U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

May 31, 1996

Emilee Klein

EMILEE KLEIN: I was never really concerned that I wasn't long enough for the course. I like having long golf courses. I've always favored U.S. Opens, because I'm very accurate with my woods. I played a little shorter today than I have in the last few rounds that we've played. But overall the golf course is still playing tough. I got in the rough a few times today, unfortunately, and made a couple of bogeys early on. And that's where it really kills you. As long as you just play the center of the fairway and the center of the green, you don't get greedy, and try not to make those kind of mistakes, it plays much easier. I found it out the hard way.

EMILEE KLEIN: On 2 I birdied. I made about a 35 foot putt on 2. 4 I hit it in the rough left. And I actually hit a really good shot short of the green and didn't get up-and-down. And 5, after that long wait we had, I hit it over the green and then chipped it up about 15 feet and made par. 6 I hit it in the left rough again. And I hit it up just short of the green and missed about a five foot putt. 7 I hit it in the right bunker then I hit it in the left trees. Then I hit it about four feet and missed it. And then finally I decided I was going to play golf again. And on 8 I birdied. I made about a 30 foot putt from the back of the green on the fringe. Parred 9. Birdied 10 from about 10 feet and then just played solid golf in. I missed a few 10-footers for birdie. And I had a couple of long putts slip out. It could have gone a lot lower, but I'm very happy with the way it ended up.

EMILEE KLEIN: It makes it a lot easier. When I did get in the rough it was a lot easier for me to get it out. Fairway bunkers, I can get them out with 7-woods, easily. I had one where there was a lip on that one hole, it's easy to get it out.

EMILEE KLEIN: Yeah.

EMILEE KLEIN: It's wonderful. I don't know how I ever lived without them, just because it makes it so much easier. I get on some of these holes that the greens are getting firm and go a little uphill, if I had hit a 3-iron I'd hit it right into the sides of the hill, where I could carry it up on to the green and have it stop now. It makes a world of difference for my green.

EMILEE KLEIN: The 7-wood I've carried for about the last three years and the 9-wood I've carried for a year. They're wonderful for my game. Now, someone who hits the ball so highly, Michelle McGann, why would she need the utility wood, she hits the ball so high. But I definitely need something that I can hit high enough.

EMILEE KLEIN: Yeah. This week it's worked out really well, though, just because I've had to hit so many woods. Otherwise I'd hit 3-irons all the time, and they're hard to hit.

EMILEE KLEIN: Yeah, my mom likes to go up and watch the ball come into the green. But over the year she's traded my dad. So now he's starting to watch from the green a lot more. He still likes to stay back and watch my swing a lot. He watches it and at the end of the day he'll tell me, great swings, Emilee. He used to tell me a little bit more that my swing was off. But when I have good rounds he can't tell me that.

EMILEE KLEIN: Well, in the last six tournaments I've played and I've been top ten in four of them. So I've had a third and a fourth in the last couple of months. I was leading in Sacramento for three rounds and then Kelly Robbins and Val Skinner decided to shoot lights out.

EMILEE KLEIN: Oh, definitely. I feel like I'm really starting to play well this year. I'm breaking through a little bit more. Last year I only had two top tens and they were both seconds. But I feel like my game is getting a lot stronger and my putting is getting so much better that I am ready to win and there would be nothing sweeter than a win at the U.S. Open.

EMILEE KLEIN: Two years.

EMILEE KLEIN: Yeah, school is one of those things that's not for everybody. Maybe one day I'll want to go back, but probably not. I just wasn't into studying. I was always on the driving range, practicing. And I got in trouble for it a lot. So it's -- I think it was a good decision for me to come out when I did.

EMILEE KLEIN: Well, my coach would drive by the driving range, because it's right on the street and see me and she'd come over and say aren't you supposed to be in class? And I'd go, well, my teacher is sick today. She said, that excuse only worked yesterday. So she'd send me back to class. And then she would reprimand me a little bit and make me go to study hall, which I hated even more than class.

EMILEE KLEIN: Yeah.