U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 5, 1999

Kelli Kuehne

KELLI KUEHNE: Actually, I like my position a lot. I would love to be leading, but I'm four shots behind Juli, and Juli has been playing awesome. She's 15-under at the U.S. Open after three days, and that's pretty low. I think all the expectations are going to be on her tomorrow, and I'm the underdog; so nobody is going to really be saying: Kelli Kuehne should win. She's in a position to win. I'm going to have to shoot low tomorrow. 72 is not going to do it. I'm going to have to shoot 67. I like my position a lot going into tomorrow.

KELLI KUEHNE: I think growing up in Texas has had a lot to do with it, because I'm used to the heat. I'm used to the humidity. I think it was a lot hotter Thursday and Friday than it was today, personally. I was burning up on Thursday and Friday. Today it was hot, but it was hotter the last two days, in my opinion.

KELLI KUEHNE: Sure. I mean, I think it could be helpful to me, because like you said, I've grown up in that sort of climate but I've also trained and I've tried to go out of my way to be more conditioned than everybody else. I think that could be in my favor, because I can take a little bit more beating because I'm a little bit younger. But everyone has got to deal with the same situation.

KELLI KUEHNE: Like I said earlier, I do like my position because everyone expects Juli to win and all the pressure is going to be on her. I'm the underdog; so there really is no pressure on me because I'm not supposed to win. And I want to win. So I'm going to come out and be shooting at a lot of pins as much as I can. I realize this is the U.S. Open, and a lot of pins are going to being tucked, and sometimes the middle of green is where you're going to have to aim and shoot for. But I'm going to have to go low tomorrow to try and win the U.S. Open. So we'll see how it goes. Being paired with Juli -- I'm very comfortable being paired with Juli, because I'm going to be curious how she's doing instead of having to watch the leaderboards. I'll be watching her and playing with her; so that will make it a little bit easier.

KELLI KUEHNE: It was probably 30 to 35 feet.

KELLI KUEHNE: Yeah. Tracy said that the putt -- he first thought it was going to be one ball outside right edge. I said: No, two balls. I just need to get it rolling on line, and about five feet from the hole it was looking great and it went in.

KELLI KUEHNE: I love playing in front of a big crowd. It excites me. I think when you hit good golf shots, I mean, a big crowd is very receptive to that. You get a lot of cheers. I've got a lot of friends and family here. Some of my friends came up this morning. My fiancee, and I've got mom and dad here, and that's nice. But I also have a lot of the crowd -- I'm a southern girl. I'm from Texas, and I could sit over in the southern part of the country, and a lot of people are yelling, "Hook-em Horns" or"Go Horns", which is really pretty cool being from Texas, and going to the University of Texas. But I definitely feed off the crowd's energy, and hopefully they can feed off mine, because if they are watching me, then I hope I'm doing something they are pleased with; so I like to hear all the cheers.

KELLI KUEHNE: I think the biggest gallery I've ever played in front of was Curtis Cup in Ireland, and I think there was something like 15,000 people there. And there were only three or four matches going on at the same time. So all these 15,000 people are pretty much within a two- or three-hole span. So that was definitely the biggest gallery, and there were no ropes or anything like that set up, and they just walk right behind you in the fairways.

KELLI KUEHNE: Unfortunately not. But we were on foreign soil and they were rooting for their girls, but they we receptive. It's a very -- it's great to play in front of that many people because they appreciate good golf. And she did very well in the Curtis Cup matches.

KELLI KUEHNE: I'm what you all Mini-Med Insulin Pump. There's no surgery. There is a form of treatment where there is some surgery required. I am not on that form. I am on an insulin pump where -- basically, to explain it to you, it's like an UV more or less. And the medicine -- I've got a vial; I've got a syringe filled inside this monitor. I change it every three or four times when the medicine runs low and there's a needle underneath the surface of my skin. But I pull the needle out and called a canula, which is like a really thin pipe. It's a piece of plastic maybe a half-inch long, and it's underneath the surface of my skin. And I've got it taped down so it doesn't come out. With all the heat and stuff, I have to change it probably every two days so it won't get infected. It was just a decision. I spent a lot of time with Tina, my trainer at the University of Texas, and she is diabetic as well. She has been on the insulin pump for eight years. And my doctor -- I spoke a lot with Tina about it, because of my lifestyle -- because as much as I travel, I mean, ideally, all I have to do is hit a couple buttons and insulin is getting put into my body. All I have to do is hit two buttons. I hit up arrow or down arrow and tell it how much insulin to give me ask it's a lot easier because I don't have to give myself, a two- or three-unit shot. When I travel from Dallas back west, where I'm adding two hours on my day, and you don't really think about it, but if I change time zones, it messes all my insulin up. It requires a lot less planning and a lot more spur-of-the-moment which is nice. I just thought that overall -- the overall control and the discipline factor and the traveling would be great to switch to the pump; so that's what I did.

KELLI KUEHNE: Tina Bonsi is the head Women's Athletic Trainer at the University of Texas and assistant athletic director. She's got a title that's 10 names long. She's one of my closest friends. She's one of my best friends in the world, and she has helped me out an incredible amount in controlling my diabetes and understanding what foods I eat and how that affects my blood sugar. So instead of having to talk to a doctor every day or every other day, I call and talk to Tina almost every day, anyway, and it's very easy because she is kind of like my guide and regulating my blood sugar and troubleshoot. So I'm very fortunate to have her.

KELLI KUEHNE: No. I've got my brothers. They kind of taught me when I was young that if you don't have a lot of grit and you weren't tough, you weren't going to make it. That's the closest thing to a sports psychologist I've got.

KELLI KUEHNE: I'm kind of a spaz anyway. I've never been the type to sit down and watch TV. I'm always on the go. The thing about the pump that I failed to mention earlier was that the insulin pump is the great thing about it is I can turn the amount of insulin I get per hour down, which when I work out, I can turn it down. My workout takes me about an hour to an hour and 20 minutes. I can turn it down for, say, two hours and program it to give me less insulin over that two-hour period. Because when you exercise that brings your blood sugar level down, and when you eat, your blood sugar level goes up. Some of y'all are looking at me like I'm nuts. In order to understand what this does, it's the closest thing for an artificial pancreas for those of us who do not have a pancreas that works properly. I hit a couple buttons, and this helps prevent a really high peak in blood sugar or lower peak. This keeps it more stable, which is how y'alls pancreas works.

KELLI KUEHNE: I don't think the win has really kicked in, but I feel like the experience between Austin and Corning last week and the three days here, I've seen my name in the leaderboard for the last 8 or 10 rounds that I've played. So I when first saw it in Austin, I was like oh, boy, oh, boy I'm on the board; check it out. And then I make a bogey, and I'm off it; oh, man. So you make a birdie and you're back on the board. Last week starting on Tuesday I was on the board, and I stayed on the board the rest of the week. That was pretty neat to see. This week it's the same thing going on. I've figured out that it's no different to have your name on the main scoreboard than it is having someone carry a walking sign, because if you make bogey, they are going to change the number from a red number to one less red number. That's pretty much the way that it goes. I got used to seeing my name on the board, and I like it. I love my name being up there. And last week definitely gave me a lot of confidence, and I do feel like I have some extra experience that's keeping me calm instead of getting all fired up when I do see my name on the board. That's definitely in my corner, I think.

KELLI KUEHNE: Not really. Tracy changed my putting stroke. He's my caddy and also my short game and putting teacher. But to start off, I've been working a lot with Hank Haney, and he's been able to help me groove my golf swing a lot; give him a lot of credit. Tracy changed my grip with my left hand. It was very minor. And he just wanted to see my hand a little bit more on the putter grip instead of overlapping over my right hand, because I putt cross-handed. Other than that, there's very minor details that I didn't even know that I had developed into a bad habit, and he just kind of corrected that technique, and I've been putting great.

KELLI KUEHNE: I really can't worry about what Juli is doing. I mean, ideally, in order to win this golf tournament, I've going to have to shoot at least 67 tomorrow. That's Sunday's final round of the U.S. Open. The last U.S. Open I played in, I shot 67. If I can do that again, I've got a great chance at winning. 67 may not be low enough. Juli has put together three rounds that have all been in the 60s. Is that right? I would assume. I don't even know what her scores are, but I know that she's 15-under; so she's playing really well. One or two birdies isn't going to do it. Hopefully, I can throw out another 64. That would be great. But we'll just have to wait and see.