SIEW-AI LIM: It would have been a lot more difficult. There was a lot of mud balls earlier this morning. You hit a ball right in the middle of the fairway, you would have mud on it, and that effects a lot as far as ball trajectory goes. That makes it a lot more difficult. Getting in place, that helps for the afternoon round. It won't be unplayable for the afternoon rounds.
Q. What would the win mean for you?
SIEW-AI LIM: Tremendous. You go into every tournament wanting a win, and it would mean a whole lot to me, because this is my fifth year on tour, and being the only Malaysian playing professionally in America, that would be a tremendous boost for golf back home even.
Q. I think this goes along the lines of the question about 54 versus 72 holes. I know at least a couple years ago there is the trend that the players who get the morning tee time on Friday in a 54-hole tournament, a lot of them are usually in contention on Sunday.
I wonder, given that, when you see yourself with a morning time on the first day of a 54-hole tournament, does that cross your mind, and do you get your hopes up or do you get optimistic because of it.
SIEW-AI LIM: Well, I mean, it gets to a point where it eventually evens out. You're going to have some 54-hole events where you're in the morning and some in the afternoon. I guess, they always say it kind of shakes out in the end. I got the first tee time this morning, and I was really psyched. I was excited about it. I get very nice greens to putt on. So, you try and look at the positive and just focus on the positive really. Otherwise, you just get into a spiral, and it doesn't help you any.
Q. Do you believe that theory that I just gave you or --
SIEW-AI LIM: I think there is some merit to that theory, and they've done -- unofficially, of course, they've kind of looked at it and they do find that morning groups always play that little bit better, because they do get better greens. And depending on the course conditions, sometimes if you're in the morning, the course is still wet. This afternoon, if it doesn't stay wet, the groups are going to have greens that are still holding. So, it depends from week to week. It doesn't happen all the time, and sometimes it is an advantage to play in the afternoon.
Q. As wet as it is, are the greens not spiking, or are they spiking up? Is it going to be more difficult for the afternoon because of that?
SIEW-AI LIM: You know, as I said, I was the first off on the front side -- on the back side this morning, so I had perfect greens to putt on, and then the Back 9, you know, there were a couple -- I think most players are playing with soft spikes, so you don't have too many marks, but then you have nice indentations that the soft spikes leave. I saw a couple out there. Being on the front end of the turn, it's probably going to get worse.
Q. As a Malaysian, if you were to win, what would happen back home?
SIEW-AI LIM: Very excited people.
Q. Do you think it would be, oh, I don't know -- I mean, obviously you have tremendous focus and it's been an explosion when somebody from Asia or Southeast Asia wins over here. Do you think it would really be fireworks?
SIEW-AI LIM: I think that will really help the junior development program back home. Right now, we have a current junior development program, but I think a lot of parents back home still have -- most Asian parents are like that, maybe not in Japan or Korea, academics usually come first and for their child to pursue a sports-related career is always something they're very hesitant about. So lots of times they try not to encourage going to the nth degree, because it's going to be really difficult, and you always want a steady paycheck for your kid.
So, I think, there may be some parents that suddenly go, hey, someone's done it. This could be a possibility. So --
Q. How closely do people follow you in Malaysia? How well recognized are you over there?
SIEW-AI LIM: Among golfers, pretty well recognized. I've got a number of people I grew up in the golf clubs that I was at. I'm a member of two golf clubs. A lot of people would just get on-line and track me on the LPGA.com live scoreboard. And some of my friends said, I hope they don't track who goes to what page, because they might think I'm stalking you.
MODERATOR: You want to go over your score card.
(Score card done.)
MODERATOR: Any other questions?
All right. Thank you very much.
SIEW-AI LIM: Thank you.
End of FastScripts....
