WEETABIX WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN

August 3, 2001

Trish Johnson

TRISH JOHNSON: I think in general that's two of the best rounds I've played back to back for awhile. It's nice to finish off this morning without doing any damage to yesterday's round. Apart from just the odd bogey. But the last five or six holes are quite tough anyway on this course. I got off to an absolute fly this afternoon or this morning? Was it 9 o'clock I think? I thought it was this afternoon. Birdie, eagle. And no, just pretty good all the way through, really. Couple of mistakes. But you're going to do that, obviously.

TRISH JOHNSON: They're there, but they don't affect me playing at all. Just achy, rather than anything else. But no affect playing golf. Just afterwards, really.

TRISH JOHNSON: It's just basically, I had tennis elbow and it's just gone up through sort of neck and back. Neck and shoulder really. And it's just a little point there that is always not quite right. But it doesn't really affect me playing, so. It's old age more than anything.

TRISH JOHNSON: I have no idea to be honest, just I think I'll maybe play the rest of the season and then try and sort it out properly. But what that might be, I don't know. I've had everything done that you can have. Osteo, acupuncture, you name it.

TRISH JOHNSON: It's not that bad.

TRISH JOHNSON: Totally, yeah. The European Tour is my home tour and always will be. And at the moment, the way things are going, I've only played about three or four events in America this year and I'm going to lose my card because we're supposed to play 15. And that's just not feasible at all, due to my injuries. So I don't quite know how it's going to work out next year. But I just love the different countries, different cultures, the rubbish you have to put up with on our Tour. It's just all the things. It's totally different. Hearing some of the American girls today, you know, about the things that they expect. And I just feel, God, yeah, if you just came to Italy or somewhere like that for a week. It would just, it would blow their minds, it really would. But I think that's all part of the fun. We have so much fun trying to get from A to B half the time and trying to find something that's edible and it's just very different.

TRISH JOHNSON: The things that they, the way they are treated on their tour is absolutely fantastic. Probably how it should be. Very much so. But due to circumstances and certainly different European cultures, that is never going to happen to us in certain countries. To be fair, it doesn't happen to the men in certain countries. You can't just snap your fingers and the courtesy car appears when you're in the middle of Florence or somewhere like that. It's just not going to happen. And you accept that. And that's part of the deal. But it's part of the appeal in a certain way as well. And also, obviously, from my point of view everywhere is, you know, you leave on a Tuesday, you come home on a Sunday. And actually being able to be at home and have a semi normal life, if you like, rather than being away all the time is very appealing. But don't get me wrong, I mean the LPGA is a great Tour. And I played over there for donkey's years, I mean it's 14 odd years. When I was the age of the players like that that are going to go over there and play, when I was 20 I loved it. It was fantastic. I suppose I just had enough of traveling and being treated well. (Laughter.)

TRISH JOHNSON: I don't have a choice. They're not going to give me a medical exemption. Although I might have a word. But I don't think that's going to happen. So I will still be able to play certain events. It will either be on career money or tournament winner or something like that. Yeah. So there's still certain events I can play. But unfortunately those will probably tend to be in the middle of summer, which is when I tend to spend most of my time over here. We will just have to see how it goes.

TRISH JOHNSON: It would help, wouldn't it? It would be nice.

TRISH JOHNSON: Well I think actually, to be honest, they might have come from last winter, practicing at the driving range. Practicing. Which is pretty stupid. Which is a shame, because I never used to practice before, so I probably shouldn't have bothered. So I think it came from that initially. And then I probably didn't get the right treatment straight away and tried to play with it and various other things and didn't really help it.

TRISH JOHNSON: Winning this? Absolutely. But we have only had two days. I'm not going to sit up here and say that. It goes without saying that to win this event would be unbelievable for a British player to win, certainly. The first year it's a major as well. I couldn't choose a better event to win.

TRISH JOHNSON: No, it wouldn't solve the problem because I still wouldn't have played 15 events. So it wouldn't, it doesn't make any difference. There are certain rules. I'll bend a few in my time, but I don't think I'll get through this one. You have to play 15 events regardless of how much money or how many tournaments you win. And to be honest, it hasn't, it's just been no way it's been possible. I think I played three events or four events up to Atlantic City. And actually if I had played every event from then onwards I still wouldn't have added up to 15 without special events. Which I'm not in. So I couldn't have done it anyway. So to a certain extent they should give me a medical exemption, but I won't hold my breath.

TRISH JOHNSON: Four events a year, that's all right. That's nice. Perfect.

TRISH JOHNSON: I'm not, to be honest, I'm not crocked, I'm not. Quite obviously the way I'm playing I don't feel any pain at all. So I'm not in any discomfort while I'm playing golf. I played really well last week for three rounds. I putted very poorly the first two days, picked it up a bit the third day when I played exceptionally well. And it could have been any sort of score. And then the last day I played like a dog, but fortunately my short game was fabulous. So I expected to play well. I have been playing well. I played well at the British Masters previously to that. Again, the last round I played very poorly, but that was the first tournament that I played for about a month and a half. I am streaky, but I think I'm getting to the stage now where I know it's not quite so streaky. I'm playing well and I should just keep playing well. I think probably mentally I'm a lot better than I was previously. I think I've actually come to realize that it's not all about just the golf swing, it's actually probably 90 percent about actually how you're thinking out there rather than actually how capable you are of swinging the golf club or swinging a putter.

TRISH JOHNSON: Not a lot at this rate, that's for sure. But that's immaterial. The Solheim Cup is a European team and how many British players are on it is totally irrelevant. Just as long as they're the best players to get the job done. And I must admit I think our next, well, it's not just our next team, but our next few teams is going to be phenomenal. And I just hope I can sneak on it, really.

TRISH JOHNSON: Because I love it. I just absolutely love it.

TRISH JOHNSON: Well you only are going to see players like Powler and Suzanne here, and there's a lot of others that are coming up, along with the rest of the old dogs. There's various, on our tour, right now, there are probably more good players, very, very good players, than I've known since I've been on tour, I think. Personally. And, you know, they're week in, week out. They're not scared of anyone. They're athletic. They hit the ball miles. They expect to win. Christ, they're 20 years of age, but they expect to beat everybody. But they're nice girls as well. They're not arrogant. Cocky, maybe, but not arrogant. But that goes with their ability. And I just think that more and more of them are going to come through. I mean every way, I could name -- I could think of three or four, I don't even know what they're called, but I know how good they are. And I'm sure it will be the same next year and the year after.

TRISH JOHNSON: Yeah, definitely. Well, I mean, they have won three events between them? And I played with Suzanne actually, well, it was the one that Powler won, but Suzanne could have easily won the British Masters, last week as well. She's never going to beat Alfie. She won't let any of the youngsters win, will she. And I just think there's some great talent on this tour. And our battle is to keep them playing this tour, rather than having them head for the States. But that is inevitable because of the money to be perfectly honest. And you can't blame them for that.

TRISH JOHNSON: There's another one actually, yeah, sorry, I forgot to mention Becky Morgan. Great player. I think it's her rookie year in the States and she's done very well. She lost in a playoff a tournament over here, so yeah, she's great.

TRISH JOHNSON: Yeah. The first hole was just a chip and a putt. A putt that was about 25 feet. Second was 3-wood to 12 foot. The fifth I knocked it in the right hand bunker, just chipped it out and knocked it on and two putted. 9th, a chip and run to about six feet. 10 was two putts from 25 feet. 7 wood I think I hit there. Yeah. 11 was a pitch to six feet. 14 was a pitch to about the same. Five, six feet. 15 I put it in the left hand bunker off the tee. Didn't get up-and-down. 17, 9-iron to four feet. And 18 was just three putts from back of the green.

TRISH JOHNSON: Probably the first was about 40 feet, the second was about five feet.

TRISH JOHNSON: No problem.