ARCH WIRELESS CHAMPIONSHIP

November 16, 2000

Meg Mallon

MEG MALLON: Second hole, par 5, hit a pitching wedge to about 18 feet and made that for birdie. The fourth hole the par 4, I hit another pitching wedge to (Inaudible.) Then I bogeyed No. 9. I bogeyed No. 9. 2-putt -- oh, I hit a pitch shot a little too far about 15 feet away and 2-putted from there. Then I came back and chipped in on 12, it was about 15 feet with a pitching wedge then I hit (Inaudible.) 15, chipped in again. About 30 feet away. Then on 16, I hit -- what did I hit, I hit a sand wedge, the par 5, I hit a sand wedge to, about, let's call it eight feet and made that for birdie. Then I parred in.

MEG MALLON: My pitching wedge was very nice to me today and my pitch-ins were terrific. I took three weeks off and I had no idea what expect. I'm playing a new golf course I had never played in competition. Didn't know what to expect. Obviously, it worked out really well. I hit it in the right places and didn't make any bad mistakes today, which you can do on this course, if you don't hit it well. That's why I like it. I like how it is designed, because you didn't -- they are smaller greens, you can't get away with really bad shots, and -- but it rewards good shots. So that's why I like it. And, you know it wasn't windy here today, which is pretty abnormal for Florida, so the conditions were not as tough as they could get. So it was nice to take advantage of that. So for the next few days -- I only hit 11 greens today. Those two chip-ins helped a lot obviously. So over the next few days, I would like to hit more greens and have a few more birdie opportunities and not rely on unknowns so much.

MEG MALLON: Isn't it like 45 degrees in Las Vegas? Beautiful. Glad we're here.

MEG MALLON: The thing that's hard about that, though is you've got the Top-30 so, you get players that are going to play well anyway, all the time. So you still have to, you know -- you know that with the Top-30, the best players in the world, there's not going to be a whole lot of bad scores. So, especially -- even with a new golf course like this, knowing what to expect. Someone is going to go out there and play well and this is pretty bunched up, I think, right now. Well, I played with Juli Inkster. That was a bigger surprise. I think she shot 6-over today. But it can happen. Juli just lost her putter today, and the grain and the greens, I think just started to get to her. She missed a few short ones starting out, and all of the sudden she just couldn't make anything. That was really unusual. But the thing with Karrie is her last two drives -- I think she outdrove Annika by a combined 50 yards on the last two holes, so she was mad. And when Karrie gets mad, she plays so good. So tomorrow, I don't expect anything less than a 66 or a 65 out of her tomorrow. So I'm not going to really think that Karrie is out of this golf tournament.

MEG MALLON: She's learned how to win. You know, she got that big, giant gorilla off her back, and it is a little bit easier now to come down the stretch and she found out how much fun it is. And Lorie has always been a great player. She started out really well, and she just had to find her way, and she did and we all knew that it was going to happen. But when you're the player that's going through it, you want to smack everybody for telling her that until you do win. And Lorie was very patient with that process, and now she's really enjoying the success. Financially, it is my best season. I would have liked to have won a couple more events, especially the ones that I was up there very close in. When I look back on it, as disappointing as the Open was, if I had known that I was going to come back and win the next major championship, I would have been a little less upset about it. So, it really was a rewarding year in a lot of ways, even Solheim Cup. You know I had a great experience with the Solheim Cup, and, even though we lost, it was one of the best team experiences that I had ever had. So it has been a memorable year for me in that way. Financially it has been fabulous, kind of a testament to how the LPGA is doing, too, so I kind of like that.

MEG MALLON: It's funny. I set my goals when I started out the year of, you know, obviously you want to win tournaments and put yourself in position to win golf tournaments, and I'm 37 years old, and I realize that I don't have, you know -- I'm just past the halfway point in my career. And hopefully, God willing, healthy and everything, I've got five or six more years that I like to play the same kind of golf that I've played for the last three years. If I did that, things will take care of themselves. But I do need to win more tournaments when I have the chance to do it. I have a ton of Top-10s, a ton of opportunities to win, but I've got to, you know, do the couple extra things to come -- I've won multiple events but more than two, three events, four events to have the Hall of Fame kind of years to have the years that you need to have. Right now, no, I've got a lot of points left, but I also see someone like a Juli Inkster who has a year like she did and knows that it is feasible and I'm sure that is how Dottie Pepper is thinking, too. It's not out of the realm, but I'm not thinking I'm a Hall of Fame player right now, no.

MEG MALLON: Three weeks, right. In a way, it is. I needed the three weeks off. I was absolutely fried up to that five-week swing I had with the Solheim Cup there, and all of the traveling that we did and I needed to go home. I brought Mike down to Florida last weekend, and actually, started practicing 10 days ago, but brought Mike down and we had a really good lesson together. So everything just kind of came together for me this week. I still feel like I have more to work on with my golf swing. I don't feel like it is quite there from, you know, what we did over the weekend, but it was a nice way to start the week after having a last one like that.

MEG MALLON: When I do? Are you kidding me? I'm on the road for 36 days, I'm going to Malaysia I can't for the wore cup and then I'm going to the Hyundai matches in California. So actually my year ends after January 29th and then I'm taking six weeks off. That's when I'm taking my break. The last week of January right until Phoenix, I'm done. Just, you know, because of this travel schedule that I have right now, it's just one long year. But it's nice. I mean, you know it is an honor to be the top American and be able to go to the World Cup, and it's an honor to be in the Hyundai matches since there are only four teams. So those things you have to eat up while you can because you don't get that opportunity very often. But I also know that I'm going to be burned out, and I know that if I'm going to have a good year next year, I need to take that six weeks. I travel almost 40 weeks out of the year. So people don't realize that you are only home 12 weeks. You know, there's a lot of things to do at home. And to even just to get ready to travel for the next 30 weeks. So I'll be doing a lot of that, just preparing to go back out there, but at least I won't be doing out of the traveling, mental things, and all of that, just relaxing that way and getting myself ready, which I will feel like starting my year will be, you know, Phoenix, Nabisco. And, you know I think Annika did that way last year, she didn't start until the West Coast Swing. So it's funny we don't really -- to answer your question, we don't have an end of the year. That's how you have to plan your schedule for 12 months. Exactly. There is no off-season. Even, like I said, I have three weeks off, but I spent the last 10 days preparing for this week and preparing for Malaysia and all that. You know, when you see a golfer, take that much time off, yeah, I took about 10 days off of no golf at all and getting my house in order and paying my bills and all of those things, but then it's back to golf and practicing and preparing to come out and play.

MEG MALLON: That's a good question. She's separated herself this year, but, she's always separated herself about arm's length away from Annika. And I think that's very exciting for our tour, to have a rivalry like that. Well, in a lot of ways, it is. Five events and seven events, that's a pretty big separation. Now you've got, you know a player like Juli Inkster who did what she did the last couple of years who is going to contend with those players. You know, I'm going to have a couple wins to contend with those players. You're going to have, you know, 10 other players jockeying for that, you know, fight to beat Karrie and Annika, and that's how I feel like our Tour is right now is that those two are expected to at least be in the Top 3 or 4 or 5 every week; and the Top 5 every week, and when they do that they always give themselves an opportunity to win. And then you've got everybody else trying to sneak in there to beat them every once in awhile, and that's the situation how it is going right now. I am really excited., I was on that Hall of Fame committee for seven years. So really this is our first group that is going in. (Inaudible) this is our first group going in. Oh, yeah, because we also did the ballot selection, too, for our committee. So, I'm very excited about it. When Juli is on, she is incredible, she is such a momentum player and can ride that momentum for such a long time, and you can see that throughout her career, and then you can also see in her career when she had children, she had a little bit of a down time, but then she has worked so hard and she has always worked hard. Juli is still out there practicing right now. She's not going to put up with a day like today. That's why she's separated herself in a career from her peers. Yeah, I know. That's a lot of hard work. I think it depends on the individual. You know -- about Juli? There's too many good stories to tell. Too many good star he's to tell about Juli Inkster. I don't know, Juli is one of most fun people out here. She's somebody to look forward to seeing every day. There's always a comment coming out of Juli Inkster and it is not always one that you can share with everybody, but it is one that will make you laugh. You know, Juli is one of my best friends out here. I just think she is a great person. She has a great respect for the game of golf. She is very competitive, but she doesn't take it to the Nth degree where she goes overboard with her competitiveness. You know she is a competitive person, but she doesn't try to do any game playing to beat you. She just loves -- she loves to win, and she's infectious that way and that's why she's been a great team member on the Solheim Cup teams that she has been on. You know, she's very patriotic, wants to win very competitive -- great match-player, she'll go down as one of the best match-players of all time with her three U.S. Amateurs and her records in the Solheim Cup. Juli is a treat -- the Tour will miss her incredibly when she is gone. She's just been a positive aspect to the tour ever since she has been on it. We still have Toledo. I still get a good fan base that comes to Toledo, but I don't see any reason why we can't hold an event in Michigan because it is such a great golf state. That's too bad to here. I'm disappointed about that. I had just heard last week that they were trying to get a tournament around the Clarkson area in the suburbs of Detroit. I'm sorry to hear if that fell through.

MEG MALLON: Well, I don't know about his demands I'm not sure what you're talking about as far as his demands, but I'm sure just his -- right. Rightfully so. I mean, we've got I vents that go from, what's the U.S. Open now next year, yeah. Inaudible. Sponsors come on board and there should be a -- what do I want to say, there should be a level of what you start, and a purse, otherwise, if whoever that is evolves, maybe should get involved at another level in the game of golf. But it's nice that we're in that position to be able to do that and have a full schedule. I think it is great.