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HSBC WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSMarch 3, 2015Michelle Wie WestSINGAPORE, SINGAPORE MOLLY GALLATIN: Good afternoon, like to welcome Michelle Wie into the interview room. Michelle, it's your sixth time playing here. What is it about Singapore that makes playing here so special to you? MICHELLE WIE: I love Singapore. It's definitely one of my favourite stops of the year. I just love the city, the food, the shopping. It's one of those places that you really look forward to coming to. Sentosa is a wonderful place. Golf course is very interesting. It's very, very unique. It's one of the most unique golf course designs that we play all year. It's a lot of fun. HSBC has done such a great job of hosting us. The fans are great here, so it's a lot of fun. MOLLY GALLATIN: HSBC the events throughout the week for the players, one in particular you're participating in, the fashion show. Are you excited about it? MICHELLE WIE: I am. The designer makes really great clothes. I kind of saw what everyone is wearing and it all looks great. It should be fun tonight. MOLLY GALLATIN: Last year was one of your most successful years on Tour, if not the most successful. Do you have a little bit of pressure in 2015 to back that up? MICHELLE WIE: No, not really. I think there is a little bit of internal pressure, try not to feel it. I think I'm just kind of having the same mentality that I did last year. I had so much fun last year, and whether I played great or not, I just wanted to go out there and be consistent and just try my hardest, and that's the same mentality that I have this year. Just because I played well last year doesn't guarantee I'm going to play well this year. I'm going to go out there and try my hardest and have fun, and that's really all I can do, and hopefully the good golf will follow. MOLLY GALLATIN: You mentioned now this year, and it may not be the start that you wanted, but in your opinion what has been working for you compared to what hasn't? MICHELLE WIE: It's definitely a work‑in‑progress. I think this year, I've just been a little inconsistent. So I'm working on that, just trying to get my game back into the consistent mode that I want it to be. It's a funny game. It's definitely a very interesting game, and I'm having fun. I'm working very hard on my fitness and on my game, and it's a long year. I think a lot of times, there's a lot of pressure to start off really strong, and I think that I probably need the beginning of the year to really work on my game and try to get better. I just want to keep getting better throughout the season. MOLLY GALLATIN: You said you're working on your fitness. Do you feel stronger this year? You're working with a new trainer; correct? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I started working with David last year and felt like I was getting stronger throughout the year. We had a really great off‑season, so, yeah, I feel really good. Q. Next year is the Olympics. What are your thoughts on golf being in the Olympics and are you going to try to make the team? It's going to be very competitive for the Americans? MICHELLE WIE: Oh, yeah, I was actually in Copenhagen with the golf committee, with Suzann and Matteo Ty Votaw, people associated with the golf associations and we worked hard to get golf into the Olympics and we were very successful. So since then, I've been working really hard and it's definitely a big goal of mine is to make the U.S. Team. Definitely growing up, watching the Olympic, I always grew up watching it, would be like, oh, it would be so cool to represent my country. But I was also very sad because I would never have the opportunity. Now that I have the opportunity it's definitely one of my biggest goals, one of my biggest dreams is to compete in Rio. So I'm going to be working hard and hopefully I'll get it. Q. Can you talk about how you feel in terms of now that that's out of your way, does it change your perspective going into majors this year? Do you feel there's less pressure because you've got it out of the way or more pressure so you have one, and two, three, four‑‑ MICHELLE WIE: I think that after I won The Open, it was probably one of the most motivating things that I did‑‑ I definitely don't have a feeling where, now, I won one, I don't need to win another one. It makes me want to win another one even more badly just because you kind of taste it and you know what it feels like and everything. So I definitely am very motivated after my win. But at the same time, you have to do a lot of things before that happens. And you really can't focus too much on the end result. If you kind of go through your steps, if you kind of do what you need to do, then I feel like the result will follow. So I'm not really thinking about, I want to win another major. I'm focusing on what I need to do in order to do that. So that's really what my main focus is. Q. Recently you were in Hawai'i‑Five‑O, but it's back to business this week. How are you feeling ahead of this tournament? Are you pumped um to take on the field again in Singapore? MICHELLE WIE: I played 18 holes today and the weather was great. I think we got some rain yesterday. But I think the weather is supposed to be good hopefully. It's not too hot. It was very hot last week in Thailand, so this week is actually a lot cooler surprisingly. But the food is great here. I'm really excited. Sentosa is a great golf course and HSBC is a great sponsor. So overall, I'm really excited for the week to start. Q. Paula mentioned the course is a little different this year. What are your thoughts on the modifications? She says the greens are not as fast as they were in Thailand? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I played it today, I think it's probably as soft as it's ever going to be just because it rained so much yesterday. But the golf course is in great shape. There's really not too much difference I thought. It's a tricky golf course. It's definitely very unique. It's not your typical, straight, fairways to the greens. There's a lot of different, unique features to it. I definitely took my time mapping out the golf course today. Q. If you were writing out your C.V., and you put on your U.S. Open title and your Stanford degree, which would go first, which would be second and what would be third and fourth? MICHELLE WIE: That's a hard question. I don't know, I think to be fair, they were both my dream. I think that growing up‑‑ I think it's different. I wouldn't put them in the same category because I've always separated the two. I've always had academic goals and I've always had golf goals. I feel very fortunate that I was able to achieve both of them. You know, Stanford was my dream school growing up and getting into Stanford was a dream of mine, and graduating was one of the biggest achievements of my life. But it's hard to say. I put them in completely different categories. But the U.S. Open, also, growing up as an American junior golfer, you always want to win. That's the one tournament that you want to win, and for me, to have that opportunity, I feel very blessed. I think that‑‑ it's hard. I mean, it would be a tie. Q. What about three and four? MICHELLE WIE: Three and four, helped me realise, I think playing in Solheims. I think 2009 Solheim, I think that definitely, I have a lot of highlights from that year that I would rank as some of the best golf shots I've ever hit in my life, U.S. Open and all. Fourth, I think winning in Hawai'i this year‑‑ last year. I think winning in my hometown is something I've always wanted to do, and to be able to experience that, I think that's definitely up there. Q. After your win, do you feel your mind‑set has changed, and what do you had to say to all of the doctorswho had written you off ‑‑ you took quite a lot of flak for that. MICHELLE WIE: I don't think any differently. It's a whole new year. I kind of put 2014 away. I took a lot of positives from it. I gained a lot of confidence from it. I think just knowing that I could do it, that it's possible; I think it inspires me every day to go out there and work even harder. I put that away. All my past, my lows, my high, it's done. You take the positive from it, you learn from your mistakes and you move on. I'm just focusing on the present. I just want to focus on what I need to do to play better. It's definitely not the start that I really wanted. But at the same time, I think every week has been a learning experience for me and that's kind of what I want from this year. I want every week, I want to learn from it and just get a little bit better each and every week. I just want to become a more solid golfer and see how I can get there. Q. So what would be your major goals this year? Would being world No. 1 be among them? And you spoke about being stronger and more motivated this year, what more do you need to work on this year? MICHELLE WIE: I want to try to become the best golfer that I can be. Obviously I have goals that involve winning majors, being No. 1 in the world. But really, I want to focus on how I can do that, just really‑‑ it's something I've been working on the last couple years, is really trying to stay in the present. It's very cliché and it's very easier said than done but it's something that I've always kind of struggled with and being been working on. It's kind of just forgetting about the past, like I said before, putting it away and learning from it and learning from my mistakes and not worrying too much about the future or worrying too much about the end results. I think sometimes playing this game, you get too caught up in trying to make birdies or trying to win tournaments where in fact, you have to just worry about each and every shot, what you have to do to get to that point. So that's really my goal is to have fun on the golf course and just really stay in the present. Q. You're very active on social media and what comes across is that you really love being on Tour, you love traveling to new places and you love your life on Tour. Is that really important to you; that also you let people know you're enjoying it, as well? MICHELLE WIE: I feel very fortunate. I feel very blessed in the life that I have, being able to come to places like Singapore. I feel like if I didn't play golf, it would be very hard to come all the way over here from America, and I feel very blessed that I can experience all these things. Social media, I just love taking pictures. I like posting things. It's really nothing too deep in that. I like filters (laughter). Q. Do you read all the comments? MICHELLE WIE: No, I don't. Q. Lydia is world No. 1. Can you talk about her becoming world No. 1? So many people talk about the different aspects of her game. What aspect of her game impresses you the most? MICHELLE WIE: You know, it's not very surprising that she's world No. 1. She's probably the most solid, well‑rounded golfer out there right now. It's very shocking that she's 17 when you look at her, like you always forget‑‑ is she 18 now? MOLLY GALLATIN: 18 in April. MICHELLE WIE: She's so mature. She's got such a good head on her shoulders. Physically, too, she hits the ball very far and straight and she putts well. So I think it wasn't very surprising when she became world No. 1. She won in Australia, she won in New Zealand. She's very solid. There's really no holes in her game. Q. Can you just complete this sentence in reference with Lydia: When you were 17, so when I was 17, I was ... MICHELLE WIE: Out here playing I think? I don't know, I was doing college essays and filling out my applications for college while playing professional golf. I think it's very impressive what she's done, being world No. 1. Q. Do you think golf needs someone like Tiger Woods who can single‑handedly drive the game? Does women's golf need someone like that? And how do you see women's golf generally? MICHELLE WIE: We have so many great personalities out here, Lydia, Paula, Lexi, Suzann, Jessica. There's so many players out there. I think that's what's so great about our tour is that little girls can watch our tour, little girls, boys. I feel like men can learn from our game and women, as well, too. I feel like we got so many fun players out here. I think that it comes across on TV. We want to beat each other and we want to compete with each other, but at the same time we want to see everyone do well and we are very unified in bringing our tour stronger, and we want more sponsors and whatnot. We all have a unified goal of growing our game, growing the game in general and bringing more junior golfers into the game. But I don't think we need a single person. I think it's a unified effort. MOLLY GALLATIN: Thank you, Michelle. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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