LPGA MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 27, 2005

Paula Creamer

PAULA CREAMER: It's been difficult, a whirlwind. It's been fun to come home after a win and spend it at my graduation and with all my friends and my family and my teachers. It's just been very chaotic but well worth it.

PAULA CREAMER: I believe there was 83 seniors, and there's just so many other sports in my senior class. I think there was probably about 15, 20 golfers, and then the rest were soccer, baseball, basketball and tennis. I don't really know a lot of the athletes, but I know that there will probably be a handful.

PAULA CREAMER: Thanks.

PAULA CREAMER: I'm not quite sure right now because I did get into Evian with this win, which was very exciting, but I'm not totally sure. I don't think I will be able to make it to that event, but it's not a for-sure thing.

PAULA CREAMER: Definitely my main goal is Solheim Cup. With the win it helps me with my confidence knowing that I can win on Tour and try to achieve my goals, under Nancy Lopez. But it's not done yet. I have several months before the team is finalized, but if I keep playing good and get some more points, I hope I can get up in the captain's pick, if not make it in on my own. Other goals are just to win out here, and I feel that if I make Solheim Cup team, everything else just kind of falls into place with the Solheim and winning out here, and I'm going to try to win a major, as well.

PAULA CREAMER: Well, not really, and I haven't had a break yet. It's been -- everybody here has been just so awesome with the whole thing and they've been very supportive of myself, and I've been going through it here and they've been very supportive, and I'm very lucky that everybody around is an athlete and they know what it takes to win, and they support it.

PAULA CREAMER: Well, there's always pressure. I always put the most pressure on myself, but now it's kind of -- it's really releasing a lot of different kinds of emotions knowing that I feel very confident on the golf course, and I feel that I can win. I have before, but now I know I can because I've done it. It's just now going into every tournament, I feel very confident and I will always remember Sybase, knowing that I can perform under pressure.

PAULA CREAMER: The second question, I know that my game shows that I haven't -- I don't have much experience on these golf courses. I've only played a handful of them from playing in the sponsor's exemptions. I know about five or six of those. So that is definitely a sign of being a rookie because everybody else gets to play the courses so many times. What was the first part of the question?

PAULA CREAMER: With me right now I'm very driven and I set high goals that I want to achieve, and I'm going to do -- I want to do whatever it takes to get there, and I've been working really hard at it. My coach David Whelan and I and my whole team is very supportive of me, and I have such good people around me that I feel very confident with what everybody is doing.

PAULA CREAMER: Actually my mom and dad and I were just talking about that, how I got into that event and I've won before there, and I'm feeling really good about that tournament. I hope it works into my schedule right now. If all goes well, then I will definitely be there and try to play that tournament. That was awesome. It was the last tournament of the year and I have a lot of good memories.

PAULA CREAMER: I'm really looking forward to it. It's a new event, new golf course, and with match play it's a totally different event than anything that I have been in. I love match play and have had a lot of success with that. Going back up to the northeast is always a great thing for me. I love playing those kind of golf courses, the traditional kind of golf courses, and I'm really looking forward to it. And match play sets up well for me because I am a pretty aggressive golfer on the golf course, and my game plan has always been to take -- if you have a shot, take it, and match play, you're just playing your partner, you're not playing the golf course.

PAULA CREAMER: Annika, she has raised the bar in women's golf and is making me practice hard to where I want to get to, and if I want to be the No. 1 player in the world it means I have to go out and practice here and outwork her. She's done that for women's golf and has made it very competitive.

PAULA CREAMER: No. I mean, it's been so much fun. Everybody, like I said, has been so supportive of the win and very gracious. I can't think of any funny things yet. There's been so crazy things, crazy things that I sign, but other than that, it's just everybody has been very, very supportive.

PAULA CREAMER: I've been signing like the head of a golf club. I signed a shaft, and you know the wrist bands that go around your arms for the "Live Strong," the cancer, things like that, I've been signing those.

PAULA CREAMER: Yes, I used to be an acrobatic dancer and we lived on the golf course. I lived on the 1st hole, so I was always around golf but was never interested. Then one day my other dancing friends and I, we went and we did golf lessons as a group, so there was about five of us. That made it so much fun because I was with them and it was maybe a half hour, 45 minutes together. Then when I was in 6th grade I had to decide whether to be a chief leader or on the golf team, and I chose golf team, and at that age I just dropped all the sports and I stayed with golf and I'm here today. It's been one of the best things that's ever happened to me.

PAULA CREAMER: Yes, they've been awesome. They've definitely been the best parents that a kid could ask for. They've actually moved from all their friends for me, and it is just wonderful, and I'm glad that we have done it. It was a huge decision for the family, and I know I was definitely pushing for it. We couldn't have done it if it wasn't for my dad's job, to be able to transfer bases, which helped out a lot.

PAULA CREAMER: Well, I'm just trying to play golf and represent my country well. The LPGA is a fantastic organization and they have done so much and they have bloomed over the last several years, and I'm so excited that I'm coming in at this time because there's so many more options and things like that that they're allowing us, and I'm very lucky that this is the time that I'm coming in at.

PAULA CREAMER: Pink is my favorite color, and I always have something pink on, no matter what it is, if I'm going to dinner or if I'm going to a movie. It's just I'm always wearing pink. I was given the nickname "Pink Panther" by Casey Wittenberg, a former golf academy student here, and it kind of stuck, and now everything I have is pink.

PAULA CREAMER: Yes, I do. You always need to learn from the No. 1 player in the world. I know I'm not exactly like her; we're two totally different people. But Annika -- the thing that impresses me about Annika is when she gets to the golf course it's all business. There's no chitchat going on. Every once in a while you'll see it, but she gets there, she does her work and then she leaves. That's what I'm trying to do and not having to stay at the golf course as long.

PAULA CREAMER: Well, I only know the way that I'm doing, and for me I think that's the most beneficial. I like to know that I'm able to perform under pressure. I know that I've done it before, and I've won from every angle, and I feel that that's very comfortable when you get into a pressure situation coming down Sunday. For me it works good. Like I said, I've only done it this way.

PAULA CREAMER: I couldn't ask for a better tournament after a win. I feel very confident at Shoprite and feel very comfortable there and really like the golf course. The field is very strong, which is a good thing to come off of a win, but like I said, I feel very confident right now and I feel like I can be in the hunt there.

PAULA CREAMER: I know a little bit about it. I don't know every detail. It's hard to talk about another sport since I'm not involved with it, and I know with golf I think that we have the age requirement of 18. I think that it all depends on the person and what they want. I know people think that I'm crazy that I turned professional at 18 and I'm not going to college, but for me it works out, and this is what I want to do. I mean, I still will get my degree from college, but at the same time this is -- I would rather be the No. 1 player on the LPGA than the No. 1 collegiate player.

PAULA CREAMER: I'll do it on-line. I'm going to try and start in the fall in the off-season so I can get some classes done before the season starts.

PAULA CREAMER: We're talking to a couple of schools: University of Miami and then University of Phoenix, some good on-line schools.

PAULA CREAMER: Of course. I love representing my country and things like that. My fondest memories are doing that, wearing red, white and blue. I think it's so exciting that there are -- the Solheim Cup and the Curtis Cup and world amateur teams like that, and to be able to do that is such an honor.

PAULA CREAMER: Well, my mom and dad bought me a purse for graduation, which was very nice and very surprising, and then when I went shopping in New York, it was the best but the worst possible place to win a tournament was in New York City. So I had some shopping sprees there. I've been buying the normal clothes and shoes and obviously pink things and bags and things like that. But no big thing, no car or anything like that.