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KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP


April 5, 2013


Jodi Ewart Shadoff


RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA

MIKE SCANLAN:  We'd like to welcome Jodi Ewart Shadoff to the interview room here at Kraft Nabisco.  Currently the co‑leader in the clubhouse after your second round.  What's the last 24 hours been like for you?  I think when we saw your name at the top of the leaderboard yesterday, people were searching, and googling, and trying to find out more about you.  Did you hear from a lot of people overnight?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, I think I had like 20 messages when I got home, and my Twitter was blowing up like crazy which was good because I got more followers.
MIKE SCANLAN:  I think your biggest supporter is maybe your husband.  You were a newlywed in January?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, I think he sent me about six messages.  I'm like, "I'm on the course."  So, yeah.
MIKE SCANLAN:  If you would just take us through your round.  72 today, couple birdies, couple bogies.  You said you felt maybe a little more nervous than you did yesterday, but you handled it fairly well.
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, I was definitely a little more nervous, but after the first couple holes, I felt comfortable with where my game was and how I was hitting it.  So it kind of went away after maybe 11 or 12.

Q.  Can you take us through your birdies, what clubs you hit in, and how far the putts were on 11 and 4?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  11, I went to the green in two and just pulled a 3‑wood into the rough.  It was kind of long, and I just hit a 60‑degree out to about six or seven feet and holed that.  Then on 4, I had about 130 to the pin.  I hit a 9‑iron.  I came up a little short off the ridge, but finally managed to get a birdie putt to go in.  It was probably about 25 feet.  Then 5 and 6 were shots out to the right, and it just cost me a couple of shots.

Q.  Does your husband travel with you?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  No.

Q.  Is it hard to be newlyweds?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, it is.  But I mean, he's got his own job.  He's a sports anchor at a local TV station, so, yeah, he's working.  He comes out to a couple of events during the year.

Q.  How hard is that to be a newlywed and not be with your new husband?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  I mean, we've had to‑‑ it's always been like that during our whole relationship.  When I was in college playing college golf I was always away as well, so it's not any different, really.  We handle it well.

Q.  Do you think the fact that you have such a quick turnaround, finishing late and going off early worked to your advantage at all given that you were sitting on the lead?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, definitely.  To finish late and then come back out at 9 again this morning, it would have been a lot worse to have the opposite way around to sit and dwell on where I was at the time.  So it definitely helped.

Q.  Your father was a jockey.  Is there any transferrable‑‑ anything from his experience and his work that is transferrable to what you do out here?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  I think‑‑ well, both of my parents were involved in horse racing, so my mom ran track and my dad boxed as well.  So we're a very athletic family.  I think the competitiveness definitely shines in me too.

Q.  How long have you been anchoring and using the belly putter, and where do you stand on that whole situation?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  I have been anchoring since November of 2011, just before I went to Q‑school.  I mean, honestly, I've said this a lot of times, but all you have to do is look at my putting stats to know it's not a huge advantage.  To be honest, if they do decide to ban it, it wouldn't be a huge issue for me.  I'd have to spend a couple months really working out with a short putter, but it wouldn't be a huge deal for me.

Q.  How did you find your way to the University of NewMexico?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  I went on a recruiting trip, looked at the practice facilities and thought it was amazing.  The airport is ten minutes from school.  The golf course is ten minutes from school, so everything was just really nice and comfortable, especially coming from the middle of the country in England.  It's not a huge, huge city, and it wasn't a huge school so it wasn't too much of a shock for me.

Q.  How did you get into golf if your parents were jockeys?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Well, my granddad used to play, so he took me out.  He took me to the coach that I'm still with when I was eight years old, and the rest is history, I guess.

Q.  Where did you play when you were young?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Just a small club called Catterick in North Yorkshire.

Q.  What is your coach's name?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Andrew Marshall.

Q.  We know your dad was a jockey.  What did your mom do in the horse racing business?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  My dad wasn't a jockey for very long, but they both worked for trainers to exercise the horses and take them to the races and sort of prep them.

Q.  Could you talk about what it was like to shark dive?  I think you've got to be pretty fearless to get into a shake and have a shark coming at you.  Are you pretty fearless on the golf course too?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, well, we were on a boat with maybe 30 other people.

Q.  This is on your honeymoon?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah.  They could take eight at a time, so I was like I'm not going first.  I'm going to watch the first eight do it, and then I watched them.  It honestly looked really safe.  The worst part about it was the water was like minus something and it was awful being in the water itself.  But once you go down and see the sharks, it's pretty awesome.

Q.  How many sharks did you see?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  I think we saw six different sharks when we were out there.

Q.  Would you just tell us about your thoughts going into tomorrow?  Is it a scary position to be in?  Is it exciting?  How do you not allow yourself to get ahead of yourself?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  I'm honestly just going to go out there and do what I've been doing in the last two rounds.  I'm really comfortable with where my game is.  I wasn't really hitting my driver that well yesterday, and I hit it probably the best club in my bag today.  So I'm really happy with where I am there.
Obviously, putts weren't dropping today, so, hopefully, I can find a middle ground on that tomorrow.  But I expect there to be a couple of good rounds.  I like to chase the lead rather than be in the lead, so it kind of spurs me on a lot.

Q.  It sounds like your experience in U.S. golf has been in a desert setting having been at NewMexico.  Did you feel comfortable coming out here?  You played well at this tournament last year.
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, I like the west coast a lot.  I love playing in Phoenix.  It reminds me a lot of playing in NewMexico.  I love the west coast.  Out here it's not really desert golf, as it were, but it still feels really comfortable for me.  I know my long game is definitely the strongest part of my game, so I really do suit tougher among the courses.

Q.  Will your husband and his parents come out and watch you this weekend?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  They're not planning on it unless I'm in the lead or close to the lead on Sunday.

Q.  Can you talk about how you got into anchoring to begin with, and if it helped you right away and that's why you stuck with it?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, there was a point a couple months before Q‑school in 2011 where I think I played a Sun Coast event down in Orlando.  It was, I think I had like 37 putts or something in that round.  I was just like I need to make a change because I'm not going to get anywhere doing the same thing over and over again.  It was about the time when the belly putter and the long putters were like in.  So I tried it, and I just loved it.
I mean, the problem I have with my putting with the short putter is I get kind of wristy and short and stubby, so it kind of helps take away that.  But it still happens, even though a lot of people say it doesn't, it still does.

Q.  Your husband talk about you last night, do you know, on his sportscast?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, I haven't seen it, but, yeah, he said he did.

Q.  He Tweeted me that he was going to put highlights in the 10:00 o'clock show?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Okay.  Nice (laughing).  That must have been really awkward for him to talk about his wife.
MIKE SCANLAN:  Yeah, I don't know how he'd reference you.

Q.  So if it came down to your husband having to put together a sports package on TV and it came down to Syracuse highlights or your round highlights, which way would he go?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  I would hope he'd put my highlights, but he's a huge Syracuse fan.  Since the semifinals are on Saturday, I don't know (laughing).

Q.  In the United States there seems to be a less strident reaction to anchoring than on your side of the pond.  I'm wondering what kind of a reaction you get from people back home who it seems from this vantage point seem a lot more aligned with the R&A and the USGA on the topic.
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Honestly, I try not to read what other people's opinions on it.  If the USGA and R&A decide to ban t then so be it.  But, in my opinion, from somebody who uses it, I don't feel like it's a huge advantage.  But everybody's entitled to their opinion.  I didn't know they're more against it over there than they are here, that's kind of interesting to me.

Q.  Ernie Els used the short putter and said he's going back to the long putter for The Masters.  Can you imagine switching back and forth like that, and how much, if at all, are you even practicing with the short putter in anticipation of what might happen?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  I do not practice with the short putter.  If they go ahead and do ban it, then I probably expect to use it and start making the switch in the off‑season.  I did actually go back to the short putter in Malaysia at the end of last year for the first round.  That didn't go so well.
I actually hole more long putts with the short putter, but I hole‑‑ I'm very consistent with the belly putter within six feet.  So that's really the reason I went back after the first round.

Q.  How is it your husband is a Syracuse fan?  Did he go there?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, he went there.

Q.  To become a broadcaster?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, he studied broadcast journalism there.

Q.  So he's a college basketball fan?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Yeah, he is,  huge.
MIKE SCANLAN:  Before we let you go, one more question.  Big year in Europe for the Solheim Cup coming off a big win in Ireland in 2011.  They talked a lot about it with Annika Sorenstam in the booth today, one of the assistant captains.  She has her eye on you.  Just talk about sort of thrusting yourself into the race to make the European Solheim Cup team and how much that would mean to you?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  That is my number 1 goal for this year to be on the Solheim Cup team.  There are so many great European players out here, and I wouldn't want to be in the captain's seat making captain's picks at all.  It's such a hard decision.
But I love Match Play.  I wish we had more Match Play events.  I love playing aggressively.
MIKE SCANLAN:  At last year's Match Play, you managed to take down a couple of European Solheim Cup stars in Suzann and Sophie.  What is it about Match Play?
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  We play in Europe, we play so much Match Play as amateurs.  I don't know.  I'm just so competitive, and it's just nice.  If you had one bad hole, you can just forget about it and get it back right away.
I definitely play more aggressively in Match Play and never give up.  That is one key thing to Match Play is to never give up.  Strange things happen in Match Play.
MIKE SCANLAN:  Thank you so much for your time and great luck to you.
JODI EWART SHADOFF:  Thank you.

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