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GINN TRIBUTE HOSTED BY ANNIKA

May 28, 2008

Leta Lindley

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

MIKE SCANLAN: Leta, thanks so much for coming in today, and congratulations on your first win last week in Corning. If you could, just take us through, has it sunk in yet? Have players been coming up to you and congratulating you? What's it been like this week so far?
LETA LINDLEY: I don't know if it's quite sunk in yet. I haven't even had hardly any time to celebrate with my husband. I was rushed off onto the Corning jet to fly here with my children, and my husband drove our van down from New York, so we haven't spent too much time together, but the response has been unbelievable. I can't even tell you or express how overwhelmed I am by the player response and how great everybody has been and how excited everybody has been for me. And my Email has just been on overload. I didn't realize I knew so many people. So I'm a little overwhelmed by all of it, but that's a great problem to have, and I'm just over the moon about my victory.

Q. What do you think explains the reaction? Is it seeing a veteran player finally get that win after so many years? Is that why the players have reacted the way they have?
LETA LINDLEY: I guess just because I've been out here for so long and I've worked so hard, and being a mom of two children, and with my husband on my bag, I think they understand how special it is for me. I guess it's hard to explain really, but it's just been -- I'm just overwhelmed by it really.
Everybody has been coming up and hugging me and telling me how excited they are for both me and Matt, and you know, it's been a long time coming, and you know, they knew I was playing well, and it's nice to see my hard work pay off. So it's very exciting. I will never forget this as long as I live.

Q. Did you ever doubt that you were going to finally win? I mean after so many years, had that thought ever crept into your mind?
LETA LINDLEY: Well, the last couple of years I kept saying, I know I haven't played my best golf yet. I have not peaked by any means. I know my best golf is ahead of me, but sure, I mean after 13, 14 years, you start to wonder if it's ever going to happen. You know, do I have what it takes coming down the stretch to hit the clutch shots, to make those putts that are necessary like all the other champions do that I've seen and watched. And I've really been observant the last couple years and watching the players that I admire and what they do and how they handle the pressure, and so maybe all my observation has paid off. But to be in that moment and to beat JJ, she's such an awesome player and a great champion. You know, nothing was given to me. She made me work really hard for it, and to earn it the way I did makes the victory even more sweet.

Q. After a fairly long career and having a couple of kids, was there ever a moment where you considered retiring and staying home with the kids? And how does this win, if you had that moment, how does that put that into perspective?
LETA LINDLEY: My husband and I have talked about it a lot. My son is four and so he'll be starting school soon, and what we were going to do and how we were going to handle that situation, and we really haven't come up with a definite answer. But he kept saying to me "it would be such a shame to retire" because I'm really starting to hit the ball well and play some really great golf. And like I said, I didn't feel I had played my best golf, by any means, and to just walk away, it would seem to be a shame. And so to get this win now, it's just really exciting. And you know, I don't want to be a one-hit wonder. I'd like to go back out and do it again. It was just so awesome.

Q. What do the kids do while you and your husband are on the golf course? I mean what's their life like?
LETA LINDLEY: Well, they have always traveled with us, unless we leave the country. Then they stay at home. But we have a wonderful daycare program that travels with the Tour. Smuckers is our sponsor, and we have four ladies that travel with the Tour and take care of our children. And they love it. They don't know anything else. They've been doing this since my son was 13 weeks old when I first came out with him and my daughter was six months old. So they love it.
When we bring them to daycare, they leap out of our arms and run off to play and see their friends, and they don't even turn back and say good-bye. They could care less that we're leaving. So it's always been a comfort to know that they're in really good hands. And these ladies are wonderful and take fantastic care of our children. We're very lucky. Without them I couldn't continue to play.

Q. I'm sure your kids, as young as they are, they're sort of veterans, they've been to a lot of tournaments. Could they tell last week was different for Mom, that you had won, and could you see that in them?
LETA LINDLEY: Well, Saturday night my son asked me, he goes, "Mommy, are you going to go to work tomorrow?" I said, "Yes, honey, Mommy's going to go try and win a trophy." He said, "A trophy!" He goes, "Mommy, go for it." And it was just so cute, and he made it seem so simple. "Go for it, Mommy."
I'm like, "Oh, well that's easy. Just go for it." And I thought a lot about that out there on Sunday. You know, Cole told me to "go for it," and so that's what I'm going to do. And children have a way of making life seem so simple, and sometimes as adults we try and over-complicate things, and so it was really refreshing to hear his view on the situation, and so he inspired me for sure.

Q. You mentioned that you don't want to be a one-hit wonder. You're in an exclusive group now, women who have won this year. How does this change your expectations of yourself now going forward?
LETA LINDLEY: Well, I think I just need to keep doing what I'm doing. It's working. And I've worked so hard these last two years, and I think that mentally I've become tougher and tried to focus more on what I want my golf ball to do, instead of what I don't want it to do, seeing the good and not seeing the trouble. And that was my goal last week, to just be really committed to my shots and see the golf ball go, just like it does on the range or on the putting green.
I mean obviously I don't have a lot of time to practice, with my two children, but I've given it a lot of thought, and I was very disappointed the week before. I played in Sybase. I shot 69 the opening round. I was playing really good the second day when we got washed out, and I came back on Saturday and shot 80. I was so angry. I said, "You are so much better than that." I couldn't believe that I let it just fall to pieces. And in evaluating that day, that was the difference, that my focus wasn't there. I was almost trying to protect what I had, my three shots. I said, "I have some leeway."
And champions don't think like that. I'm sure Annika and Lorena and Paula, you know, they're trying to go even lower and lower. And so I think that was a real turning point for me after evaluating that round, and I told my husband that was my goal going into Corning, that I wanted to be really committed and see my shots and execute it that way, what I see in my mind.

Q. How long has your husband caddied for you, and how did that come about? How did you all meet?
LETA LINDLEY: My husband and I met at the University of Arizona. He played on the men's team, and we've been together since I was 19 years old, and he's caddied for me since day one. He took a little hiatus. I'm not sure what year it was. Maybe after six -- maybe six years, five, six years on Tour he went back into the real world and was at home, and I was out on Tour, and we just decided that's not how we wanted our marriage to be, spending so much time apart. And he's my best friend. I enjoy it most when he's on the bag. He knows me well, and we enjoy being together. So he came back out on Tour, so he's pretty much been my only caddy my entire career. And I couldn't have scripted it any better, my first victory with Matt on the bag, my two children were there to run out on the putting green to celebrate with us. The stars just must have been aligned for us last week.

Q. You mentioned Lorena, and obviously she's decided not to play this week, and I've heard a lot of people say, "would you pick Lorena or the field?" I'm wondering how does her absence now affect the rest of you this week?
LETA LINDLEY: Well, we're sorry that she's not here. We will miss her, but I guess it leaves a little bit more money for everybody else, the way that she's been playing this year. (Laughs). So it opens the door a little bit.
Annika is still here, and there are many other great players. There's so much depth on our tour. So any given week you've gotta play your best, whether it's against Lorena or Annika or Paula or Julie. Everybody's here. There's so much depth.
The talent on the Tour has changed so much since I came out in 1995. I was able to kind of learn along the way. I don't necessarily think that you can do that now. You either have it or you don't. I see it reflected in the cut each week, how much lower the scores are. You really have to go out and golf your ball. No one's going to give you anything out here.
MIKE SCANLAN: Does Matt have the same last name as you?
LETA LINDLEY: He does not.
MIKE SCANLAN: How do you spell it?
LETA LINDLEY: It's Plagmann, P-L-A-G-M-A-N-N.
MIKE SCANLAN: Perfect. Anything else? All right, Leta. Thanks for coming in. Good luck this week.
LETA LINDLEY: Thank you very much.

Q. Two in a row.
LETA LINDLEY: Thank you. Thanks for your time.

End of FastScripts

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