U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 22, 1994

Donna Andrews

LES UNGER: Donna, I know it was more fun being here yesterday, but let us get rid of the 9th hole right now.

DONNA ANDREWS: I just hit a bad tee ball. I hit a 5-wood off the tee and actually almost toe shanked it and it hit on the hill and rolled down to OB. Hit another 5-wood up there fine. Then left my ball short in the bunker. Actually got it in, right beside each other on the bunker. I just hit a poor bunker shot and 2-putted and made a quick seven. It was just basically my tee ball that really hurt me, and I have been having some problems with my back and I felt when I got turned behind the ball I sort of got stuck and I didn't have anywhere to go and I normally had one of those around and I hope that they don't hurt me yesterday. I hit one on 10; sort of the same way, same feeling and was able to get it up-and-down for par but when you hit it an OB you don't have that option.

LES UNGER: How would you assess position and the way things have gone? What did Helen finish at?

DONNA ANDREWS: I think she finished at 9.

Q. 10.

DONNA ANDREWS: 10, that is right. She birdied 18. Actually, Helen is playing good solid golf. She has hit the ball really well. I played with her the last two days. She hit the ball well. Of course she has been putting great. She has made a lot of great saves when she has missed the greens and the fairways, so I don't think she is really going to back up. I think we are going to have to go out and catch her. But I think the course will start to play tougher the next two days. I think we have seen it the easiest it will be these first two days and I think it will get a little bit tougher the next two.

LES UNGER: In what way?

DONNA ANDREWS: I think the greens were starting to firm up a little bit today. Now that the rain has come, that may not be the case. I think they will find tougher pin positions the next two days. They have been pretty generous with us, with the pin positions these last two days, I think a lot of that is to help speed up play. I think they will get a lot tougher as the days go on.

Q. Donna, when you got to 7 under, did you see yourself getting to 10 under until you had the problem at 9?

DONNA ANDREWS: Actually, I never really thought about it. I was really hurting this morning on the range when I went to hit balls I had had my back worked on before I went there and I went to the trailer, again, on my way to the first tee because it was really bothering me and got stretched again. Then when I birdied the first three holes, that was like -- well, that takes away a lot of your pain, you don't feel it but it was still there. I was sort of trying to play around it and play through it. Unfortunately, it caught up with me a little bit on 9 and I did some stretching on the course and stuff and the last six, seven holes it felt a lot better.

Q. How long have you had back trouble and what kind of trouble?

DONNA ANDREWS: I had back trouble two years ago. That is when it started when it started. It bothered me for about a year. Then I did a lot of rehab that winter, didn't bother me last year and then it started up again in Michigan. I played six in a row. I think it was more fatigue then but I just haven't been able to get it well. They found a stress fracture on a vertebrae that they think is old, but it is still is irritating all my muscles and they get tight and it makes it hard to walk and hard to swing.

Q. When you go from being within two shots and all of a sudden in a span of about five minutes you are five shots back, without sounding silly, what goes through your mind? How do you relax?

DONNA ANDREWS: Actually, my reaction was -- yesterday I shot even par on the front and then I shot 4 under on the back, so I was like, okay, well, there was my even par on the front, now I got to go out and shoot 4 under on the back. I looked at it as well, you know you can make the birdies; you know you can shoot 4 under on the backside; you shot the same thing on the front side you did yesterday, so I just went out there and tried to make some birdies on the back. Unfortunately -- I didn't hit it that bad on the back, I just missed some putts.

Q. The first three holes, were you tentative at all because of your back and not wanting to aggravate it?

DONNA ANDREWS: It actually bothers me more standing around, you know, chipping and putting than it does actually swinging at the ball. I found that when I was out at the range today; it tended to take a little bit of the stress off my back, so it didn't really bother me hitting fairway woods or hitting my driver as much as it did -- I think the hardest thing for me was the long irons today, and I hit some of those fat on the back side just because I think I get a little tentative trying to swing at those and help them up.

Q. How far were your birdie putts on the first 3?

DONNA ANDREWS: Knocked it six feet on the first hole, made birdie. 20 feet on the second hole, and five feet on the third hole.

Q. Do you prefer to play with the leader or do you prefer to not know who is leading?

DONNA ANDREWS: I always know who is leading. I think I play better knowing what I need to do and I knew Helen was out front. I think that probably inspired me, you know, and that was what got me going, I think, early in the round, which is not normal for me. I normally don't play the first six holes that well. It normally takes me about six to get comfortable with what I feel like I can-- when I start to feel like I can start going at the pins and stuff.

Q. The situation that happened to you at 9, how do you think that is going to affect you going into tomorrow's round?

DONNA ANDREWS: It won't. You know, I was over it by the time I got to ten. It was just one bad swing and, you know, every round I have played for the past, probably month, I have had one bad swing a round, and I think it just -- I get in a position where my back is just not strong enough to support what I am doing. I normally just say well, you know, I have to chalk that up to my back and go on. So far, I mean, even the backside today, my back didn't really bother me that much, as much as it has the last two days. I felt good about the fact that it felt better, in fact my husband said it was because the storm was coming, so I don't know.

Q. That is a strong mental frame, I mean, that would devastate a lot of players. I am wondering about your history here being close, close and again today you were real close, and fallen back, is that playing on you at all?

DONNA ANDREWS: I don't think so. I really haven't thought about the previous two years while I have been out here playing and I think, you know, I learned that in Atlantic City. My back was really bothering me there. I just had come off two weeks off and had come back thinking my back would be better and it really wasn't and I was still able to win with my back hurting, so I know I can play. It is just a matter of, you know, putting the aches aside and just going ahead and swinging at it. I end up taking lots of deep breaths because of the muscle spasm every now and then; I will just have to sort of walk it off. But I have learned that I can play with the aches and pains. And as long as I am not doing any more damage, I am going to try to keep playing.

Q. Is this something that goes away in the off season?

DONNA ANDREWS: It did. It went away all last year; didn't have any problems with it all last year. I did a lot of rehab in the winter and, of course, thought it was better and hadn't had any problems in the beginning of the year until I played six in a row. So they think I fatigued it and that has caused all the inflammation.

Q. It is not affecting your distance at all or your power?

DONNA ANDREWS: No.

Q. Just it catches --

DONNA ANDREWS: Every now and then-- what they have told me is my right hip gets rotated out, and every now and then I think I get turned behind it and I sort of get stuck. I get where I can't get back through it.

Q. Is there anything that you can do in the future to correct the problem?

DONNA ANDREWS: Right now we are trying to do some rehab to teach -- they think the reason I am having pain now is because my hip has gotten out of alignment. So, of course, what they are trying to do is strengthen my muscles to hold my hip in line. What happens is my right hip gets rotated forward and causes my right leg to be a half inch larger than my left, so that puts the strain on the back muscles. And putting a lift in would help it temporarily, but it's not going to help strengthen the muscles to hold the hip where it belongs, so it is a matter of strengthening my back muscles enough to keep my body in line where it belongs.

Q. I know that your goal is to make the Solheim Cup and play well the rest of this year. Would this mean that you might not be able to play as many tournaments as you'd like?

DONNA ANDREWS: It is looking that way. I have taken two weeks off and then I came back and only was able to play two weeks, and then took another two weeks off. So I am sort of -- right now I am having to play by feel, and of course, some of our sponsors don't like when you have to pull out at the last minute. But, you know, I wanted to play JAL last week, and that was one that I didn't feel like my back was ready. I felt like if I played last week, I might not be able to play this week. So it has limited my schedule as far as what I feel like I am able to play. I am a wimp. I can only take so much pain.

End of FastScripts....