SYBASE BIG APPLE CLASSIC PRESENTED BY GOLF MAGAZINE

July 22, 2001

Rosie Jones

ROSIE JONES: Finally, I get to make it on a Sunday. Bogey on No. 1. I hit my driver in the rough. Came out kind of bad, left, and I had to try to hit like a hooking shot up into that green and left it a little bit short. Hit a good chip shot, but missed my 4-footer for par. No. 2 I hit it about three feet and thought, "Okay, I'm going to get it back now," and missed that for my birdie and made par. Really didn't have an easy par -- or, you know, like a tap-in par until I got to No. 6. I parred 6 and 7. Went to 8 and knocked a wedge, a sand wedge, about five feet and made that putt for birdie. No. 9, I knocked a 9-iron just above the hole about four feet and made that for birdie. Go all the way down to -- there it is. All the way to No. 12. I kind of got a little greedy there. It was kind of windy. I didn't know which club to hit. I kind of hit my 7-iron a little bit right. Hit a great chip shot. Almost went in the hole, but missed my 2 1/2, 3-footer coming back. My putts were kind of shaky all day. I got up to 15 -- played 14. I played 14 great. Got to 15 and hit a 7-wood on the green, just short -- just on the green, which was a really good shot. I was 180 to the front of the green, so I had about 192 or something like that. I hit 7-wood up there, probably about 18, 20 feet from the pin, and 2-putt for birdie there. 16, you can blow it up. I don't know if you were out there, but it was just torture, just torture. I hit it 15 feet above the hole; just dribbled the ball. You could see the rotation just slowing going by the hole and it just went like six feet by. You're afraid to charge that putt coming back, because if you lip that out, it's going to come back out. Or if you go by it, you don't want anything more than about six inches coming back. So you're just kind of trying to get it up there, but I missed it. And then 17, I played a pretty good drive. I had to try to hook it around the tree just a little bit, and I thought I did a good job, but it never ended up hooking. I had about a 30-footer for birdie and I ended up knocking it by, and I didn't want to do that, about three-foot, and had to catch myself coming back. Made it and was very happy, because I knew where I stood at the time. But I knew that Laura was probably going to birdie 18, which I guess she did, because by the time I got there, I looked at the scoreboard -- I didn't even know that, because I thought I could 2-putt that. 18, I got in the rough on the drive. I punched out with a 9-wood. I just kind of -- three-quarter kicked it up there, trying to get it in position. I had an 8-iron, about a three-quarter 8-iron down to about a 3-foot putt, 3- or 4-foot putt. And a little left-to-right, and knocked it in like a trooper.

ROSIE JONES: I had 126 to the pin, and that was perfect shot for an 8-iron, except it plays downhill about five or six yards, and that wind was coming at me just a little bit. I just played for a little right-to-left and like a three-quarter shot down there. Played it like it was playing about 120, 121. I think that was my actual yardage, 121.

ROSIE JONES: That's such a turning point there. I felt like if I had a birdie putt -- I knew that I was going to get by that hole without, you know, any major disasters. If I could just get a birdie putt, whether I made it or not, then I had a chance. It's just kind of a turning point where, you know, now you can -- that's just a scary hole. That's just a scary hole. When I hit it on there, I just hit such a good shot. In order to keep it on that green, you have to hit it really nice and tall and kind of like a fading shot. If you turn it over at all, it really -- it doesn't grab; it just goes to the left or it moves over to that back side.

ROSIE JONES: I'm glad I didn't know that. (Laughter.) That's not fun.

ROSIE JONES: No, it was probably a lot of fun for everybody, I have no idea. But I was trying to look at 13, what was going on. But there's a car parked, one of the courtesy cars parked underneath the scoreboard -- inaudible -- and where the light is, I couldn't see. And every time I tried to see a scoreboard, they were into the commercials, so I'm not getting my information. Of course, I don't have time to stand there the whole time to wait for it come around again, so I didn't really get it. So walking down 15, after my drive, I told my caddy, "I said, "I think I want to know where I'm at. What's up?" He said: So and so is at this and you're there, and, you know, from there. So I kind of knew at 15 what I was doing, and then after 16, he said, "Don't worry, you've still got a one-shot (lead), after a 3-putt." He was just trying to alleviate any kind of anxiety I had after 2-putting and making bogey, I thought maybe we were tied now. And then I kind of knew that she was pretty well on -- she had a pretty good chance of birdieing 18. But I felt good having a one-shot lead going in there.

ROSIE JONES: Well, I don't know. I mean, I was nervous with the putter all day. The thing is, I was so good on the green, on the putting green, I felt so calm, so smooth, so -- my timing was absolutely perfect. It's probably because I noticed that, it probably made me a little nervous when I got out there, because right off the bat, which I don't really like to have to do, is to have a 4-footer kind of curling downhill right-to-left for par. I just kind of gave up on that putt a little bit and missed it. And then had another one going left-to-right on 2 for birdie, and it just broke out more than I thought. So right off the bat, you're missing two putts and I was just kind of nervous about it the rest of the day. And when you're nervous about it, you ultimately leave yourself 3-footers all day; and that's basically what I did, and missed another one out on 12. So if I was going to lose a tournament, I would think it's probably with the putter. And these greens here are tough. You never have something straight up or straight down. It's always, you know -- it's always just perfect speed and line. You know what, I just said, "I'm going to win this tournament." I said that on 17. "I'm getting up there and I'm not going to think about the nerves. I'm going for it." And I slammed that one in on 17 and that gave me a little more confidence, and on 18, I knew the line. Sometimes you get a little nervous because you think it's going to break this much and you're not really sure. It might go a little more, might go a little less. I just made sure I knew where my line was.

ROSIE JONES: Oh, sure. You know, as a matter of fact on 16, I thought a was going to have a three-shot lead because I just missed the putt, and then I walked off with a one-shot lead. I was thinking, "Two-shot lead would have been nice. Three would have been awesome, but now I've just got one." But that's what's fun. I love that. I love this game, and that's why I love playing, you know. It's great how golf is. In a matter of five minutes, you're going from a three-shot -- could have been a three-shot to one-shot to tie. You know, that's what makes it so fun, and so hard.

ROSIE JONES: Not really. Because I was playing with Annika last year, so that might have been a little tougher; the threat was right there. But Nancy played so tough all the way around; that she was never out of it, up until, I would say, 16. She missed her putt on 15. That's what really took her right there was when she missed that putt on 15. But she was always right in it, playing really well, a lot of putts that just wouldn't go in. So that was good for me to kind of keep me in it, keep me grinding, because I wasn't really -- I wasn't playing bad, actually; hitting it pretty good. Hitting really good drives, and just couldn't -- just couldn't get comfortable all day with my putter. It's like my arms were nervous and I just couldn't get a good feel.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, it's been fun. You know, it's great. I don't see as finishing second -- as a negative, I always look at it as a positive. It gives me a good history at this golf course. I've had a lot of fun in this tournament. I don't like going home second place, especially two years in a row, but the chase is great. It's great on this golf course because that whole back nine is just tough. Every single hole is tough. You know, it's a relief now to know that I hung in there and warded off all of the young players and beat them. (Laughs).

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, I had a lot of fans, a lot of volunteers, a lot of gallery out there cheering my name and wishing me good luck all through the week, and that's really nice. I think I think they do that because I've been coming here for 20 years. It's nice. I think they remember last year really well when I got beat at the end, and they just were really rooting for me. It is really nice when you get a lot of people doing that.

ROSIE JONES: I think so. Especially, you know, coming down the stretch, I feel like I have had that experience, and the discipline -- you know, I only feel like I made one mistake today, and that was on 12 when I short-putted that pin and left myself a really tough up-and-down. I hit an absolute perfect shot. Lipped it out, actually, and missed the putt coming back. Really, what I should have done was make sure I hit it to the left side and had a birdie putt instead, and make sure I get the par. Laura Diaz and Kris Tschetter were both great players. I know Laura was trying to get out and get her first win; hate to deny her, but she's kicking at the door pretty hard, and it's not going to be long before she gets that first win. It happened to me a lot before I finally got mine.

ROSIE JONES: No. I'm actually heading out tonight. I'm going home. I've got the week off.

ROSIE JONES: I did. I did. I changed it and then I went back to it, and then I changed it. When I got this call, I thought, okay, we can do this. I can get to 15. And then when I went back to -- what did I go to, 11? And by then, I was kind of just playing. I was just hustling. I wasn't worried what number. I just wanted to be in front of everybody else.

ROSIE JONES: That can be really tricky. You can catch a flyer because you are so high above that; that if you hit it too hard, you are in that rough over the green, and that's almost really hard to get up-and-down with that pin back there. But if you take it too easy, you know, you can -- the wind can take it, bring it way down to the front of the green and you just have to be really aggressive with it. I knew with my lie, that it was going to turn over just a little bit, so I made sure that I played it out and put it a good, you know, five yards out to the right and let it come in. It did exactly what I wanted it to, except for where I was I thought I was a foot out and I thought I was going to have a tap-in. From when I hit it, I was like all,"Yeah!" this is it, that's it. I was about this far into the first cut, and that -- right up there it was a little bit above my feet. So I had to take it really easy. I was kind of like in between clubs with a 9 and an 8, and I went ahead with the 8 because there was some wind in my face.

ROSIE JONES: I knew when it was getting closer to the green, I could just kind of real the resistance in the wind holding it, and it was turning in. You never know, though, until it hits the ground exactly just how perfect it is or how good it is. When it hit the green, I knew it was right where I wanted it.

ROSIE JONES: And David Duval wins the Open, you know, he wins the British, that's great. You know, the Americans are great players and they are going to be in contention every single week, and they are in contention every single week -- inaudible -- that is depth. We've got deep depth. (Laughs). It's only a matter of time before we really just put them all together at the same time. That's hard to do, but this is the type of golf course that we are accustomed to, more or less, with the hills and lots of trees. We play these courses a lot, with all of the international players who have a little bit more open golf courses. Because you know that you've played well enough to win before, and you made a couple mistakes or just couldn't get the ball to roll or just couldn't get the ball to go in the hole, it's so satisfying. And it was really nerve-wracking to have the lead and be not really on top of my putter today and not really comfortable with it, because you get defensive and I hate to play this golf course like that. You start trickling into your iron shots and stuff like that. But I had a lot of faith in my decision-making, the shots that I wanted, the knowledge of the golf course. I knew exactly what I could and couldn't do on certain shots and where I wanted to be in relation to the pin. You know, that is a plan that you have, and it's not necessarily something that you make up before we go play. But when you are standing there, you know that the only thing that you can do, and it comes off the way you want it, it's just great. Laura and Kris played great today. Laura shot 5-under, I think, four or five, both of them. Awesome rounds today, especially, because it was a little more windy, gusty. It was back and forth. By the time you've gotten your club the wind had switched and was going the other direction. Not just a breeze; it was a pretty good wind. It was tricky as far as pulling out the right club, because it was like a two-club change, not just one.

ROSIE JONES: Well the green, they should really dig it up. Even when it is in good shape -- I mean, that was a bad pin today, even for a good green. That was just a bad pin. Well, you can. You've got wind, you know, going left-to-right, hard, and you start it out a little right and, if you don't have it hooking, it's going to keep going right, and there's a little longer carry to the right side, too. If it hits right it's probably going to keep going right and then you're in the fringe and keep it on the green. Usually, I try to go straight at it or left, and I got a little too far left. The ball, I hit it a little bit better than I thought I was going to, into the wind, and got above it. I think if you want to be anywhere, you want to be below and left, I guess. You could see it. The ball shouldn't roll like real slow up to a hole and then pick up speed and run by it. That's not fair.

ROSIE JONES: No, it's never the same, actually. Because when I played w in the Pro-Am this week, I had the worst day I've ever had. I shanked it twice with my Pro-Am team. I couldn't hit a fairway. I apologized profusely. I was playing with our sponsor, Sybase, and they were no nice. They still loved me when I got done. I played awful. I was in between -- I was pretty much trying to fix my swing all week long and just kind of moving in the direction of changes and just never got out of control and always was good when I needed it. Wednesday was the Pro-Am I'm talking about. And then Thursday, I said, "Well, let's just go out and see what we've got." Shot 1-under and felt like that was a pretty good start, but knew I could play a little bit better. Each day, I was just working on my swing. Like today, I felt like I was really, really swinging it good, especially with my driver and longer clubs, even my irons were really good.

ROSIE JONES: Well, you know, you know me, I get a little bit away from the ball and I start getting a little flat and then I start getting a little reverse spin going, and slowly but surely, trying to inch myself back up to the ball, to where last night I was on the driving range and just really crowding it and that puts me more upright. With my swing plane, you totally can't tell, but it's a lot more -- getting the club up a lot better makes a big difference with driving and everything, really, in my game.

ROSIE JONES: New York, New York, I tell you, I've won five tournaments in New York. I've won 12 tournaments, five of them are in New York. Many great things -- important things have happened to me in New York, wins and people I've met. I lost my brother -- I was in a car accident and he was in Mexico and that happened like 16 years ago. Some really important people in my life I've met from New York, and just, you know, that's how it's happened for me. I have no idea, because I'm in the really fond of the City, but outside in upper New York, I really love. I really love the state.