U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 11, 1997

Deb Richard

DEB RICHARD: I felt really good teeing off. It was awfully early this morning; it was a very short night. It's hard setting an alarm for 4:20 in the morning. But it was a beautiful morning out there. The golf course was fantastic. I think it's a real advantage to be able to go out there and play the greens spikeless that early in the morning. We had one group in front of us. The greens were perfect. And I think the way our group putted this morning really showed the condition of the greens for being so good. I started off hitting the ball extremely well, and then kind of backed off a 5-iron on 5 today and hit a really awful iron shot. And I kind of struggled hitting the ball the rest of the day. Really just never really felt comfortable out there. Miss-hit a lot of irons, but I had the short game round of my life out there today. And you have to play a round like that in the Open. And in the past I think I've let a round like that get to me too much. You're not hitting it too much. As long as you miss it in the right places, you give yourself opportunities to get it up-and-down, that to me is what the Open is all about, and that's what today's round was for me.

DEB RICHARD: That's going to take a while.

DEB RICHARD: No. 1, I hit it through the green, chipped it back to three feet and made a putt for par. No. 2, I hit 4-iron to 12 feet, made the putt for birdie. No. 3, I hit a great drive there into hole in the fairway and didn't hit a very good 6-iron out, left it short of the green, chipped it up, left it 6 feet short, made the putt for par. No. 4, the par-5, I hit sand wedge to a foot, made birdie. No. 5 was a 5-iron that I stood off of. I hit this ball so far left, I was pin-high left, up on a hill. It was kind of a scary shot, because I'm hitting down towards the water. Everything works that way, I hit the best flop sand wedge, hit it down three feet and made the putt for par. No. 6, drove it down the middle of the fairway, hit 5-iron on the right front fringe, chipped it up to 2 feet, made the putt for par. No. 7, I haven't hit that fairway yet this week. Hit it in the left bunker, hit 4-iron out. Then hit 6-iron to the left edge of the green; the pin was on the right side. Yesterday I had the opposite direction putt, which I thought was putting up and it rolled out pretty quick yesterday. And I'm looking at it going the other direction, thinking it can't be quite as quick as it looks. Well, I promptly rolled it ten feet by, and 3-putted the hole for the first bogey of the day. No. 8, I duck hooked it off the tee into the grass facing one of the bunkers on 7. I hit 5-wood out to just short of the green, chipped up to 3 feet and made the putt for par. No. 9, I drove it into that rough grass by those bunkers in the middle of the fairway. I thought I had a flier and it knuckled coming out. I really hit a good shot but left it right on the front fringe. I chipped up, left it six feet short and I made the putt for par. 10, I hit a bad three iron short of the green, chipped up to three feet, again, and made the putt for par. I celebrated on 11, because I finally hit a green. I figured a par-5 I could hit it in three. I had a 18-footer on 11 that I lipped out and made the second putt for par. No. 12, I hit a really solid, pulled 8-iron into the pond. It actually hit the bank and then kicked down into the water. It dropped in the drop circle. I had 90 yards to the flag, hit sand wedge for three feet and made it for the bogey.

DEB RICHARD: Well, all right.

DEB RICHARD: I messed up on 3. I actually putted it from the fringe.

DEB RICHARD: All right. I'll continue with my exciting round, here. (Laughter.) 13, drove the fairway. I hit -- I was in between hitting a hard 6 and a little 5. Because I hit it through that green yesterday, but I thought I'd cut a 5-iron in there. I left myself a 18-footer, downhill left to right which I made for birdie. 14, perfect drive. I had a perfect 7-iron symbol the green, which I was happy about, I hit a 4-iron in there yesterday, and I just dead yanked it to the left corner of the green. We sat there for about 15 minutes waiting on a ruling in the group. I had a 50-footer and I drained it. That's what I did, too, I laughed. That's one of those days. 15, the par-3, I hit it to 15 feet and 2-putted for par. 16 I drove it right off the tee. I thought I had a pretty good lie and I tried to knock a 3-wood because I had a tree hanging over me and I had 185 to the front, and I hit it into the short, front right bunker, hit it out just to the front fringe. The pin's in the front right corner today, then chipped it up to 6 inches and tapped in for bogey. No. 7 I hit driver, 6-iron, 2-putted for par. And. And then 18 hit driver, 5-wood, sand wedge, 2-putted for par. I got some 2-putts in at the end.

DEB RICHARD: They don't; I do.

DEB RICHARD: I was off the fringe, but I putted it, yes.

DEB RICHARD: I would call it not too pretty. I wouldn't say -- I miss-hit just a couple of drives out there. I actually hit a lot of fairways out there. I did not hit a lot of good iron shots today, but I was always playing to the correct side of the hole. Even when I was missing it, I was playing to what I considered the side you have to miss it on if you're going to miss it. And I played -- the good side of it is it was really a short game exhibition out there. It was a lot of fun. I felt in complete control. Every chipped I chipped to the low side of the hole on purpose. Sometimes I left myself a little bit longer putts, but I made sure I always had it on the low side of the hole. Every 3-footer I hit was an uphill putt. Most of them were uphill straight in. I did that on purpose. And I think that was the best part of the day.

DEB RICHARD: I think early on. I think coming out of the box the pins are pretty good. I think you're going to make your birdies early. I think you have good opportunities. 1's a good hole. You have to hit a good shot in there. 2, you have the pin where you hit it in the back, left corner. Everything is going to feed into the pin. 3 is a relatively easy pin, today. And 4 everything is going to fall into the minute. 5 was an easier pin today, and then after that you start having to play.

DEB RICHARD: Yes.

DEB RICHARD: No. Both of them were in spikes.

DEB RICHARD: The greens were perfect. And Sherrin made a lot of putts out there, too, rolled the ball extremely well. I think Sherrin birdied four of the first six or four of the first seven. She was on fire out there. I think it's because the greens are so good.

DEB RICHARD: The pin is -- you've got the green; you've got the ridge that runs through the middle of the green and falls off left and falls off right. I was in the far left corner of it. The pin was sitting a touch to the right side of the top of the ridge.

DEB RICHARD: Sherrin had hit it -- she hit a bad tee shot and hit it in the front right bunker and airmailed it over the green into the hazard. And we had a long ruling, and it kind of went on.

DEB RICHARD: I am very healthy now. I had surgery back in September a year and a half ago. I had scapula surgery, which is your shoulder blade. My left, my shoulder blade was riding on my rib cage, so I had bone riding on bone, and had lost all my thoracic rotation. I had reached a point where I couldn't hit a 5-iron 130 yards. And it crossed my mind at that time that my career might be over, because nobody knew what was wrong with my back. I was very fortunate that we have Healthsouth out with us on Tour, and our association with Alabama Sports Medicine. And I went in to see Dr. Clancey, who is one of our doctors, and he spent five minutes with me and he knew exactly what was wrong. We did a lot of therapy, we tried to avoid the surgery, to see if I could physically do it on my own just by strengthening my back, which I spent three months away from the Tour, and that's all I did was work out. I tried to come back. The first week back I played great. I went to Toledo, finished top-10. I thought this is great. I don't have to have surgery. I went to the U.S. Open at the Broadmoor the next week, warming up the last shot on the range before I went to the tee. My back totally went out on me. And that's when I think I knew I had to do the surgery.

DEB RICHARD: I call it my shoulder. It's my shoulder blade.

DEB RICHARD: Was for my entire back.

DEB RICHARD: My back went into total spasm.

DEB RICHARD: No, I feel it in my back.

DEB RICHARD: Well, what they did is they shaved about an inch off my scapula. And you should have a natural spacing between the scapula and the rib cage. I did not have that on the left side. I was likely born that way. They said the fifth rib was worn absolutely smooth when they went in there. So they created that spacing. And you have a bursa sac that you should never have bone rubbing on bone. Because my bone was pinched, the bursa sac was pushed aside. Now I've got that natural free flow in there. I have total thoracic rotation again, which I haven't had in years. I pretty much am able to stay without any spasms in my back. They come and go a little bit, but we're definitely able to keep them under control, doing stem work and things like that. I work out to keep my back strong, and it's been wonderful.

DEB RICHARD: No, I played my two days and missed the cut.

DEB RICHARD: I didn't qualify. I played back in '92, when we played in Scotland. And then -- I didn't play much. The year that I had my surgery, with withdrawals and everything. I think I only finished nine events that year. I had a lot of withdrawals during events and it was just a long year. And then last year was my first year back after the surgery, and it's been a process of rebuilding confidence in my game and my abilities and the things that I can do under pressure, because when my back was bad, as my adrenaline flow would get going, my back would tighten up, so obviously in crunch time I would hit a lot of bad shots. Well, your mind remembers that. And it's been a fight for me to get past that.