home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WEETABIX WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 27, 2004

Laura Davies

SUNNINGDALE, ENGLAND

THE MODERATOR: Laura, thanks for joining us. You're in your home country, hometown basically.

LAURA DAVIES: Hometown, yeah, exactly.

THE MODERATOR: If you want to talk about how it feels coming to this tournament.

LAURA DAVIES: It's nice. Obviously, I've played here many times as an amateur. I think this is the fourth British Open we've had here now. I just look forward to it.

I love the course. That's the main thing. It's in great condition. I'm looking forward to it. I think everyone is.

THE MODERATOR: Can you talk about the course a little bit more.

LAURA DAVIES: It's just one of those courses where you've got a chance I don't know whether it will be horrendous windy. Never usually is a windy course. If you play really good golf, you can score very, very well. So par 5s are all reachable. There's one that's particularly long. But basically the scores, if you're not playing well, the heather, all the trees will take their toll.

But I imagine it's going to be really good.

THE MODERATOR: Very good.

Q. Talk about your previous ones here.

LAURA DAVIES: Last time we were here, I was in perfect position on Sunday. I had that nightmare with the rake left outside the bunker. Instead of making an easy birdie, I made a double.

Some fool had not raked the bunker properly, left it hanging half in, half out. I literally had no shot from 20 yards away from the pin. Like I say, I ended up taking a double. That ruined my chances last time pretty much.

The times before, I don't think I got a serious blow in.

Q. What was the situation at that stage?

LAURA DAVIES: Three behind, maybe three or four. I know I was looking I know was up here Sunday pretty much trying to win it and could win it. It might have been as little as two, but I was definitely in contention.

Q. What retribution did you take?

LAURA DAVIES: What can you do? Someone's raked the bunker really badly. It was a guy in the group in front. What can you do? Afterwards a couple of mates said, "Nice rake," asked him why he raked the bunker so badly. At that point, it's irrelevant, isn't it?

Q. What happened?

LAURA DAVIES: Well, I couldn't get to it. It sort of came out in the bunker, then I didn't hit a particularly good next shot. Two putts for seven. I don't know, three putts. I actually might have double hit it. Yeah, it was a double hit. That was it. So that was obviously a disappointing start to a chance. But I feel like I can play the course well.

Q. Coming in with good form from last week?

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, disappointing week in a lot of ways. But, no, I'm hitting the ball well.

Q. (Inaudible)?

LAURA DAVIES: Well, I can hit all the par 5s that everyone else, you know, sort of can. I would Sophie is particularly long now. Wendy, who won last week, she's a very long hitter. Annika, obviously, she hits the ball a long way. Whereas I used to be the longest, there are five or six players now who are very, very similar in distance.

Q. Is that due to technique, physique, equipment or a combination?

LAURA DAVIES: Obviously, it's a combination of everything. Players, their technique is a lot better. Annika shows that. She's not particularly big. She's obviously very strong and has incredible technique, and timing is perfect. That's why she hits the ball a long way.

Then you have people like Sophie who are very strong, hit the ball very hard. Of the sort or five or six actual longest players, there are various reasons why we're long.

Q. How do you feel your career is going at the moment? What do you anticipate over the next few years?

LAURA DAVIES: Hopefully lots more wins. I mean, I'm still playing well enough to win tournaments. I haven't won on the LPGA for just over three years now. We just played Rochester. So just over three years. But I've won consistently in Europe the last few years.

Yeah, I'm still playing well. Just played last week with an all right finish, but I know it should have been so much better, which proves to me I still can win.

Q. (Inaudible)?

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, pretty much. There always seems to be an area of the game that's not quite right. The putts seem a little bit off or the chipping has been not quite so good this year. The driving has been fantastic. So I can't blame the driver anymore. The irons are always pretty consistent.

It's usually down to chipping or putting. The chipping, you know, let me down this year a good few times. It did actually last week. From the whole, I putted much better, certainly from the first round. I only had 28 putts.

Q. (Inaudible)?

LAURA DAVIES: Short game, yeah, definitely. Because I've seen how good these they get the ball up and down every time. I get the ball up and down quite a few times, but not every time. That's the place where I think I need to improve.

Long game is the same old story, I always hit the ball well, or strike it well. But I don't see much point standing on the range for hours on end hitting golf balls if you can just turn up and I wouldn't hit any better. That's the whole point basically.

Q. Do you see a successor to yourself anywhere on the horizon?

LAURA DAVIES: English, British players?

Q. Yes.

LAURA DAVIES: Well, there's obviously some good players out there. But whether people go on to win. I mean, depends what you mean by "successor." People winning five, six, seven tournaments a year around the year, I don't know at the moment with a British player. Katrina Matthews is probably the best British player.

Q. Up and comer.

LAURA DAVIES: In that case, I would suggest there's obviously no one. Becky Brewerton, I was very impressed with her when we played over at Chart Hills. I thought she was a very good ball striker, potential.

But depends what you mean by "successor? That's a hard question really.

Q. (Inaudible)?

LAURA DAVIES: Well, it's difficult at the moment, isn't it? There's such good players around at the moment. It's hard just to come along. There doesn't seem that many really great British players. I could say Becky is probably the best I've seen. Becky Morgan, as well, has actually been playing well without actually winning.

Q. (Inaudible)?

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, no, it's not. Simple as that. They've got their college systems. But when you see the Swedish and the Spanish, the way they get their Juniors rolling out like a production line, there's obviously something wrong.

Q. If you had a magic wand, what would you do for European golf?

LAURA DAVIES: European golf? Get Annika to play every week. I think that would be about the best magic wand we could do. That's obviously never going to happen. It's a matter of building up some our other players and getting sponsors excited about having women's events.

But, said that, I think the European Tour is going really well now. I think next year will be better than this year. This year has been better than last year. I think it's definitely on the way up now, which is what we all want.

Q. (Inaudible)?

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, but you can actually see a foundation now. You've got some really good tournaments in place. They've got good long term contracts, whereas before we've always been a one year contract tour and you can never build any foundations from that.

Now we've got quite a few committed to the future because they see some good players now. They see some very, very good players. That's what you need. If we could get 20, 25 tournaments in three or four years' time, then you'd start seeing a breeding ground for some young good British players.

The fact we only have one other tournament, other than the British Open on English soil, i.e., Chart Hills, is disgraceful really. You see the men play here, they seem to stay here all summer, it must be fantastic.

Q. (Inaudible)?

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, I think Ally has had enough. She's played a number of years. She's been a pro two years longer than me I think it is. She's obviously not enjoying it as much, otherwise she'd keep playing. She's good enough to probably win another tournament along the line. I think she's had enough of it and doesn't want to be bothered with it. And you can't blame her for that.

She's been fantastic. She's won the two biggest tournaments that we have. Obviously, a great career. Plus all the other events she's won.

Q. (Inaudible)?

LAURA DAVIES: Probably we're just good friends. I've known Ally since the amateur days. Go back a long ways. When the Solheim Cup came around, being English, you tend to stick together in the early days. It's different now because there's so many different nationalities in the Solheim Cup.

We just gelled. Ally's game and my game complemented each other, especially in the foursomes amazingly enough. Different as our games now, they just fitted in fantastic.

Q. (Inaudible)?

LAURA DAVIES: Ally's face on the first tee when Pat Bradley walked on the tee. She looked nervous. I did as well. Ally said, "Don't look now, Lopez is coming." That was our first round pairing. We were terrified. We were playing Lopez and Bradley on the first ever Solheim Cup. Bad enough seeing Pat, but Nancy walking up behind her, that was the clinching factor. I think I hit my first tee shot right straight in the bunker.

Q. (Inaudible)?

LAURA DAVIES: In those days, that was it. Yeah, I mean, we did actually say that. Yeah, no, we beat them. It was unbelievable really. But that's what started us off in Solheim Cup. At the time Nancy was right on top of her game, and obviously Pat was, too.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Laura.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297