MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY AIG

June 22, 2001

Wendy Ward

WENDY WARD: No. 2, bogey. I pushed my drive out to the right and really didn't have any shot at the greens, so just chipped out and hit it to about 25 feet and 2-putted for bogey. I hit a sand wedge from 85 yards. Birdie on 6. That was a long time ago. Oh, that's where I found my range. I made a 40-footer. 155, 8-iron out of the rough. I haven't made a 40-footer in a long time, so that was kind of fun. Then bogey on 10. I was right in the middle of the fairway. Hit what I thought was a great pitching wedge from 120 and it hit pin-high and bounced straight over the green, which you can't be over that green, let me just say that I hit a good chip, shot back to 15 feet but left it right in the jaws. Then started making some really good approach shots, but didn't make birdie til 12. I had 106 yards to the pin there. It played a little downwind with a sand wedge to 15 feet and then I found my range of 40 feet again on 13. 187 was the yardage there, 5-iron. 40-footer up and over the hump. Birdie on 18. Hit a great drive there. A 3-wood, went right through the fairways. The fairways are really starting to firm up. I don't know if that's the wind or what but I should not be able to hit 3-wood through the fairway. I hit a 7-iron out of the rough. I think it only carried about 90 yards and rolled the other 60. I had 164 -- to 90 feet. I told myself, "You'd better take advantage of this putt." 18 is a tough green to pull it close.

WENDY WARD: I hope not. Actually, I didn't drive the ball as well as I would have liked today. I hit, I think only six fairways. Going to go out and work on that a little bit. But I made some really great recovery shots. Made two great up-and-downs out of the bunker for par on 16 and 17. Just really tried to keep any momentum -- I was looking at the board all day and saw that there were only one or two players at the time that were really doing, and everybody was staying pretty level. Tom, my caddy he basically just said, "Hey, let's play the golf course and make the birdies when we can. It's going to take a lot of pars this week."

WENDY WARD: You can't let her get too far ahead. I'm just trying to really stick to playing the golf courses, but I feel like I came off my last three holes with a lot of momentum. Maybe made a bad swing but then made a great recovery shot. And making birdie on 18 is something you always want to do and leave with as far as going into tomorrow.

WENDY WARD: Yeah, I really wasn't that aggressive today. I did try my cut shot on 16. You know, the par 5, just try and get it down there and pushed it just a hair and caught a tree. That basically took hitting that green in two out of play, and really hustled to make par there. You know, I've just got to kind of judge those opportunities and when is the time to try them and when isn't the time, and I think I was -- I think I was one back at that point. So, I just felt like I needed to try and create some momentum.

WENDY WARD: I felt like I was pressing a little bit too much out of the gate. Tom kind of looked at me and said, "You know, give me a smile or two. We're not even halfway home yet. Let's not start grinding too early." All he kept telling me all day was, "Play the course, play the course."

WENDY WARD: I hit driver today. It actually was playing into the wind, so that took that decision right out of play. I actually kind of took it over the water a little unintentionally and luckily, I had plenty of club. But I only had, you know, 110 yards in on that hole. So that kind of changed my theory -- it makes it such an easier hole if you can get it around the corner like that.

WENDY WARD: I'm getting a lot of release.

WENDY WARD: Yeah. Fairways and greens. Some of my wedge shots, I'm still getting maybe seven to eight yards release out of, which I am not accustomed to. No. 10, I put together my two best swings of the day I thought, drive in the middle of the fairway and then to hit it pin-high and it bounces, you know, six feet up in the air and over the green; so that kind of threw me off. But the greens are rolling well. We'll see if the storms come in, how that affects them, but they are starting to pick up some speed day by day.

WENDY WARD: You know she is going to be pretty steady and not to make many mistakes. Yeah we are going to have to catch her. There's no doubt about that. But to me, the way I do that is hitting fairways and greens and making birdies and not really watching what she does. The tough part about that is that I like watching the board, but I've got to get motivated by my own play and get some momentum going.

WENDY WARD: I don't really react to it. I just like to kind of know where I'm at. Today, I saw her just kind of come from nowhere. She just started stacking birdies. I saw Rosie, she's 5-under through seven, and I'm thinking, good, gosh. She was the one chasing me at Charlotte in '97. "Oh, here she comes for some revenge."

WENDY WARD: Well, I got my share yesterday. So I thought I was due for a pretty level day today. Like I said, halfway home. So I'm hoping there's another day that I'm due in the next 48 hours.

WENDY WARD: I think the scores are lower than I predicted them to be starting out. You know, Saturday, Sunday comes around and you generally see things kind of taper off. Everybody is still going to go and try and make birdies, no doubt. But I think they are going to be a little harder to come by the next couple days.

WENDY WARD: See, I walked in here saying this course is going to play more difficult than it has in years past, and then you see the numbers, and you think, what's going on? Maybe we are just grinding and focussing that much harder because we know the room for error is just that much smaller.

WENDY WARD: We might just be pretty good.