U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

May 30, 1996

Emilee Klein

EMILEE KLEIN: I birdied the first hole, I hit it about five feet to make birdie. On the second hole I hit it on the front of the green and 3-putted. It's a pretty slick putt going down that hill. I hit it about 15 feet past it coming back.

EMILEE KLEIN: About 45, 50 feet. The third hole I hit it about three feet and made birdie. And then I parred 4, 5. 6 I bogeyed. I hit it on the back right fringe and 3-putted. I hit it past the hole again. I had about a 40-foot putt and missed about an 8-footer coming back. And then 7 I hit a 4-wood short in the rough left, and didn't get up-and-down, made bogey. 8 I hit a 7-iron to about 10 feet and made birdie. 9 I parred. 10 I hit my drive in the left bunker, chipped out and hit a 7-wood about four feet and made birdie. Then 11 I bogeyed. I hit it over the green right and didn't get up-and-down. Then I parred everything until 17. On 17 I hit it short, just didn't take enough time and made a bogey. And got up-and-down the last hole for par.

EMILEE KLEIN: It was wet out there. But it's a very fair golf course, as long as you're hitting the ball straight and you play smart, you don't go for all the pins, it's a great course.

EMILEE KLEIN: Yeah, it was blowing pretty good out there. Coming down the last few holes it's really helping. 14 played pretty long, because it's pretty much into the wind. But coming down 15 through 18, straight downwind it didn't play quite as long as it usually does.

EMILEE KLEIN: There weren't really any surprises. The greens were a little faster today than they were in the practice rounds, so I guess on the second hole I was a little shocked by the greens. But it's actually what you expect in a U.S. Open. You expect the greens to be really fast. They are just different than they've been practicing on.

EMILEE KLEIN: At least. I got out there and they were really slick, and we were all knocking them four or five, six feet by in the beginning, just because we weren't prepared for it.

EMILEE KLEIN: Well, traveling so much I'm prepared for everything. My suitcase is filled with everything. But I prefer warm weather. But today was beautiful. Once we finished about six holes, it was perfect; took off my windbreaker, and it was lovely all day, just the wind. I think I prefer 80 degrees, calm conditions, but everyone does. It doesn't matter. Everyone has to play the same conditions.

EMILEE KLEIN: No, I played the North/South at the Pinehurst No. 2, and I kind of got used to them. And I like them because it makes you really have to think. You can't just hit any shot into the green and have it finish where it's supposed to, you have to really hit a good shot. And I think that's important in a U.S. Open.

EMILEE KLEIN: I played two 18-hole rounds and one 9-hole round.

EMILEE KLEIN: Yeah. You have to hit it straight and you have to be able to hit pretty accurate. I have a lot of woods, so I get to choose which wood I want to hit into each hole. But you have to hit the ball pretty high, too, you can't hit ground balls into the greens. You have to be very accurate on your second shots. I was hitting a lot of 9 and 7-woods, but I just had to make sure I was hitting the right part of the green. If you don't you have to hit off the edge and you have a ten-foot straight-up mound chip shot, and those are tough.

EMILEE KLEIN: I pretty much went to school on my practice rounds. I hit one shot where it rolled off the green. I just didn't hit my best shot. It wasn't where I tried to hit it. But basically my practice rounds I knew exactly before where I wanted to hit it.

EMILEE KLEIN: Just I played really solid and steady. In the beginning I had a few up-and-downs, but once I got it going and got comfortable it was just fairways and greens. And then once I got to the green I tried to make it a birdie, but I wasn't getting greedy. You just really have to play it cool and not worry about making birdies, because pars don't hurt you out here.

EMILEE KLEIN: On each hole?

EMILEE KLEIN: I carry -- my driver is 50 inches long, 3-wood, 4-wood, 9-wood -- or 7, 9-wood.

EMILEE KLEIN: My 3 and 4-iron. I start with the 5-iron.

EMILEE KLEIN: Yes.

EMILEE KLEIN: A 9-wood is about 160 and 7-wood is about 170 to 175.

EMILEE KLEIN: I didn't play at the Broadmoor. I've played there before, but I don't know how it played during the Open.

EMILEE KLEIN: Last year. I've carried a 7-wood -- I've carried four woods now for about three years. My 9-wood went in the bag mid summer last year. I took it out in a practice round at Shinnecock, and got in this really long grass and made birdie out of it, and it hasn't left my bag since.

EMILEE KLEIN: It's not necessarily distance, because I hit my irons plenty far, it's the height of it. I don't hit them high enough. So when I'm coming into some of these greens and I need to hit a 170-yard shot, and my choice is a 3-iron or a 7-wood, I'm going to hit the 7-wood a lot better. It's going to go higher and stop quicker. I just can't stop a 3-iron.

EMILEE KLEIN: It depends on the golf course. On a real dry golf course for some reason my driver gets a lot of roll, and I get it out there pretty good. On a wet course it's not going quite as far, about 225. But out here I'm getting some pretty good distance. It's not making it that tough. I'm still hitting mostly woods, but at least I'm not hitting 3-wood into every green. I also played this course in the U.S. Junior. So I've played it quite a few times.

EMILEE KLEIN: Yeah.

EMILEE KLEIN: I was 15 and I qualified 4th in metal play, and then I think I lost either in the first or second round, I don't remember.

EMILEE KLEIN: The fairways here not rolling that much, but they haven't rolled that much all week, it's mostly carry. But luckily I'm able to carry it up to the tops of some of the hills, so it's not making it too difficult.

EMILEE KLEIN: It's a lot longer than a tour event. It's actually set up a lot better for my game, I think, than some of the tournaments we play because I stay out of the rough and I can hit my woods very accurately, where a lot of these girls are in the trees and they can't hit their 3-iron as accurately as I can hit my 4 or 3-wood. So for me I like it a lot. But it is significantly longer. In a regular tour event I might have to hit one or two -- I might have to hit one 3-wood all day into a par 4. Usually I don't have to hit a 3-wood into a par 4. And out here I only hit about 3 or 4 irons, except for the par 5's, and one of the par 5's I hit a wood today.

EMILEE KLEIN: Yeah, I guess Annika is playing five woods now, Liselotte Neumann, Leta Lindley, there are a bunch of them that are playing the 7 or 9 or both. I don't know everybody, you'd have to check with the statistics people.

EMILEE KLEIN: I don't recall exactly where all of them are, because I was playing center of the green. There were some tough ones out there, but as long as you just play center of the green, hit it to the right place, it was pretty good.

EMILEE KLEIN: No, not always, it depends on the golf course. Some of the opinions today I might have gone more towards them, like on the par 5's you go for the pins. But when you're hitting 3-wood into the green or 4-wood or 7-wood you can't always aim right at the opinion, you've got to just take your 15, 20 footer for birdie and be happy with it. And if it gets closer, great. A lot of the courses you can hit 7, 6-iron into the green, and when you're hitting a 6-iron, 7-iron, you can aim right at the pin, because you're going to get closer, you're not going to have as much release on the ball.

EMILEE KLEIN: It's a Great Big Bertha, 8 degree with a 50-inch extra stiff shaft.

EMILEE KLEIN: Wilson 8802.