THE MODERATOR: We are pleased to be joined by Helen Alfredsson, our defending champion. Two years as defending champion; what have the last two years been like for you?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: Well, it's been like for everybody else: Locked down, I think. I've had a lot of time to think about it. I wish I would have kept the trophy. I had the very next day after I sent it, it was the lockdown. But I have my memories and they are very vivid.
THE MODERATOR: I think the TV call when you won at Pine Needles was, "And Helen finally was her U.S. Open." What did that mean to you, a USGA event like that?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: As you say, I get goosebumps. As we all know, the USGA events or the U.S. Open for us was one of the toughest events. It took everything and then some to win it. You had to have everything, all the ducks in a row, and you have to have putting, playing, ball-striking, and mentally because you know you're going to make bogeys or even double bogeys, but you just have to keep going.
I was very thrilled to also get it on a golf course like Pine Needles which I thought was an amazing test the first two times we played it as also now as a senior.
Q. This event is starting to see that as women turn 50 there's kind of these new classes. What do you feel like the future of this event is going to look like?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: You know, I think it's going to be a little different maybe because I think that the young kids now, they're a little bit more burnt out than we were maybe, or maybe they go home and have kids and then they come back out. I think it's something -- I had the opportunity yesterday to play with somebody that had started in 2011 to play golf, and when this came out, she just took golf to a different level, she said to herself, and her practice routines and all kinds -- and I think that's lovely for women, to be able to have something this big, which is very few sports that you get to do that at.
Q. So far impressions of Brooklawn?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: It's tough, as any USGA or any U.S. Open is. It's not as severe. I say that now as I stand here and we haven't started yet because I know with the nerves and everything else, Pine Needles though I think was a little bit more stressful all around, but I know when we come out here and play these greens, it will be very tough, and patience will be highly required.
Q. With 2020, this event kind of feels like a homecoming out here. Everybody is catching up and kind of recalling what's happened over the past year. How cool is it for you to get back with some people that you used to play against back in the day and that you haven't seen in a hot minute?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: You know, you realize how blessed you were for all those years that we had together. I was just talking to Tommy green, and we said, it didn't matter. You knew you were going head-to-head with your friends and you knew they were going to want to beat you more than anything and the same. But off the golf course now we really do cherish all those years because I think there is a mutual respect because you know you work hard and you go through emotions, you go through stress, you go through ups and downs and you're trying to get yourself out of it, and then you also share the good moments with a bunch of them.
It's really -- I've always said that it's really an amazing, awesome group of women that accomplished a lot together for other things.
Q. The one thing you can't practice is tournament pressure, competition. How much have you been able to compete since Pine Needles?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: Oh, I played the same year the LPGA Legends Championship, and that was the last one. I try to, as much as I can when I go out and at least demand certain shots out of myself that I would like when I play. But it's hard, you are with friends and they don't know where to find the ball.
I always try to implement a rule, LY, look yourself, so I don't have to look for balls, because that takes a lot of your energy, and one is there and one is there and you don't want to be snobbish by not helping them out.
But sometimes that is also good because you have to sort of go back into your routine when you stand over the ball.
But no, it's a full year. I agree with Ron; I think that's going to be the toughest this week, to try to find the mental aspect of it.
Q. Do you find when you tee the ball up and you know this is for real, they're going to count all the strokes, that those old competitive juices kick back in?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: Oh, absolutely, of course it does, and you know you're going to -- I remember playing, what was it, I think it was the last year of the regular Tour and I was 45 or whatever I was, and I'm like, oh, I can't take this anymore; I'm too old to feel this way. It's still a little bit the same, but it goes away as you play. But it is tough.
Thank goodness we have it because that's what keeps you on your toes, that you are still a little bit competitive.
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