JAPAN AIRLINES BIG APPLE CLASSIC PRESENTED BY GOLF MAGAZINE

July 13, 2000

Kimberly Williams

KIM WILLIAMS: You have done this with me before. I never remember the hole.

KIM WILLIAMS: Yeah. I don't remember what hole that is. I don't remember when I have played a practice round.

KIM WILLIAMS: Hang on. 10, 11, 12, 13, oh, yeah. Okay. Kind of goes down all day to green right before the par 5.

KIM WILLIAMS: Okay. I hit a driver down the middle. I think I hit like an 8- or a 9-iron up maybe like 10 feet short of the hole -- no, it was pin-high to the right. That's probably like 8 or 10 feet. If that.

KIM WILLIAMS: That's a real long --

KIM WILLIAMS: Yeah, I hit a 3-iron. It was 179 to the front. (Inaudible). Hit it probably like 3 feet right before the hole, knocked my putt in.

KIM WILLIAMS: Next hole, yeah, hit a driver just left center. Then I hit, again, I hit like 8- or 9-iron in there. What hole was that?

KIM WILLIAMS: I hit 8-iron. Pretty close. Probably - I don't know - maybe like 10 feet again. I kept it below the hole, knocked my putt in. The next hole I hit 3-wood off the tee, then I hit like a grip 9-iron up about -- hit it back up probably 3 feet, knocked it in.

KIM WILLIAMS: Yeah, I actually hit a good shot, a really good tee shot right on the front edge, right on line. I hit 3-wood, and the wind came up. I kind of gripped it. I could have just hit it, and I hit a good shot, just putt a little longer than I thought. I had an easy up-and-down, I hit my chip and just didn't hit hard enough, left it short. That's my putt.

KIM WILLIAMS: It was probably 10 feet. Next hole I hit a 3-wood off the tee, hit like a little punch 9-iron again just below the hole, made a longer putt there, probably 15, 20 feet there. Probably 20 feet.

KIM WILLIAMS: Yep.

KIM WILLIAMS: Last night about 10 o'clock.

KIM WILLIAMS: I came from my mom's house in Maryland.

KIM WILLIAMS: I drove.

KIM WILLIAMS: This morning.

KIM WILLIAMS: Yes. Well, they called me at like 7 o'clock last night, and I had already left. I knew I was first alternate. I've been first alternate for a couple days. They called me at like seven, when I was driving up here, and told me that Wendy Doolan had called them and told them she probably was not going to play - like maybe 80 percent sure - but she hadn't withdrawn. I was on the way anyway. I knew what time she played. I got here at 6:30. You have to if you have first alternate. Then right after I got here, I saw one of the officials and they said, "You know you're in?" I said, "No, I don't." He said, "Yeah, you're in for Wendy Doolan."

KIM WILLIAMS: She's hurt. I think she hurt her wrist or maybe something like that.

KIM WILLIAMS: I have to do that more often. I did the same thing last week. Last week I found out on Wednesday morning I was in.

KIM WILLIAMS: I played all right. I hadn't hit a ball for ten days last week because I have a bad back, I had back surgery. I had seen my therapist and he said two weeks: A week no golf, then a week of slowly getting back. They called me, so I had to go to work. And then the same thing. This week, I wasn't going to play this week; I was just going to kind of take it easy and work on my game. And since I got hurt, I've been playing some FUTURES events also, and they're playing about two hours south of here. So I was like -- first I wasn't going to play and I was going to rest. My back was bothering me. Then when I found out I was first alternate, I was like, "Okay, I'll go. If I don't get in, I'll go down and play the FUTURES event since I'll be there anyway."

KIM WILLIAMS: I hadn't played since Sunday of Toledo last week. I hit balls for a half an hour yesterday with a friend of mine at home. I had a little lesson with him for about a half an hour and then drove up here.

KIM WILLIAMS: Seemed to work.

KIM WILLIAMS: Well, yeah, but it's not very -- I think it catches up with you after a while. It's hard on my back. It's real hard on my back. But, yeah, you're right. You know, you don't have a lot of expectations. I had a nice pairing, too. That helped. I played with a girl that's a pretty good friend of mine, another girl I know fairly well. So that makes it easy to walk into a group with people that you know.

KIM WILLIAMS: Well, I putted well. You know, I kept -- I didn't hit the ball that well until really the last few holes. I kind of was -- my back was bothering me. I was kind of hitting everything thin. My misses were straight. You know, this is like a US Open course, you miss it, keep it below the hole. ...(Inaudible).

KIM WILLIAMS: I had back surgery in September of...(Inaudible). I got hurt in January of '98.

KIM WILLIAMS: I had a very large ruptured disk. Then I came back, rehabbed it, missed about eight months, and re-herniated it last year about this time, right -- this was one of my last tournaments last year. And I had to start all over again.

KIM WILLIAMS: Out here? I think this is only my fifth. But I've played quite a few FUTURES events. This year I felt a little bit better. I went to a new guy that helped me with my back a lot.

KIM WILLIAMS: Well, '98, '97 I had a good year. I did not get my medical when I got hurt, so... I got hurt in January and they misdiagnosed it. I kind of was on and off all year trying to play. It never was diagnosed right. Then I went -- I was in a lot of pain all year, and I went in. I went to a neurosurgeon, and they did the surgery the next day.

KIM WILLIAMS: Well, yeah, I need to. Yeah.

KIM WILLIAMS: Well, you try not to. I mean, you know, that's not going to contribute to you playing well. You can't. But, yeah, I mean that's true. I do need to have a good tournament, so...

KIM WILLIAMS: I don't know. That's just like a day-to-day thing. Today was really calm and I felt good, but, you know, who knows? It's tough when you're not competing. It's hard enough out here when you're playing day in and day out, and, you know, it's different. Although, it's funny. I do feel more comfortable out here than I do -- I've been playing on the FUTURES Tour, I feel a lot more comfortable out here than I do there, which is kind of silly. I told that to somebody and they said, "You played out here for 14 years, of course you feel more comfortable." So...

KIM WILLIAMS: It's in New Jersey, it's in Colts Neck, New Jersey. I'm not sure where that is, I think it's maybe down near Eatonville or something like that. I have no idea, I've never been there.

KIM WILLIAMS: July 2nd, 1994 at 9 p.m.

KIM WILLIAMS: Well, no. I mean because, you know, that's part of who I am, and I'm very thankful that I'm alive. I mean it could have been a lot more tragic. But you get tired of kind of just being known for that, you know. I mean it's obviously something that's going to come up, but when it's all people want to know about, it gets old.

KIM WILLIAMS: I'd rather be known as, "The girl that won the tournament, did you know she got shot," rather than, "Oh, that's the girl that got shot."

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