THE SOLHEIM CUP

September 22, 2002

Beth Daniel

Juli Inkster

Rosie Jones

Cristie Kerr

Kelli Kuehne

Meg Mallon

Patty Sheehan

Wendy Ward

Q. Congratulations everybody. Patty, if we could start off, some general comments from you, your emotions and what you think.

PATTY SHEEHAN: General. I am very emotional right now. I just let out a good cry. A friend of mine came up and said, "You know, there was somebody else watching today, and that was your dad, my dad, Bo-Bo, so that just sent me right over the edge.

I am so proud of this team. They are -- they have so much heart, they have so much -- they are so tremendous. Put them out there, tell them to give it their all, they gave me more than their all.

Wendy Ward, what an amazing performance.

WENDY WARD: Couldn't have done it without my team.

PATTY SHEEHAN: Everybody has so much respect for Emilee Klein and her performance this week.

Juli Inkster, I can't say anything more. She is just -- she will go toe-to-toe with anybody, and I tell you, she is --

Q. Here comes the oldest one.

BETH DANIELS: I feel pretty right now, though. Do I get a seat because I am the oldest?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Absolutely.

I am overwhelmed, I really am. I never thought it would feel so good. I am so -- I am speechless. You guys need to take over. You guys have more to say than I do.

Q. Juli, if we could start with you, can you talk about playing the first match and getting the first point of the day.

JULI INKSTER: Yeah. I mean, it was -- Patty sent me out first because I like to play fast, but, you know, I just thought that if we could just get a few points going, and Laura was right behind me and she was firing up some birdies and, you know, the more, I think, our team could see red on that board, I think, you know, it made them go out there and work harder.

And, you know, like Rosie Jones was down and Beth was down and they came back, and I will tell you, there is no better feeling than seeing those guys come on back. And Jonesie, she had her dancing shoes going on out there.

But you know what? It's a team effort, and you look at Michele Redman, who played great all day, Suzann Pettersen made some great birdies coming in, but you know what, we got a half a point, and a half a point in this game is huge, and Wendy Ward got a half a point. You know, it's hard to look back on Friday and say a half a point here, but a half a point here and there, they add up, so it was definitely a team effort.

Q. Questions?

Q. Meg and maybe Juli, can you guys talk about why you guys have been so good in singles? You came back -- this was the same situation in '96. Why is it that you are so good at that?

MEG MALLON: Because we have to. I mean, it's -- you are playing for your team and your country, and I think Juli and I really get into that and really -- we don't want to let our team down, and we play hard and we stay within ourselves.

I am sure Juli can say the same thing, both of us stay within ourselves and play our match. That's the best thing I can say about how I handle singles. I can't control the other matches, and that's what I try to do every time I play.

And I have had some great matches in this Solheim Cup, and you just have to keep grinding and hang in there, and never know what's going to happen.

I had Laura five down and, you know, thought I was cruising, then I lost the next two holes and I thought, okay, don't be doing this now, you got to get back into it again.

And it's just -- you know, speaking for Juli, you know Juli is, I think, the best match player in the world, and she has proven herself over and over and over again, and we are just happy that she led the way for us and set the tone.

Q. A question for Wendy. Wendy, would you talk about your match with Annika, your thoughts going into the match, and then as the match progressed and you got behind on the third hole, but then just kept hanging in there, hanging in there, and then actually had a chance to win it on 18, and talk about that final putt on 18, too.

WENDY WARD: I will talk about the halve. You know, Annika and I go way back, we go back to college golf when we were rivals at Arizona State in Arizona, and I have always been very comfortable playing with Annika. In fact, today was the day out of all the days this week that I felt the most calm. A lot of that has to do with these members of my team standing with me. They gave me 100 percent confidence and thought without a doubt that I could go out and beat her, and that's what set the tone for me.

I got off to a great start, made birdie, actually, it was a conceded birdie by Annika on the first hole, and that really leveled me out. I wanted to see red on that board right off the bat.

But it's like Meg said, there is only so much that we can control, and she gave us a great little pep talk last night to get us on the right track and get us focused on each individual match, controlling what we could control.

As far as that last putt, there was a lot of emotion in that stroke, and I wanted that putt in a really bad way, but you know what, I will take a half with this team.

Q. Can I ask, after the disappointment, obviously, of yesterday afternoon, what did go on in the team room last night to try and get yourselves up again?

LAURA DIAZ: We were dancing.

MEG MALLON: We never let ourselves get disappointed.

JULI INKSTER: We were in the best shape we had been in a long time.

PATTY SHEEHAN: We felt that being two down was a victory for us. We are used to being farther down than that, and with the way that the matches were coming down at the very end, we were coming from behind and we were starting to catch up, and I felt that we were starting to change the momentum back to our side late yesterday afternoon, so we were not disappointed one bit; in fact, we felt pretty good about where we stood.

Q. Any more questions?

Q. Rosie, would you talk about you had the clinching match, although I don't think you knew you had the clinching point or half point until a little while after she 3-putted, but when did you learn that you clinched the match for the US?

ROSIE JONES: As we came off of 16 tee, my caddy -- we had been watching the board a little bit, and I knew that we were doing extremely well, but we hadn't done the math yet because the last time I saw our team was like 12 and 12.5 or 11.5 and I was trying to kind of count up around me the matches that were still playing and where Beth was and where I was.

And I had -- she had -- I had just won 15, so going into 16, as we came back, Roger Maltbie -- I told my caddy that was it, no matter what, because I was dormied, that we would be -- the half point would give us the win, so we pretty much skipped up the fairway, and a big load was off my shoulders at that point. I felt like, you know, my job was done, and then when I saw my teammates on the green, it was just really a big relief and a real pleasure.

Q. Patty, can I ask, in your career, where does this moment rate?

PATTY SHEEHAN: This is the clincher right here. I am just so thankful I didn't have to hit a shot out there this week, that I had 12 players that were going to carry me around this golf course and make me look good. I tell you what, this cup belongs to them, it doesn't belong to me. They won the cup, and I am --

MEG MALLON: We won the cup.

JULI INKSTER: Jane, too. Where is Geddes?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Let me just tell you, Jane Geddes has been such a great support to me. She has given me great advice, she has given these guys great advice, and I don't know if I could have done it without Jane. She was really such a help to me, and I am hoping that she will stay on until next year. I am not going to let her quit.

Q. Patty, you have played in a few of these things. How does it compare to be a captain versus a player?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Being a captain is a lot different than being a player. Obviously, being a player, you just have to take care of yourself and what you are doing, and, you know, try to pump everybody else up, but being the captain, you have got to take care of everything, you have got to try to think of everything, try to be one step ahead, and that's one of the things that Jane was really good at. She thought of a lot of things that I missed and so she -- in that respect, you know, she was just unbelievable.

But this ranks -- this is the topper right here. I mean, this is it. The Solheim Cup is the top. It doesn't get any better than this.

Q. Patty --

PATTY SHEEHAN: If we go on to win in Sweden, that will be even better. That will be a lot better.

Q. Patty, have you done a cartwheel between your Edina win and today?

PATTY SHEEHAN: Actually, I haven't, so I feel pretty good, I am in pretty good shape. I did three out there today. I didn't pull a groin.

Q. Could we have some comments from the five rookies on the team how their first experience was?

JULI INKSTER: Come on, Diaz, you have never lacked for comments.

LAURA DIAZ: Okay. What do you want me to say? I think I have said this a few times this week, but I am just amazed at how well we all came together and bonded this week. It's been such a just emotional week, I think, for us all. Everybody has taught us so much, or taught me so much about myself and about being a team player.

You know, when I went out on my first match with Juli on Friday, I guess it was -- was it Friday? Friday. I didn't really know what to expect, and the relationship between the two teams, whether it was really going to be friendly or it was going to be cut-throat, and Juli showed me that it's very friendly.

We really respect the European Team, and she showed me how we had to treat them in a match play situation, which, you know, I really didn't -- I didn't know how that was going to go. So it was -- it's just been a great week, and I thank everyone for their leadership and I look forward to keeping this cup.

WENDY WARD: I thought you were going to say you are looking forward to dinner tonight.

LAURA DIAZ: I am.

WENDY WARD: What an experience. I can't say much more than Laura just did. We have learned a lot about being team players out here, there is no individuals on this team, and I wouldn't have it any other way. These girls are awesome and the most uplifting and encouraging -- that's one of the things that we miss playing individually on tour is we don't have that -- we have the camaraderie, but when you go out there as a team, it just takes it to a new and higher level, and it's been a complete joy, and I am going to work hard to get on the next team.

Q. Kelli, you want to go next?

KELLI KUEHNE: I think I can speak for pretty much all of us. The golf was an amazing part of this week, but it was the bonding and the dinners and the tears and the laughter and the camaraderie that was off the course that helped build our relationship on the course.

I never expected to come into the Solheim Cup crying at dinner over stories being shared or experiences or emotions, and that's something that I will never, ever forget about this week. It's been one of the greatest weeks of my life from a golf perspective and a career perspective, and as a team, there is 16 of us that are in our circle between Dottie, Jane, Patty, Dorothy and the other 12 players, and it has been such a tight -knit close-knit group working together, and I think it's a privilege to have been a part of it. It's been absolutely incredible.

Q. Emilee?

EMILEE KLEIN: It's just been so incredible this week. Everybody has been fabulous. You know, if you needed something from anybody, a hug or a pep talk or anything, everybody was always there. And it was really a special week, something that can never be forgotten, and we had such a deep team that it was just so easy to go out there and just try to play our best and be successful, and it was wonderful. And I had some -- you know, everybody out here was just great. I am going to leave it like that so I kept it short for Meg.

Q. Cristie?

CRISTIE KERR: I will try and keep it short, too. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of Patty's team. Jane Geddes has been phenomenal, as well as Mindy Moore and all those girls at the LPGA. They have done a tremendous job, and Neal Reid and everybody at the LPGA has done a tremendous job for us and made it so much easier for us to just go out and play golf.

I felt very, very comfortable this week. I was a little bit nervous my first match, but Rosie taught me a lot; I played with her the second match, and I can just tell you, I have never -- I mean, the look on her face when she needed to dig down deep and come up with something, I have never witnessed that before in a regular golf tournament; it's really truly special to see that, and the players -- the faces of all these players. Hopefully, me included. I mean, I know I didn't do my best this week, but, you know --

MEG MALLON: Yeah, you did.

CRISTIE KERR: Winning-wise, but that wasn't the point of this week. I got back to even in my match today so I felt like I helped out the team just by getting the crowds into it more, so I did my best golf-wise, but whatever, it doesn't matter.

And I just thoroughly enjoyed the bonding that the team had and look forward to hopefully playing another one.

JULI INKSTER: Vying for those captain's picks next year, Patty.

Q. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much.

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