KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP

March 29, 2003

Patricia Meunier-Lebouc

MODERATOR: Patricia, going into the final round tomorrow, three shot lead, playing with Annika again. Can you talk about how you look forward to tomorrow.

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: It's going to be the best experience of my life. It's getting better every day, playing with Annika a lot of times, and playing with her the last day of the first major of the year, is unbelievable, and even more with a three shot lead. I have nothing else to say, I'm just very happy, and at the same time scared, I think, everything together; very excited and scared at the same time. But that's the best, actually. That's why I'm here.

Q. At one point you were five shots up on the back 9. Were you ever aware just how big your lead was getting, or what was going on around you?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yeah, yeah. I saw I was five shots ahead, but, you know, you always expect Annika to come back at any time, and I just had to get new energy on the last few holes, and just -- it's pretty impressive. The first time I'm playing in a major, and being in this position. So it's quite -- it's great to have a five shot lead to Annika, and actually going pretty down after. So it's kind of strange. Maybe a bit of surprise and maybe, too, I didn't keep my attention very up there, didn't really kept going in making the pars at the end, but I don't have any explanation right now, but it's just -- I think it's just -- I'm very amazed I'm there, but at the same time I know why, because I just handled it very well, the way I felt on the golf course was pretty good. I just got really tired at the end, and had a slow round. So it's tough for me to play slow. I like to play fast. So it's kind of difficult because if you keep going, it could help just to handle the pressure, it would be easier. But everything together, I'm very happy today.

Q. This is the first time you've been here?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yes.

Q. Is there something about this golf course that really fits well with your game or is it just that you're playing so well it doesn't matter where you'd be playing?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Actually I think, yeah, I don't think it's the golf course, itself. It's a wonderful golf course and very tough and everything, it's just -- I think I would be playing the same anywhere. It's just the attitude, the focus I have on the shots, that I'm able to find it out there. It's very good. I'm just hoping I'm going to go and practice a few things I want to work on, you know, that I found my swing and putting and everything, because I think I will need a few more putts tomorrow that will drop. So I'm just trying to focus for tomorrow to go and work a little bit more this evening and have a good night of sleep and get ready for tomorrow.

Q. You talk about being tired. Is it more physically tired or mentally tiring with all -- when you've been playing near on the lead?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: A little bit of everything. But it's just like -- I don't think you feel the same energy all through 18 holes, you know, like there's some ups and downs all the time. But I always have some trouble getting -- after 13, 14 holes, I've always had some problems to keep my attention at the highest level. So I felt my energy -- I was chip and putt, I was seeing a lot of pressure, I was getting a lot of tension in my body. But I did handle it very well, because my attention was very -- I was very present, you know. And a hundred percent in what I was doing. And I think in the end I carried enough -- fear I have to fight to get my body starting and hit the shot. So -- but I don't know how long it took us today, but it was around five hours. Again, I think. So it's kind of -- that's part of it. And even more because you have time to think and think about what you're doing wrong or bad or whatever it is, and it's tiring to think.

Q. With the lead and you didn't know what this day was going to be like, obviously you played well, any idea what you're going to feel like tomorrow in the last group with Annika and now Michelle Wie bombing it out there, any idea what you're going to feel like when you step up to the first tee tomorrow?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I'm sure I'm going to -- many things, you know. There's a mix of everything. What I hope is just to be able to go through all these feelings and emotions that I have, because it's going to be very strong, I know it. It's not going to be another day at the office. But it's not a very normal office. It's going to be very crowded and all these people cheering for you on the first tee, and everything is going to be very strong emotions. So what I just want is to be able to get the good energy out of it and just be able to do my best and really let it go, don't get too high in my emotions, just stay very steady and focus on what I have to do every single shot. And that's all I can do, actually. I think the last day like that, that's what I think is going to be tough, even more with Annika. But it's going to be tough for her, too. And so I just -- she's a human person and like everybody is, so I've got my chance tomorrow. And I think that's the best out of it, you know. I have the chance to be leading a major tournament and be able to play with the best player in the world tomorrow. It's going to be just -- I just have to look at it in a positive way. It's going to be fun to play with her the last day, whatever happens, you know. If I win, then it's great. If I don't, then I get a lot of information out of it. That's what is the most important for me, I think, today. And that's what I'm going to focus on tomorrow, just to play another round of golf and give myself the best chance to do the best I can tomorrow.

Q. By winning the State Farm, how did that prepare you for going into this tournament?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I think it prepared me very well. I mean after you -- I got on to Tour, nobody knew me, I was presented like a rookie, since ever. I came here in 2001. I won five tournaments in Europe, and on the tee people were saying that I was a rookie. I just thought I'd go off like I was a new professional, because nobody knows me here. So it was okay, no problem. I felt like I was sitting like a beginner, here. And for sure to win my first full year on the PGA was getting at another state, getting -- I mean back to normal, what the position I had in Europe, too, like being used to being in the lead and being a winner. But that's what helps you to be out there and to say if you know you can win against all these girls, then you know you can do it again. If you do it once, you can do it twice. And that was my 6th win, so I know -- it's not like I've been lucky to win once. I've won six times, so I know I can do it. If I just prepare myself very well and think the good way, I can just do it. So everything is possible tomorrow. I think I can even win with a more shot lead. In golf, everything is possible. I'm just going to take my chance tomorrow and try to enjoy it as much as I can.

Q. Patricia, you're playing with a 13 year old tomorrow. What were you doing when you were 13? Were you playing?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: 13, I just started golf, maybe a few months before that. So, that's -- yeah, it's going to be nice. I don't know this girl at all, so.

Q. Have you ever seen her?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: I've seen her -- I've never played with her, and I've never spoke to her. It was a good experience today to play with Lorena, because I've never seen her before. I've seen her golf tournaments, but I've never played with her before. And that's always a good experience to play with new players, because they are fresh, young, they are the growing stars. So it's kind of very interesting to play with them and see how they prepare themself and everything. So tomorrow is going to be a -- yeah, I think it's going to be very interesting for her, too, to play. I think it's going to be very good for her, good experience.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Birdie on 5. I hit a 6-iron, and I went -- pitched pin-high, and I went back and just on the fringe behind the green. I putted from there, and I was maybe, I don't know how much -- 8 meters, something like that.

7, I hit a 6-iron and just left it one and a half meters.

11 is a par-5. I hit a good chip, I was just -- I was 25 yards short of the green, and I had a pretty tough lob shot to do there, and I made a good one, it went past, three and a half meters, four meters, and I made it. Well, I had a 3-wood and I just got it up to the green and I had a lob.

12 was a good one. 6-iron, I was maybe two and a half, three meters from the pin.

16, well, I put myself in trouble from the tee. I hit it good, but a little bit left and went in this thick rough. I hit a good shot from there but pulled it a little bit and went in the bunker on the left, and there's not really much opportunity to play the pin there. So I hit a not good enough bunker shot, I was maybe six meters from the pin, two putt.

17, I hit a good shot, but I was playing more right, and I just pulled it a little bit, again, and just got it in the fringe, with a tough position, and just -- I was maybe, again, six meters, at least, from the pin, and 2-putted.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: For four weeks now. I actually decided to work on it this year and just switch from meters to yards. I still don't get the feet. It's difficult for -- it's just a little bit shorter than a meter, so it's easy to imagine what it is. But feet is difficult to add them together to make a meter or two meters. I still get confused. But, yeah, I changed that at the beginning of the year. So it's been hard work. It's not easy to change from one to the other. Now I get it much better, but it's easy because at the beginning I was writing down what was my 7-iron doing in yards, and 8-iron, you know, all these clubs. And I was looking at it. So I was looking what was the correspondence to it. But it's still sometimes you feel the shot, the distance, more on -- I had to do it, because it was a big thing. For two years we had to -- actually my husband was doing it mostly, all the yardage book in meters. It took him every week two hours to do it. So I said, okay, I have to change it. So now I'm working on it.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: English.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yeah, she did -- she started in August, I think. Joanne Berry, B-e-r-r-y.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: She's the first official caddy really working for me. In Europe, when I was playing in Europe, we didn't have any -- enough money to offer a caddy. So we were mostly having -- well, we called it a "trolley puller," somebody pulling your bag. So you would have to rake the bunker, you would have to do everything, they were just pulling your bag. Sometimes you were lucky to have a young guy from the club who played a good handicap and they were good enough to do these jobs. But I did everything myself. So I learned a lot. That's why I'm still doing my yardage on the course, I have my yardage book, and count, and I need to see it and do it myself. My husband was caddying for me before, and we tried for a while, doing the yardage, and I was not doing anything. To be able to feel a shot I have to write it down. I need some -- I need to get the reason before I hit the shot. And that is part of my routine. If I get there and I start to walk and count, and then write down, you know, it's -- all together I prefer to do it, even if it requires a little more energy, because I have to count and write down and everything, but I prefer to do it, because I feel that I'm more into it. And that gives me more chance to really feel the shot. And then we can compare with my caddy, so we don't do any mistakes, and everything is good.

Q. Did you particularly care if you had a male or female caddy?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Well, I didn't choose Jo, just because she was a woman. But I quite enjoy it, actually. We are kind of the same temper. She's very hard worker, and I think she likes to work for me, because I'm a hard worker, too. So like this is no matter. We just -- we think about the same way. But it would be a man -- my husband was caddying for me, and he was a male. So no, it's not a question of that. But I like working with a woman, I do.

Q. Did you hit a driver on No. 10?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yes.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yeah, I think I did.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: To the pin? 129. It was into the wind on that one, I think. It was amazing, like on 14 again, today, when I hit my shot, it just blow into us. It was very difficult, actually. The wind is very -- one of the toughest parts of this course is just to be able to -- there's so many things to feel already, you know. There's so many -- the pin placements, where is the pin, where you have to land it. And then suddenly you have to -- the wind is changing all the time. So on 17 it was the same when I saw the grass and looked at the shot, it was wind behind, not strong, but behind. And when I hit my shot and when we were walking to the green, it was more into us. So it's not very strong, but it can be just enough, you know, to get out of it. And that's --.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: It would be too hard. 9-iron. And I just pitch up pin-high and it went up on top. It was not good. Because I saw the wind was suddenly going up. I thought it was an easy 9 because the wind dropped, and when I went to the ball I felt into it. My caddy said now it's into us, you can go for it. But I hit it too hard because the wind dropped again. So, okay, just take that shot and -- you just have to deal with it.

Q. Michelle is so cool, calm and collected. We had her in for a press interview. She said her parents were getting excited, and she said chill out, it's only a game. I think you're going to really bond with her and have a fun three some?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: That's what I'm looking for, a girl that enjoys playing, and it's a game, she's right. And whatever happens tomorrow we just want to have a good experience. That's what I'm looking for and it seems like she is, too. And I think Annika is the same, she achieves so many other things than we do, than we did, but I think she's still trying to have fun out there. Even today when she had a tough time at the beginning, and she was not very happy with herself, she was still laughing with her caddy. You feel these little things that means, okay -- when she came back to her caddy she was getting out of it and trying to have -- so that's very important.

Q. Annika said that if you're hungry to win this major, she's starving. Can you imagine that she would be hungrier to win this than you?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yeah. Well, I can imagine. As I said, it's my first major. It's going to be my first Sunday of a major leading, and everybody knows -- Annika is the first player in the world. Sure, she's not there for nothing. She's just -- so actually I'm going to try to be starving as much as her tomorrow. And I don't think actually I have to worry too much about her, just -- that's the problem, actually. I think you just don't want to be influenced by the other. So I'm just going to try to play my game. And I think I influence her a little bit the last few days. So I'm just going to try keeping really balance and play my own game, and that's the only thing I can do, just do my own stuff and try to be -- stay up with her and we can speak like we did today.

Q. I know that you've been happy with yourself playing with her these last whatever it's been now, nine rounds. As happy as you've been with it, are you as proud today with the way you've played with her as at anytime, because you stayed ahead of her now for --?

PATRICIA MEUNIER-LEBOUC: Yeah, I don't know, it's just -- it's not the same as the first few days we played together, you know, like now we speak about, okay, it isn't so like it's -- it's not the same. I don't get the same out of it now. Now we've got to get to -- I wouldn't say serious golf, but it was serious golf already. But I'm not going to look at her the same way, you know. I'm going to play my own game tomorrow really and not focus on what she's doing and why she's doing it and how she does it. I'm going to try to stay really not looking at her at all and just being, you know, like a bit selfish, I think. Well, that's the way she's going to be. She said she would be starving more than I am. But I'm just going to be doing my own stuff. When she says that it means that she's going to be very, very aggressive on her game, and I'm going to be the same, you know. We just really need to focus on what you're doing. So that should be a very good match tomorrow I think.

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