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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP


July 8, 1997


Annika Sorenstam


NORTH PLAINS, OREGON

RHONDA GLENN: Ladies and gentlemen, Annika is wired now. She has all kinds of ornamental things hanging over her. I would like for you to meet Annika Sorenstam the 1995 and 1996 U.S. Women's Open Championship. She looks calm and cool, in spite of what faces her this week. I'll start it off with a couple of questions. First of all, how do you feel about pursuing your third straight Women's Open?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I feel great. It's great to be here, I really look forward to this week all year. And I played the course for the first time today, and I think it's in fabulous shape. It's probably one of the best golf courses I've ever played, so I'm excited to be here.

Q. You've enjoyed the considerable amount of attention you've been getting in pursuit of your third straight?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: It's been a lot of attention, but I think it's a lot of fun. I have the opportunity to do something nobody has. That's a great challenge. This is fun having all the attention.

Q. Annika, what ask it about the course, specifically, that makes it one of the best you've ever played?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: First of all, it's in great shape. I think the layout on the holes -- I can't remember a bad hole out there. They're all good golf holes. They all have a meaning. You've got to strike the ball really well. There's a lot of planning around this golf course. I like when the greens are small, you can't just hit it on the green; you have to place it. A few holes where the greens are undulated, if you're on the wrong side of the green, you might end up 30, 40 feet away, and I like that kind of golf course.

Q. You've had a couple of days before is the real deal starts. Is there a mindset that you work towards? Is there a mental kind of preparation regimen that you get to in these next couple of days to really get you focused for Thursday, or are you there right now?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I'm working on it. Today was a day where I get the feel for the golf course. I want to see the layout, figure out what kind of shots you need to play and the speed of the greens. Tomorrow I might score out there, get a better feel for the course out there. I feel like I'm ready, I've prepared as good as I can for this tournament. I look forward to playing Thursday. I'm not going to change anything. Hopefully my rhythm and my swing will be there when I need to. I'm just waiting to get going.

Q. Annika, in the past there's always been some grousing about foreigners winning the Men's U.S. Open. And it seems like you've been treated so well by your contemporaries, have you felt any resentment being a foreigner winning this championship?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: No, I haven't. I've been here 7 years and I don't really feel much of a foreigner.

Q. Do you think at all about if you win a third, the achievement and what that might bring to women's golf or what you would hope that would bring to women's golf, to yourself, but also to the sport as a whole?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think winning for the third time would obviously inspire women to play golf, but maybe golf overall. And I think about that. But most of all I do this for myself. And that's the only thing I can do it for. If I want to win I've got to work hard and work towards that. I hope that if I do win, that it will give women's golf a big kind of kick and maybe more women will play golf and get a little more attention, and maybe a little bit more on TV. I hope it will be the result. But I can't control that part of the game. And I can just control me and what I want and my goals.

Q. Do you have messages for young women starting golf now? What's the day in the life of the woman golfer? Do you go see movies or is it golf all the time?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I see movies. I do shopping and go on the beach. I do play a lot of tournaments throughout the year, probably 30 tournaments. When I don't play tournaments, I do other things. I try to get away from the golf course and try to enjoy myself.

RHONDA GLENN: You've had a great season so far this year, win after win, and you came in second very recently. Did that help give you some momentum incoming into this championship?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think so. The way I started this year was just incredible. I still can't believe it. It's given me a lot of confidence. I know when I go out to a tournament nowadays that if I play I can do well. And that's important. That's probably the difference this year coming to the open than last year. I know I can do it and when you finish well in tournaments it gives you so much confidence.

RHONDA GLENN: Certainly every player here would like to win this championship, but have any of your fellow players said anything to you about this specific championship week?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: No, I don't think so. People come up to me and they say, "Good luck. We hope you can do it," but I don't really talk to anybody about the tournament. Everybody gets so into it; everybody is focused. It means a lot to everybody. So I don't think everybody talks so much about it, share ideas or strategies or anything like that.

RHONDA GLENN: But some of them have said good luck to you, some of the players have?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Yes, they have.

Q. Annika, you apparently have grown ever since you came over here in the sense of developing a much stronger game. You've won the Vare Trophy the last two years, each time you won it with a lower score. Currently your scoring is still lower than that, so you are still peaking.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I am, it's been one of my goals and scoring average means a lot to me. I take all my scores on a computer, trying to dice it up and figure out where my strengths are and where my weaknesses are. My goal is to lower my scoring average, and I think that shows a lot how you play. Sometimes you can't just measure in wins or how much money you win. I think scoring average and the way I play means much more to me.

Q. Annika, if you could, review a little bit of what you've done in the last week as far as practicing or doing other things. And then is this press conference kind of nice? You get over this now, you think that's out of the way? We can get down to the golf tournament? Is there a feeling like that?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: No, I don't have a feeling at all. Last week I was relaxing a little bit. I did play a little golf. I didn't overdo it, just practice a few hours, played a little bit. My parents came and spent some time with them. I've been trying to just get rested and be ready. This is going to be a big week for me. And I'm just excited to be here. I think it's great. And I don't see this press conference as something that's just over with. I think it's very important.

Q. Are your parents here?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: They're on their way.

Q. What kind of advice have you given your sister?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Just enjoy herself. First time you play in the open, it's quite a different tournament, the atmosphere, the course. It's just a great week. I told her to just enjoy it and play the best you can. You've got to play in this tournament for many years, so just take it easy.

Q. You talk about momentum a little more. When you took the week off, is that overrated when you come to this event because it's such a big deal, but it's easy to turn it back on? Either of the last two years did you feel you brought anything in particular into those Opens?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: It's very different how I feel every week. Sometimes I'm ready to play several weeks in a row; sometimes I need a break. I plan on how I feel. If I'm ready to play, I play. This year, the fact that a lot was going on, I needed a week off to get ready, and I think I made the right decision on that.

Q. For someone who isn't particularly into golf, what's the day in the life of a pro golfer? Is it as glamorous as it seems? What's it like?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: It's got the glamorous parts. It's a lot traveling, maybe that's not so much fun. There's a lot of work in the sense we hit a lot of balls, work on the short games. The weeks are long or the days are long. Eight hours a day is probably what I spend on a tournament day or practice day, even. On the weeks off I don't do a lot, luckily. That's when I charge my batteries. But a week like this, it's probably 7:00 in the morning until 7:00 in the evening for 7 full days.

RHONDA GLENN: How is your game different than it was last year at this time?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, I think overall I'm so consistent nowadays. I worked a lot on my weaknesses, which has been my short game and my putting. I'm not afraid of missing the greens anymore. I know I can make an up-and-down. I've been putting a lot better this year. Obviously, I have a lot to work on and I do work on that in my spare time. I feel very confident in my game and I have a lot of patience this year. This tournament is a 72-hole event, and it's all right if you make a bogey on the first or second hole, there's so many holes yet. I think that's the change I've done this year is stay mentally there and prepared, and don't worry about bogeying the first or second, just keep running along, there's going to be birdies out there.

Q. You like to make sure that you're consistent with the yardage and you're consistently checking out markers and working numbers, and going back and feeding them into your computer. Are you a computer nerd?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Sorry? Am I a computer?

Q. No. Are you a computer nerd?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I don't know, you tell me?

Q. Excuse me if I said something that offended you.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: No, I have a computer with me.

Q. Do you play with it all the time? Is that a way you relax is just fire up the computer and go like hell on it?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Yeah, I go on-line, send a lot of e-mails. I don't always do my golf on the computer. It sounds like it. But I mess around on the computer. It's a fun way to get away from golf. But it's a good way to keep up with technology. That's the world, everything is computerized, so I've got to learn something while I'm on the golf course.

Q. The two of you, Karrie, have downplayed any existence of rivalry. Could you see that would be a great spark for women's golf?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think so. Karrie is a great player and I get inspired with playing with her. She's a great ball striker. It's fun getting paired with her. Obviously I check how she does in tournaments. If I don't play with her, I see what kind of score she shot. It will be fun. I'm looking forward to that pairing.

Q. Do you see how it would develop a rivalry in any way?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think maybe. Time is what we need. We need to play together for a few years, and hopefully both of us can play really good, and maybe we'll get that. But I think time is the most important.

RHONDA GLENN: By the way, what Annika said about checking Karrie's scores, I just read Jack Nicklaus' book. He said the same thing when he came on TOUR with Arnold Palmer. They would check each other's scores. They had a great rivalry but a great friendship at the end of a career.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think that's important to think about.

Q. How did today's weather and the moisture affect the course? Did it play longer?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I didn't play yesterday, so I don't know. It was playing longer than I thought it would. The greens were softer than I thought they would be, too, maybe not as fast. I don't know if it was the rain or the way the course was set up. But I think it will dry out tomorrow and Thursday might play a little different, maybe shorter, maybe faster greens.

Q. Well, what are your thoughts about everybody seems to feel that the last four or five holes are going to be really significant holes and so forth. Could you kind of go through there maybe briefly, and what do you think of the finishing holes?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Sure, I think they're great finishing holes. There are some tough ones. 14 is a long par-4. 16 was pretty tricky today. I hit a 5-iron where the pin was in the front. Same thing with 17. There are really good holes going. A lot of it is going to be determined in the championship on the last four holes or five holes.

Q. How is 18 going to play for you, could you tell from your first time on it?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Today a hit a driver and hit a 7-wood and laid up to 80 yards and hit a sand wedge. I think the creek will come more into play in the future, if I will be able to reach it in two. It seemed long today. It will be fun to see tomorrow. Hopefully it will dry out.

Q. What did you say you laid up with?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: 7-wood.

Q. Annika, how would you characterize your strength in your game right now and if you consider any weakness in there, where do you have to work the most?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, what I'm going to do this afternoon is work a little bit on my woods, 5-wood, 7-wood and 3-wood from the fairway, I think I need those on the par-5s, a little more accuracy there, maybe. My strength is my irons right now. I feel like I'm hitting my 7-iron, 8-iron, 9-iron really solid, so I don't have to work so much on those.

Q. Are you inclined to lay off the driver, at least early on, because targeting is going to be more important on the tee shots with all the rough?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, I think the targeting is very important. But I think I need the driver for the distance. I few holes are pretty long if you don't hit driver you're going to have a long iron in or even a wood in. You need accuracy with the driver here. The greens are, like I said earlier, they're small and it's very important with accuracy with your irons, so I think it's very important with the driver.

Q. Annika, how many irons do you have in your bag?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I have 5-iron down to sand wedge or lob wedge, so 8.

RHONDA GLENN: What were you hitting into the 14th green today on practice?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: A 9-wood.

RHONDA GLENN: About how far does that go?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: About 170 carry.

Q. Last year feeling a little relieved that other players kind of took the spotlight. Was there a hunger this year to regain that?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think so, definitely. I needed last year, maybe as a year where I started getting my motivation back. The way Karrie played made my inspired, I wanted to work hard. I wanted to win the money list again, and that was my goal this year. And I started out really well. Hopefully I can continue this year. But I'm still working really hard on that. I think it's great when somebody like Karrie or Laura is having a good year, it makes me want to work harder.

End of FastScripts....

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