U.S SENIOR WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 24, 2022

JoAnne Carner

NCR Country Club (South Course)

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by JoAnne Carner, your fourth time playing in this event. What keeps bringing you back?

JoANNE CARNER: Well, I keep thinking I'm going to make the cut, and that's been the objective all along. So I keep working on my game.

I think this is finally it.

Q. What do you think about the course here at NCR?

JoANNE CARNER: Well, it plays very long for us, and you're not getting any roll or whatnot. But mainly, NCR is so difficult on the greens. You're happy if you hit the green, and then you really have to be careful. I mean, you can three-putt from four feet out here.

Q. Talk about outside of the golf what it feels like each year coming back and seeing all the people --

JoANNE CARNER: Oh, that's the fun of it. I really had fun playing with Carol today and Helen Alfredsson has always been one of my favorites, and we rib one another out there. Makes playing in the Senior almost like when I played the regular Tour.

Q. You look fantastic. What continues to be your secret?

JoANNE CARNER: Hard work. I played so awful -- I let my game go to pot. Everything was terrible, so it was like starting all over from scratch. I went to Justin Thompson, who I have taken lessons from there at Pine Tree in Florida, and he started me -- because I just wouldn't turn. As you age, nothing wants to move, so I did some stretching at home. But basically back to it.

I've always been a superb bunker player, and I couldn't even get out of the sand down there -- well, I could get out but not hit the proper shot. Finally I asked him to check what I was doing. I was bent over like L-shaped trying to play a bunker shot.

He said, how about just bending your knees to get down there instead of putting your head in the ground.

I have a friend who when I would take lessons from her, she said, Do you get nosebleeds? And I said, no, what are you talking about. She said, Well, your head's buried. She would call me the ostrich. So I have to watch it when I'm playing, and as I get tired on the back side I want to lower my head, and then you can't turn your shoulders under your chin. It's a flaw, I think, of a lot of older players. They just start bending over but keep the neck up.

Q. When you say "This is it," why?

JoANNE CARNER: It's just hard work trying to get the whole game going. I let it go too bad.

Q. How do you feel about it now?

JoANNE CARNER: There is hope, but yesterday I hit -- I couldn't hit the driver anywhere. In fact, when I finished, after a little rest, went to the driving range, so when you go back down there, you loosen up with a few wedges and that. So then I walked to my caddie, Trevor, and I said, Trevor, we need to work on the clubs we're hitting; what are we hitting out all day? He's like, driver, 3-wood. So that's what I worked on. But today I got to hit some irons.

I wondered, the mindset in your heyday you'd take into a tournament, the mindset you take in now, it's a lot different, or you can't change the competitive nature is there no matter what.

JoANNE CARNER: It's always there. I was just born with it. My brother used to tell stories to me later in life how competitive I was even as a teenager. It's just I enjoy competition. I like to win, but I don't have to win, but I like the chance to win.

Q. What do you remember about the Women's Open here in the '80s with the locusts and the earthquake?

JoANNE CARNER: Just the disaster of everything. I mean, it was hard on us, but then you think of everything that happened in the town. Tornados and earthquakes and all, that's scary as a player.

Q. Do you remember the locusts?

JoANNE CARNER: Yeah. And you'd make a mistake and wear a yellow blouse or a green blouse and they'd land on you all day.

I remember I think it was Donna Capone had a little tap-in, maybe a foot, and she walked up there, and as she started to hit it, the locusts were in the cup, and she whacked it almost off the green. It's different playing with locusts.

THE MODERATOR: JoAnne, thanks for your time.