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KIA CLASSICMarch 24, 2015Michelle Wie WestCARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA Q. All right. I'm here with Michelle Wie at the Kia Classic, a little pretournament media, Michelle. You got some practice in today. Overall thoughts of the course so far. We always know this course plays tough. MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. It's a great track. There's definitely a lot of tough holes out there, especially the finishing holes, very tough. But you know, it's a great golf course. The weather is great so far. It's just great to be back in California and it's a great tournament, so I'm excited for the week to begin. Q. Now, talk about your relationship with Kia. This has to be a very special event for you. You guys have had a relationship for so long. What does it feel like to come into an event like this where you have a relationship with the title sponsor? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. Kia has been such a great sponsor to me. They're kind of like family. They've just been so supportive, and it's great to come to a tournament with my sponsor, get to see everyone tonight at the pro am party, and you know, just a great event. You know, to celebrate what Kia has done over the past couple of years. They've got some new cars, so it's really cool to see that. Q. You're driving all your Kia cars. What are you driving this week? Do you have one? MICHELLE WIE: I drive a Sorento. It's an SUV, so I can fit all my stuff in the back. But it's great. Q. And I know you're battling some illness, a little bit of under the weather a little earlier in the season. Are you feeling totally back to normal? How are you feeling mentally and physically? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. I feel a lot better. Actually, sinuses felt a lot better last week, came here, this is like new sort of pollen. So a little battling with it this week so far, but I feel great. I feel like my energy level is really coming back. Q. I know David was with you guys out there last week at Phoenix. Did you guys work on anything? What have you been working on in particular? MICHELLE WIE: Just really same stuff as last year. Just getting back to basics, trying to break some habits. So just normal stuff. Q. Great. Well, keep working and good luck this week. Thank you. MICHELLE WIE: Thank you. Q. Michelle, what would you like to get out of this tournament here in San Diego? MICHELLE WIE: I'm just happy to be in California. I'm really excited to see all the fans come out. I just really want to have fun and post some good scores. Q. You've had some sort of success here, when it used to be at La Costa and now it's here. How do the courses play different, and do you like it, pros, cons? MICHELLE WIE: It's a different golf track. I mean I think both of them are very great golf courses, a lot of birdie holes, a lot of tough holes, good mixture of golf holes. Q. And with regard to playing in San Diego, how much do you like it here, do you not like it? Tell me your thoughts on that. MICHELLE WIE: I love it. I was kind of by the beach all day yesterday, kind of took a little quick visit to Encinitas, definitely a lot of great food here this week I'm definitely going to take advantage of. Q. So most importantly, where is your favorite spot here, food? MICHELLE WIE: Definitely a hole‑in‑the‑wall Mexican. Q. Do you know the name? MICHELLE WIE: I don't even know the name of it. I just know the location of it. I just go there. And Carnita Fries. It's amazing. Q. Do you know Cali Burrito? MICHELLE WIE: Oh, yeah, Cali Tacos, all the way. Q. I want to talk about last year. You played really well here. What do you think necessarily are the keys to playing well on this course? MICHELLE WIE: I think it's tricky greens, so you have to keep the ball in the right places. You know, you can't leave yourselves like weird, downhill putts, so I think just keeping it below the hole, just knowing where to miss it. That's definitely the key. Q. I want to ask you more a little bit about Kia. How long have you guys been together? Do you know? MICHELLE WIE: We've been for a while. I mean they've been a great sponsor to me. They've been so supportive. They've been a really fun sponsor, and it's been great. It's been a great relationship. Q. What's probably the coolest things you guys have got to do together? Anything that comes to mind? MICHELLE WIE: You know, the commercials are really cool. You know, it's just I'm a big fan of the NBA, so it's awesome that they're a big sponsor of the NBA, so it makes it easier to go to games. And they hooked me up with court‑side seats at Madison Square Garden. So that was pretty awesome. Q. Thank you very much. What is your deal with the bags this year? You still doing the bags? MICHELLE WIE: Oh, yeah, I got a new one this week. It looks pretty awesome. Q. I was going to say, I knew you debuted one here last year. MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. Q. All right. So what's the theme of this one? MICHELLE WIE: Hawaiian theme again. Q. Keeping it true to the roots. MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. Q. Warriors or Lakers? MICHELLE WIE: Warriors or the Lakers. I like the Clippers, though. Q. This is the third year here now. Is this getting to feel like a regular stop on the tour? MICHELLE WIE: Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean I get‑‑ I think everyone gets real excited for the California swing. I think people that especially are from the West Coast, I think they appreciate it a lot more. It's definitely like coming back home. Q. You talked about the greens here. Some of them are enormous. I mean there's like three or four greens (indiscernible). Is that what you're talking about when you talk about kind of missing it in the right place or hitting it in the right place, because it really is about being below the hole here; right? You don't want side putts? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. And I think the greens are so big, they have to do a good job of kind of narrowing it down and just focusing on a certain part. You just can't just be looking at the whole green kind of thing. Q. What do you feel like you need to do better here to win than what you've done? What are the keys? MICHELLE WIE: You know, like I said, you just gotta put it in the right places and just give yourself as many uphill putts as you can. Q. Do you feel like you haven't done that as much here as you needed to? MICHELLE WIE: No. It's a tough golf course. I think you just gotta make birdies when you kind and kind of play patient golf out here. Q. Meghan touched around when she was talking about there, I mean obviously a lot of illness so far. You know, is that a bummer given I'm sure you want to get off to a good start and have been working on things? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. It's been a little bit of a bummer just because I wasn't able to practice as much as I wanted to or just didn't have the energy. Just feeling sick sucks, especially if you feel sick for a month. But like I said earlier, I feel a lot better, and I think kind of hopefully getting over it now. Q. You talked about working on things. I'm not sure the term you used. But‑‑ and I think you said in Phoenix last week. Are you working on trying to simplify thoughts as much as anything as far as your approach? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean I think the simpler the better. I mean golf is complicated enough, and I think sometimes I do a bad job of not keeping things simple, and you know, all in all it's a pretty simple game, if you keep it simple, but it can get very complicated very fast. So I think that's just what I'm trying to do is keep my thoughts on focus. Q. I think you touched on it last week. That's not necessarily your nature; right? MICHELLE WIE: Uh‑huh. Q. I mean it's been your nature to be analytical as a person, not just as a golfer. You know, whether it's grades or class or whatever. MICHELLE WIE: Uh‑huh. Q. So you fight that? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, for sure. I definitely fight that. I think I've definitely gotten better over the years at it. It's definitely a work in progress, for sure. Q. So when you're out there, Michelle, what do you‑‑ it's kind of funny because it's almost like you have to try to think not to think. So how is that working right now, I guess? MICHELLE WIE: You know, just playing when you go out there, just going out there, and you know, my caddy helps me out a lot. He's so chill. He's completely the opposite of me. So I can definitely feed off of that energy for sure. Q. Are you any more appreciate? You were out for a while. You feel energized to get back? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, for sure. Definitely. Feels good to be out here. Q. How are you enjoying this part of being on the tour in your career? I know when you're young and everything is new and fresh and exciting. Probably seeing things a little differently after being out here a little bit, I would think. Or which one is better, I guess, when you're just starting out or when you kind of know what's around the next corner and you can prepare for it? MICHELLE WIE: I think it's all great. I think there's definitely growing pains. At the same time, you know, it's a stressful life. You know, it's not all, you know. Q. Not all going to the beach. MICHELLE WIE: Exactly. But I'm very grateful for everything, grateful for the opportunities. And I think that hard work does pay off. And sometimes the struggle is fun, you know. The struggle of the game, you know, you're working on stuff and everything, and I think that's the nature of it. You're just always working on something. Q. Moving into next week, I know everybody says this swing is kind of preparing for a and a. Everybody wants to start off the major season well. This is kind of last year where you started playing well and then playing well at Kraft. How do you feel kind of moving into that major season? MICHELLE WIE: I'm not really thinking about next week too much. I'm just focusing on this week, just focusing on getting things comfortable, feeling good about my swing, feeling good about my game. I'm just thinking about kind of not even the whole week in general, just trying to focus more on smaller things, about what I'm going to do next and my next shot and just keep it really small. Q. Seems like there was this enormous buildup and you can tell me if it was pressure or not, leading up to you winning your first major, then you winning not only a major, but U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Was it as much of a relief as it was elation or how‑‑ MICHELLE WIE: It was everything. It was a lot of emotions. Q. A lot of tears that day. MICHELLE WIE: A lot of tears. But it was fun. Q. Yeah. And then post that, when people win their first major, people talked about for years about then trying to live up to that. And so for you it's just so striking that there were all those expectations, and then it happens, and then just creates more expectations? MICHELLE WIE: More expectations. Q. Right? MICHELLE WIE: I mean it's good, though. I mean I think that after I kind of did it, I know I can do it and it's easier to replicate a feeling than to try and create a feeling. So it's a really good thought to always go back to and look back to like what did I do that week. I didn't play so great in the beginning of the year, so I look back on that week and my coach and I have been trying to get back to how I was swinging that week, how I was feeling, so it's definitely easier to replicate a feeling than to create one. Q. People have described that week for you as one where it looked like you were almost out of body, that it was‑‑ like that you were swinging as freely, I guess is the best way for me to put it. Do you look back on it as that way, and if you do look back on it that way, how did you come to that? MICHELLE WIE: You know, I think just it was a combination of I've been playing great all year, and I finally got to the point where I was really confident in what I was doing, I knew exactly what I was doing, and that's kind of the point that I want to get back to again. Just feeling really comfortable, feeling 100 percent sure of what I'm doing, and I think I'm headed in that direction again. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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