U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

May 31, 1996

Rosie Jones

ROSIE JONES: Well, I think the golf course is starting to dry out a little bit as the afternoon comes in. The wind is drying it out, definitely. It's not become a fast track yet, but it's getting a little bit easier to manage off the tee. Well, I think, because we're getting a little bit more yardage. I would say I'm missing the ball really good. I'm not actually hitting it really good. I'm not hitting it bad, but my misses are not getting me in a lot of trouble, and I'm taking the bogeys with -- actually I had a double on No. 5 today and that's the only thing I've had. I haven't had any other big mishaps or anything. Basically I'm just hanging in there, playing pretty conservative.

ROSIE JONES: Pretty much just played my way into -- I hit a 4-wood into No. 5 and left it out to the right a little bit. I got it out of the bunker, didn't actually come back at me, but I had a chip shot left in there that I decided to putt and really didn't give it a very good effort and left myself about a 6 footer for bogey and missed it. It was really an easy double and never should have happened; probably should have been an easy bogey. It's really hard to remember all those holes out there, I've only played it a few times. I always feel this way in a new tournament. No. 9, I'm trying to think what No. 9 is.

ROSIE JONES: Okay. No. 9 there's a bathroom on that tee box, that's why I know that. No. 9, actually I hit my biggest drive of the week there at No. 9. And normally where I have about a 4-iron in there I had a 7-iron, knocked it in there about six inches and made birdie. My other two birdies were on par 3's, on No. 13 I knocked a 5-iron about six inches. And then No. 16 I hit a 5-iron about 12 feet and made that for birdie and saved par on 17 with a 4 foot put and saved par on 18 with a 6 foot putt.

ROSIE JONES: We didn't have to tell everybody. (Laughter.) 14 I had a bogey. That's a long par 4 and I hit a 3-iron, caught the left bunker, and I came out and left myself at about a 15 foot putt and didn't roll that very good and missed it. So I had a bogey.

ROSIE JONES: Pretty similar. Yesterday I think I had two or three birdies. I was birdieing the par 5's today. I didn't give myself as good of approach shots in there. Actually I had -- I just didn't hit them as close on the par 5's. But made it up for it on the par 3's today.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, I think it's kind of hard coming in after a win, because you have a lot of hype, you have a lot of attention on you, you have a lot of people wanting to talk to you and distracting you and you have a little bit more expectation from your game. I find myself and I catch myself going I was doing this really well last week or this was working for me last week or I really hung tough at this point last week. And last week is over and you really do need to start over fresh and you're playing a different golf course, your swing is a little bit different. Being human you're going to feel a little different. But at the same time I think I've settled into the role as last week's champion, and I'm playing this tournament really well at this point and maybe what I learned last week for myself is going to help me pull myself together this weekend.

ROSIE JONES: I don't think it will be so much the long knockers tournament. The beginning of the week when the golf course was still real wet, USGA had the golf course set up very, very long. I think my practice rounds I had eight holes where I hit 180 to the middle or more. And a lot of times more. So I was hitting a lot of 3-irons, a lot of 4-woods. Now that the golf course is drying out a little bit, you're going to get a little more roll on those fairways, you're going to have a few more 5-irons, 7-irons into those greens, and that's as it should be, because then for those long knockers it kind of tightens up the fairways for the drive, too.

ROSIE JONES: No, not at all. There's a few tee boxes that are up six yards, maybe, from the signs. But they're using the same tees that they set the golf course up to.

ROSIE JONES: No. Not that I noticed. And it's still playing fairly long. I think they just had some wind yesterday that was -- it was playing fairly long. But by the time we got there yesterday afternoon, Meg Mallon probably had about an 8-iron in the green. Because you had to hit it up on top to get a good bounce. And that's probably exactly what's happening this afternoon with the people that played yesterday morning when it played longer, they're playing a shorter golf course this afternoon.

ROSIE JONES: I wish I had a bag of woods, I really do, because I said that yesterday because I hit my woods really well, and the fairways are really tight here. I think they didn't grow in as well as they expected them to. We've had a really tough winter in this area. Being from Atlanta I know we really had a bad, really tough winter. The fairways are a little sparse in places and they're thin, and when you have a lot of 3-irons and stuff like that, I'm not getting the ball up off the ground as well as I'd like to. At times I really wish I had like a 7, 9, 13 wood, get it off the ground.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, I've got a 1, 3 and 4-wood that's more like a 5-wood.

ROSIE JONES: Well, it's not a new position for me, for the Open. I've had several good Opens. I'm not going to change anything, really. I think I've played a conservative in places and aggressive in other places. And mostly at this point I think being conservative is getting me where I want to be. And I'm playing good heads up golf. And I think for the next few days I'm going to maintain a conservative approach to the pins, anyways.

ROSIE JONES: These greens do. These greens are very crucial around how they fall off. If you have a ball drawing in there that's just a little bit left of what you wanted it's going to roll out and fall down the hill into the heavy rough or the bunkers. And same thing with the right side. Sometimes both sides are acting that way and you don't really want to try to guard against that, but if you're moving the ball right to left or left to right you have to take that into consideration and be a little bit more conservative.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, where some of these little chips are like pitches 8 feet back up to the green, that's not much fun out of the rough.

ROSIE JONES: I don't know who built the Pinewild here, last year I won at Pinewild last year, here in Pinehurst.

ROSIE JONES: Might have Donald Ross in me, I don't know.

ROSIE JONES: Well, I think there's a lot more -- well, that's a hard question. I'm not real anxious to -- it's not going to make or break my career winning the Open. I've had a really good career, in the last 15 years that I've played. Sure, you winning the U.S. Open is the ultimate win, as far as titles go. But it's not like something I've really hyped myself up for. I'm trying to not hype myself up for this. Because by the time Sunday comes around and you're walking around 16, 17, 18, it gets pretty exciting and the pressure mounts. It's just really tough. When you're already hyped up for that it kind of gets in your way, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

ROSIE JONES: Why do I think the scores are like they are? Because the golf course is tough.

ROSIE JONES: Because the rough is longer, the fairways are thinner and the greens are getting all spiked up. They're getting spiked up and they're fast and they're hard and they're just -- it's just hard to get it close, I guess.

ROSIE JONES: It's playing long. I'm hitting a lot of 3-irons, a lot of 4-woods. And you don't hit 3-irons and 4-woods five feet every time you pick them up. You're kind of glad to get on the green. And even when you do hit a good shot and it hits the green, like I said if you're not dead, solid perfect, it's going to fall off the green, and now you have a tough chip shot from the heavy rough.

ROSIE JONES: No, actually, because there might be a few times I feel that way when you get on a couple of shorter par 4's, where you're hitting an 8-iron in or 9-iron in, 7-irons. Those type of things. I get upset with myself if I haven't hit it in within a birdie putt range. And that happened to me a couple of times today where I pulled a 7-iron and still had 30 footer. And I was hitting 3-irons 30 feet. You just feel like you kind of gave up a birdieable hole right there.

ROSIE JONES: The closest I came was probably in '84 when I finished second in the U.S. Open and then tied to win Kathy Whitworth. So I actually never got a win on any of those, but I was -- came down the last hole in the Open and then in the playoff with Kathy Whitworth the very next week.

ROSIE JONES: The tougher the golf course the better my chances? Yeah. I think so, I think I can grind them out with the best of them.