U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 1, 2001

Rosie Jones

ROSIE JONES: No.

ROSIE JONES: Right.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, well, after yesterday's finish, losing 4 shots in the last four holes, pretty disappointed for me as I played most of the holes. Just played really good yesterday and just kind of came up really disappointing. Actually doubling the hole, the 18th hole yesterday and doubling No. 9 today. Finishing hole has got me kind of upset right now and disappointed because I worked so hard to get myself back to the game, and now back to 1 over par.

ROSIE JONES: On 11, I can't really go through hole -- hole-by-hole, because I don't know this golf course well enough to tell you. I can tell you I hit it about five feet on 10, and missed it for birdie on that. 11 I knocked it about a foot away with a 6-iron and made that for birdie. 17, the longest hole out there today, is playing about 430 straight into the wind. I hit A driver, 3-wood about 18 feet and made that for birdie. I felt like I picked up two shots on that hole. Got into 18, I didn't hit a great drive, I had about a 7-wood into the green and left it in the right bunker and knocked it in the hole from there. So that was a pretty good revenge considering the things I did on the holes yesterday. And turned it around, made about an 8-footer on No. 1 to continue my string, and played really good, solid golf all the way around until 9. We had a couple of delays, didn't really bother me. I was in the short -- I was in the first cut right up against the second cut on 9, and really didn't put a good swing on it. And the club -- the grass grabbed my club and hooded it over into the bunker. It came out of the bunker not as well as I would have liked and went over the back edge and pitched up, missed the putt for bogey, doubled the last hole.

ROSIE JONES: I rebounded today already. I'm already two shots better than when I started this morning, and on an Open golf course, that's probably better than 2 shots, when you think of it. And I should be -- and I will be tickled pink to be right where I am, teeing it up on Saturday. I know -- I don't know really how Karrie finished, at 5-under, that's a great round. I had a great round out there. I know that I can come back. I played well yesterday. I was 1-under up until the moment that I played those last four holes. And today I was 4-under up until the last ten minutes. So I know that I have a lot of faith in my game and I just have to get over this little bad mood. Because right now having done it yesterday, I haven't done that in so long, like I think in a couple of years, finished bad like that on any tournament, any round. And then to turn around and do it again the second day, I'm just kind of -- just giving shots back and to me that's going to be momentary, and when I come back I'll be ready to fire it up again tomorrow.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, it was wet a little bit. And it was downwind. And that green is a little bit hard. You don't want to go past that thing. I probably just eased up a little bit and the club came from behind me a little bit, snagged it. I should have been trying to hit a little cut up there and get a little closer. I know my mistakes. I know what I did. And I can't take it back. I hit a bunker shot that I've hit well, two or three times in the last three days. Every time I go in a bunker I have a downhill lie. It rained and it was a little bit compacted and just came out a little hotter than I wanted it to and really had a tough chip coming back from over the green. These greens are just mean, they're just mean.

ROSIE JONES: Oh, just sitting around chatting, wondering why we weren't playing. Because as soon as we would delay, it would be sunny and not raining, as soon as they'd send us out it would start raining and get windy again. They weren't bad delays, just short, 15, 20 minutes. That's not so hard to deal with.

ROSIE JONES: I know Webb is going to shoot good numbers out here. And I think you can shoot 5-under on this golf course. I think I could have shot 5-under had I hit a decent shot on the last hole. But I didn't. And it doesn't surprise me at all. Webb has played really well all year long. She's got -- she's very hungry for a win this year and she's standing at attention right now. Got my attention.

ROSIE JONES: Well, you just can't really ask for too much right now. You have to -- you just have to -- you really have to be in touch with your shot and what you think it's going to do and be in control of your golf ball. You cannot hit it past some of these greens, just for the simple fact that one yard past the pin it leans back to the back of the green. And from there it's falling off the world. You have to play sometimes 15 feet short of the pin, at the best, to even have a good birdie putt and just to be safe. And when you're missing it, you've got to be missing it in the right places. I don't think you can be super aggressive on these greens.

ROSIE JONES: I think there's a lot, because I'm pretty tired after playing late yesterday and then having to get up real early and playing today and now that I'm done with only two delays, pretty tired. Because your legs start getting tired out there. Now I'm going to be able to rest all day today. If they don't get done tomorrow, they're going to have to finish -- it will be late mid morning or afternoon before I play again. So I'm pretty much going to have about 24 hours before I play. I'm going to have time to rest up these old bones of mine and get ready.

ROSIE JONES: More than anything, I'm really fighting a cold. You can tell it in my voice. I'm hot in the head and clogged up. I might be tired. I didn't sleep very good the night before, and so it might have been a little bit -- contributed to that yesterday. Today I felt pretty good. It could be. I just didn't go through my regular routine on the last shot. It really cost me a lot of heart ache right now. And it may be that. It might have something to do with my cold. I'm hanging in there with it and like everybody has a cold sometimes. That's probably another reason why I'm kind of cranky right now.

ROSIE JONES: Right. When it's raining like this, I don't want to really hang around the golf course much longer than I have to. So when they dump us out at the end of the range there, I wanted to get some practice done while my body is warm, and I'm warmed up and then I come back, do a little PR and then eat or whatever. I don't know, I was mad. I needed some time out to just -- like a little kid, when they're fussy, time out. That's me sometimes (laughter.)

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, I think I've played well enough to win majors. Unfortunately there's been one or two people that have just played better than me at that time. And that's the name of the game out here. And I really, really have prepared hard for these Majors -- well, the Dinah Shore came up kind of early this year, and this one too. But I've been preparing really hard the last three or four weeks coming off of a win out of Austin, and I took a couple of weeks off and really worked hard on a lot of specialty shots and short game. It's really starting to pay off. I feel really good about everything right now. I just need to stay solid.

ROSIE JONES: Well, whenever the players like them are always having a lot of attention, I feel sorry for them because it's never ending. But that's part of the job that comes with playing really well. When we come to the Open, there's a lot more -- a lot more people here, a lot more people wanting autographs. They just want to say hi to you, they want to be acknowledged. And it takes a little bit more time. But right now I feel like I've got it pretty easy right now and I've been staying off site and doing my business when I get here and leave when I'm done and haven't been really to a lot of restaurants or things like that to be out in public. I'm just kind of low key. I've been sick, so I've just been in bed with my box of Kleenex and that's it.

ROSIE JONES: Well, you know, it shouldn't be, but it is. It feels that way to you. I think I've put a lot of pressure on myself yesterday when I did that. It's just not like me to finish rounds like that, and that to me is disappointing. Had those been spaced out, it probably wouldn't have bothered me as much. I probably would have felt like I hung tough. But when you lose them all at once in about a half hour or ten minutes, then it kind of wears on you. And in the Open you don't feel like you can lose shots like that or give them up that easy or so fast. And especially the end, because then it just kind of -- when you're in the middle of a round you have to get over it. And I'm really good at that. I don't wear that stuff around -- with me for long. But when I get done with a round and it just happened to me, it tends to bother me just a little bit longer. But I'm really proud about how I came back after yesterday, because I remember lots of Opens where I've shot 2 over and would be really disappointed and where I really shouldn't have been, because had I just taken my medicine and come back the next day and throw in a decent round, I would have been right in there. Like I did today. And so really -- see, my mood is changing already, so now I'm looking good.

ROSIE JONES: I do. And if Webb keeps running away with it, we're going to have to chase her. And if that's what the course gives us, then that's what we're going to have to go get, take it.