SPRINT TITLEHOLDERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 1, 1997

Dottie Pepper

DOTTIE PEPPER: Started, obviously, at the 10th. Actually hit a pitching wedge to about three and a half feet. Had to make it, so I wasn't last off the tee on the next hole. Made a good 2-putt at 11. Then hit a 9-iron to about four feet at 12. 8-iron to twelve feet at 13 and made that. 4-iron 14, 20 feet, made that. Got it up-and-down out of the left bunker. Made 5-footer for par at 15. 16, I tapped in after getting it up-and-down from short of the bunker. Kind of where I started to drive the ball very poorly. What I thought was a good 3-iron into 17, it wasn't enough. Caught a gust. Nearly made that. Hit a 12-footer for birdie at 18. And drove it right both at 1 and 2. Made bogeys at both of those holes: 1 and 2. I didn't -- had a horrible lie at 1. Couldn't even play it at the green. Second hole, didn't get it up-and-down from the left-hand bunker. 5-footer in there.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Drove it right again at 4. 2-putted for a good par at 3. Drove it right at 4. Made good 2-putt for par there. Then missed 5 and 6 from inside, eight feet at both holes. Finally made it at 7 from about eight feet. Made it from about 30 feet at 8. And then kind of a sloppy par at 9. But --

DOTTIE PEPPER: Yes.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Hit 5-iron and 7-iron.

DOTTIE PEPPER: When you don't make birdie from 80 yards out, that is sloppy.

DOTTIE PEPPER: 25 feet. I hit the ball certainly better than I did last week; I still got some work to do. But, all and all, I rolled the ball pretty well today. Didn't leave myself much if I did have a lengthy birdie. Putt speed was really good. Other than driving the ball and putting myself on defense a couple of times, I struck the ball pretty well.

DOTTIE PEPPER: No. I drove the ball real poorly for a golf course this wide. I was in a few fairway bunkers.

DOTTIE PEPPER: No. Won't go there. (laughs). I am still working at it. Let us put it that way.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Until yesterday - yeah, but it was under water until yesterday, so it -- they dried out on top and they are still firm underneath. Val Skinner got a couple of lies on fairway bunkers. They kind of rolled in and fell over and deep and really, really -- might as well have been in a hazard because you couldn't advance the ball hardly at all. It was the same thing that I had at the first hole. It just fell into that real soft stuff and it is firm underneath, so it just went right to the bottom. But, you know, considering where it was two days ago, the golf course is in great shape. Pretty darn wet on Tuesday.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Got a ways to go.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Probably less. But not -- haven't been a very happy camper the last two and a half, three months the way I have struck the ball, really. So, we have got a lot of work to do.

DOTTIE PEPPER: It was encouraging. Hit some very good long irons today. I managed my way around the golf course real well. I would have had a really low number on the board had I driven the ball better. But I did drive the ball great coming in. the last three drives were perfect. I take some good stuff from that. Seemed to struggle with the wind at my back, over my left shoulder; when it was left-to-right is when I struggled. I am still working on a bit of spin-out. My alinement has been lousy, making a couple of compensations to deal with that. And, as a result, I have hit some very weak shots over the last three, four months and working on that. It doesn't happen overnight.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I think you get a little lazy and I neglected my alinement, which is the foundation - where it all begins. And, working myself further right -- the alinement, I made a compensation in my golf swing. Now we will keep my way back left again. So it is a little untidy.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Unfortunately, this isn't.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Todd Ossoff.

DOTTIE PEPPER: He is out whenever I make a phone call which is great. He owns his own golf course, family run operation and I lived with he and his wife when I first came to Florida, so as long as he is not missing the Oldsmobile Scrambler or the PGA Championship, he could be out every week. Works out kind of nice.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Near Youngstown, Ohio.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Professional, yeah.

DOTTIE PEPPER: No. It wasn't that. Because it wasn't -- it wasn't easy. I worked hard through that whole thing. Wasn't like I just pegged it and went, but I was getting a lot out of my practice. I was aligned properly, so there was no compensations. You know, just everything fell together and I had one swing thought that continued through basically six months. You know, something doesn't work forever. I needed to get back to work on what is going to make me improve.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I can't tell you. I would have to shoot you (laughs).

DOTTIE PEPPER: Probably. But, that is what makes me better. I am not one to be satisfied in the gray area. And, that is probably why I have maintained the level I have since 1991. I am not out here to finish second and not out here to hit 11, 12, greens a today. I like to be putting for birdie and not from 50 feet away like I have been. Second is just -- it is fine. The count loves it. But I don't. So that is what keeps pushing you.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Sure. It could. But got a little sloppy and just needed to really pay attention to my alinement and recorrect the -- for the compensations that I made for the alinement.

DOTTIE PEPPER: No, I could see it coming. You lose a couple of yards here, a couple of yards there, and you know something is not quite right. So you tinker a little bit and you get by for a few more days. But, time to address the issue as it stands. You go through that. I went through that last summer when I missed the cut at the Open. It was time to address the issue as it stands. And, I was playing poorly, and it was time to find out why.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Last week.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Yes.

DOTTIE PEPPER: No. That is part of the reason I am taking next week off because I will go home and just hibernate and hit balls for an entire week and hopefully be ready for the late spring and early summer. But, it is also very hard to maintain the level that I set last summer. It is not easy. I took some time off in October and got a little rusty and didn't really address the issues that well. Now, it is time to get back in the ballgame.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I didn't play golf, I can tell you that. I tinkered around the house; went to the beach; did skiing. I did everything I should have been doing, but it is time to get back to playing golf.

DOTTIE PEPPER: I think it takes every golf course to make the Tour what it is. And, yeah, you can play every golf tournament under hard condition and it would be fine with me. But, people want to see, when they turn on CBS Sunday or Saturday afternoon, they don't want to see what they saw at JAL last October, that one person finishing with par. They don't want to see that. And, I don't want to get beat up every week either. We were all exhausted after 54 holes there.

DOTTIE PEPPER: No.

DOTTIE PEPPER: Certain weeks I think we have it. I think we do have it. You know, this golf course is not that easy if they let the rough grow up and the wind blows, it is not that easy. You can tuck pins out here and make it extremely difficult. It is not that the golf course can't be made difficult. But, you know I think there is a place for every event. And just because we are playing for a million dollars doesn't mean you have to shoot even par to win. The guys play for that every week and they are 20-under and that is okay. So, I don't think that is necessarily an important issue. They play for a lot more than that every week, actually.