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SHOPRITE LPGA CLASSIC PRESENTED BY ACERMay 31, 2015Anna NordqvistGALLOWAY, NEW JERSEY THE MODERATOR: All right. Well, it's my pleasure to welcome in the 2015 champion of the ShopRite LPGA Classic, Anna Nordqvist. Anna, congratulations, and I could see the emotions coming out at the green side when I first spoke to you. It's Mother's Day in Sweden and this is the first time your mom has seen you out on the LPGA tour in person. That has to be very, very special for you. ANNA NORDQVIST: Yeah, it's the first time I win on the LPGA tour any one of my family members are there with me, so it's definitely special. And it's Mother's Day in Sweden, so I couldn't have give her a better present than to spend the day with her. I'm just speechless right now. I fought hard today and can't believe I'm sitting here with the trophy. THE MODERATOR: Now, you're one of those people that preaches hard work pays off. You went through a drought up until last year with a winless streak. Grinded, grinded, worked hard. You made sacrifices. You obviously have not won in a little bit obviously this year, but how much did the hard work recently pay off for today. ANNA NORDQVIST: I always feel like I've been a hard worker. Nothing's ever really come easy to me, and I like to practice, and this year, I'm fortunate to have a lot of great team members, and like great trainers at home, swing coach, caddy, physio. So they all have been kind of pushing me trying to stay patient. Had some really good talks with my mental coaches last week. And you know, just try to enjoy the game, and I feel like I've put myself in positions before this year but just couldn't close it out on three or four solid rounds throughout the tournament. THE MODERATOR: Now, throughout the day it was so close for so long. Talk about the clutch putts on the Back 9. How did you feel going into those last final five holes? ANNA NORDQVIST: I felt great. Even the front nine, I hit a great tee shot on 8. We just put ourselves too close to the pin, and felt like I hit a good putt there, and then made bogey. And then made a really good putt on 9 and 10; good par putt on 11. I hit it close on 12. I think I just lipped out there. 15 I three‑putted, but just knowing that I hit good putts helped me, and I hit a real good putt on 16 and even on 17 to give me a little bit of space there in the last. So I'm really proud of the way I fought, and I felt like I played really well today, and I put myself in a position to win. And like I said, I'm just really happy to be here. THE MODERATOR: All right. I'll open it up for questions. Q. Where was your mom on 18? (No microphone) ANNA NORDQVIST: I tried to find her out there, but it was quite a bit of people. I saw her after 17 after I just made two straight birdies. And then on 18 I had a short putt to win, and just in my line I saw my mom. I saw Mimi McBride, one of my good friends on tour. So I saw them there, and it was nice of them to stay there. So I saw them, and it was fun just being able to share the moment with them. Q. How much more special does it make it for you to have a family member here to share the moment with? ANNA NORDQVIST: Well, I've been in the U.S. since 2006 and it's been very hard being so far away from my family. They try to come visit as much as they can, but it just gets very hard because I still have a lot of my friends and family back home in Sweden, and unfortunately I can't go back more than a week or two a year. Just knowing, I mean my mom's been traveling with me for a couple of weeks, and it just makes it a little bit sweeter just to have someone there to care about you. So I definitely miss home, but just knowing that she was there made it even sweeter. Q. Anna, what was the wind like out there today? Was it worse or better than either the first two days, and could you explain how focused you were on the Back 9, especially when things got tight? ANNA NORDQVIST: Well, I think that this course gave us a little bit of a break the first day, but yesterday was really strong in the afternoon, and I'd say it was pretty much the same today. Maybe I was a little bit more used to it today just knowing it came from pretty much the same direction as we had it yesterday. But there are some really tough shots out there. Green 2 and 6 green, they are really exposed to the wind. But I just tried to focus on what I was supposed to do, and you know, on some holes you're aiming 20 yards right of the flag and let the wind take it back. But I felt like I had a chance going into the Back 9 today. Made a great putt on 10. And then just tried to focus on hitting good golf shots. I felt like I hit great golf shots on 12, 13, 14, 15. And then 16 and 17 they were great golf shots, too. So it was nice to make those putts on 16 and 17. But overall, just felt like I was very focused and just very determined today, I think. Q. Why do those closing holes, 16, 17, 18 set up so well for you? ANNA NORDQVIST: I don't know. Yesterday they had the pin all the way back on 16 and I hit it to five feet and made a putt for birdie. Today it was a little bit easier putt on 16, but I had a little 9‑iron in there and just really liked the way it looked. 17, I hit a great shot in there today. It was a tucked pin. 18 is a little tricky and I made a little bit of a mess out of it today, but I think just, you know, you fight so hard throughout the day, and just knowing, you know, you're coming down the stretch and you really want to finish it up. Q. Were you aware that the runner‑up had missed that short birdie putt on 18 and did still having a two‑shot cushion sort of affect the way you played that hole at all? ANNA NORDQVIST: Well, I saw she missed the putt on 18. I didn't know what it was for. But she must have hit a really good shot in there, Christel. We made a mess out of the lay up hitting an 8‑iron. It went nowhere. Wasn't too happy about that. And then I ended up having in between a 7‑iron and a 6‑iron I hit a little thick. But just knowing that she missed that putt and I had two strokes margin just obviously made it a little bit more comfortable for me. But I definitely‑‑ it's an uneasy shot, and tried to play it in the middle of the green, and I hit it a little bit left, but just knowing that I had three putts to win was pretty sweet. Q. And you seem to play very well here. What is it about the course, the tournament that, you know, lends itself to your game? ANNA NORDQVIST: Yeah. I had the last‑‑ or I had a great tournament last year I think to finish third. I think I finished fifth another year and then finished inside the Top 10 another year. So this seems to be one of the places I've been playing pretty well over the years. I like the challenge. You gotta hit good tee shots to place it in the fairways. You gotta hit great iron shots to hit it on the green and the greens are a little bit bumpy. So I think that helps better players just putting it a little closer to the hole. But I like the challenge of it, and I think the wind really makes it tough, and I think that's what I'm all for. I like a tough challenge. Q. Anna, Meghan alluded before to like the struggles you've had in your career, like the drought here and there. Judy Rankin said on the telecast that maybe you were having second thoughts about professional golf. Is that true? ANNA NORDQVIST: I did. I try not to think about it now. But yeah, there was a couple of years ago where I thought that I considered doing something else. I lost all my passion and heart for the game. So I had to make a couple of changes around myself with some people that helped me be positive and helped me stay in the game. So my younger brother came out, and that really made a big difference a couple of summers ago. But you know, moments like this are amazing, but there's a lot of hard work and a lot of grind that people don't see that goes behind it and if you don't have the passion and the heart to put in all the hard work on the side, it's tough. But I'm fortunate to be able to do what I'm doing, and I'm glad I stuck to it, and just knowing the downs that I've had just makes the ups even better now. Q. Was there any one reason that you lost your passion for golf? Bad play or just missing home? ANNA NORDQVIST: Yeah, definitely missing home and being close to my family and friends. You know, I just had to, you know, play golf for myself, and I had to be myself and find a reason to smile on and off the course, and you know, kind of took a little bit of a break, and I said to myself, either you stick to it or you find something else. And I'm glad I stuck to it, and it's just some times are going to be tough. I hadn't won for a couple of years and my golf game wasn't going as I wanted, and I felt like I worked pretty hard. But there comes moments where, you know, you make a choice, and you keep your head high and you work through it, and that's what I did. THE MODERATOR: And you said‑‑ you kind of mentioned the hard grind behind the scenes. You have three wins over the past two seasons up until this point. Not many players have that track record. You're one of a handful. But lend us some perspective on how hard it is to win out here and how special these moments are when they do pay off. ANNA NORDQVIST: This year I felt like I played pretty good, and I haven't‑‑ well, I've been in contention I think twice before today. But the rookies that came out on tour this year, they've been really good. I think four or five of them have already won on tour. So it's just getting more and more competitive, and that's what makes it even sweeter when you do get the win, because you know how hard it is to win. You can't have any errors, and you just can't make many mistakes if you want to come out on top. And I think it's great for women's golf, and I think it's great for me because I see how hard the Asians work and I want to work just as hard as them. Q. During the telecast Ms.Rankin also mentioned and shared on the 18th hole how you were putting from off the green and said that was one of your frequently chosen techniques. Could you describe some of the conditions under which you make that choice? ANNA NORDQVIST: Well, in that position I had three shots to win the tournament, and yeah, I could have chipped it, but it wasn't‑‑ you know, it was pretty much a no‑brainer. I was just off the fringe there, and you know you just have to get it up close to the hole and gave myself two putts to win. But just tried to play the percentage shots where I felt like I could get the best results, and in that position with a little bit of pressure, I felt like that was the shot to play. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you for coming in, and again, congratulations. ANNA NORDQVIST: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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