home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

June 8, 2005

Michelle Wie West

HAVRE DE GRACE, MARYLAND

Q. Everyone, thanks for coming. Michelle, thanks for joining us, we always appreciate you spending time with us. We haven't seen you in a little bit. Maybe you can talk about what you have been doing.

MICHELLE WIE: What have I been doing? I have been going to school, studying, and I'm done with school right now so it feels great. I have been working on my game a lot, taking time off, having fun, being my normal self again, it's great having no more school.

Q. Can you talk about this week coming in. It's your second Major this year, being the loan amateur this week.

MICHELLE WIE: I feel so privileged playing all four Majors this year. It's a great feeling because, you know, Majors are kind of different from the regular tournaments. You learn a lot more and the atmosphere is a lot different. It's great to come.

Q. We'll take some questions.

Michelle, you cut short your practice round today. Any particular reason or had you seen enough of the course.

MICHELLE WIE: I played 18 today.

Q. How about your impressions of the course?

MICHELLE WIE: It's great. It's in great condition right now. Overall it's a real great course. I mean, it's a great Major course and hopefully I can play good on it.

Q. What can you do at Nabisco that you can't do here?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, it's a lot more tree lined here than at Nabisco. These are very different golf courses, yet there's still fairways and greens, so I still have to hit them. It's really different playing desert golf and coming here and playing. It's a really pretty golf course and hopefully I'll do okay.

Q. Michelle, as far as we know, you're the first amateur ever to play in the LPGA championship. Talk about what that means.

MICHELLE WIE: I was very surprised when I got the invitation. It was a great honor to get it and to be able to play here. Of course I accepted it.

Q. Were you aware immediately that you are the first amateur to ever play this?

MICHELLE WIE: Not really. I haven't really thought about it. It's like, okay, another Major, great. I never really thought about that. After a couple people told me, I was like, oh, okay.

Q. Michelle, how would you answer to some of the people that maybe an amateur shouldn't play in this event?

MICHELLE WIE: I don't know. You've got to ask the people who gave the invitation. All I did was receive it. It's not like we lobbied for it. It was like they gave it to us and it was a great privilege to accept it.

Q. You said this year that you are glad that school is over. Just more work than ever?

MICHELLE WIE: In what sense?

Q. School work, homework.

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I was so stressed out the last week of school. It was exam, exam, exam, exam, and after the last one I felt so good and relieved. I'm kind of missing all my friends right now, but it's so exciting to be out here.

Q. How did you do? Did you get your results back?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, the good news is I don't get them until I get back, which is August, so I don't have to think about it, but I think I did okay on them. If I said I did good on them, then I wouldn't do good on them. I got one of my test scores back and it was really good.

Q. When will you be back?

MICHELLE WIE: First week of school, August 20 something.

Q. Michelle, your record in Majors is very good. How do you assess your chances this week playing well here? Do you set goals coming into the week?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, one of my goals is definitely to win, obviously. I want to just shoot consistent under par rounds. I achieved that in the SBS and it proved out to be really good. Hopefully to get a little lower and not waste my shots out there. I want to play a lot more consistent and smartly. I want to feel like I played good after this week.

Q. Do you feel more comfortable?

MICHELLE WIE: Definitely. In the Nabisco, especially playing the last group with Annika, I was like I don't know what to do. I've gotten a lot more comfortable since then.

Q. If you get in the last group with Annika this week, do you think you'll be okay?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I think I'll be okay.

Q. Have you grown accustomed to kind of this life? Through the years have you gotten used to it?

MICHELLE WIE: Definitely, but if I had my choice, I would play a couple of tournaments in a row. It's kind of hard playing one tournament and resting for another month or two and then playing in another one. It's a little bit tough for me to get you know, people that play week after week after week, they get that rhythm that keeps them going, but it's kind of like a stop go, stop go, kind of thing. I've gotten a lot more used to it than before; hopefully I'll get the rhythm back quickly.

Q. Were you surprised or not surprised that Paula won so quickly?

MICHELLE WIE: I was not surprised she won at all. I've played with her a lot of times at the Curtis Cup. I was very happy she won. It was a great feeling. I wasn't really surprised at all.

Q. Who is your caddy this week?

MICHELLE WIE: I have Jimmy Johnson.

Q. You talked about you were a little stressed going into your final exams. Some would say you should feel that pressure out here. Do you feel that pressure?

MICHELLE WIE: Actually, I never felt that stress before in my life. When I play golf I actually feel unstressed. After all my exams I go out on the range and hit tons and tons of balls like every teacher, whack.

My teachers are great this year, but after those exams, hitting balls was so good. It was like boxing. It's really funny, I get really nervous during math tests.

I was talking to my sports psychologist and he was like, "Is there any problems you need to talk about on the golf course?" I was like "No, I have to talk about my math tests." After we talked a little bit, I have been getting really good grades.

Q. After Paula won, it raised a lot of talk about the process that she went through versus the process you're going through. Are you still comfortable with your process compared to what she's done?

MICHELLE WIE: Definitely. You know, under the circumstances I feel like who knows who's right or wrong. It's not a matter of right or wrong. We're different people so different paths are obvious. I feel like since I have I didn't grow up near competition. It was just junior golf around the islands, and it's a long way to junior tournaments on the mainland. I feel like I made a good decision.

I wanted to play but I wasn't allowed. So when I was 12 I decided to go ahead and try, and I made it, and since then, playing in LPGA events, I was kind of like, oh, obviously, if you look at it this way, you guys are writing great newspapers, and suddenly somebody says, oh, you're too young, go back and write your high school newspaper, would you want to do that?

Q. Would there be anything that would accelerate your decision to turn pro?

MICHELLE WIE: No, I don't really have a checklist. Well, I definitely have a to do list before I die thing. I don't have a checklist, but if I turn pro I'll definitely tell you guys.

Q. Being the amateur on the Tour do you feel like the rest of the players have embraced you?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, I guess I'm not really taking their money so they don't have anything against me. It's great being an amateur. It's carefree. You don't have to think "This putt is worth 100,000" kind of thing. It's great.

Q. Can you compare your schedule last year to this year. Is your schedule heavier this year?

MICHELLE WIE: I feel like my schedule this year is a lot better than last year. I played one tournament or two tournaments, and I had a week off. So it's basically like I play one tournament, take two months off, I couldn't get my rhythm going.

This year I'm playing a lot more tournaments in a row and I feel like that's going to help.

Q. Have you made any decisions on the Women's Amateur yet?

MICHELLE WIE: It's kind of tough, we're trying to look for tickets but we arrive on the day the tournament starts. We arrive in the afternoon. We're still thinking about it, but the chances are very low now. It's very hard to get a ticket.

Q. Michelle, we've all seen you drive the ball. How about a car? Are you working on that?

MICHELLE WIE: I got my permit.

Q. Is that good news or bad news for the rest of us?

MICHELLE WIE: I don't know, it's probably bad. But I got my permit, and we're driving back and forth, and I feel really proud. I'm actually driving now. It's actually really not that much, but it's great. After I got my permit, we were in Pittsburgh, and they had a Hummer off course trail, so I was doing that, going over logs and going into water. That was really cool.

Q. Is that your choice of vehicles?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I mean, definitely. If I can get a car, I don't really care what car I get.

Q. Does it bother you at all if you hear like certain golfers saying, you know, "Why are you playing in this tournament? It's for pros, not amateurs." Does that bother you at all?

MICHELLE WIE: Not really. I totally understand what their saying. They're saying that it's only for the LPGA, but, I mean, it's not like they just changed the rule only for me. It's like they invited a lot of the international players and stuff like that. Overall, I think it's pretty good. I mean, I understand what they're saying but I'm just excited to be here so it's good.

Q. What do you think the winning score is going to be this week?

MICHELLE WIE: I'm not really sure. I'm really bad at predicting the score. It's definitely going to be low, I think.

Q. Let's have a number.

MICHELLE WIE: It's, low.

Q. Does the pressure of competition and living your lifestyle make you feel older? Is that uncomfortable sometimes if you go through that?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, sometimes when I wake up, I feel old. Sometimes when I wake up I feel sometimes I'm still 5 years old, the way I act. Living out here being around older people, you feel older. You know, like the people always say when old people stay with young people they get younger, like when grandparents stay with grandkids they get younger, it's kind of the opposite for me. I'm young staying with old people, so, you know, I feel a little bit older.

But it was really funny, this one guy called me 12 years old the other day. That was pretty interesting.

Q. Who was it?

MICHELLE WIE: I don't know. Some guy. He's like, so you're 12 years old, you're five years younger than me. It was like, okay, moving on.

Q. Could you see yourself as a role model for younger women who are aspiring to possibly one day to be on the LPGA?

MICHELLE WIE: I can't imagine myself being a role model, but I think it would be pretty cool to see other young girls do the things I do. Pretty soon I'm going to be the older generation and it's going to feel kind of weird. I think it's pretty cool.

Q. Would a win here tempt you to turn pro or are you still thinking college?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, I mean, if I turn pro or not, I'm definitely going to go to college, but it would tempt me a little with all the money and stuff like that. You know, I like being an amateur, and I still think I'm a little bit too young to handle that money. I can barely manage my allowance.

Q. What is your allowance?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, I earn my allowance. I play for my allowance. Every under par I get money and stuff like that.

Q. Every time you play?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, pretty much.

Q. So putts do mean something?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, it does, but not as much.

Q. Any more questions for Michelle? No. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle.

MICHELLE WIE: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297