ASAHI RYOKUKEN INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

September 21, 2001

Meg Mallon

MEG MALLON: 68. I'm at 6-under.

MEG MALLON: Right. It was a strange day. Why did I have to -- oh, yesterday was even stranger. I was very thankful to wake up this morning because I thought I was killed yesterday. So today I feel a lot better about it.

MEG MALLON: It was about 6 lightning strikes and standing in my metal spikes out in the middle of the fairway running around like a chicken, not knowing where to go. That was interesting, yesterday. Today was uneventful compared to that. I had to come back and play five holes this morning. The hard part was not knowing when we were going to go out. I went out to hit balls on three different occasions. And I was really more concerned about the second round, that I would run out of steam, just because of all the energy we expended this morning. But I hit the ball well coming in and I didn't have to worry about losing my energy there. It was a long day.

MEG MALLON: It is unusual. It feels like one of our U. S. Opens. This year I had to play 34 holes in one day in the U.S. Open. So it feels like one of those endurance tests. And I just had the last three weeks off and welcome back, you know. I guess I'm mentally fresh compared to the rest.

MEG MALLON: I'm always for trying to get 72 holes in. But as you know, we're under very unusual circumstances with a lot of issues. And I'm sure one of the considerations is travel. And we have always try to play 72 hole events, no matter what, when it's easy to change your flights, it's easy to plan ahead and/or make last minute decisions. As you know right now, that's just too hard. And it's, I thought that was a consideration for the decision that they made and the right one. We're happy to be playing a golf tournament this week, let alone not worrying whether it's 72 or 54 holes. So you got to put it in perspective.

MEG MALLON: Okay. I can't see it, but it says I shot 68. I started on the back side as I did yesterday. Actually yesterday I was three over after five holes. So I'm really happy to be 6-under from since then. I bogeyed the first hole again today. And let's see, we go to number 15 on the par-3. I'm trying to think. 15 was so long ago. Here I'm in Emilee's situation. I know exactly how she feels. 15? Help me out. What does it look like?

MEG MALLON: Oh, I birdied it twice actually. I hit a 5-iron there today to about 12 feet and made that for birdie. Then I came back on 16 and made just the dumbest bogey in life. It was a 2-putt bogey there on 16, a par-5, which should have been reachable for me. And I hit it in the bunker 40 yards short of the green and it was a mess from there. I had a 6-footer for par and missed that. So a little tap in for bogey. Then I came back and birdied 17 and 18. I hit a 7-wood into 17 to about five feet and made that for birdie. And then 18 I came back, I had to hit a 5-wood into 18 and I made about a 35-footer there for birdie. Then I cruised until six, the par-5. I hit it greenside in two to the left and hit kind of a poor pitch shot to about 18 feet and I made a really nice birdie putt there. And then 7 I hit a 6-iron to, I don't know, we'll call it six inches. I tapped it in with mud on it so it was pretty short. Believe it or not Karrie got inside of mine there, so it was two really good shots on 7. And then number 9 I hit it actually about 15 yards short of the green on 9. I had my feet in the bunker and had a little pitch shot and hit it up to about probably six, seven feet and made that for birdie. Oh, 10, I hit it in the fairway bunker and had to just pitch it out. I had a really bad lie so I had to pitch it out. And then I didn't hit a very good wedge shot in. I hit it like 25 feet short and 3-putted for bogey there.

MEG MALLON: Sleep, first of all. I don't like these early mornings. So I'm really looking forward to getting a really good night's rest and I'll come out in the afternoon and practice. And this practice facility is a great one. So I'm excited about that. There's a lot of things that I can do out here. We have some places that are tough, that aren't as inviting. So this is kind of nice. And of course the hospitality has been great out here too. So this is not a bad place to come out to for the afternoon. It's just different. We have had days off like this, but very unusual circumstances. So, hopefully, I'll be game ready on Sunday. That's all I'm really concerned about is missing a day of competition. Thanks a lot, you guys.