U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 1, 1999

Rachel Hetherington

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I've obviously been hitting pretty solid, well, actually pretty much all year. I had two weeks off coming into this week; so, I feel fairly fresh, and looking forward to playing this week. The course is in great shape, and it's fairly open and it's nice big greens. So I'm looking forward to teeing it up.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I think I hit the ball fairly solid and fairly separate most of the time. I feel like I can hit a lot of fairways, and the greens are fairly generous. Although, there could be some pretty good pin spots; so, it's kind of hard to tell. You know, coming into the weekend, the greens could harden up a lot. At the moment, they are really good. The ball is stopping pretty good, and they are at good speed. I feel fairly confident that I'll be hitting a lot of fairways and lots of greens. And hopefully I'll make some putts, too.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I'd better say yes. (Laughing.) I've known Dean for a long time, and we actually played junior golf together. So we've been dating for about seven years and got married early last year. I guess he's a really good player himself, and it's pretty good of him to be able to travel with me. And it's good to have somebody besides me being away from home and everything; so, he's been a big help.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I think my putting has probably improved a lot this year. I feel like I hit the ball well for quite a long time, but the putting is what makes good scores, and you can sink putts, then you make a lot of birdies. And when you hit the ball solid and you've got a good round going, then you get a lot of confidence as well. I feel like when I'm confident it doesn't really matter who is behind me on the leaderboards. I feel like I can play well enough to win when I am confident.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I'd actually prefer to play a few tournaments in a row. But I pretty much took the break, especially last week, because we had the tournament up in Corning and it was really cold weather and I really didn't want to come from the cold weather down to the humidity down here. Also I knew the greens would be fairly fast this week, and Corning was a little slower; so, I didn't want to have to adjust that much coming down. And winning the two events as well, it took a bit out of me, a bit more than I thought it would; a bit more attention than I'm used to. So I decided to have Austin and Corning off and had those two weeks. Before I won the two events, I had those two weeks off as well. I just had one week totally away from the game, and the second week I just started practicing a little bit. And my coach got a chance to come over last week as well; so, I did a bit of work there.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: There is a lot more attention, which is good. Just growing up, you always had the male golfers to look up to and to idolize, so, hopefully with Karrie and I and a couple of the other Aussies out here playing well, we can get more junior girls to play. So it's been good in Australia. The Aussie media are pretty good, and it's been fun. There's a lot of, you know, male golfers doing well, too, and everybody is looking forward to the Olympics. So there is a lot of focus on sports in Australia.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I'm sponsored by Callaway. And Callaway are probably one of the best companies on TOUR in the fact that they support you well. They have -- they have a trailer out every week. Anything you need club-wise they can get to you. And there's a couple of other companies that do that, too; so equipmentwise, we were being supported really well. I think when girls talk about endorsements, it's more sort of -- it's not really the equipment sponsors they are looking for. It's the different sponsors. Sort of off-the-golf-course sponsors that they are looking for. But equipment-wise we are doing well.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: Yeah, I'm doing pretty well. They are in Australia, too.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: Yeah, they are good finishing holes. Actually the whole back nine is really good. I like the back nine. Well, the back nine is a little bit more interesting than the front nine. But 18 is -- it's he a good hole. It's teeing off -- you've got to back off a little bit because you have some bunkers on the right-hand side that could come into play. The green is fairly wide. It's not too narrow. You still have a fair bit of hitting area up there. 16, 17, 18 are all good finishing holes. Actually every hole on the back nine is pretty good. You could use any of them for a finishing hole. I like them all.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I'll probably take any one if I'm in contention. But I like -- I like the tee that's further away just because it's a different angle into the green. The forward tee has a bunker in the middle; so, pretty much all you have to do is fly the bunker to get on the green. But I feel more comfortable on the tee that's a little further away. It's only 10 or 15 yards back, but just setting up on the tee, I feel more comfortable.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: On the back, I used a 4-iron; and the front tee hit a 5-iron.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: Yeah, if you plan well, you've got a bit of adrenaline; so, that will carry you up the hill or if you've got some sports drinks or something to give you some energy on the last few holes. 16 is good. It's a par 5; right? Or par 4? Yeah, I think it's 16. See, I've only played it once. I can't remember. I should be able to remember the climb, though. I feel pretty tired today.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: We both get along pretty well. I think we're both playing well enough to win a major one day. There's not really any pressure on who is going to be first or whatever. One of us will be first and one of us will be second I guess. But there's a lot of other Australians, too. There's no rivalry against Karrie and I. We both grew up in junior golf. It actually helps to have other Aussie players playing well, because it gives you the confidence and it just helps having other Australians over here. When you're playing well it just makes the fact that you're away from home, away from all your familiar surroundings and if you're playing well, it just makes you feel better about being away from home. And if the other Aussies are around, it all helps. So, there's no rivalry between us. I haven't really actually thought of who is going to be the first to win a major. But Karrie is actually playing real, really well; so I would say she would have to be a pretty good favorite for the event.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I knew her through her calendars and the promotional stuff she had done. We knew Nancy Lopez through a book I had read. I never really got to see any women's golf on TV in Australia; so I had heard of them, but I always sort of saw the guys on TV, which is a shame. Hopefully that will change in Australia.

RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I don't think it favors any one particular player. But I think because it's fairly generous, the rough doesn't that big, and the greens are pretty generous as well. You're going to have a lot more players in contention than you would if the fairways were narrow and the greens were a little quicker. I think when everything is more generous, you bring a lot more players into contention; so it becomes sort of a bit of a different tournament.