DU MAURIER CLASSIC

July 29, 1999

Rosie Jones

ROSIE JONES: Might be tough for me to remember hole-by-hole everything.

ROSIE JONES: Okay, birdie on -- I have got to use the book. You play these golf courses, don't know them as well. Okay, birdie on 3. I didn't have the chance to really go for that one. Everybody else in the world is today, I am sure. But I hit a sand wedge on there about four feet; made the putt for birdie. Parred all the way up to 7, and I made a birdie on 7, but it is kind of hard to decipher my notes here. I am kind of nervous about it, too, because it is just not bringing any -- I am just not recollecting the course right yet because I don't know it very well. I know it when I am there standing there, but I don't know it to remember back what 7 looks like. Birdie on 7. Birdie on 11, the par 3. And that one, I hit a 5-iron in there about 17 feet above the pin there; made the putt for birdie. Got a great break on 13, par 4. I hit kind of a crummy 6-iron, hit a rock, came back over the hazard, pitched back on, but a little bit too far; but made a good 2-putt for bogey. That was really my only fault right there in the entire round was -- actually, it was going right at the pin; thought I had plenty of club. Missed a little bit, but really wasn't that worried about it. Then I hit that rock and really didn't know what to root for, because it looked like it was going straight up but it actually came back, cross the hazard. Then I had just a pitch over and 2-putt for bogey. So take advantage of a couple good bounces today, and same thing on 15, par 3, I hit a 9-iron and just, you know, didn't quite hit the front of green. But it got the good bounce, right up there about six feet behind the pin; made the putt for birdie. 16, I made a good 2-putt for par there. I hit 5-iron, towed it a little bit, didn't quite get it up on the upper deck, so it came all the way back down the front part of green; 2-putt there. Saved about a 7-footer for par on that one on 16. On 17, I hit a good drive, hit a 7-iron about 20 feet above the pin there. Made that for birdie. Then 18, I hit a 9-iron into my third shot, about five feet. Made that for birdie. I know I missed a couple of other putts about six feet for birdie on the front side, so I felt like I could have even been better. But I am better than I thought I would be going into this morning. I thought if I shot 2-, or 3-under, I would be in pretty good shape. So right now I am feeling pretty good.

ROSIE JONES: That rough, yeah. These greens are not only off the tee, but when you are hitting into the green, there is -- they are so narrow and you have got to be so precise as far as the ball bouncing and being on the right tier, that you are going you have to pick a little bit more, a little bit less club. You are calculating the altitude and everything else in here. So you are kind of guessing a little bit and having to feel it out and get the right bounces and stuff. If you are not on the right tier, you are either over in the rough with a tough chip coming back or having a difficult 2-putt on back up to the right tier. So I just felt like I had good yardages today. I was thinking good. I had good clubs. I was hitting good shots, and everything just kind of wrapped up into a good round. My putter working at the same time, that is -- got to eat it up.

ROSIE JONES: Haven't really counted. 29, which really is a lot for a 67. I didn't miss a whole lot of greens, and I think I missed one fairway really all day off the tee, maybe two. I missed the last fairway on 18.

ROSIE JONES: Sometimes about a club, you know, it is about a club.

ROSIE JONES: It is, because -- it is. But the hill, it is so hilly here that you are having to do all that adjusting anyway. So much adjusting, it is just one more calculation. I remember playing the Open in Colorado Springs a couple years ago. It was pretty much the same thing. In Colorado Springs right outside of Denver, it is the same way -- altitude is really high. We were having to do the same thing there. So it is just one more calculation, you know, and when you are a seasoned veteran like me, it is just one more step pulling a club.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, the greens, once you have been able to hit the green, there is not an easy putt out here. I feel like I have a really good feel for them. I am seeing the breaks really good. I am using my imagination, because even when you don't see the break, you feel it with your other senses using your feet or just, you know, the lay of the land, I guess. And that is exactly what you have to do when you are playing greens like this, because you have to have an imagination. You have to have done your homework. And trust. I feel like I got a new putter last week. I went with Odyssey after 16 years of playing with Ping, and I just felt, you know, even though it is a new putter I feel very confident and comfortable with it, and I am ready to -- I played good with it last week and starting off good this week.

ROSIE JONES: Well, usually in the last four years I have won by now. I have had a lot of good tournaments in June, I had four Top-10s for a while there, I mean, every tournament I teed it up I felt like I had a chance to win; just really didn't pull through on Saturday or Sunday my last few tournaments I have been really working hard on keeping myself in there on Sunday. I have had a lot of good Sundays in the last three tournaments I have played in. So I feel you know, I am having a lot of chances; as long as I give myself chances, there is a lot of tournaments left this year, you know, I am hopefully going to get one or maybe even two.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, it is gorgeous, love it. Actually I flew into Calgary ten years ago to do an outing in Montana. It was like two in the morning so didn't see anything, but I am taking advantage of the afternoon off and I am going to go to Banff and check out the sites, see if I can see a moose and you know, relax a little bit.

ROSIE JONES: You would think it would be just a necessity, but I am trying not to feel that way. I really feel like I have a couple more years out here that I want to be competitive and I would really love to be able to put a major on my bio, you know, when I get done. I have had a great career. I have played a lot of great golf, and I don't think that is going to make or break my career, but it sure would -- I could lay them down -- my clubs, I could lay them down a lot easier and a lot better if I had that, I think. It would be a lot more fun for me. It would be nice.

ROSIE JONES: Too bad she didn't play good in the Dinah, she could have just wrapped up the majors this year (laughs). She had a little slow start, I guess. Yeah, this is a perfect type of golf course for her because she has that mind, you know, that plays so well. She doesn't necessarily have to hit it perfect, but she can play a golf course like this so well. It doesn't surprise me at all that she is playing well. I think I saw that she birdied the first three holes-when I looked at the scoreboard it was Juli Inkster after 3, 3-under didn't surprise me at all.

ROSIE JONES: Well, I don't think she really sees it that way. I think she sees it as, you know, as just another tournament. I mean, I think she -- when she won the LPGA after, it was just -- she just kind of fell right in there and I don't think there was a lot of pressure on her for that one. Maybe she feels like this at this one, but I have seen her work so hard in the last two, three years that it doesn't surprise me that she is having the year that she has and that she will be in the Hall of Fame before the end of the year. And then maybe not come back, I don't know with her kids the way she feels about everything, she is just playing great. She has worked so hard in the last four years that she deserves it.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, I see Juli, she is -- there are certain players out here that really live the game and work at it and want it so bad that they are willing to go the extra mile every week, every year, every tournament to play the best they can. Even if they are in 100th place. Juli is one of those players. I have seen her stand on the putting green and putt until she does this drill until she can do it and she will not go home before. That is what you have to do to be the player that she is. For as many years as she has done that, you know, to making the Hall of Fame everything else, I mean, I don't know -- my game, I work just as hard, but it is not happening for me like that. But -- she is just an awesome player that way.

ROSIE JONES: Well, kind of. I think I am probably going to be about 43 when I really don't want to do what it takes to be out here at the level that I want to be at. I just kind of feel that way myself because I know what kind of commitments I have to make and what kind of sacrifices I have to make to be that kind of player. I have done that all the way up to here and each year it gets harder and harder and I don't know. I might be 43 and I might be playing the best golf of my life and right now I think I am playing the best golf I have ever played. At 43 I am not going to be -- I am not going to sell myself out and say now I am not going to do it. I might go a couple more years or something but whatever. To me I feel that I have that enough of that in me to do it three more years. After that time I feel I want to be doing something else. Whatever that might be. I don't know. Might be the SENIOR TOUR where I play less, you know, where I don't need to, you know, grind so hard or something. I am not sure what is in store for me, but, I think out here on this Tour that I have probably another good three years in me. I have been saying that for about six years (laughs).

ROSIE JONES: Probably, yeah, because you have to step your game up a notch every single year, so every year you feel like you are playing your better golf. I have improved this. We are playing tougher golf courses. Therefore, the competition is better, the courses are better, scores are better and you have to get better. You have to step it up each and every time these younger players come up and ask you to, actually. I think that is what makes the Tour go round. You need that. It has been like that since time day one for the LPGA and I am willing to take that challenge and be a part of that and go for it and try to better myself each time it is needed. That is what becomes harder and harder to do each year because it is not always real easy for me. It is always -- I am one of those type of person that when I went to school I always had to study extra hard just to get the C and I feel that same way in golf. I have to work a little bit harder just to get what I do out of my game.