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LPGA CORNING CLASSIC

May 22, 2008

Rosie Jones

CORNING, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Rosie, thanks for coming in and joining us. Probably feels nice to get inside and off the course from the last 18 holes. Can you talk about your round and going back out there to the competitive golf world today?
ROSIE JONES: Absolutely. Really tough conditions to start, make your comeback, not a comeback in my own mind, but to try to play a couple rounds at the Corning Classic and play well and just try to be competitive again.
And it was fun. I started off with a bogey. No. 1 is one of the toughest holes. Didn't scare me off. Made actually a pretty good bogey out of the right bunker on the front there.
I was hoping to get the birdie on No. 2. And again on 5, trying to make birdie on those easy par 4 or easy par 5s. Just didn't happen for me. I only had one birdie today where I hit it about a foot on No. 6.
Fell asleep a little bit on the last three or four holes and 3-putt No. 16 where I felt you can make birdies on 16, 17, and 18 I didn't hit a very good shot up there but came away with par.
THE MODERATOR: You told us about your scorecard but can we get the details of the birdies and bogeys, starting with the first bogey.
ROSIE JONES: First hole playing tough right into the wind and rain on the first hole and still had over 200 yards to the flag. Took a 3-wood out and cut off a thin lie and hit it a little right into the right bunker, came out, had about a 15-footer for par. Missed that. And where else did I bogey?
THE MODERATOR: Birdie on 6.
ROSIE JONES: Par 4. Birdie on 6, yeah, hit an 8-iron about a foot away; 7-wood down the middle, 8-iron on the green and made easy putt for birdie. Then right away on 7 I missed the green to the left and kind of a tough up-and-down over there on that left side. It's really slopey, and a six, seven-footer for par, missed it.
Had a good save on 14. Kind of got myself on the left side on my second shot. Third shot was kind of tough coming up but left myself with about a 35-, 40-footer straight downhill, knocked it down about 10 feet. Made it coming back. Got a little fist pump out of myself.
THE MODERATOR: Back to old form.
ROSIE JONES: Then I go down to 16 and hit an 8-iron on the green and really I hit my first putt fat and left it like 10 feet short. And it's just one of those things that --
THE MODERATOR: How long was the first putt?
ROSIE JONES: About 30, 40 feet. Just bad. Bad scuff.

Q. How long has it been since your last competitive round?
ROSIE JONES: December, actually, on the Senior Tour played the Honda Cup there, which is like the President Cup World against the U.S. And early December.

Q. Did it make it harder for you to come out?
ROSIE JONES: Yeah, because I don't really get that serious about it at home, and I really wasn't preparing myself for this. This was kind of a surprise within the last 10 days. Or I may have, you know, gone out with the guys, put a little money on it, like I used to, and just kind of get your heartbeat up for a little bit and grind out a couple of pars. But didn't really have the chance, opportunity to do that. Once I found out, I really worked on my short game a little bit. And, of course, I can't play every single day. That's one of the reasons I quit. My neck starts bothering me.
But I thought I did okay today. I didn't have my A game. I really didn't hit the ball that solid. I think my last drive was my most solid drive. I felt like I kept it up there with Sherri and Meg. And I can make some putts tomorrow, I think I had plenty of chances out there today, a lot of putts within 10 or 15 feet. If I could just get the old putter rolling on these greens again I could shoot a couple under anyway.

Q. The putt on 9 frustrating? You were like five feet or something.
ROSIE JONES: I had three or four putts like that, seven, 10 feet. And don't even come close to the hole. And I haven't been putting that bad. It's just like everything is really escalated when you get under the gun.
And I've been hitting the ball really well. Of course it's a lot warmer down in Atlanta. But my body functions better when it's warmer. And that goes with putting, too, and my hands feeling the club better.

Q. What made you want to come out of semi-retirement, I guess, and play? Was it something special about this tournament?
ROSIE JONES: Well, I didn't. I really didn't want to come out of retirement. And when Dawn Marie called me up to ask me to come for the 30th anniversary, you know last year and the year before I was here commentating, and I thought, well, if I'm going to go up there I might as well take my sticks and tee it up, because one party is no fun. I wanted to drag it out a little bit.
So because I had been playing a little bit in the last month, I thought, well, maybe I could tee it up. And that would be fun. And if it helps the tournament, I want to do that.
And this has been my favorite tournament. It's been the one that I will always go to. And I think this is the one that would bring me out from my cozy little retirement place.

Q. So if some other tournament called you and said can you come out and help us out.
ROSIE JONES: You know, some players have that little place, that one tournament that they've won a few times or they love, or the fans love them. And this is my place.
And lucky for me it was the 30th anniversary and I was still playing a little bit of golf. And three years or two years, or even next year, if they ask me, I probably won't do it. But I thought it would be fun. I thought it would be good to be back a little bit.

Q. Last couple of years you had a microphone in your hand. During those couple of years, did you say: God, I wish I was out on the golf course? And, conversely, at any point during the weather --
ROSIE JONES: Did I wish I was commentating? Yeah, there's lots of times when I have walked out of the trailer with the microphone going thank God I'm commentating today, because I don't really want to play in this weather.
But never did I really want to be playing. I was really done, and I am. I'm really done playing. I really don't like to have to grind, get up early and play in the rain and really work at it like I needed to and I did.
It really takes a lot of work to keep your game in shape to play out here and to be competitive. And I wasn't really willing to put that time in anymore. And my body was screaming at me the last three or four years telling me you can't. When you're in pain and you're playing like that, it's just not much fun. So on top of the traveling and 25 years of doing that, it's really easy to say no thanks. And I enjoy the amount of time I play golf now.
I did enjoy the commentating that I was doing and it was kind of a hard transition going into that. And now I'm not commentating this year.
So a little bit I was missing the TOUR because I was kind of out here commentating and still around it and this is my first year that I wasn't. So this kind of gives me that little bit of taste of the TOUR and it's kind of nice.

Q. How are you spending most of your time if you're not playing or commentating?
ROSIE JONES: I started this company Rosie Jones Golf Get-Aways. We do five trips in this year. And so I've spent a lot of time working, building, promoting those trips and trying to sell them. And it's a lot more business work. I'm doing a lot of negotiating, relationships, partnerships with other companies. And I still have two of my sponsors, Olivia and Yes Putters as partners with my business that are helping me out in ways.
I kind of nurture those relationships and try to build more. And so it's kind of a new challenge for me. And I really enjoy it. I really enjoy learning the business aspect of that and the traveling part I'm not really crazy about. So I like to keep it down to so many. Eventually maybe it will be a money-making prosperous thing for me. It's never going to ever make me really rich. Golf helped me do that.
But I'd like to keep into it a little bit like that, and it's a fun way to go out and play some different golf courses and stuff.
I do love that. I coach little girls' basketball and still play on the Legends Tour. And that's kind of regular stuff now. It's kind of nice.

Q. Could you talk about the first tee stepping up, any jitters?
ROSIE JONES: You know what, it was a little bit. I kind of replayed a bad swing in my mind all night, just in my sleep. It was kind of there, like that was going to be the first swing was going to be a bad one.
It's so unlike me and what I used to be like when I would get ready to tee it up. But for some reason, being away for that long, it got me nervous. But I hit a pretty good one down the left side and got it out on the second one. The second one was my bad drive.
But it was more nervous putting today than I was over the ball.

Q. I couldn't help but notice the large crowd on No. 1 and a couple of go get 'em Rosie. How is that?
ROSIE JONES: It's great. I'd love to make it to the weekend to be out here because that's when it gets really fun. Weather should be a little better. That's really when the Corning warms up, when the people in the crowd and they get out here on the weekend. And so a couple under tomorrow and I might be out there, maybe a little bit early. But who knows. Get that putter hot.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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