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KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP

March 26, 2005

Rosie Jones

RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA

JOEL LAMP: We have Rosie Jones in the interview room, 1-under par 71 today. We'll start with your scoreboard, birdie at the second.

ROSIE JONES: Birdie on 2. Had just about a 50-yarder in there. Knocked it in about three feet and made birdie.

6, I hit an 8-iron about 12 feet below the hole and made that for birdie.

I know I had a bogey in there.

JOEL LAMP: Let's go back to 3 for the bogey.

ROSIE JONES: 3, I had a perfect drive, had a 7-wood and just totally roped it. I had some mud on the ball. There was a little bit -- golf course was a little bit soft this morning, I had some mud on the ball, but I'm not sure if it made my ball do that. It sure went left. Came out of the bunker and actually the really rough grass, came out of there and had about a 20-footer, 25-footer for par and a 2-putt for bogey.

No. 6, I had an 8-iron in there 12 feet and made the putt for birdie.

Bogey on 8, tightened my swing a little bit, tried to hit an easy 9-wood back there and hit it left again and knocked it up there about 12 feet and missed it.

11, I had a sand wedge up about 18 feet and made that for birdie.

13, made bogey there, another wood left, 7-wood -- guess what I'm going to be practicing today? (Laughs.)

Hit good shots coming in, though, on 14, 15, 16, 17.

Just missed the putt on 17 and then on 18, I hit another shot, wood, left, over that bunker and got lucky, got a fairly decent lie over there. It's really hairy, really thick, but it was sitting up just enough to where I thought I could get a club in it and hit what I thought was a pretty good shot on to the green and made that, a 20-footer.

JOEL LAMP: What club did you hit there?

ROSIE JONES: It was an 8-iron.

JOEL LAMP: And what club did you hit on your approach, sand wedge?

ROSIE JONES: Yeah.

JOEL LAMP: Just give us your general thoughts about the round.

ROSIE JONES: Well, I was not happy with the way I hit it. I wasn't really comfortable all day with my execution and my putting was okay. I just, you know, found the fairways and found the greens and had a couple opportunities where I thought I could get it up-and-down, save par, but you know, just kind of one of those rounds. I have some stuff to work on. I can hit it better, I know that and have more chances to have birdies, I know I'm going to have to have that tomorrow.

On the opposite, Annika executed everything just perfectly. She had a great plan, she stuck to it and she made lots of birdie on the front nine and then it opened up a little on the back nine and allowed her to just rip away. She played really well.

Q. Is there any difference between chasing someone who has a five-shot lead and that person being Annika?

ROSIE JONES: Well, she's the last person you want to have a five-shot lead with. Unfortunately that's the scenario now as we go into tomorrow.

But, you know, I'm going to be optimistic and I think, you know, if anybody -- I feel like especially at this tournament, if I'm within three shots going into the back nine, I can catch them, I don't care who it is. You know, hopefully that will be the situation tomorrow.

Q. Early in the round, obviously she got out to a couple-shots lead on you. Were you looking at what she was doing or were you more concerned about the fact that you were hitting 7-woods left?

ROSIE JONES: I was concerned about my swing for sure. But I had some opportunities, like on 9, I hit it up there five feet and missed it. I had some good, you know, opportunities to save some putts and could have stayed within her a little bit, and if that's the case, maybe putting a little bit more pressure on her, but -- I forgot what the question was.

Q. Were you more concerned with what you were doing?

ROSIE JONES: You have to really pay attention to this golf course, and there's a whole lot of other players besides Annika playing. You know, I'm not -- I'm just trying to play this golf course the best I can and I know, I'm with her, that she's playing really well and if I wasn't with her, I probably wouldn't have known, you know. I don't really look at a score board, and when I do, I never see the front page of it. I always see the second and third, I never ever get the first; I don't know what the hell is going on, until finally on the 18th hole when I have time to just stare at it for a while.

So, no, I don't really pay attention.

Q. It sounds like the emphasis tomorrow is come out strong, get a couple birdies and make her think a little bit.

ROSIE JONES: That would definitely be my plan. If I could shoot 2- or 3-under on the front side and if she's flat a little bit, you know, game starts on the back nine and maybe I have a chance. She's playing pretty tough right now.

Q. That being said, how important was it to make up the one shot at least on 18 there?

ROSIE JONES: Well, now it's five-shot spread. That can change in about four holes or something, a six-shot takes a little bit longer, you know.

It's always better that be one shot closer to them than six. I mean, it's a big spread, but one better than it could have been.

Q. Would you care to share what that exchange with Annika was? When you made the birdie putt someone yelled something off to the side and you said something and you both started giggling for a second?

ROSIE JONES: What hole was it?

Q. I think it was 11 or 12?

ROSIE JONES: I had not made it yet. I took a practice stroke and someone yelled "Get in the hole." You know, it's just -- the noise just throws you off, but as I started thinking about it, that person has to really be feeling stupid because, it's like, hello, my practice swing. She goes, yeah, kind of a delayed or pre-response, and so we're just kind of laughing. We had lots of good laughs out there today. It was fun. We had fun together.

Q. Why did Annika tee off before you on No. 12?

ROSIE JONES: I had to make a pit stop. Same thing happened like on No. 2 or 3 this morning. She had the honors, she made a pit stop and just kind of payback stuff. You know it was my only chance for the honor, too, and I gave it up, I hate that.

Q. You said you with really were not happy with today. How satisfying is it to be sitting up there again being in contention again for another major?

ROSIE JONES: I feel great to be here. It's an honor to be playing in the lead group today and probably tomorrow. I know I am tomorrow, actually.

And I feel good. I'm playing well enough to be here. I'm just not as satisfied as I want to be in this position knowing that I could play better and have more chances at birdie than maybe I could be a little closer to her. I'm a little bit disappointed in myself for that, but very proud to be here and I'm fighting very hard to win and play my very best tomorrow.

Q. When Tiger had his streak of consecutive wins, there was a lot of talk about how it would be good for the game if someone rose up and challenged him. Would it be good for the game if Annika reeled off seven or eight in a row or is it more important that people start pushing her as they have occasionally over the last couple of years but on a regular basis?

ROSIE JONES: Right, I think it would be better if someone stepped up and really pushed her.

I can be that woman. (Laughing). Actually, I would love to be that woman. I think it would be better and I think it would be better for her and I think it would be better for our tour if we had several people that did that. But right now, she's having her heyday and, you know, more power to her.

JOEL LAMP: Thanks a lot, Rosie. Good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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