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July 21, 2001

Rosie Jones

ROSIE JONES: Started with a 2-putt for par. No. 2, I knocked it -- I knocked a 7-iron about one and a half foot away. Made that for birdie. No. 3, I 2-putted for par. No. 4, I hit a 7-wood about eight feet. Missed that for birdie. 2-putt for par. No. 5, I hit it into the bunker, and I was in the rough. I was in the left rough and hit it into the bunker by the greens, and came out and made about a 5-footer for par. No. 6, I knocked a 7-iron on the green and 2-putted for par. No. 7, I hit another 7-wood on the green about 25 feet just short of the pin there and 2-putt for par there. No. 8, I hit 3-wood off the tee and wedge on to the green and made about an 18 footer for birdie. No. 9, I hit a 9-iron, not a very good one, kind of left it short. It was a 2-putt for par there. No. 10, hit 7-iron on the green. Kind of missed it. Had about a 35-footer. 2-putt for par. 11, I hit another 7-iron on the green about 20 feet. 2-putt. Left it right in the jaw, about an inch short. No. 12, I hit it in the right rough. Had to hit kind of a 9-wood in the little trees over the corner there and had to chase it up on the green, which it did. But then it rolled back off the front, but still on the short grass, so I was able to put up about two feet, three feet short there and make that for par. Then 13, I hit a 9-iron about another foot from the hole and made that for birdie. No. 14, I hit driver over to the left, like you're supposed to. I still had 155 in the front, and the wind, it was elevated a little bit. It was a little much for my 5-iron, so I went with my 9-wood. I'm a little afraid to hit that on that hole. It's like a tabletop on there. If you ever get a chance to walk on there, which I'm sure you won't -- but -- but if you do, it's like walking on top of that. But it just trickled over off the back into the fringe, into the frog hair, not the rough, but into that frog hair. The pin was only from me to that speaker over there, or even closer. It's really kind of a tough, delicate shot. I used my putter to just kind of pop it up and hit that overspin and kind of take it down to the pin. It's a shot Sherri Steinhauer showed me the last couple years ago, and knocked it up about six inches, so it was an easy par today. Then I hit driver, 3-wood just short of the green and had a little chip. Left myself a 3-footer for par. Par No. 16, I pulled my 5-iron. I was way front left. I pretty much had to use the whole green -- without my ball going off the green. Left myself about a 5-footer and made that, which was probably about the best 2-putt I've ever had. Especially on that green and the shape that it is in; it was just really difficult. 17, I hit a 9-iron. I kind of had a funny angle on it and I was expecting my ball to draw just a little bit and just came down a little shorter than I expected into the rough. I used JoAnne Carner's special shot that she taught me. Knocked it up there about three feet and made that putt for par. 18, I hit driver, 3-wood right on to the front of the green and 2-putt for birdie there. The first one was probably about 22, 25 feet and I left myself about a 3-footer. A little aggressive on that first one. That's what's great about those shots is, you know, I always -- well not always, but those are two shots that I've asked players to show me before because a lot of people use little woods out of the frog hair. And JoAnne Carner showed me this shot, out of the really high rough, right around the green, delicate shot. She showed me that about three or four years ago. I wasn't hitting it very well, so I had her show it to me again yesterday as I was getting ready to go -- as a matter of fact, as I was getting ready to miss my tee time. We were just kind of going over that again, but it sure comes in useful. It's nice to have.

ROSIE JONES: My 60 degree wedge. It's a flopshot. It's a pretty good swing, but it just kind of plops the ball out and brings it down real soft. On 17, it could have been, but I was kind of lucky that there was the grass right in front of my ball, kind of pressed down, which is sometimes good, sometimes bad, because you can't really tell how far the ball is if it's sitting down. If it's not really sitting down, this shot doesn't work as well. But it came out pretty much the way I thought it would, so I was happy.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, because -- yeah. Just getting the par on there, sure. You always feel like you're picking up a shot when you par that hole. I think that's a good hole. Par is good on that hole. I had about a 10-footer for birdie on the first day, but walking out of there with a par is good.

ROSIE JONES: Well, nothing. No, I couldn't see anything. There was just the bushes, and then above that were the trees overhanging. So I kind of had the 20-foot window in between that I just knew -- my ball really didn't have that good of a lie, and I was just really hoping to get it over those trees. If I get enough club on it to get it over those trees, I knew it was going to have enough spin to hopefully take it on the green, or at least to the front, the bottom of that hill. Yeah, just getting a par out of there, out of being in a little trouble, I felt was kind of like the turning point of today's round. That hole swing, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, that's a big swing. Those are tough holes. If you get by there even par, you feel like you're doing pretty good.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, five birdies, no bogeys. I was talking about that yesterday. When I'm playing really well, a lot of times, I'll not have any bogeys. Like we were saying yesterday, with eight birdies yesterday, I had that double and that one bogey and then today, five birdies, no bogeys.

ROSIE JONES: Well, you know, I'm going to say, yeah, I think it's my time, but I'm not going to say anything. Because there's been a tournament that I've finished second four years in a row before, and by the time I was done with that, we don't even have that tournament anymore. Ran out of chances, in Seattle. It was awful. I mean, four years in a row. But, you know, that's Seattle. That's on a different side of the world, almost -- SAFECO, yeah, you can see SAFECO. Went into a playoff with Pat Bradley one year and played a great round, just to kind of sneak in there a couple of times. But blew it on the other rounds. Something always happened that I finished second, but no biggy.

ROSIE JONES: I think so. I mean, the course is playing really good for me right now. I have a good feel for it. You know, it's not playing extremely long, which is good. I'm hitting the ball pretty good off the tee, which is really key for me, because you've got to keep it out of the rough. I need to keep it out of the rough because I'm not strong enough to really maneuver the club the way the bigger hitters can, even with 8-irons and stuff like that.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, it's not really a tactic I'm used to, actually. You know, probably what most likely I'll do is set a goal for myself to try to achieve and not try to protect any lead out there. I think that usually works pretty good when I'm in the lead or trying to maintain something. You know, I'm better off if I'm trying to get to a certain number.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, I think I am. I like knowing what I've got to do, where I've got to get, how many under do I need to make. Basically, you know, I look at numbers when I'm behind, too. There's just less threat and expectations when you're behind.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, Betsy is playing great. I'm not surprised at all that she's played well today. I looked at the board and I think she started at 3- or 4-under today, and was kind of surprised that she had not made a move yesterday. But she was on the range last night for quite a while working hard, and it paid off today.

ROSIE JONES: We're just still good. What do you mean? Why is that so weird? (Laughter.)

ROSIE JONES: Cristie Kerr. We've got a lot of great young players on our tour right now, and you're right. A lot of the winners this year have been the veterans. It just goes to experience and stuff like that. I've played this golf course under all kinds of conditions. I know what you can and can't do in certain situations, like when you can be aggressive or when you need to back down and play more conservative. I think that's true on a lot of golf courses that we play, except for maybe some newer ones that we are not as familiar with. Yeah, I just think that we are more patient, more disciplined. Better putters. Better short game. We know the shots. We share shots. (Laughs).

ROSIE JONES: We're not annoyed at their success. We're kind of annoyed that the press wants to make it a big deal. To me, I play golf with these girls every single week. This is their tour. This is their main tour. It's not like they came over last week and they are here for a week or two and they are winning the tournaments. You know, they are just like me. They have been here since -- a lot of them, since college, and a lot of them for several years. You know, it just shows you, there's a lot of depth on this tour. There's a lot of great golf programs that are producing good international players right now, and we're getting the benefits from that. I don't look at it as a negative thing. I think it is a positive thing. I mentioned the other day to another reporter that there's international players in every sport that we watch in America, and nobody thinks it's really weird that the Mets have five Cubans or whatever. Our tour is more of a world tour. We play all over the world and we have a lot of international players. That's good. That's good for us.

ROSIE JONES: Well, it's just a matter of time and experience. I was out here five or six years before I won, and it takes a lot of responsibility. These players, they see with a kind of responsibilities you have when you become a good player and a winner out here. Your life changes a little bit as far as the attention that you get, the amount of time that you need to give to the media, the tournament, the LPGA and stuff. There's a lot that goes with that. It takes some people just a little bit longer to break through. I think it is going to happen for Cristie Kerr really soon. I played with her in the U.S. Open. She played really good. Heather Bowie is a great ball-striker. A lot of these players, they are still getting their feet wet on Tour. They have only been out here two or three years. Cristie has been out here a lot longer because she was out here when she was like ten years old. (Laughter.) But she's gone through a lot of changes, and sometimes it just takes someone -- but when they break through, like Lorie Kane, they are going to really go.

ROSIE JONES: The Koreans? That, I can't say, is true or untrue. I haven't really sat down and talked with the players. I don't know them well enough to have gotten into a conversation like that. I know a lot of the young players work really hard out here. You know, they put a lot of time into their practice and the tournaments that they play, and sure, some people want it more than others. I don't distinguish it as far as foreigners or the Americans or something like that. Because right now, if you want to look at it that way, they are kicking our butts, so they should be working a little bit harder. But I've always been like that. I'll look at someone -- this was 15 years ago. I'm at a Hawaiian tournament and I'm in third place, playing good, can't wait to get out on the range and work on these shots. There's not enough hours in the day for me to work on the things that I want to work on. And I look at another younger player and I go, "What are you going to do now?" She goes, "Well, I don't know what I need to work on." And she was just making the cut. And I said, I tell you what, there's not enough hours in the day for me to work on the things that I need to work on, and I'm in third place.

ROSIE JONES: That doesn't mean that any other player doesn't work hard, too. I think they overwork, actually. Kimmie and J.J., two of the Koreans that I see a lot, I'm trying to get them to like go relax and go home. It's really their parents that are kind of like -- they are killing them. Se Ri, she went through that "I'm exhausted" thing. I just think they work a little bit too hard.

ROSIE JONES: Well, I haven't come up with it yet, really. I'm probably going to set a number to get to. I'm at 11-under. If I can get to 15, that would probably be a pretty good score to beat. I think that's what I'm going to stick with, something like that. I haven't really -- I haven't set one, you I think I need to shoot 3- or 4-under tomorrow. What do I have, a two-shot, a three-shot lead? I think that would be pretty good.