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MICHELOB ULTRA OPEN AT KINGSMILL

May 5, 2004

Michelle Wie West

WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA

DANA VONLOUDA: Welcome. How are you doing? This is your third tournament this year, LPGA tournaments, and you have a different caddie this week, Fluff^ Cowen. If you want to talk about this tournament in general, and how you feel about your game.

MICHELLE WIE: Well, I mean, I am really looking forward to this week. This is my third tournament, I can't believe I am almost halfway through. This week is going to be really a fun week with Fluff on my bag. This course, it's lovely. I am getting to know the players a lot better. It is going to be a fun week.

DANA VONLOUDA: Questions.

Q. You obviously have a limited number of sponsor exemptions. Why choose this one?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, I don't know. I just want to play different kind of tournaments. I just heard that this is a great tournament. When I looked at the TV coverage last year the course looked wonderful, I don't know, I didn't really choose it. My dad was like, okay, this looks like a good tournament. I was like, okay, this sounds good.

Q. You always have a lot of the top golfers here. That level of competition I am sure was important to you to play the best when you can?

MICHELLE WIE: The point of playing the LPGA tournament is to play with the best. I think that playing in a tournament like this helps me do that.

Q. You are going to be here for the public links defense at the Golden Horseshoe. Can you just talk about that for a little bit and what that means to you to defend that?

MICHELLE WIE: Yes, it's going to be a first time ever to defend a title. I think it's going to be really interesting, I mean, it's the first time to do that and I think it's going to be really fun. I am really looking forward to that.

Q. A lot of people keep speculating on your future. You have said you wanted to go to Stanford. I don't know if that means you go there to go to school or play golf there. Have you decided or have you come anywhere close to making a decision about whether you want to turn professional before that?

MICHELLE WIE: I haven't really made any decisions yet. I feel like I really have to go to college for me to be mature enough. I mean, I don't want to turn professional way too early. I think I haven't really decided anything yet. I am just trying to take it step by step and see what happens.

Q. Are you curious to watch Aree Song how she does this year and how she feels about the season could that of any impact on your decision in the future?

MICHELLE WIE: Her playing well this year hasn't made any effect on me whether I want to petition or not joining the LPGA early. I just feel like I don't want to turn professional really early because it's a lot of pressure on you to like make money, to play it like suddenly your hobby becomes your job. So I think I have to be mature enough for that. I don't think I am ready for that now.

Q. Have you talked to her about it at all or what it's been like for her?

MICHELLE WIE: Not really, no.

Q. Are you comfortable with how much you are doing, how much attention you are getting and how fast things are going for you?

MICHELLE WIE: I like fast. I mean, I think always fast is fun. I think I am getting used to it. I think -- I just enjoy it so much that I don't really pay attention to all this kind of stuff.

Q. How have the players been with you this week? Talked to anybody at length?

MICHELLE WIE: I talked to a lot of people. I catched up with them. They were just really nice people. And I will have a nice time tomorrow playing with all the players and it's just every tournament I go to I get to know the players more often and I think it's a real privilege for me. I mean, staying -- looking at the players from outside the rope and from inside the rope is a totally different feeling. I feel really privileged to just to get to know them a lot.

Q. Have you talked to Ernie since the Sony?

MICHELLE WIE: No, I haven't. I haven't seen him.

Q. Curtis Cup, first trip to Britain. Talk about how you are looking forward to that. Do you think it will be a different pressure from playing an LPGA event?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I think it will be a different kind of pressure. I am really looking forward to playing in Europe. I just -- I am really looking forward to playing in a pot bunker. I think that's one thing that I am really looking forward to. The one thing that I am really looking forward to is just a team competition being able to like unite together and to play for America and I think that's a really great feeling. I don't know, I just feel that golf is a really lonely sport. You are always playing by yourself. Then suddenly you are on a team, you have to have teamwork, I think it will be really fun.

Q. Talk about pressure. If you are a top level athlete you really love the pressure. How do you deal with it and how does it affect your game?

MICHELLE WIE: Like you said I really enjoy the pressure. Life is a lot more fun when there's pressure on you, then there's nothing really to it. I mean, I think I always like living on the edge, I mean, so like when you are playing a round of golf it's not really fun when nothing is really happening. Doesn't matter if you play good or bad but if you are like if you have to play good to show someone something or whatever, like, I kind of makes it a lot more fun like if you have to make that putt. It's like a really important tournament and you have to do good, if there's a lot more pressure on you it's a lot more fun.

Q. Does it mean playing Skins games or playing dollar Nassaus you are not in a tournament?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I put like bets on the game to make it more fun. Sometimes like I play against my dad's friend and go three against one. Like I give him like strokes so it's pretty tough.

Q. Are you still able to be a 14, 15 year old teenage girl and have a budding golf career? Talk about how you balance that. Nobody wants to get old quick, but how do you balance it all?

MICHELLE WIE: I don't really try to balance it all. It just happens. I don't really have to try too hard to be 14 because I already am, so it's not that hard, I mean, when you are not playing golf I just go out with my friends on Fridays and Saturdays, I mean, and I just go to the movies, just regular stuff. I mean, it's not like I am just practice -- just thinking, playing, eating golf like 24/7. I have another life too.

Q. Do you ever think of a gay named Freddy Adu? He seems to be the same age bracket, what do you think when you see his progress and do you compare yourself to him at all with the notoriety, anything like that?

MICHELLE WIE: No, not really, I don't really compare myself to him. I just think -- I don't really see him play soccer but I think it's really great about how he's playing and stuff and I think it's cool. I don't really compare myself to him.

Q. How much of your average day is devoted to golf either practicing or watching tape of lessons and things of that nature?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, golf practice, for me on an average basis is about three to four hours and just exercise like for golf takes another hour, hour and a half but everything else is just me, I guess.

Q. Is there ever a day when you just say boy, I really wish I didn't have to go to the golf course?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, that day I hope for rain to come.

Q. But if rain doesn't come, do you go?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I mean I still go. I mean, you know, there's some like the days that you don't want to practice you have to practice, you know, I mean, those are the important days if you just -- I mean, I have some days that I really don't want to practice but I just get out there, I mean, it's fun. Even though I mean practice is a little bit boring I will admit but I have to practice for me to play good in a tournament and I know that, so I just have to practice hard.

Q. You hear a lot about athletes who are really good when they are young and like you I am sure you are really enjoying what you are doing, you just want to keep doing it that's why you do it a lot; then you hear some of them after, they say that three years down the road they get burned out. I am sure it's hard for you to think about that down the road, but -- or do you?

MICHELLE WIE: I think I am a little bit different because everyone that said that was already professional when they said that. And I am not making money right now. I am just playing as a hobby, I guess. I mean, I don't think I will turn professional in like two, three years. But I mean, right now, it's a hobby for me, it's what I want to do. It's not yet a job and I think that I am still enjoying it because I am not making money yet.

Q. You probably don't try to overthink much, do you?

MICHELLE WIE: No, I mean, I -- my motto is life is simple. Don't make it complicated although it is.

Q. You played some LPGA events. Do you feel like your game is at a point where you can win now; is that the next step for you to win an LPGA event?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I think that's what I am trying to work on right now - is to try to win because I think that -- I think I have enough experience right now and I think my game is almost there to -- I think that I just want to win. I mean, like the other tournaments, my goal was just to make the cut just to make a name for myself. Now I have made enough cuts, I think I know what it is like. I just want to win now.

Q. Favorite subject in school?

MICHELLE WIE: I don't know, I'd have to say it's Japanese.

Q. You know, your professional career hasn't even started yet but do you have an interest outside of golf that's so intense for you that you might have a short pro career and devote the rest of your life to it, whatever that might be?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I mean, I am not really interested in playing golf 'til him 90 years old. Because that's a whole lot of years.

Q. How about 40?

MICHELLE WIE: Maybe. I mean that's still 36 years of playing golf. (Laughs). But I think I would like to do something else outside of golf too, like I want to go to college and learn business, like major in business and then open my own company. I think it will be pretty cool if I like started a golf course and then designed it and then around the golf courses you sell homes, then design the homes and sell them. I don't know, I was just thinking about it. I want to do something in business and maybe I can open up my own clothes line or something.

Q. You said that you want to win. Is this course set up for you in such a way that gives you confidence that you might be able to do that this week?

MICHELLE WIE: It's not perfectly set up for me because some of the holes aren't, like, long, and wide, but I think that you have to become a player that can win in any kind of situation, not only for the courses that are perfect for you.

Q. When you read in magazines and newspapers the type of money that's out there, that's proposed that's out there, are you overwhelmed by that?

MICHELLE WIE: No, not really. I think it's pretty cool.

Q. Do you find yourself, does that -- do you find yourself sometimes thinking the temptation?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, yeah, I mean sometimes, I mean, when if someone gives you like $50 million, kind of hard to say no. But I mean, I really don't want to accept that money right now and then feel really burdened and just like drop out of golf. I mean, I think that that should wait, I mean, I think big money should be handled by mature people and right now I am a little bit too immature for that big of a money and I don't think I can know how to use that money, so I think I have to get a little bit older just get more mature, know more about life and all that, then wait until that happens.

Q. What have you learned about yourself as you embarked on this busiest year of your golf life, from what you thought before it started to what's happened to you and how you have dealt with it, what have you learned about yourself?

MICHELLE WIE: I don't know. I don't really know about myself that well. I probably thought about myself really (laughs). I don't know.

Q. Ever get tired of talk being about 14 and how young you are, ever tire of that subject?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, it gets kind of repetitive, but it's okay.

Q. Sony or being in the Hunt at Nabisco, what was the greatest for you?

MICHELLE WIE: I have no idea. They were just both awesome. They were growth in two different ways. I'd have to say Sony is wonderful experience for me because it's kind of a taste of what I want to do in the future. And it's the first time ever and plus it's first -- it's the first PGA TOUR tournament turn in Hawaii that I have played in so getting all the local support is really -- it was really great. Playing with Ernie was also really good too. But I think Nabisco was also just fantastic because it was the first time that I played the golf course two years in a row, so I mean, being in the hunt in a Championship was just a wonderful experience and being under pressure every shot counts, it is just a wonderful thing.

Q. How tall are you?

MICHELLE WIE: Six feet.

Q. Are you still growing?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, my pants seem like they're getting a little bit short.

Q. What size do you wear? Dress size?

MICHELLE WIE: I don't know, 4.

Q. What about shoe size?

MICHELLE WIE: 9 and a half in men's.

Q. How much do you weigh?

MICHELLE WIE: Oh, I don't know. I haven't weighed myself.

Q. Ballpark?

MICHELLE WIE: Under 200 and more than 0.

Q. There are several ways to get into The Masters. Hootie Johnson said if you qualify you could play. Do you see yourself trying -- attempting a men's amateur or the men's public links this year or next year?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I use anyway to get into The Masters and by U.S. amateur, Public Links Amateur or U.S. Open maybe. Now they are even talking about British Open, but I don't know, whatever those ways I want to try to get into The Masters; that's my ultimate goal.

Q. You have talked about how you want to win this week and looking forward to it. Have you actually felt frustrated that you haven't won any of these events yet; has that crossed your mind?

MICHELLE WIE: It's not really frustrated. I mean, I think it's more, I don't know, it's kind of like a lack, I mean, not a lack, but it's kind of feel like you could have done it, but I didn't. So it's like I had those moments where I could have caught and I could have won it but I just didn't take that moment so I just kind of went downhill from there. So I think maybe this week I will catch that moment and hopefully everything will turn good.

Q. Do you look back at that and think and sort of pinpoint well here, I lost my concentration maybe or here I was thinking about something else when I should have been thinking about --

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I mean last year my concentration was just terrible, but the last two tournaments like the Nabisco and the Safeway I worked on my concentration a lot. And it was good. I was concentrating the whole round, but it is just that one important putt that I missed and then it's just -- I couldn't catch it again.

Q. Coming up when you were starting to play before people and the galleries increased, did you feel as though you had to work on playing before -- playing in front of people, that seems like -- for amateurs and hackers that seems like an impossible thing to have people ten feet from you while you are trying to hit a shot. Was that hard for you to adjust to and is it comfortable for you?

MICHELLE WIE: I never like from the first time I never really thought about it playing in front of people. It was just natural for me. I mean, it's just people watching, because I am kind of used to it. I am kind of used to embarrassing myself, you know, I -- how bad can it be, just have to laugh it off and everything. I don't really think about it. People watching me or anything, I don't really think about it, no.

Q. You got the world beaten a path to your door, got a future that most people would just dream about yet it seems like you are very levelheaded, very mature. How have you not let all this just go to your head? You could quite will be the No. 1 women's player in the world in a couple of years.

MICHELLE WIE: Well, I don't know. I never really thought about it really. I am not a really thinking person. (Laughter).

Q. There's a certain humbleness and the arrogance isn't there. You could very well have that. Some players do. How do you maintain -- I mean you are a 14 year old girl --

MICHELLE WIE: I don't know. Well, I just think that whenever I get a little -- sometimes I do get a little big-headed and then just I -- then I just play a really bad shot and then I still know that I am human again. I never really -- I mean, sometimes I do get big-headed sometimes but then I get smacked down again by playing a bad round of golf.

Q. With all your dreams, do you really see yourself waiting until you are 22 to turn pro or do you see yourself maybe a year in college and then turning pro? Could you let us in on what you dream about these things; what you see yourself doing?

MICHELLE WIE: For now I see myself going to college. Graduating with a diploma because I see no reason just to work your butt off in college for two years and not get a diploma. I think that's a totally waste. So I want to go to college for four years. I haven't really decided what I want to do with golf.

Q. With Annika Sorenstam getting her 50th LPGA win in year and the attention these brought to the Tour last couple of years, are those some things that when you get on playing golf full-time do you see yourself doing things like that do you envision yourself in that kind of role on this Tour some day?

MICHELLE WIE: I just think it's really wonderful what Annika has done for this Tour. She's a wonderful player and she brought a lot of attention playing in the Colonial and just winning 50 tournaments I think that's awesome. I haven't really thought about really changing the LPGA or like making it bigger or anything. I mean, I think it's wonderful as it is right now. Maybe the scores will get better, everything might get better, and I haven't really -- I don't think I really thought about really changing the Tour or anything.

Q. Do you have any plans on playing anymore men's tournaments this year and also to follow-up on the Masters question, are you going to look to qualify for the U.S. Amateur or one of those other events this year or you are just talking about in the future?

MICHELLE WIE: I would love to play this year, but my schedule doesn't really allow me to. If I did have an opening I would love to play.

DANA VONLOUDA: Thank you, MICHELLE.

MICHELLE WIE: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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