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LPGA CORNING CLASSICMay 20, 2009Rosie JonesCORNING, NEW YORK MIKE SCANLAN: Welcome back as always to corning. You're the Queen of Corning as everyone knows. And I obviously think it must be bittersweet for you to be here this week. If you could, share a few memories with us, some things that make you smile about Corning, and tell us how good it feels to be here? ROSIE JONES: Absolutely. You know what, being crowned with my Queenship is just something that goes with a player being here for as long as I have and having so many different memories. And having made a lot of money, which is kind of a plus. But really coming back to Corning and knowing that this is going to be the last event, I have to say, you know, how much sorrow I have. In a way other I've already kind of gone through my mourning process, having retired back in '06, knowing that I was never going to come back to Corning as a player. Actually, I came back last year as a surprise. But in a way I've kind of gone through my own mourning process having played so many Cornings and knowing that I wasn't going to come back. But the realization that Corning Classic won't be here after this year is really kind of hits home. I know that the players and the tour, and anybody that's ever played here at the Corning Classic, past champions and players on the tour that are no longer on on the tour feel the same way about losing a tournament of this magnitude. It's not one of our big, huge events on tour. But it was a big heartfelt event. It was one of our signature tournaments. And those are hard to come by, and those are hard to keep. As a player, I just want to say thanks to the community, the volunteers, the sponsors, everyone that has had their fingers in the Corning Classic. And I know that that stretches for miles and miles and miles around these hills. I know that those sentiments are shared throughout the entire tour. So as far as my memories go, are you kidding? This morning I took a walk up main street, and I'm like, oh, my gosh. Where's my camera? I haven't got a shot of this, or I haven't gotten a shot of that. So Main Street is really a part of the signature part of Corning. This little hometown place in upper New York that has been a big welcome to us. Every year knowing that we're coming home is going to be hard to miss. You know, what can I say about all the memories that I have at this golf course? All the great shots, all the roaring crowds, the couple of wins here and there. But it's, you know, just a whole file full of memories that I go through and that I have and I get to keep. You know, being a long time player and now retired, this is a tournament that I try to come to every single year. I think I've only missed a couple. I was thinking about it on the way up here. My first win, I think I was late getting here because my dog had a -- he had to go to doggy court, I had to go to court with my dog. He had actually nipped somebody, and so in Atlanta they make us go to court. It was Tuesday. So I was there all day Tuesday, and I had to fly up here Wednesday. So having played here a lot, I had my yardage book, and I'll never forget sitting in the airport going through my yardage book thinking I haven't had a practice round. I'm not going to have a Pro-Am round. So I'm just kind of going in there raw. So let's go over the golf course. So I started going hole by hole, keeping things in mine, how this golf course plays. How am I going to maintain my composure, you know, on the first tee, not having had that practice. So in my mind I just visualized this golf course, and the whole experience. The way that what's his name used to call us up to the first tee, and you felt like a boxer, and how much adrenaline that would bring to you. And you had to actually lower yourself down. You couldn't listen to him, because you felt like coming out like a boxer. Like da-da-da, because after a while, it came out Queen of Corning, that's a lot to hold up to. So I went through all that stuff. Ends up I won the tournament without the practice round, without the Pro-Am. You know, it was just there are not too many places you can come in here and feel that comfort zone. But I did, and I was able to do that. That particular win was sweet, because going way back. I'll tell that story if you want to stay around for that. But the very next year, of course, I was defending and no one had been able to defend. So whenever the defender came into the tournament the big saying was nobody's ever defended their title here. So I had Louie, my caddie, my regular caddie was Terry McNamara, who eventually worked for Annika and became famous with her. But he was my caddie, and he was actually the produce error the operator of this event. He would do all the ropes and get things kind of set up. Get all the trash cans. I was kind of like into the operations. And this was one of the tournaments. So I had Louie, he was like a temporary caddie. So since we won the year before, he became my caddie in '97, and we were able to defend that by making that 50-foot putt against green on the 18th hole, first hole playoffs. So that was a huge, huge memory for me as well. Because that's the only time I've ever defended a title. And probably the only time I've ever made a 50-foot putt when you really need it, except at Solheim one time. Just those kind of memories. But there are a zillion others that include the volunteers and the fans, the tournament officials. Just incidents on this golf course or the parties at night down main street. Doing some fun things, you know, in town here and fishing. I do a lot of fishing here. I'm going to miss any fishing hole. But there are a lot of people that I've become close with here. I'm going to try to make it back so I don't lose those friends and drift away, even though the tour might not be here. Q. You've played a lot of different tournaments over the years of the where would you rank Corning as far as these are my favorite places to go each year? ROSIE JONES: Corning has always been in my top three. No doubt I have always told everybody on tour, I said you're not playing Corning? Have you ever been to Corning? Other than having some bad weather every now and then, you know, you know, you can't beat all of those things I you mentioned before as far as the golf course, the town, the comfort feeling that you have here. You know, just the longevity of this tournament with the history behind it. The players that have been here. You want to be on that list of champions. You want to be listed with those gals. And that's a tribute to Corning and the community here, but also our tour. And the players that were attracted to this great town. Q. Since you weren't able to make it out because of the problems at the Atlanta airport the first time, how important was it to make it up for the first couple of days and the last tournament here? ROSIE JONES: Very important. I think maybe if I would have made it during the announcement day I still would have wanted to be here and try to make it up. I'm just really sorry that I'm not playing this week. And I'm really sorry that I'm not -- my game's not good enough really right now. But I'm sorry that I won't be here for the entire week. And I think this weekend every shot being played out there is, especially for some of those veterans that are playing, it's going to be on everybody's mind. Especially on Sunday with coming down to the last hole. I think it's going to be really heartfelt. I think it's going to be really hard. I'd really like to be there, although it would be really hard for me. I think it would be really, really hard for me. Q. Was there any temptation to come out of retirement one more time? ROSIE JONES: You know what, yesterday when I got done with the shootout I kind of turned around and said I kind of wish I was playing. But you know what, I just had taken quite a bit of time off this winter. I was renovating my house, and I'd been waiting to do that for eight years. It's been so wet and rainy in Atlanta, I just haven't been playing that much. Last year I had been playing quite a bit. And felt that I could come up and compete. Because it was the 30th, I was wanting to celebrate that with them. It was monumental and their longevity. Even though this is a little more monumental as far as being their last event. I think it's great that, you know, I don't take a spot that a younger player who should and loves to experience playing at Corning. I don't want to take a spot where somebody's trying to make a living and having a chance to experience Corning. So it's kind of bittersweet, but, you know, I'm here in heart. I always will be, and this is, you know, this is a great place for someone to come in, young, and win, you know. And have that opportunity. This is a great golf course for new winners. Q. Everybody knows your 2006 at the U.S. Open taking your gloves and your shoes off at the end. Kind of going from full-time playing competition to what you're doing now as far as the shootout. In some ways it's kind of like what Corning is doing now. Going from being a place in the PGA. What do you hope for not just the PGA, but a facility like Corning, you know, for the future? ROSIE JONES: Well, that's a great question, because I think Corning and the Corning Country Club and the community it's got a lot of great opportunities. You know, who knows. I think Corning is really a victim of the economy right now. Corning is not the only place on the tour schedule that's struggling that way. But I think there are a lot of different options, and being selfish as a senior, there is a legends tour that would die to come bring the players of the past that come back here and play in a regular event or even one of our big events as far as the legends go. You know, come back and play for the people of Corning. This is where our history is. It would be a perfect scenario for the legends to come back and play. There is also the tour is putting together some satellite events which would include for the Future Durham's tour, combined with the regular tour and some senior players. They're trying to put together some different options for communities like Corning that may not be able to, you know, keep the ground that they have been in the past, but have some sort of their fingers and their hands and wrap it around women's golf that way. Whether it is, you know, the Legends tour or Futures Tour or something like that, I think it's very doable. It's a great place. Who knows, in a couple of years the guys last night were all talking about, you know what, we can bring this back. There is a lot of optimism. I don't think people are ready to let go of women's golf here. You know, we're always willing to come back. Q. I'm going to ask a personal question? ROSIE JONES: Okay. Q. Rosie Jones Golf Getaways? ROSIE JONES: Right. Q. How has that experience been for you? ROSIE JONES: Very rewarding. Thanks for asking. Rosie Jones Golf Getaways is a company that I developed as I was retiring. We take women on golf vacations. We do special destinations like Scotland, Palm Springs, Napa Valley, Hilton Head, South Carolina. Next year we're doing Jackson Hole, and we're doing New Mexico later this year. And we take women on very -- women only at the moment. We take -- Q. That's the way it always is? ROSIE JONES: We haven't had any guys call up and say, hey, we want to go. We're always open for that. Q. What is the number? ROSIE JONES: You know what it is? 1-866-Rosie-13. So 13 wins, and we've nabbed that number. But we're kind of like a hospitality company. We're actually doing a big dinner at the Solheim Cup this year. We're hosting an event that is celebrating the history of the Solheim Cup featuring all the past captains. And we have like eight captains, all these legends, Kathy Whitworth, Pat Bradley, Patty Sheehan, Nancy Lopez, Betsy King, coming to hang out with us for the night, have dinner and share some of those past experiences as captain. So what I'm doing is taking kind of the history of the LPGA and bringing it up close and personal to fans and friends and patrons of the tour, and giving them that up close and personal experience. We've taken four day golf vacations, we do golf schools. Special events like this at Solheim, so it's kind of a variety of stuff that we do. You know what I realized, I'm a good teacher, I'm a good player. I'm a better player. I'm a good entertainer. People find it easy to talk to me and be with me. That's what I was really good with at the Pro-Am type of events. And maybe that's why they asked me back today. I'm running around the Pro-Am all day today. But that's kind of our business model right there. And I appreciate you letting me get that out, thank you. Q. This is a long way from Ohio State University. What do you tell a young player now? Not necessarily a Michelle Wie, but the young players coming up now and trying to give them -- obviously you're very approachable. What do you tell a young player now about being able to handle even just the media contacts that you have now? ROSIE JONES: What do I tell them as far as advice? Q. What is your advice as far as not just how to handle the media, but to take the pressure. More now than back in the days of Jan Stevenson, but now you have Paula Creamer and all these other people that are doing modelling and kind of sponsorings? ROSIE JONES: Well, the trick to being successful out on tour is to really learn how to balance yourself. I think what happens is there are players that get a little overwhelmed with many too things to do as far as extracurricular off the golf course responsibilities. And you can only do so much to be competitive. You almost have to be a little selfish in a way to be successful. In order to balance that out and say I have this much time for my sponsors. I have this much time for media and this much time for my game. And this much time for my personal life, you can't forget that. And so many players kind leave that out, and what happens is you find out they're burnt out mentally coming into the majors or they're tired at the end of the year when they're trying to make certain events and stuff like that. But it's really a challenge to balance out, especially now because there is so much different ways media -- there are so many different media distractions. And things that you need to keep up with. Girls have their own websites. They have to keep up with that. They're Twittering, and Facebook, Fanbook, you name it. There's just so many avenues to reach out. Really, when I was playing, I hardly had time -- well, I had some injuries, but I hardly had time to play golf, practice the amount that I felt was necessary, work out a little bit, go get some food and do it tomorrow. And to push all of that other stuff inside all of that is really tough. That's why they have good managers and trainers and entourages with them nowadays. Q. What is your favorite fishing hole these days? ROSIE JONES: You know the little gravel pit back here? That's it. But I wish I had my fly rod and I was down there in the river, because it's so sweet right now. I don't know if there's a lot of fish down there. But with the sun out and it's just so beautiful, I was thinking, man, forget the Pro-Am, I'm going fishing. There's many mornings I wished that, but never did that. MIKE SCANLAN: Rosie, thank you so much for coming in and sharing your memories with us. ROSIE JONES: Thanks for having me in. End of FastScripts |
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