THE SOLHEIM CUP

September 18, 1998

Juli Inkster

Dottie Pepper

JULI INKSTER: It was a great win. We played so good today. They played great, too. And we made one mistake on No. 16. But just kept -- kept our composure. I lost my composure a little bit after I made that putt. But Dottie hit a great shot in here and practiced that putt this week and it was a great win. We really needed it.

JULI INKSTER: She is.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I've had great partners. I've had great partners. But that was one of the best -- best-played alternate shot matches I've ever been involved in. There were two bogeys in 36 holes. That's just phenomenal.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I don't know. You dig deep. It's right. And when you think you're getting a little -- a little quivery. You've got to dig in deeper. I know I was shaking a little bit on that last hole.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I love playing with her. We know each other, and I messed up on 16, but there's nothing I can do about it. You move on and we played great coming in. That was a great shot she hit in there, a nice, safe shot. Usually you're not going to lose at the 4. So that was a good play by her.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Thanks.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Well , at least it looks the important thing is it looks like we're going to stretch our lead in a format that we traditionally have not done that well in. This team has just got a lot of heart and when they get down, they just keep digging harder. And it's awesome.

DOTTIE PEPPER: That was unbelievable. I think I'd rather have to do just about anything than that. That was just incredible with Juli hitting the perfect tee shot, the yardage. I got over it a bit on -- it was a putt we had all practiced earlier this week. With that far pin, the only place to bail is middle left and she just hit a great putt.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I don't know about that because the match was so well-played. This was the only hole -- this and 16 were the only holes won with pars. I mean, everything was won with a birdie, and usually in alternate shot, you see a few won with pars, especially early on when you're trying to get your feet under you. That was not the case today. If you aren't making birdies, you weren't making holes.

DOTTIE PEPPER: As many as possible. If we can go out and play like tomorrow like this afternoon -- but we have to.

DOTTIE PEPPER: It was pretty hard. I felt like both sides of the coin here. I felt like -- I mean, I felt like I left her in the spot where if you're going to miss it, you're going to have to miss it. The second time I left her a really, really far putt. But her speed was so good all day it was just incredible. That was typical of every putt she had over 25 feet was just dead.

DOTTIE PEPPER: It was a grind. We burned a few calories this morning, that's for sure.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Juli hit a bat off the tee -- no, she had the perfect club; so two mistakes right on top of each other.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I had 20 yards, 60 feet.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Well, I think Pat and Kelly had the opportunity to shut the door on the morning. We certainly will go in with no less of a lead that we had this morning but to gain on that lead will just be huge.

DOTTIE PEPPER: It was really bad this morning.

DOTTIE PEPPER: That's about right. There was a lot of blue on that board for a long time. But you know, I kept looking at that early match and no one -- somebody's making something. And you know they -- gals in the first match -- I keep saying that, you know, it's so important for that first match to go out and play well and they did it again.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Well, I mean we're so comfortable with each other that we, you know, we read putts similarly. She's exactly a club longer than I am so that makes it pretty easy. Like on 17, she was comfortable enough to say: This is my number, what do you think. And I -- I did the same thing to her a couple of times. It's just -- she's a rock. You could just lean on her and know she's always going to be there.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I have no idea. I had one 170.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Everybody sounded like it had almost gone over, but I guess it was just working it's way back and there was a point it didn't make it onto the middle level.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Well, every time it seemed like you got the momentum, they'd strike right back. And the birdie at 13 was really big. And Juli -- Juli's putt at 15 was just huge as heck. Juli's putt on 15 was huge. And she said: "You know, it was let's make this." And then when I saw it coming up, I said: Oh, God, I hope she's right because I'm going to have it coming back if she doesn't.

DOTTIE PEPPER: 25, it was pretty solid.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Got to get them excited. Our crowd was kind of in the doldrums early on. We got our ourselves in a hole. We were 2-down after four holes and they were pretty laggy. We were like, wow, that's not good. Time for them to get excited. This is great. We've got this match at 18 now and they need to be excited about it.