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MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

June 9, 2004

Karrie Webb

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE

Q. Thanks for joining us today. Welcome Karrie Webb, the 2001 LPGA McDonald's champion. You had a five shot win last week. Can you open up with some comments about how last week's win brings you into this week?

KARRIE WEBB: Obviously, it was a little surprising to win last week. I didn't show that good of form, really, leading up to last week's event. I think it was more just the combination of a little bit of trust, and absolutely no momentum in the previous weeks leading up to last week, and I did a lot of good things last week, and probably one of the keys is that I made some putts. I hadn't been putting all that well in the lead up. I made key shots where, like I said, gets your momentum going in the right direction rather than the wrong.

Q. Was Nabisco a little bit of was that a setback? Were you disappointed coming out of that?

KARRIE WEBB: No, not at all. I was very happy with the way I played at Nabisco. I didn't do anything not to win that tournament, I just didn't quite have enough. I gave myself every chance to. I was pretty happy with Nabisco.

Q. Karrie, when younger players like Grace Park, they talk about goals coming into the year. When you get to the level you are at, do you have goals or do you just refocus or recommit?

KARRIE WEBB: I have goals. I think for the first time in my career I had someplace to go. I finished 11th on the money list last year. It's not a bad year by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn't my best. I felt I could play a lot better than I did last year. I wanted to get back into being a lot more consistent ball striker like I used to play, hit a lot more greens, give myself a lot more chances at birdies.

I really feel like at the start of the year I wanted to get back to the top five of the money list, definitely the top ten.

Q. How often have you been getting together with Ian?

KARRIE WEBB: Last time I saw him was in Kingsmill. He's coming over next week. He's over for the US Men's Open, I'll see him Tuesday, and I'll see him at the Women's US Open.

Q. Do you feel the things you have been working on in the last year are falling into place?

KARRIE WEBB: I think it's going to be 12 months to 18 months before I really feel comfortable with what I'm doing. Originally when I first started doing it at the end of last year, I really thought I got it quite quickly. I really thought I had a good understanding of it, but I really, since then I went into the year probably way too overconfident with how the things were going to go.

I really thought that I would get it quickly and contend a lot earlier in the year, and that didn't happen, and, you know, I think it was, again, a little bit of trust and just understanding what I'm doing. I shoot the ball total opposite now, and hitting more of a fade. It seems like all you have to do is aim left instead of right of the pin, but the most difficult days I have had is when it's been windy.

I used to I had to play in the wind, and playing in the wind with a fade, it affects it a lot more than with a draw. It's just a lot of stuff I had to learn and readjust to. My distances have come and gone just with the consistency of it. I haven't really narrowed it down yet. I really think 12 to 18 months is sort of my goal right now where I really feel I'll start to get a lot more comfortable with things.

Q. Karrie, given the way you played last week, how much confidence does that give you going into this week, especially at a course where you've played well?

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, it didn't hurt any. It didn't hurt my confidence any at all. It was great to see that, you know, I think I only missed four or five fairways, something like that, or five or six greens. I haven't done that for such a long time. I made a lot of putts that I've seen go in over the years that I have seen go in this year. It really gives me a lot of confidence going into this week.

Q. Karrie, why the fade, why have you added that?

KARRIE WEBB: Well, it's just come from the swing changes I've made, and I think that with the swing changes I've made, eventually I'll be able to work the ball and hit any sort of shot that I want to. Right now it's predominantly a fade.

Q. You said you thought like 12 to 18 months. When you think of the victory last week, are you ahead of the game right now, ahead of the schedule?

KARRIE WEBB: No, because I think that, you know, even in years past I'm not saying I played poorly last year, but in the past I've not played poorly, but not at my best, and I won. Last week I just did everything right. I made just about every putt I should have made. When you're doing that, the fairways get wider, the greens get bigger.

You know, everything went right, and I think I'm ahead of the game with winning. Like I said, it was a bit of a shock to me to even give myself such a great chance at winning, and then to win by five on Sunday. The good thing that came out of that is that it was just a first time really that my swing, with the changes I've made, has been under that much pressure.

At Nabisco it was, but it wasn't my tournament to lose there. Sort of, I guess, three years ago with a 2 shot lead going into the last round, everybody would have expected me to win. I would have expected it. Whereas I really didn't go into Sunday expecting to win. I wanted to play really solidly and go out there with a lot of trust in myself, and believe I can hit the shots I need to, and that's what I did. That was what was really good, that things held up pretty good for me on Sunday as well.

Q. If you were to specify goals, would the goals for you to be number one, or just looking back, winning majors?

KARRIE WEBB: I think so, it's to be the best that I can be and reach my full potential, I guess. I can't ever control what anyone else does. I think if you look at the men's side, VJ Singh is playing the best golf of his life, and Ernie Ells, and they're not number one, but you can only control what you can control.

I'm going to continue to work hard and try to become better. I want to get back to being a really consistent player. I have only had two top tens this year, and I would like to have more chance to win and have my name on the leaderboard more often.

Q. Next year there will be an official world ranking for women. Do you think you need them or are you looking forward to having it?

KARRIE WEBB: I think you need it because people always ask. That's how you're judged, you know, and right now, I mean, it's pretty obvious right now who is number one on our tour, or in the world, even. I think once you get down the line, it's hard to say who is 5th or 6th or 7th or 8th or whatever. Except for maybe the World Cup is one of the things they're wanting to use the world ranking for, I don't think it's going to be a requirement to get into any of our tournaments. So, I haven't heard that. Maybe you guys have heard more than I have, but I think it's not going to be something like the men use now for their world golf events and stuff like that, and majors.

Q. What are your expectation coming in this week?

KARRIE WEBB: I try to win every week. That's the main goal. I just want to be patient. This course has been good to me. I have also not enjoyed playing it some years. I want to be very patient. The greens are not the best they have been. I think anyone who hits lots of fairways this week and lots of greens is going to be someone that's going to be at the top of the leaderboard, or close to it, at the end of the week.

You're not going to make every 5 footer that you see this week because of the standards of the greens.

Q. Karrie, Se Ri Pak got qualified for the Hall of Fame. She's just 26. Did you think that the system the LPGA uses, that's a good way of judging Hall of Fame eligibility?

KARRIE WEBB: That's also why you have ten years, too. She'll be 29, I guess 30 by the time she gets in. I'm not sure. So, in most sports, 30 is quite old, but it isn't in golf. I think the standards is fine. I think it's better than being voted on, because you can achieve it yourself without a popularity contest as well. The standard that was set before, I think, for this day and age is extremely hard.

You want the best players to have a chance from every era to get into it. If you look at it, besides with Se Ri getting in, the next two closest are Laura Davies and Dottie Pepper; is that right? There is a big gap before the next sort of people have a chance of getting in. It's not like every person out here is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. I think it's going to be an exclusive hall.

Q. Could you expound a little bit about what you were talking about about the greens there?

KARRIE WEBB: I don't think it's even a secret to DuPont Country Club that then they're having trouble with their greens. I believe they're ripping them out when we leave. I think they've got some sort of disease in them. Some greens are worse than others, but they don't have much of a root system. Where there is grass, there is not much of a root system. So, any spike mark or footprint that goes over tears it up, and ball marks, they just explode on the green and rip it apart. Plus, the course is soft from all the rain they have had. I don't think it's a secret to DuPont, either, that they have trouble.

Q. Anything else? Thank you Karrie.

End of FastScripts.

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