ADT CHAMPIONSHIP

November 21, 2003

Rosie Jones

ROSIE JONES: Birdie on 2, 8-iron up there probably 20, 23 feet, made that for birdie.

No. 3, I had a lay-up, then hit sand wedge in there about three feet, made that for birdie.

And then No. 6 I had a sand wedge in, knocked -- hit the pin and it just landed within inches of the pin so it was kind of lucky because I was on the downslope and the pin is on that back deck and just a really hard shot to even get close so I was really lucky there.

Then No. 7 I hit 7-wood about four feet, and made that.

Then No. 9 I hit sand wedge about four feet, made that.

Back nine I just pretty much parred around. Had to get up-and-down on 13, I hit a pretty good shot just short of the hole, hole kind of tricked it close and I chipped up within a foot and made that for a par.

Then missed like a 3-footer on 14 for birdie, and 15 kind of saved about a 6-footer for par there. I hit kind of a bad wedge sand wedge in and left myself above the hole, put it down there and it really, really slipped on the right side. Anyway up-and-down on 18 about 4, three feet.

MODERATOR: Nine-stroke difference from yesterday.

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, just kind of put my score around.

MODERATOR: What was the key today?

ROSIE JONES: Yesterday I didn't hit the ball solid and when you are not hitting the ball solid in a wind like that, it's kind of scary with this much water out here and this many traps. So I felt really okay with 76 yesterday. Had a couple of 3-putts, that's going to happen when you have wind this high, just really hard to stabilize yourself to knock those 4-footers, 5-footers in because you are going to have those. The course played so tough, you know, you are not going to be able to hit all the greens. Today I got a little tip from my teacher on the phone this morning before I went out, and right away started hitting the ball more solid and that way you can kind of play the wind a little easier it's easier to, you know, play the golf hole when you think you are going to hit it solid and that's pretty much the difference of the day. I hit it up there, had some chances for birdies and putt really well.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ROSIE JONES: No, it is nothing that would make any sense to you all. It is just something that, you know, he can't even see my swing, it's something I am telling him, talking to him. He knows my swing, he knows my tendencies so well that he can just by what I am telling him as far as what the ball -- how the ball is reacting and how it feels to me and what my caddie thinks it is or says it is from back behind me, he can give me a couple of tips just to try on the range, if they work, go for it.

Q. What is your coach's name?

ROSIE JONES: Jeff Peltz. Waiting for his first child any moment now.

Q. Just generically, was it alignment?

ROSIE JONES: No, it was kind of -- I guess it was something in the hinge (sic) of my golf club. Something basic like that, something in the first two feet of your swing that I tend to overcook some things and that's basically what I was doing.

Q. Through all the years you have been out here do you still feel like you are learning something about the game every week?

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, you know, I do. I keep getting better. I keep learning my swing or understanding my swing a lot better. My swing is better than it was ten years ago or even five years ago and I keep improving that and I think that's why I can maintain some sort of longevity out here and you have to. You have to improve every year to play with these girls and even though I will never get that added 10 or 20 yards that I have been looking for for 20 years at least I got that 7 and 9-wood that I can, you know, target in on the pin and where I couldn't hit my 3- and 4-iron close to the pin I can hit those clubs. So you know, improved in different areas; just not my length.

Q. Is that the allure of golf at this point, is that you always sort of feel like a student, instead --

ROSIE JONES: No, I get sick of the game actually, and (laughs) and it's a tough game. I tire of it easy because or easily because I have been playing for so very long and it is a difficult game. Golf is very hard and it's not easy to maintain a really good swing. I have always had to work really hard at it all the time. It gets frustrating to be able to have to work so hard all the time and I have always been a great putter; haven't had to work hard on that. Even though I have been high on the stats, this year has been something that I've had to work hard on as well, this year, but starting to pay off, and it's always been my key to my game, straight driver and a really good putter.

Q. Feel like it is sort of a burden that you were given so much talent to be a great golfer yet you get so frustrated with it?

ROSIE JONES: Do I think it is a burden? No, I think I am actually very gifted. I think I am very lucky and gifted to have this lifestyle and to have the talent that I have and to be able to use it and express myself through it. The thing is that I have been playing professional golf for 21 years, just like anybody doing anything for that long you get really tired. I don't think get tired of the game. I get tired of travelling. I get tired of the Tour. I get tired, you know, just the everyday preparing, getting your body ready. It's a lot of work off the golf course as well as on. And it's just not easy. It's very time consuming. You give up a lot of yourself in other parts of your life to be able to do it, and that's the part I get sick of. I don't really get sick of shooting 67 or you know, hitting really good golf shots, or the applaud of the galleries. It's a lot of the other stuff that's really hard, especially after a long period of time, it's a grind.

Q. You have a motor home?

ROSIE JONES: Yeah, I do. I have been travelling in it for a year and a half now, and it's actually parked out in New Mexico right now for the winter. I will pick it up when we go out Tuscon next year.

Q. Easier lifestyle for you?

ROSIE JONES: You know what, a couple of years ago I decided to change my lifestyle out on Tour just because I was tired of the hotels, airplane, restaurants, and I wanted to change up my lifestyle a little bit, and take some of that monotony out of it. I started driving the motor home and I love it. It is a little bit more work because you got to do housekeeping every single day, and you know, I like the cooking but you have got to clean up. You have got to go grocery shopping, all that stuff, but it is fun because it is just a whole different lifestyle. And after 20 years out on Tour, that's a welcomed relief.

Q. Do you actually drive it or do you hire someone to drive it?

ROSIE JONES: I drive it actually. I drive most of the time. On some of the long drives I get one of the caddies who is familiar, has had his own motor home help me drive, and that has been really helpful because on a lot of long drives it's just way too much for me to do all of it and then try to play golf. On my only day off I would be driving all day.

Q. How daunting was that, driving one of those things at first?

ROSIE JONES: At first it is very hard because it is so scary, you are so big. Anybody who has been in one, you know, you take up the whole lane, so just a little bit this way or that way and you are in the other lane. I think at first -- the first couple of hundred or maybe the first thousand miles really you just -- it's very taxing on your mind and your energy, your anxiety level is up. I am like God, I don't know if I can doing this all time, it's not going to help my game. As I got used to it, I am more comfortable in my RV than I am in my car. I feel safer driving my RV than I do driving my own car. So I am fine with it now.

Q. Did the course play differently today?

ROSIE JONES: A little bit, I thought the wind wasn't as difficult. It wasn't as blustery and strong as it was yesterday. I was able to play the tougher holes. They weren't as tough today, like 16 and 17 and a couple on the front, just the wind direction and stuff like that, were able to manipulate the ball a little bit easier.

Q. Same direction?

ROSIE JONES: It was fairly the same direction. Maybe just quartering a little bit differently today. Where 17 it was kind of almost quartering into yesterday; today it is with you.

Q. Is it a course that you like to play or is it one that is kind of a challenge --

ROSIE JONES: I like to play it because you have to hit a lot of different golf shots. You have to really be on your target golf. You have to be able to manage your game and for the longer ball hitters it's difficult to be able to place your ball where you want it so that you have a pretty good shot in there. They can hit hit it a long way and some of the holes you have a big advantage, but I just feel like this is the type of golf course as long as you are off the tee pretty good and you are putting well you are going to be doing all right.

Q. You have a lot of activities and hobbies. Do you think that has been helpful to your longevity out here too that it doesn't feel --

ROSIE JONES: I really don't have time to play golf when I go home because I have so many other things I want to do or like to do. I have to force myself to go out and practice, seems like sometimes -- now, later in life, you know, later as my career goes, that's the way it is. But before I was always really playing a lot of golf, I was very focused, my priorities were always on the golf, but I am just trying to balance out my lifestyle a little bit, and take advantage of some of the opportunities, I have to do some other stuff. Never have time really.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ROSIE JONES: Pretty dang good. I don't even think about it 'til I got done actually. I think I just -- another thing about this golf course, I just stayed really in the moment. I wasn't looking ahead. I think I had got out there a couple of times you know, you are shooting 4-, 5-under in nine holes you start thinking about what you really can do out there and you kind of catch yourself thinking you know what, worry about the next shot and go from there.

Q. Ohio State (inaudible)?

ROSIE JONES: We have been doing that all year. That's nothing new but we're trying to bring our team in for tomorrow, trying to motivate them, get the Big Blue.

Q. If you didn't have this golf tournament would you go to that game, do you like to?

ROSIE JONES: Well, I do like to, I am not a big a fan as Meg is, and but I actually haven't gone to very many games over the years, but as my career comes to probably a screeching halt some day, (laughs), I will try to do more things like that.

Q. Back when you were in school, can you remember what you were thinking you were doing -- did you have any ideas that would you play so many years and then you would do something else or what were your expectations?

ROSIE JONES: I really knew that I felt that I was going to play professional golf when I was in college. That was the plan. I never ever had doubt about that. I always felt in my mind that I could be a good player. I had didn't -- I think I have met a lot of goals; haven't met a lot a lot of goals too, and but at the same time, I really thought that I would be done with the Tour by the time I was about 37, and now I just turned 44 and I am having some of the better years since 37 'til now and I have been retiring -- I tell everybody I am going to retire in about three years, for about nine years now, so -- but I am on it, I am on it now. I am on the -- next year is the last year of my three year, I am sticking to it, I think.

Q. Farewell -- (inaudible)?

ROSIE JONES: I am not going to call it that, but next year will be my last full year for sure.

Q. Do you ever get tired of being defined by the golf or do you feel like that you are defined by your golf or is that just something that you do well?

ROSIE JONES: I think -- I don't mind being defined by the golf because that's all I have ever been since was probably about 15, "Rosie the golfer," and that doesn't really bother me. It might bother me later when I retire and when they don't know who I am -- no, (laughs) -- when they go Rosie, the golfer who? (Laughs). I don't know, that's going to be a funny or a good question in about four years.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ROSIE JONES: I have thought a lot about this and I don't want to wait until I am miserable and playing awful or bad and things like that. I know what my body can handle, I think, and how much I work to get what I get and the girls out here they are younger and stronger they are better, it's you know, their Tour right now and if I do come out I will be out, you know, for a couple of months during the summer in the hot summer when I like to play and play some of the big events and things that I am qualified for and go from there. But I do not want to have this kind of lifestyle when I turn 45 and going on towards 50, yeah, I don't want to be doing that. I want to be doing other things. It's really kind of, you know, it's hard to go -- thinking about the money and I am not going to make that kind of money ever again, probably, unless I create some sort of great business venture, but, you know, I will have to deal with all that as I go. But I don't want to be hanging on and hanging on and just being miserable while I am trying to do it.

Q. You talked about how you have had to give up a little part of yourself in order to do what you do out here. That's the lament a lot of women have in their 40S they have that across the board in any kind of profession. Do you think it's harder maybe even for you than it has been for a Kenny Perry or a Peter Jacobsen or do you think is there a difference even amongst professional athletes, men and women?

ROSIE JONES: I think it is a little bit more difficult for the women because stereotypically the men can go off while still having a family, bringing in the money, family comes with them more, family can stay home more, family -- you know, so I think, you know, you get to a time in your life as a woman your priorities have changed and definitely the strength of my body has changed and the motivation that I want to keep continuing this job has changed, you know, like you look at Juli Inkster, I mean, she's still going hard, she goes hard, she works hard, has two kids, you know, they have got a great setup, a great rhythm going with her nannie that she's had forever and her husband is there and they have got a great system going, but I don't even have any kids and my priorities have changed the way that I don't, you know, want to get -- I don't want to give up what I have given up the last 22 years for the next, you know, five or six, I guess, is what -- but yeah, I think it's harder for women to be able to pull all of that off.

Q. Harder for women to have everything kind of the career and the personal satisfaction?

ROSIE JONES: I think so. Not for everybody, but I think that's a fair statement.

End of FastScripts.