Team VTech’s and UK native, Karen Stupples is at the RICOH Women’s British Open this week. A familiar face on the LPGA scene, Stupples is the 2004 champion of the RICOH. Here is the pre-interview Stups had with Colin Callender about being back for the RICOH.
KAREN STUPPLES
COLIN CALLENDER: Good afternoon, we have Karen Stupples in the interview area, the 2004 champion. It must still give you a great buzz to come back to this championship.
KAREN STUPPLES: It really does. It’s always been very special. You know, just to come here back to my home country, have my family around me, and this year particularly on a links golf course, too, and one that’s in such tremendous shape, is awesome.
COLIN CALLENDER: You finished Top-10 in 2006 here. I suspect the course played rather differently.
KAREN STUPPLES: It did. They very kindly put in some new bunkers which I think are going to cause a few issues this week. The rough is a lot thicker and it’s very green, as well so you’re not getting the run-out that you were before.
It’s six of one-half a dozen of another: You’re not going to get the run out into the rough and you might be able to hold the greens a bit better, but the holes will be playing longer.
COLIN CALLENDER: Are there any bunkers in particular out there that are going to cause you problems?
KAREN STUPPLES: I think the ones on three, the two new ones in the left, and the new hilling they put in there; I think on 14, as well, there’s a new bunker they put in up the left side, so you can’t really bail out down there anymore. You have to think about either being short, or being very straight.
Q. So do you think it will be a tougher test?
KAREN STUPPLES: I really do. I think right now if you shoot even par, it’s open to anybody this week.
Q. Do the conditions suit your game, the softer greens rather than obviously the hard, fast you’re used to in links?
KAREN STUPPLES: I would probably say yes, because I tend to hit the ball quite far and so it’s quite nice to be able to land it on the green, which would be very helpful, but you’ll be going in with a lot bigger club.
I think in the past, there are holes that I remember going in with little wedge and this year seems like a 5-iron. It’s going to be more of a test for sure. I think the biggest test is going to be staying out of the fairway bunkers to be honest. You have a better chance of making par from around the green than you do from a fairway bunker.
Q. Five years ago we all hoped your victory would be the start of a great push for British women’s golf, and at least from the outside, it doesn’t look like that’s happened. What’s your own thoughts on whether it’s been disappointing to you how it’s gone?
KAREN STUPPLES: From my perspective, obviously I’ve been on Tour a few years now, and I keep expecting to see a whole load of British golfers come up and come through. It seems like a lot of the players want to stay in Europe and play, and I personally don’t understand that.
I know that Melissa Reid has aspirations to come out to the States, and I think that would be a very good move for her, and anybody else, really, who wants to improve and be in the top of the game, because really, you need to play against the best week-in, week-out, and obviously that is the LPGA right now.
Q. Having said what you just said, and in the current economic climate, how can the tours in women’s golf support right now?
KAREN STUPPLES: I think that as the end of the year rolls on, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised how the LPGA Tour will come through it. I think right now it seems like it’s a bit doom and gloom, but I think when everything shakes out, I think it will be okay.
Q. And the European?
KAREN STUPPLES: This tour here, the European? I’m really a bit of an outsider to the European Tour, so that’s something that I can’t really make a very good comment. Because I may come here and play a few times but not that much, and I’m certainly not privy to any of the meetings. I haven’t been able to attend any of the meetings there. So I haven’t had a chance, so I’m sorry.
Q. When do you think about the Japanese player, Ai Miyazato?
KAREN STUPPLES: I was very happy for her to win last week at Evian. I think it was very long overdue for her to win on the LPGA, very strong player, very good, and she’s very nice, too. I like her very much.
So I was very excited for her. She deserves it. And I’m looking forward to playing with her.
COLIN CALLENDER: You have a very good pairing tomorrow, don’t you.
KAREN STUPPLES: I don’t know how that happened. Very happy with that, Lorena and I, good group.
Q. How do you see the chances in the Solheim Cup, because it’s a bit gloom and doom from a lot of Europeans looking at it going over there with the strength of the American Team on paper.
KAREN STUPPLES: Yeah, it looks that way, doesn’t it, on paper. Everything looks very much for them on paper, and I would say that the European Team will be very much the underdogs going over there and playing.
Match play is a funny game at any level. And I think that anything can happen. You have to just look at the current form of players playing and I think The European Team as such is playing pretty well right now and I think they will be a match for anybody.
Q. Have you been encouraged to try and play more in Europe with the qualifying system?
KAREN STUPPLES: Yes, it has and it’s a disappointment to myself that I have not been able to come over and play too much more. Obviously with a two-year-old, it’s a little bit more complicated for me getting back to play. Even packing his luggage and getting him into the car is a hassle sometimes. So coming all the way back from America to here to play a couple of events is very difficult.
I’m playing in Wales next week. That doesn’t help, obviously, with the numbers, but it’s not through lack of not wanting to. It’s just due to the logistics of having a family and trying to do that with them. So I would be relying on a pick.
Q. And how do you view that?
KAREN STUPPLES: I don’t know. I mean, I’m in the running for a pick, because I’ve been invited, but I don’t know if that is a good sign or not. I think it very much depends on what happens this week and how things shake out with the European rankings and the World Rankings. But I’m definitely on the short list, but as I said, you never know. I mean, for me, I just want Alison to pick the team that can win. Whether I’m on that or not, it doesn’t worry me. It would be much better that the team wins. So she has a tough job ahead of her, but she’s certainly up to the task.
Q. How confident are you shooting a low score this week?
KAREN STUPPLES: I’ve tried to not think about score, because I think this golf course is — you know, you’re going to have some holes that will play easy and some holes that will play hard. So you have to almost take par out of the equation when you go out and play.
I’m trying to not think of numbers and just play the best that I can play, and hopefully that will mean that I will be sitting here with the trophy at the end of the week. But you know, if I take numbers out, and just try and do the best that I can, I would have a good chance.
Q. What would you say to those people who are looking with regards to the Solheim Cup that are looking at the way women’s golf has gone the last couple of years, and does it need changing, the makeup of the two teams?
KAREN STUPPLES: I actually like the way the two teams are. I think the Solheim Cup is a great tournament, and it would be a shame for it to change. It’s just too good of an event. There’s too much tradition, too many chants on the first tee for it to change (laughing).
Q. (Regarding changing format).
KAREN STUPPLES: I believe there was some talk about that with Carolyn, the old Commissioner, but I don’t think anything came of it.
Q. The qualification system looks increasingly out-moded year after year when we get to A Solheim Cup; are you still comfortable with it?
KAREN STUPPLES: It is what it is, and I think that they have made great improvements in the qualifying for the European Team for sure.
I think taking World Ranking in consideration is fantastic. And Alison having three picks on top of that, I really think that she should be able to get the best team that she could possibly get out of the new criteria.
Q. Can you just shed some light on the matters of bringing grass roots in America, how it doesn’t happen from watching in this country, we don’t seem to have enough juniors playing the game.
KAREN STUPPLES: I know that in America, they have high school golf teams and then obviously the university golf teams, so they are starting playing competitions against different high schools at a younger age, and I think that that’s a good thing, because they are doing it in school.
I think in the U.K., very much you are left to your own devices. You have to be self-motivated and self-driven enough to do it for yourself, and that really applies to any sport here. When I was in school, you could play netball or field hockey, and really, there wasn’t any other option to do much else.
So in America, you have so much more opportunity to do all different kind of sports. And I think that probably helps to be honest. But in the absence of doing in schools, I think you need to have more clubs and groups that start kids off young. I know that at my sister’s school, they have the little golf with the plastic clubs and the big balls, tri-golf, and that looked fun.
And I think if you can start seeing golf as fun, I think more kids will start playing.
I know my son, looking at my son now, I can’t imagine him playing golf, he’s too high energy. It’s pretty expensive to be a member of a club in the States. And I think — I don’t honestly know if I had grown up in the States, I don’t know if I would have even played golf, because I was very fortunate that my dad actually started as an associate member at Prince’s Golf Club, and eventually he got to be a full member. And through him I got free golf, because I was a junior, so I had free golf there. And then I continued to have free golf; I think if I would have had to pay for it growing up, certainly my father never could have afforded it for us.
So, I don’t know, at least in that way, the clubs are doing the right thing. I think it’s just a question of almost image I think, changing the image a little bit here, and trying to make it the in-sport.
I think the other thing as well, they talk about trying to get golf into the Olympics, I think that would be huge for golf in general because I think then it would be much more visible to a lot of people.
To see the rest of the pre-tournament interviews, please click here: LPGA
Sweet D swinging away
Home Sweet Home
The perfect backdrop for golf
A quick break between shots
Fore!!
