SPRINT TITLEHOLDERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 2, 1997

Betsy King

BETSY KING: I started on the back 9. I probably played extremely well today. Probably, I would say, best putting round of my career. I started out Number 10. Hit 8-iron about 15 feet, made that for birdie. 11, I missed about - I don't know - 12-footer for birdie. Trying to think of the holes. Parred 12. The par 5, 13, I hit my middle wedge to ten feet, made that for birdie. Then bogeyed 13, the par 3. I pulled my tee shot a little bit in the bunker left and knocked it out about eight feet and missed that. So made bogey there. Parred 15 and 16. And 17, the par 3, I hit 5-iron, little 5-iron, about three feet. Made that for birdie. 18, went for the green in two, with a 5-wood. Was short in the right rough, knocked it out about 15 feet. Made that for birdie. No. 1, hit my tee shot to the right in the rough. Hit a 4-iron about 15 feet, made that for birdie. Then, No. 2, I hit my second shot thin. I was just short. Didn't hit a very good chip. Had about 15-footer for par and made that. Regulation par on 3. And Number 4, hit an 8-iron about foot from the hole, made that for birdie. Regulation pars 5 and 6. On No. 7, hit a 5-iron about 35 feet, made that for birdie. Up over the ridge. And, then birdied 8. That pin was tucked over the ridge, and I hit a 7-iron. It came back down about 20 feet from the hole. I made it, putting it up over the ridge again. And then regulation par on Number 9.

BETSY KING: 9, I had about - I was probably twelve feet. I was just pin-high right of the flag, just on the green. And I - I don't know - I had to -- I was a little bit against the fringe right, picked up the putter a touch, and I pulled it a little bit.

BETSY KING: I still feel like I can hit the ball a little bit better. I didn't drive the ball that well yesterday. Today I still didn't drive it that well, but I hit it well enough that I didn't get into trouble. But I am still putting well. If that can carry through, that does a lot for you. But this golf course, I think, you know, unless it is windy, you have to shoot some low scores. And, I am hoping to hit the ball a little bit better on the weekend. I hit a lot of greens today, but hopefully I can get a little bit more confident with the swing.

BETSY KING: I really think this is probably - I don't know - I might be getting old and forgetting, but I think this is the best putting round that I have had. Only putt I missed was, say, two putts inside 15 feet - whatever - that I missed, and made two or three long ones. So...

BETSY KING: You know, just days that you can see the line well and -- I have been actually putting pretty well the last month. I finally hit the ball well at Dinah, and then I scored well. And, I don't know, I think what has helped me, I have been putting well on the long putts, and I think that is important if you can do that. I haven't -- I have just been putting well.

BETSY KING: Same Bullseye that I have had since 1984.

BETSY KING: Yeah, I never switch around that much. Probably since 1984 I have maybe tried the putter for one or two rounds in a tournament. Other than that, I have used the Bullseye.

BETSY KING: I think I had 27, I think. I was looking at it on the card. I think I had 9, 1-putts --

BETSY KING: I hit 16 greens.

BETSY KING: Well, I think if you are not playing up to your best, I think it is hard. How long do you grind? I have worked a lot on my game, and you get to a point where how much longer are you going to do that. But if you are seeing signs of life, I think then you are encouraged and maybe want to put more time into it.

BETSY KING: No, I think -- obviously when you get a little bit older you wonder when you are going to play well again. If you are 25 and you play like that, then you say "I have plenty of time," and it is -- because everyone, no matter how good you are, you are going to have a slump. Karrie will have a slump and Annika. I mean, that is just the nature of golf. You can't always be at your peak level. But I think when you are older and that happens, you start to question yourself a little bit more. And, obviously, the longer that lasts, the harder it is to come back.

BETSY KING: No, I think I still work pretty hard. Maybe there was a little bit of a letdown that I didn't realize at the time. Actually, when I got into the Hall, the next few weeks, I played pretty well. I finished third in the Open a couple of weeks later. And, -- but, you know, it is just -- I have been out here almost 20 years and how long -- in professional sports that would be a very long career outside of golf, that problem -- maybe Robert Parish has been playing more than 20 years as a professional. So, you know, you just -- I think, for me, I don't want to play quite as much as I did. I know I don't want to do that. Maybe practice hard and come out and play, you know, try to play a fairly full schedule, but not quite as much as I have played in the past and that, I think, will help to keep me able to play longer.

BETSY KING: I took two weeks after off after Dinah. I am going to take two weeks off after McDonald's. I am going to miss two in June. I mean, I am doing other things. I have been doing things a little bit with a tournament in Reading and still do some things with FCA, so I think I definitely am willing to sacrifice the golf a little bit to do those other things. Whereas, maybe ten years ago, I was still more into trying to be Player-of-the-Year, that kind of thing, where you felt you had to play more in order to have a shot at doing that.

BETSY KING: No, I haven't really, you know, put a set number in mind. Just depends how I feel.

BETSY KING: I don't know. It is just -- I don't know how much I will do in the fall. It is hard to know exactly what you will be qualified for, that kind of thing.

BETSY KING: No, I think last year I just wanted to be able to play well. It was pretty frustrating because I felt I was working pretty hard and wasn't making any progress. And, you know, I have never minded working hard, but when you don't feel you are making any progress, then it can be quite frustrating. But, I think over the winter, I have finally felt that I was making some progress and I came out and had, you know, good finish in Hawaii early on; I felt there were certainly some signs of life and that made things a little bit easier.

BETSY KING: I wish I was that good. Everybody obviously would like to be able to peak for the Majors. Just talking to Barb Mitchell walking to the 9 tee, just made another putt, she said," Wouldn't it be great if you knew you could do that six times a year and just pull it out the six tournaments you wanted to do it at and this would be one of those that you'd want to do it? But, you know, you try to -- only thing that I would do for a major is that I try to make sure I am practicing and most of the time I like to play going into the week. Actually this year, I think I am going to take the week off before du Maurier, but I want to feel as though I am practiced and prepared. But, other than that, I am not doing anything differently.

BETSY KING: Obviously it ties for the biggest purse on Tour and I think that in and of itself is enough to get your attention. Sprint has been very supportive of our Tour and they were jumped on as having to equal purse for the men and the women and I thought that was a great thing when they announced that and did that initially. So, it is fun to come here and certainly with their headquarters being here adds some prestige to the event too.

BETSY KING: I don't think, you know -- I think we are kind of all in the same side, though. I think, you know, we are not -- we are not -- we are cheering one another on when we play well. I don't know. I don't know the younger players, but I think at the age that we have been and I think now we just are encouraging each other, you know, when we play well just to say, "Hey, we can still be in there at times" and that kind of thing.

BETSY KING: I thought it was great. I was sitting in the locker room when they announced it. She was pretty emotional about it. I didn't realize that it had been as long as it had been since she won. And obviously she is still playing well. I mean, she -- I think at the level that she has been able to play, you know, doing what she has done with family and everything, it is quite amazing.

BETSY KING: I think it helped, although I came back and played kind of poorly the next few weeks ago; missed the cut. So I really think that the Solheim, I just practiced really hard and tried to get it done. I really didn't feel that confident. But, there again, had a pretty good week with the putter made some key putts in the matches, and just gutted it out. And, you know, when you are playing matchplay, it is a little different. You can afford to miss some shots if you have a bad hole. It is not the end of the world. Particularly I didn't play 4-ball - whatever the alternate shot is called - which, in my mind, is the hardest format to play, because, I mean, you are not playing well and you miss the green and you leave your partner with something. I played my best ball the first two days, so the pressure is not quite as great in that situation. But the Solheim is just a lot of fun to play just because it is something different. And just to play with the camaraderie of rooting for other players you don't normally get the opportunity to do that to that extent.

BETSY KING: I think it does. As I said, I came back; missed the cut next two tournaments I played, so I think it kind of washed it out a little bit. So -- but it was -- I really enjoyed that. It is always good to play well in that format. I was very thankful that that happened.

BETSY KING: I would like to. It is a long way off. It is just a neat experience. It is something, I think, at the end of your career you can look back on and enjoy the fact that you were a part of it.

BETSY KING: I think I need to retire first and I don't know if I will get to that point. It is a hard position. I think we have been very fortunate with the captains that we have had. Cathy was great, and JoAnne Carner and Judy Rankin, and they have all been a little bit different in their personality, but they have all handled the situation very well. It is -- thinking about it in my head, I would think maybe Nancy Lopez might be the next person that would have an opportunity to be captain, obviously, depending on how much she is playing. I don't know. There is a lot of people that I think could do a good job.

BETSY KING: If the wind doesn't come up, I think it will take some good numbers. Yesterday we had a little bit of a breeze in the afternoon and I noticed today, it really hasn't come up yet. I think that is why the scores are as low as they are.

BETSY KING: I don't really put a lot of stock into that. I think I am a little disappointed with SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, not necessarily just for that, but just in their lack of coverage on us, period. I don't think we have had -- from what I understand that we have had very many articles at all in their regular magazine. It has all just been in the Golf Plus. I just -- I don't think it just started with that article. I think the last few major championships they have hardly had anything in about them. I remember the one year, might have been the last time I won Dinah, it was like a one-page story. That was 1990. So it is just a little bit disappointing -- and I don't quite understand why they don't cover our Tour more. So that would be my disappointment. But, I can't say that I really care that much personally. It is just, I think, for our Tour, in general, I don't think that they give our Tour enough coverage.

BETSY KING: Yeah, it is funny, I guess everything changes, but as a kid, S.I. was something that I read all the time and had a subscription to for a number of years. And, I have to admit, I really don't look at it that much anymore. It is just -- I think the general tone of the magazine has changed quite a bit. It seemed to me that they used to just do more in-depth stories of events. They would still have what happened in the tournament and they would just take that to a higher level. Now, it seems they do a lot of stories away from the play of the event. The whole drug issue, the O. J. Trial, all these things. It is almost like they try to find something that they consider to be controversial and put that in the magazine. And, so I think they have changed their focus quite a bit. And, you know, that is their decision and lots of times they say that is what our readers are interested in, but I don't know if -- I think their readership changes quite a bit when they do that. So that is -- they are causing that to happen. They are changing their niche, it seems to me that they are shooting for.