hitting -- I'm not saying I can keep um with then distance wise because actually some of them are unbelievably long. I mean I played two weeks ago in Virginia, and I'm like, Oh my God, I didn't think I hit that one bad, and they're like 30 yards ahead of me, and I'm like what the heck. But the younger players, between the equipment and also the technique of the teaching, what they're learning and learning to really hit, play the power game -- when I was taught golf we weren't taught the power game. Swing the golf club, swing the golf club. And I've never really been a hitter of the golf ball. Now these young girls-- I mean, they're hitting it like the guys. They really are. And they're 19, 20 years old and they're pounding it. So a lot of them are hitting it really, really far. And it's exciting to see. Because, you know, people -- I think people in the galleries are still in awe of how some of these young gals and short people that you wouldn't think would hit it that far can kill it. Its amazing. Really if you think physically how can they. But it's all physics, you know. Q. Think it's more physics than it is strength and equipment? CINDY RARICK: Yeah, I really do. I mean I played with a gal two weeks ago and she didn't look that strong and she was about 5'2" and, you know, I'm like you got to be kidding; I know I've got to be stronger than her; I just know that. And she could just unbelievably hilt the ball. But everything about the way her technique with her swing is just fantastic. Q. You need to check your equipment. CINDY RARICK: Yeah, I know, I should do something that's for sure. Q. This is an awkward segue from that. Doing a piece on the drug policy. I'm not saying those players are using steroids, I'm sure they're not, but could I get your reaction to the drug policy and do you think there's a need for it do you feel? CINDY RARICK: Well, you know, that's a good question. They tried to do a drug testing already this year and it kind of got fouled up so it didn't go over well and they called it a trial run or whatever. And I think in some regards maybe it is necessary. But the way they're going about it-- I think it could maybe be -- they're working on it. They're working on it. Because they're trying to randomly test the field when in actuality when you look at other sports they're testing the top players in the field type of thing. It's going cost a lot of money. I think what they were really looking for were steroids possibly but people aren't doing steroids. There's other enhancement kind of things that you can take. And, you know, I'm so far removed from all that that I have no idea what it would be that they would be taking. I mean, the thing was human growth hormone which is undetectable except for by a blood test. We're not doing blood test we're doing urine test. Then the whole drug testing it's like what is the reason for it? So, you know, I think even if people are doing something to enhance, enhancement supplements or whatever, you still have to swing the golf club and you still have to make the putts. But there's certain things. Obviously, your muscles are stronger. I don't know. I'm kind of up in the air out. I think it's going to cost the Tour an awful lot of money and maybe it will be worth it in the long run. But I think maybe it might be a little too soon. I don't know. MODERATOR: Anymore questions? CINDY RARICK: I'd like to say something. I heard next year this might be the last year of the contract and then it possibly might go away. I think what would be a great idea is to have the senior tour, they're trying to do a Legends Tour which is 45 and older and a lot of the hall-of-flamers, a lot of the players, the people remember from way back they could make this either have next year have a senior division in the regular tournament along side it to bring the older players back because this would be the finale of the Corning Classic after 31 years. You know, next year is 31. I think that would be a great idea. Then possibly after that make it a senior future tour team championship. So you would get a future tour player and a Legend Tour player you know the younger and the older, that would be a neat thing. So I just thought that would be a neat idea. Q. What's the age for the Legends Tour; is it same as men? CINDY RARICK: It's 45 and over. The men's is 50 and over and the women is 45 and over. There's still quite a few women that would like to compete but there's no way for them to compete. Q. If you wanted you could enter a Legends Tour event? CINDY RARICK: Yes. ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Thanks for your time and good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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