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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 1, 2006

Pat Hurst

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND

RHONDA GLENN: Ladies and gentlemen, tied for the lead now is Pat Hurst, who had a fabulous round this afternoon to finish with even par, 71.

Pat, how do you feel about your position overall?

PAT HURST: Obviously I feel pretty good, sitting here in the lead with Annika. But we've got 36 more holes, so anything can happen tomorrow. I'm just going to go out and play the best I can.

RHONDA GLENN: Last time I recall you won with a 36 hole final was the U.S. Women's Amateur, and you have a pretty good history at USGA championships along with the win at the U.S. Junior.

PAT HURST: Yes, I've played well. I think it's the toughness of the golf courses and not having to go real low. I'm known to make a lot of birdies, but I'm known to also make a lot of bogeys on a tough golf course and on an easy golf course. It's better that the golf course is set up tough.

Q. As a casual fan who may not follow women's golf a lot, they'll see Annika Sorenstam and Pat Hurst, and Annika has got a huge advantage. What do you say to those people?

PAT HURST: I'm going to go out and swing the golf club and hopefully my golf will do the talking. She's the No. 1 player in the world and she's the one that got herself in that position, and I respect her for being the No. 1 player in the world.

RHONDA GLENN: Playing 36 holes on the last day, do you have to watch behind you, when players come up from the fifth to the last pairing?

PAT HURST: I think so. Anybody that's playing good that day, the more holes when you're playing well, I'd say the better it is. If you're swinging well that day, it's a bonus.

Q. Is there anything the 36 holes tomorrow, do you approach it any differently? Is it two separate rounds? Do you sleep longer tonight? Do you do anything between rounds?

PAT HURST: I'm not going to do much between rounds. We're going to get done, and we go right back out from what I understand. I'm going to have lunch and head off to the next round, change my socks and feel fresh and hopefully make it a new round.

Q. You may have been asked this, but I was wondering if there was any disadvantage to finishing so late today and the quicker turnaround for you as opposed to Annika who's probably been napping all afternoon?

PAT HURST: I haven't been thinking about it at all to tell you the truth. I'm going to go home and have dinner and do what I would normally do to get ready for tomorrow and go to bed, go to sleep and be prepared for tomorrow's round.

RHONDA GLENN: Now, when Pat says she's going to do what she normally does at night, she has her children with her this week, two children, ages

PAT HURST: Four and seven.

RHONDA GLENN: Four and seven, and her husband, Jeff. So for them to go home and do what they normally do is a little more complex than for others. What's that like, Pat, for you, a typical evening?

PAT HURST: I think it's much easier for me to go home and not think about golf. For me, it's great having the kids out here and I do go home I leave golf at the golf course, and I go home and I be mom. And I've got dad here, and it really makes it a lot easier with the two of us. And just makes life for me a lot easier to have the kids out because I don't think about golf 24/7. I think it's a good mix.

RHONDA GLENN: When you go home and say, "then I'm mom," what does that involve in the evenings?

PAT HURST: I don't know, I've got the best husband in the world, so when I'm mom, I just put my feet up and don't do anything. Dad reads the stories and puts the kids to bed.

We give the kids bath, we have dinner, give the kids a bath if we have time. They're actually pretty good on the road, so that helps us a lot.

Q. The 9th hole has given players problems. Can you talk about the challenges of playing that hole?

PAT HURST: I haven't had any problems. Yesterday I missed a little putt, probably a 12 footer for birdie on 9. And then today I two putted for par. It's a long hole. I would say it's more the second shot than your drive obviously you need to get the drive in the fairway, but the drive is pretty wide there. So it's the second shot that makes it so tough out there. I played with Mi Hyun Kim today and she couldn't get to the green, so she had to lay up. I think that's what makes it so hard is the second shot to the green.

Q. In terms of having kids at home, I'm a father of three myself, so I know what it's like to deal with them. Do you go home tonight and purposefully spend time with them to get your mind off or say mom's playing for the U.S. Open Championship tomorrow and I have to focus?

PAT HURST: They don't know what the U.S. Open is, which is a good thing. They know mom is playing golf, and they want mom to win, but they don't realize how hard it is to win, but they definitely want mom to win. They do support me by saying, did you win today and did you make lots of birdies and stuff like that. But they don't know the difference between the U.S. Open versus

Q. Will you spend time with them, purposefully to get your mind off of it or would you rather just go off on your own?

PAT HURST: No, I don't really go off on my own, I just do the things I would normally do. It's more spend time with them and more relax with them, so we can all relax together.

RHONDA GLENN: How will we know tomorrow as we watch you play throughout 36 holes, how would we be able to tell if you start getting tired?

PAT HURST: Just look at my eyes.

Q. With your game.

PAT HURST: With my game. I've played 36 before. I played Solheim last year, and I played I played all the matches at Solheim and I was put up to the challenge there and I did it. I think I just need to take it one step at a time and not push myself and just walk down the fairways nice and slowly and not rush to the ball.

I know everyone is going to be tired out here. Hopefully when I do get tired I kind of leave the ball out a little bit to the right. So I'm just going to try to keep it I would say tight, but if you look at my swing, it probably wouldn't look tight, but tight feeling for me. And hopefully my mind will stay sharp out there.

It's hard to say what's going to happen tomorrow. 36 holes is a long ways around, but there's other golf courses that are tougher to walk I wouldn't say tougher to play, but tougher to walk. This one is pretty it's a nice walk. We'll see how it goes.

Q. In that regard, do you think being a veteran player, you've been through Solheim, the first reaction would be fitness would be better for the younger kids because they're young, but the mental part would seem to be an advantage to veteran players such as yourself. How would you assess that?

PAT HURST: Mental would definitely be up there for me. Obviously fitness isn't (laughter) but I've been out there long enough and this is my 12th year, and like I said, I try to take all of my experiences and put it all into try to learn off my experiences.

And like I said, I just need to take it slowly tomorrow and not push myself too hard and get too emotionally worked up. I think the more emotionally worked up you get, the more energy you spend.

Q. Do you think the crowd will be with you, because you're American, hometown?

PAT HURST: I would have to say they'll probably be with her, but you never know. You know, hopefully I'll have some backers out there and she will, too. But hopefully they'll see some good golf.

RHONDA GLENN: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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