PAGENET CHAMPIONSHIP

November 11, 1999

Nancy Scranton

NANCY SCRANTON: Well, I had three birdies today and no bogeys. I birdied No. 6, I think the par 5 -- or 5, I think. Parred the first four holes. No. 5, I hit L-wedge about five feet and made that. Then I parred everything until No. 13. I had hit a lot of good shots, and No. 13, I made about a 20-footer; I hit 7-iron in. And then No. 17, I hit 8-iron to about eight feet and made that.

NANCY SCRANTON: It sets up well for me because I hit left-right from the tee. There are only a couple of holes that you need to turn it over. It's a little tight, but I feel really good with my driver out here because I hit it left-to-right off the tee, which is my normal shot. Good golf course. You have to be careful. There's some good pins out there today, too. Wondering if it was Sunday or Thursday. We weren't sure. It was playing well. The greens are good, but you have to be careful which side of the pin you hit it on.

NANCY SCRANTON: Yes, it is, thanks. It was basically my goal this year. My goal was to win a tournament and to play in this tournament, and got close a few times. I gave myself some chances this year, and sometimes, it's not always under your control, and under your control to win. But my goal was to get in here this year. It's been really good. I feel like I am back kind of where I left off when I started -- when I was starting to be hurt with my shoulder and actually feeling like a better player. But at least I'm getting back into where I was before, and it's a lot tougher now than it was seven or eight years ago. But it is very satisfying, and it was a goal of mine and it feels good to have achieved it.

NANCY SCRANTON: So many more better players, so many good players. Scores are lower. More people are shooting low scores, more low scores. The winning scores, I don't know how much they are different. I know they are lower, but I think more people shoot low instead of just going lower. There's just more people that are there that can -- that are better players.

NANCY SCRANTON: Yeah, working with my teacher, Hank Johnson, we -- you know, we didn't look back. We basically took -- from after I had my shoulder surgery and rebuilt my golf swing -- or built a new one, I should say. We didn't rebuild what I had. Because if I would have been doing that again, I would probably have hurt my shoulder again and we'd go through all that. So we just kind of started from scratch and I had really -- I have good direction from him.

NANCY SCRANTON: Left.

NANCY SCRANTON: Over youth, my golf swing kind of -- you know, which came first, the swing was overusing, and my shoulder was loose; so it was slipping out of socket at the top of my backswing. I was born with not much support there, and I also was a swimmer when I was younger. So I think a culmination of everything, overuse.

NANCY SCRANTON: Possibly or never play well again. A couple months after surgery it was hard to imagine swinging a golf club again when I wouldn't even get my should up -- my arm up past my shoulder. Three months, I could chip, barely. I couldn't turn my over the last three months after surgery. It was scary. It was really scary.

NANCY SCRANTON: April of 1996.

NANCY SCRANTON: A couples times it was frustrating, but overall, I look back; it was really encouraging. I was in contention quite a few times, and did a lot of things I needed to do, which was good. And the confidence came back quicker maybe than I thought it would because I played a couple years where it was going everywhere and it was not pretty. So you know, once did I start swinging at it a lot better and playing better, it felt comfortable and it was a lot of fun. I certainly appreciate it and don't take it for granted.

NANCY SCRANTON: Obviously, I played really well. I should have won the tournament in St. Louis. It's where I should have won this year. I had a little trouble in the bunker; didn't have an L-wedge, and the bunker was real hard, and I had been having trouble with the bunkers. And I had a double and a triple and lost by a few shots. Kind of took the wind out of my sails. But I played so well that weekend. It's as close to him as I'm ever going to get. I live about an hour out of St. Louis. I have a lot friends and family, and ended up finishing fifth or sixth or something. It was discouraging but it was fun because I was there and I know I should have won it -- not easily; it's never easy to win. But had I just gotten a couple bounces, it maybe would have turned out differently. It's disappointing, but it still was a lot of fun. I felt like I belonged when I was there. I was playing well enough. It's not like, "Gosh I'm making putts from everywhere to be in this position."

NANCY SCRANTON: I have to be careful sometimes when I'm going through a few weeks where I'm not playing that well, and I think, "Well, look where you were." I step back and look at it a little bit. When you do start playing well, your expectations increase with your ability. So yeah, it is nice to look back and think -- my teacher, Hank, kept telling me, "You can do it, just be patient." That's hard. When he said building this golf swing -- he didn't really tell me at first because he knew I wouldn't like it, but he said it would probably take about 18 months before I felt good. And that's about what it did. It was about the middle of 1998 when I felt like I was started to go play well again or swing well.

NANCY SCRANTON: If you would look at me, my hands would be all the way back behind my head, because I could. I kept trying to get my arms up when I was hurt, but they just kept going this way, and part of it was because I didn't have this ability in the shoulder. It would just slip; so I didn't have the strength there, so I couldn't stop it. So that became my golf swing over time because I played hurt for two years not knowing what was wrong. My hands were on the left side of my head and my golf swing. If I would have started swinging like that again after surgery, it would have started all over again. So we moved my hands -- obviously, we want my hands to the right side of -- side of my head. They have moved a lot.

NANCY SCRANTON: Shorter, much less of a shoulder rotation. Probably everything else was rotating fine, hips, but my shoulders were way overrotating.

NANCY SCRANTON: Birmingham.

NANCY SCRANTON: You know, I hit it pretty close on -- I hit a lot of really good shots that ended up maybe 15 feet because I couldn't tell the -- what the bounce is going to do, if it was going to release or not. I hit a good shot on 15 about eight feet and hit a really good putt; didn't go in. I only missed -- I think I only missed three greens, and one was from the bunker. I got up-and-down, and the other two were just off the fringe. It was pretty easy, but I didn't have to work real hard today. I had quite a few chances, but it's not like I hit it inside eight feet all day.

NANCY SCRANTON: No. Made a 6-footer for par for my bunker shot. That's it.