U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 4, 1999

Kelli Kuehne

KELLI KUEHNE: No. I'm at the U.S. Open. You can't shoot 64 every day at the U.S. Open. I wish you could. I shot 1-under par. I'm very pleased with that round. I actually came out today. I hit 15 greens today. I hit 15 greens yesterday. I had 32 putts today. I had 25 putts yesterday, except for seven shots in putting. I hit a lot of great putts today that I did not make, but, you know, that's golf. Like I said you can't make eight birdies every day. So I feel very comfortable and very confident with shooting 1-under today.

KELLI KUEHNE: Going into today, I just kind of had the same mindset; trying to hit lots of fairways, lots of greens, and give myself as many opportunities as I could to make birdie; and I did that.

KELLI KUEHNE: Like I said earlier, I played really, really well. I'm definitely happy and satisfied if I shoot 1-under the rest -- the rest of my events here at the Open. I'm very pleased with that, because this is the Open and the golf course is only going to play harder every day.

KELLI KUEHNE: No. 9 was a brutal pin placement, by the way, whoever set that one. That was a very tough pin to get to. And I don't really think it's the pin placements in general. I think the greens are starting to get quite a bit faster. The greens are getting a bit more firm. To give you an example, on the 5th hole, I was 177 yards to the hole. I hit a 6-iron. I don't hit a 6-iron 177 yards. I hit a 6-iron about 150 to 160 yards. The thing was, two paces short of pin-high; so my ball rode it through at about 160 yards and ended up about 175 yards. So you have to play for your ball landing a good 10 paces short of the pin so it can roll up there. This is the U.S. Open, and I expect they will be rolling and putting the greens even more tonight. And the later you tee off, the firmer they are going to get.

KELLI KUEHNE: I feel really great coming into this week. I think the biggest thing for me was my great week in Austin. Everybody keeps talking about Corning and what a great week I had had last week, but what got it all started was Austin. I think that was just a really big boost for me, because it is the -- Austin is my second home. And I played great in front of my family and my friends, and that was important to me, and I was able to carry that into Corning, and I've been able to carry that here.

KELLI KUEHNE: You bet. I love it when people watch me play. It's tough when you miss a putt or you hit a bad shot, because you hear oohs and ahs. When you do well, you definitely get praised when you hit a great golf shot, and I love that.

KELLI KUEHNE: Hopefully so. I mean, this is the U.S. Women's Open, and as an American -- and it's nothing against the foreign players -- I would love to see an American win the event. I'm not opposed to anyone else winning the event, but it's on U.S. soil; so I'd love to see a great player, hopefully a great American win.

KELLI KUEHNE: I think my main difference between this year and last year is without a doubt confidence. I stumbled early last year. It took me a while, but I was finally able to dig myself out of the hole I was in. This year my main goal was to come out and have fun and actually enjoy being a professional golfer instead of making it such a chore: I have to go back and I have to go work on this. You enjoy yourself a whole lot more. I'm a whole lot happier. And I do think that right -- the week before Austin going into Open qualifying, I feel great about my golf game. And I told Tracy, my caddy, I'm getting ready to come up. I just had this feeling in my belly I haven't had in quite a while. I said: Tracy, I feel like I'm getting ready to win. It's a weird buzz. I don't pull things out of midair. I said I could just feel like I'm going to start playing real well, and I've been playing great ever since then.

KELLI KUEHNE: Tracy changed my putting grip the week of Austin the day before the Open qualifier, if that makes sense. He basically tried to get my left hand more on the putting grip, because the way that I had it before -- my left palm was resting against my right hand. I putt left hand low. I putt cross-handed. So he kind of tinkered a bit with my left hand, and I really feel like my left wrist is in the right position in my putting stroke so that my angle doesn't change and my wrist doesn't break down. I've had a great feeling of success with everything he did to tinker with my grip. It was just a grip change. He didn't do anything with the stroke. He just wanted to see my left hand more a certain way, and it's been working very well.

KELLI KUEHNE: No. I -- yesterday it was awesome, because it was the U.S. Open and I was able to shoot 64. It doesn't matter where I am. I've never shot 64 before, and it makes it even better that it is the U.S. Open and the golf course is 6,400-and-something yards. Again, I think the course did play more difficult today, because the greens are getting firmer and faster, and that's tradition. That's the way it typically goes. I mean, the further into the tournament we get, the more difficult the golf is going to become, the higher the scores are going to get.

KELLI KUEHNE: Oh, I think it will be fun. I was kind of shaking my head at Tracy on the 17th saying: I can't believe I shot 64 yesterday, because I've done everything today just as well, and I'm 1-under instead of 8-under. And you've got to say: I'm 1-under par, but I'm still playing great. I guess you're not going to shoot 64 every day. I wish. But you're living in a fantasy word if you think that's going to happen.

KELLI KUEHNE: It's hot. It is definitely very hot. It's a lot like Texas. I mean, it's hot. It's a humid, and I'm use to that, which is great, because I grew up in it. But we're definitely drinking lots of water, and we definitely appreciate those ice towels that you can toss around your neck because it's very hot.

KELLI KUEHNE: It's kind of a sticky situation. I'm not really exactly sure what happened. I'm not sure I agree with the call, but it's not my place to say. I know that we were being timed. We were behind starting on the 3rd hole. We were eight minutes behind after two holes. We never really got caught up. On 17, Beth had the honor. She stuck her tee in the ground with her ball in the tee. To make a long story short, she could not figure out what club she wanted hit, and I guess timing starts once you stick your ball in your tee into the ground. It took her 46 seconds to hit her tee ball. It took me 14 seconds to hit mine; so you've got a 33-second gap there. And then basically she got up to the green. She had about a 30-footer as I did. Took her 46 seconds to hit that putt. It took me something like 27. She had a three- or four-footer. It took her 23 seconds to hit it. I mean, these second things are all rough. And the allotted time on the par 3s is 100 seconds, and hers totaled up to be 130 seconds. There's a little bit of an argument -- I would not say argument -- but I didn't see why she got stroked, because I don't feel like she took forever. If someone was penalized, I thought she should have been penalized on 16 green because that took a lot of time. And as she's walking down 18 fairway, she's getting told she needs to add -- she's got to two-stroke penalty for slow play. The timing is unfortunate, because she's trying to make the cut, and that's kind of what happened.

KELLI KUEHNE: I would say no way. This is the U.S. Open. Par is a prize possession, birdie is like a bonus, and bogey is expected. I've been very lucky and very fortunate. I've played very well. To not have made any bogeys. And you're going to make a bogey. It's just a matter of time. Hopefully, you'll make a whole lot more pars and birdies than you will bogeys.

KELLI KUEHNE: Not really. I don't think -- I'm going to leave here today and I'm going to go to the gym; do nothing. My fiancee is coming in to town. I'll hang out, basically, is what I'll do. Find out my times for tomorrow. If I go out early, I'll get up early; if I go out late, I'll sleep in. Hopefully, I can continue to play as well and as solidly as I've been playing. Trying to hit lots of fairways and try to hit lots of greens and give yourself a lot of chances to make birdie. Other than that, I haven't figured out the secret to golf; so if any of y'all have any clues, let me know any time. Just go out and play. Every day is different.

KELLI KUEHNE: I actually feel pretty good. I prefer teeing off late and then actually going early. Just because I think you can kind of see what the scores are. I don't watch the scoreboard a whole lot, but, you know, if I get the tough conditions on the first day when the course is playing easier -- the first day, the course is always usually going to play easier, and then the second day when conditions get a little tougher, I get a great tee time. So I would actually prefer to do it the way that my times were set up.

KELLI KUEHNE: No.

KELLI KUEHNE: I leave here, my golf -- my mind is no longer programmed on golf. There are other parts to Kelli Kuehne than just the golf. And that is one of the huge things that I figured out last year. I will leave here; dad and I will probably talk a little bit about how today went, but that's it. Tomorrow is a new day. Go to the gym. Go get my nails done. Go do something. Relax a little bit. And that's what I'll do. I won't be thinking about it until I tee it up and set foot out here tomorrow.