U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 6, 1999

Kelli Kuehne

KELLI KUEHNE: I had a lot of fun. I really liked my position going into today. I was a few too many shots back to really be able to put a lot of heat on Juli because she is playing so well. But I definitely love my position. I stressed a lot yesterday that there wasn't nearly as much pressure on me because I was four shots back. I was not supposed to win. I'm young. I'm not expected to win, so all the pressure was on Juli, which I still stand behind that. She came out today and shot 1-under in the final round of the U.S. Women's Open. If you look at the leaderboard, the scores were a lot higher today. I hit a lot of fairways and greens early on in the round. I just could not quite get any putts to roll in for me. That was kind of my story for the day. On Thursday, my putts could not go in. I made everything, and I shot 64. Today, I struggled a bit. I was hitting great putts that just weren't going in, and I shot 74. I'm very pleased overall with how I played. But I never could put a lot of heat on Juli, because she was playing so steadily.

KELLI KUEHNE: Juli is very comfortable and very confident. Today was actually the most that I have talked to any of my playing partners. I have talked more with Juli than the rest of the people the whole week in my playing groups. She's very relaxed. She's very comfortable in her own shoes, and obviously she is playing some great golf right now. It was a great day, and you know, she just kind of takes the bull by the horns and goes one shot at a time. And she's an emotional player. When she does great things, you see her fist pumping and she cheers herself on. But when she does bad things, she is very critical of herself. And I catch myself doing the same sort of thing. If she didn't like her putt, she'll say, "Come on, Juli." I wish that I could kind of be a lot more like Juli and have the same kind of attitude, because I really respect the way she goes about it.

KELLI KUEHNE: The tournament here in Mississippi at Old Waverly I thought was absolutely amazing. It was -- the golf course is in a league of its own, in my opinion. I think it played a lot more true today than what it -- it played easier obviously on Thursday and Friday, but I think today they set the course up very difficult. The pins and the greens were a lot harder and a lot faster. The rough is getting thicker, so the golf course is definitely U.S. Open golf course. The fans were amazing. I've never heard more people cheering between 17 and 18. And they were just -- all you could see was wall-to-wall, a rainbow of people, which is great. I think the attendance was definitely an event that a lot of people got involved in; they wanted to come see. Which, from our standpoint, we love that. We were talking about that. That's what it's all about is having the fans clap for you and cheering you on. Overall, I haven't played in a whole lot of Opens, but I thought it was a very well-run tournament. I'd definitely like to play again.

KELLI KUEHNE: I felt great today. I wasn't -- I wasn't nervous at all throughout the whole day. I wasn't nervous one bit. And I think I gained a lot last week from Corning, because I did get a little nervous an 18, and that was over my first putt. All I needed to do was 2-putt at that point. Like I said, I really had nothing to lose and everything to gain in experience and in playing under that sort of pressure and in everyone being able to see what it was I was going through and doing. I think I can actually take a whole lot out of this week and just remember that I was really pretty calm, cool, and collected about the whole situation today.

KELLI KUEHNE: I'm going home tonight. My fiancee and I are going back to Minnesota and starting to move into our new place. I'm going to take a couple weeks off and rest and relax. I rested over 12 hours last night and I'm still tired. I am going to get some good sleep, and just kind of hang out and work myself back out into tournament form and then take this week -- I'm going to take this week to kind of -- rest of this week, to just kind of relax and look at what I've done, because I -- I haven't figured out if I still won last week. And, you know, I played great here; so just kind of let it all soak in and try and go from there.

KELLI KUEHNE: Well, I think a pretty good indication that it was Juli's day was probably on the 7th hole. She had a fried egg in there. Her ball was so big to that bunker, and she almost holed it. And I just looked at her and I said, "That's an amazing shot." And she was like -- she was like: Yeah, don't put me in that situation again. It's going to be pretty tough, you know, because I was looking at it at an objective point of view; I've got a great chance to make birdie. She is probably going to make bogey because she is buried in the bunker, but she almost holed it; so, you know, it's going to be her day when something like that happens. And she was playing way too consistently to have any sort of meltdown.