WENDY'S CHAMPIONSHIP FOR CHILDREN

August 8, 2003

Patricia Baxter-Johnson

MODERATOR: All right. Welcome, Patricia. Right now you're 67. That's 5 under, and you're one back off the lead. Can you tell us how you're feeling, and we'll take some questions.

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: Well, I'm feeling pretty good. I've always wanted to come in here and sit in this chair. I just hit it really solid today. The two weeks off I had some time with my golf coach and worked on some things and felt really comfortable out on the golf course.

MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. What were the things you worked on in your time off?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: Just my swing and putting. It was probably the best putting lesson he's ever given me. I made a lot of putts today. It was pretty automatic, you know. Not too much thinking going on. It was a pretty easy round.

Q. I was talking with your agent earlier who said that you got out on this tour at a later age than a lot of players, and I wondered, before coming out here, was all of that time spent on mini tours or were you doing something else and got back into golf?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: Pretty much on and off on the mini tours. When I had money to play, I played. In '99 that was the first year that the LPGA did the cards with the players as far as where you finished on the money list. I finished in the top ten on the money list there. Then I advanced to the final stage and got exempt. That's how I got out here. Before that it was basically working and playing the mini tours and here and there.

Q. The two weeks you had off, did you play an awful lot?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: No.

Q. Where did you go and what did you do the two weeks?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: I stayed at home and just kind of -- New York was kind of a frustrating event for me. I made the cut but struggled a little bit. I was really frustrated, so I knew I needed some time away. I just hung out at my house, got away from golf, went to the beach, which is a first probably in the last two years. Did stuff that I don't normally do. Normally, I'm grinding away on my game, and I played a couple days, got a lesson, but didn't do a whole lot. I probably played twice out of two weeks.

Q. Do you surf or what do you do when you go to the beach?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: Just read. Yeah, I want to learn how to surf. Sometimes I boogie-board.

Q. Conditions of the course, can you talk a little bit about how wet it was, the fairways?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: The greens were perfect. The ball, you could just fire right at it. They rolled superb. I think the condition of the golf course is great. There was some mud on the ball at the beginning of the day. It got better, and I think it's going to dry up and be really good. It's really in good shape.

Q. If you didn't have (inaudible) in place, how much of a difference would that have made?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: I think it would have made a difference because there was a lot of mud out there this morning.

Q. You said you have been looking forward to getting into this interview room, so I take it this is the first time?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: Yes, it is.

Q. Is this a career-low round?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: I think so. I believe it is.

Q. That would be what you would put your finger on then, a lesson that you got from your coach and getting away for two weeks?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: I have been working really hard, building momentum for the last six weeks. I have been playing pretty well and showing a lot of shots, should have been finishing better than I have been. I'm getting tired of that, so once I started making some birdies, I just kept going, because I've wasted so many strokes it seems like in the last five weeks that I'm ready to try to finish better. That's my motivation.

Q. How many years on the mini tours before you made it out here?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: I would say playing all year, playing a full year? There would be a year I would get to play five tournaments. You know what I mean? It takes money to get out there, but I would really say '97, '98 and '99. Well, two full years of playing, like a full schedule.

Q. When you weren't playing out there full-time, what were you doing? What were your other jobs? Where did you work?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: I worked in the golf business. I taught, and in my spare time, work on my game with the goal of getting out here on the tour. That's been my goal since I was 9.

Q. Were you ever close to giving up on it?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: I did quit in college, because I played so much as a junior that I got sick of golf. That's all I did as a kid, and so in college I wanted to see what life was like without it. College was enough. Just going to school was enough to keep my occupied. It was full-time for me. I think that was really good for me, because I saw other players that I had grown up with that were burning out for good, and I knew I wanted to do this as my profession, and so I quit for a while. I didn't really like what life was like without golf. It was a lot tougher. I didn't feel like I was in the right place, and I always felt comfortable in the golf world and golf business, and I love to compete.

Q. What was your major in college?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: Advertising.

Q. So, if you were not doing something in the golf business, could you see yourself in an advertising agency?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: No. Does anybody who has a degree usually do what they have a degree for? Good for you.

Q. Do you ever allow yourself to think if you would have played golf in your college how would that have impacted your life?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: It definitely hurt me by lack of experience in tournaments. Basically, people pretty much put you in a category that if you don't play college golf, you can't make it out on a pro tour. I'm here to say that's not true.

It took me longer, and I did definitely lose experience, and it's definitely better to play in college for sure. I think I would have been out here sooner. But, for some reason, it wasn't the right time for me.

MODERATOR: Can you go over your score card with us.

(Score card done.)

Q. When you haven't been in the hunt or the lead for a while, you open up with a bogey, do you have to fight the feeling that, oh, boy, here we go?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: No, out here, you have to make birdies. You can never protect. There is so many good players out here that you better keep making birdies.

Q. Lori Kane won at the other course a few years ago, and I know a lot of the stories about that were how successful she's been after getting a late start on this tour herself, and I wondered if there is any other players on this tour that you look to when you tell yourself this can be done even though how old I am?

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: Yeah, she's definitely one that I have a lot of respect for and have looked to that are done -- she's done so well out here. It's a great story. It's great to see.

MODERATOR: Any other questions?

All right. Thank you.

PATRICIA BAXTER-JOHNSON: Thank you.

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