TYCO/ADT CHAMPIONSHIP

November 13, 2001

Dottie Pepper

DOTTIE PEPPER: I've played probably six or seven rounds here. A little different every final. The wind obvious has a huge impact on Florida golf. I would anticipate at some point it will have an impact this week. The golf course plays completely different whether it blows from the prevailing northeast at this time of the wind or the southeast wind we typically have in the summertime. Practice rounds different times of the year are completely different to the extent that some holes it's probably five clubs different, depending on where it's coming from and the velocity of it. Practice rounds have been a valuable commodity at this point.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I feel pretty good. We had a little deal earlier this week that the LPGA did quite well in, played well. No reason for it not to continue at this point. I haven't played much lately because I chose not to be overseas, but I have not played competitively other than earlier this week in about a month.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Yes, we did.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Unfortunately, ten. Played well, played real well.

DOTTIE PEPPER: No, but I made a very crucial par putt at 18 (laughter). I was first out.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I've played this golf course more than I did in Daytona last year. That probably negates a lot of the move. I know there's a few players in the area that have played a little bit here, but I think I probably had the most rounds in. The same token, you just need to be playing well, period. You could be blindsided and see a golf course. If you're playing great, you can still put great numbers on the board. The combination of the two will hopefully be to my advantage.

DOTTIE PEPPER: No, in my arms. Has nothing to do with back. I was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus this summer. It's part of my ongoing therapy.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Well, Epstein-Barr, no, it's like mononucleosis. It's also in the herpes simplex family where it stays in your body forever. It lays dormant in your liver. We're doing stuff to support my liver through holistic medicinal stuff. I get a B-12 shot every week to help the energy level.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Very much so, but very manageable.

DOTTIE PEPPER: A little bit I think in my fingers. They caught it early enough. It had probably -- feeling bad for about 90 days when they found it. They caught it really early and jumped right on it. Feel pretty normal.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Exactly. Obviously, played okay this year. It wasn't quite up to my expectations. Got off to a half decent start. You know, it was pretty much out of my control from the middle of June on due to illness. Fortunately, I found it in the middle of August when I came back home. It's been slowly progressing much better. I'm able to do a lot more. I'm actually able to go through normal without crawling into bed at one o'clock in the afternoon. I have normal, productive days, and my golf is starting to show it.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Oh, there's no pain. I just had absolutely no energy - none at all.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Not good for pro golf. Not good for traveling, covering different time zones. It's not good for anything, really.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Well, I mean, Annika and Se Ri more so. You know, Karrie had won the two majors. The other two got the other two. Between the three of them, they pretty much dominated the season. Fortunately, it's not over with yet. There's still a lot out there personally for me to try to get in touch with.

DOTTIE PEPPER: It's been exceeded in history, but not since I've been on tour, no. Beth in '91. That was pretty dominating. But probably not to the extent this was.

DOTTIE PEPPER: As far as multiple wins, I think Lopez in the late '70s had a season that was dominating to the extent of over everybody else as far as the stats go. In relation to Carol Mann, it wasn't. In relation to what everybody else did that season, it was. That's what I think this is.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Phenomenal. She completely dedicated herself to it. A lot of people say they're going to do it. Few get it done. She did it.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I think we all say it. I don't think you start January without setting some goals. It's whether or not you go public with them the way she did. She was very public about it. I prefer quite not to be.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Had I not gotten sick this year, it may have been a much better season for me. But that was completely out of my control. I met a few of my goals. Most of them I, frankly, did not. So hopefully 2002 will lend itself to doing that.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Well, I got the job done, relatively speaking, in the first two majors, with a second and a third. The goal is always Top 3 in all four of them, be in contention, and every week that you play. I didn't do that. I wanted to pass the million dollar mark. Cannot do that. I think it just didn't get done. I basically only played half a year, so for all intents and purposes... Hopefully one of the years I'll have a year where I play all year (laughter).

DOTTIE PEPPER: It's one of those things that unless you have the blood work done, unless you have a doctor that's very aggressive, it can hide and be seen as a bunch of other things, whether it be neuromuscular, depressive. It can hide itself in a lot of different ways. But the blood work, if they order the right test, it shows it straight out. It either is there or it is not. In my case, it was flamingly there.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Very, very. After the 18th and 19th of August, I did not get out of bed the entire weekend. I had been to a doctor on the 17th. He ordered up all the tests starting on Monday. He gave me a B-12 shot that afternoon, and I still couldn't get out of bed. There was definitely something very wrong. He had the test results back in four days, where normally they take about ten. He rushed them all through. It's been slow progress. First month I didn't notice a whole lot of difference. That's what he told me, "It will probably be about 30 days before you notice a difference." He was right.

DOTTIE PEPPER: A little bit. I mean, I'm used to getting up early and having a very full day, never having anything kind of get in my way, not being -- I felt like I couldn't do that. At 1:00 in the afternoon, I was spent. I started noticing it out here in the middle of June. Even if you look back at score cards, I'd play a great first nine and have nothing left. That became too much of a pattern, doing nothing but going home, walking the dog, getting under the covers at night. There was too much of that happening for something not to be a little out of balance. As it turns out, that was the case.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. It's that sort of thing.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Right. I had nine holes in me, and that was about it.

DOTTIE PEPPER: He went in not looking for anything specifically. He ordered up a full variety of tests. I mean, they drew four huge vials of blood the day they did it. That was one of the things he suspected from the very beginning, and was right.

DOTTIE PEPPER: There is no known cause, which is very, very odd. A large majority of the population has it in their system, but it never comes out of its dormancy. When it does, it needs to be controlled.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Yeah, I have certain supplements I now take on the golf course. They're real nutrient rich. I take two of them three times a day, four multi-vitamins throughout the day, assorted other things. I definitely know when it's mealtime. The other stuff is called liver support, it's a derivative of all these whacky vegetables, but it's definitely working. Where the virus hides out is in your liver. The better that functions, the better it purifies your entire system, the better I feel.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I mean, my body functions are completely normal. That was among the other battery of tests. They did everything from a thyroid scan to heart EKGs. They did everything. That was one of two things that showed up. My cholesterol levels were elevated. Estrogen levels were elevated. That was flaming. My husband deserves a medal (laughter).

DOTTIE PEPPER: Yeah, I think so. I mean, my doctor has been fabulous. He's been all over it. Ron Surowitz up in Jupiter. He's been phenomenal.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Weekly.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I'm anticipating, he says this too, this will not be a continuation. It will be monthly, then bimonthly, gradually keeping it under control. That's the way it goes.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I think I'm going to be on this for good. You know, it's completely holistic, it's not prescriptive. I'm on two minor prescriptive medications which are at a third of their prescribed levels. He's very much a doctor that believes in doing stuff without being chemically involved. It's working.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Mostly stamina related, no question.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I had a really good year until... If you look at the stats as you go along, there's definitely something wrong from The Open on. That was it.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I would say I noticed it going back starting in Rochester. The two weeks I took off after Rochester, I spent the majority of that time in bed. That's not normal for me at all.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Certainly it helps. Being out here is stressful on your body, period. It's all part of the equation.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I mean, just traveling and living out of a suitcase and all of that is stressful. There's no question about it. Competitive life, but you do it by choice. You know that going in. But it's a wake-up call that you really have to take care of your entire body.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I'm playing the Hyundai matches in December, then not anticipating playing -- I may play February, but probably more toward March.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Annika and Karrie. Not bad (laughter). We went up with a couple pretty good teams.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Exactly. It was fun. It was very fun.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Seniors were represented by Nicolas, Watson and Fuzzy Zoeller who will be 50 in December. The regular tour was John Daly, Fred Couples, Mark Calcavecchia.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Let me tell you (laughter). I played with Fuzzy and John. Fuzzy is no slouch. John hits it places you just cannot comprehend. You just can't.

DOTTIE PEPPER: No. I was just hanging way back. I don't know how you set up a golf course for somebody like that. I have no idea.

DOTTIE PEPPER: He did. He did. He sure did. I mean, to put in perspective, at No. 11, I laid up with a 4-iron. This is after having, I don't know, 60-yard advantage probably. He hits the back left pin with a 5-iron. I mean, I'm playing up with four, and he's completely over water to the hole with 5-iron.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I'd be guessing. I'm not sure. But it was pretty impressive.

DOTTIE PEPPER: The guy is phenomenal. I would have anticipated a guy like that making some golf course management mistakes. He didn't. I mean, he hit irons off the tees, he hit 3-woods off the tees. The guy is phenomenal, great touch, strokes the ball extremely well. He's great.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Never going to say no to two majors (laughter). I would have felt like that was a good year. I probably would have been -- people are competitive. They're always looking for more. They're always looking to get better, to better themselves somehow, so sure.