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WENDY'S CHAMPIONSHIP FOR CHILDREN

August 20, 2004

Reilley Rankin

DUBLIN, OHIO

Q. Thanks for coming in, 7 under 65, 8 under right now. You're one back. Can you just talk about the day? You played really well. The rain off and on, and then we'll take some questions. You had to come back, finish the first round, and then the second round. Just your thought process for the day. You had to fight the rain and everything. What was going through your mind as you woke up this morning and knew you had a long day ahead of you.

Why don't you talk about the round today. You shot a 30 on the front nine. Talk about the parts of your game that were really effective out there today.

REILLEY RANKIN: Well, I just really tried to trust my intuition and instinct today. I've gotten away from that a little bit, I think, this year, and I realized that during the week off. All my attention was on my target while I was over the ball, just tried to stay patient.

Q. What phase of your game today was best?

REILLEY RANKIN: I just kept putting myself in position and giving myself good opportunities, I mean, from tee to green. It helps when you hit the fairway when you get to lift, clean and place.

I was in good position in the fairway and took advantage of it.

Q. How messy was it out there?

REILLEY RANKIN: Pretty wet. Usually we play lift, clean and re place. I think it was a little too wet to do that with the pitch marks. It was usually right in front of a pitch mark. It's pretty wet out there, and you have to take that into account to hit your shot.

I'll just wait and see what the rule sheet says tomorrow.

Q. I know it's been five years, but I'm interested in your back injury and the rehabilitation time it took, and now you're in a position to maybe compete for an LPGA Tour event title here. Can you reflect on that a little bit for us?

REILLEY RANKIN: June 4th was one of the scariest days of my life and one of the best days or luckiest days. I feel fortunate.

My back is great. I don't think about it. I've been very, very fortunate as far as the healing process goes and the people I've been surrounded by throughout the rehab. It started at the University of Georgia, and then I saw Tom Boers in Columbus. Each stage, I guess, where I was in my game or at that time in my life, I had great people on my side for support system.

Then recently I've been working with a new trainer, strength trainer in Florida, Ty Future, and he sent me to see a guy named Lynn Peachworth (sic), who does structural integration that balances your nerve system. My muscles weren't firing at the right time two years ago after I had done the rehab, so Ty noticed that and sent me to see him, which made the biggest difference overall. I'm very lucky to have run into Ty and Lynn. I kept doing rehab, but if my muscles aren't firing it's not going to do any good.

Q. Was there a time when you thought you wouldn't play golf again?

REILLEY RANKIN: There was a time when doctors told me I would never walk. When I was in the hospital, the first X ray we got back, it started getting scary, and not knowing what exactly was wrong, I just said, "well, am I going to be able to play golf?" I guess, kind of, "what about golf?" I don't think I ever really asked the question, but a couple doctors decided to tell me, one in particular, that I would never play golf again.

At first they didn't know if I'd walk, or the injury was in my back, I broke it in three places, and on one vertebrae I broke it on the anterior and the posterior, and the nerve runs right through there, and I was a half centimeter from being paralyzed.

So for probably eight months to a year, I had to wear this brace. I didn't wear it for eight months, but it probably was eight months to a year until the doctor said, okay, you can't paralyze yourself, which was probably one of the biggest reliefs throughout the whole thing because especially at the beginning if I would have fallen down or something, done something wrong, they said I could easily paralyze myself.

They had to put this belt around the brace so someone had to hold onto it. Every time I did anything, someone had to be right there holding on.

Q. (Inaudible)?

REILLEY RANKIN: It might have been L5 where it was on both sides.

Q. Has it changed your outlook on golf now? Do you consider now you maybe took it for granted before. Do you have a different outlook now?

REILLEY RANKIN: Just reemphasizes that's not the right word I'm looking for. It definitely just keeps reminding me how fortunate I am, and everybody out here, the small things are what makes a big difference in the long run, I think. I mean, I learned a lot about myself and a lot about, I guess, life in general and how precious it is and really how fortunate I am to have an opportunity to play golf. You know, the hard work, just staying patient, those are a pretty big test of patience the whole time during the rehab and not being able to play golf, but I was lucky to have another chance.

Q. So in other words, having a tournament delayed and having to get up early this morning, that's not really testing your patience like it did five years ago?

REILLEY RANKIN: No. You know, I mean, there's a lot of ways to deal with the rain. There's bad weather, and to me, it happens for a reason, or I'll make up something in my head, just like I needed a break or whatever. I mean, yeah, it's not a big deal. It actually makes it fun, challenging.

I mean, the weather this week or in the last two days that I played in was kind of what I expected at the British Open, but we didn't get it, and I was looking forward to that weather over there just because every time I've ever watched it, the guys are putting their rain suit on and then they're in short sleeved shirts and then a sweater.

Q. Based on all that, how satisfying, how wonderful is this round of 65?

REILLEY RANKIN: I mean, I look forward to the weekend. Mentally it's a tournament with 72 holes, and I just have to go home and go to sleep and just string it all together instead of breaking it up. I don't break the nines up. I mean, yes, they're broken up and you go to the next tee, but I don't do like consecutive, like tomorrow it's going to be the 37th hole instead of the first hole, if that makes sense.

I mean, I'm glad to be in the position I'm in, and that's what my goal is every day on every shot.

Q. You seem a little underwhelmed to have played bogey free on the second round. Given the conditions, I would expect you to be a little more animated, or are you trying to focus for the weekend and not put too much into this?

REILLEY RANKIN: Whether it was the weekend or the second day I mean, it's always nice to have a bogey free round. I didn't even realize, I guess, it was bogey free. Before the week started my uncle told me he wanted four rounds with no bogeys, and I kind of just chuckled at him. I said, "okay, I'll do my best."

I don't know, I mean, I didn't feel like I didn't make a bogey, I guess. I mean, one shot at a time. Whether it's a bogey or a birdie to me, if you were watching, you couldn't tell the difference in my emotions.

Q. Why had you lost that trust in your instincts? Were you just doubting yourself because you weren't playing well?

REILLY RANKIN: That's a good question. I'm not sure why I lost it.

Q. Can you give us an example of maybe a shot or a situation out there that would illustrate what you're talking about, about losing trust in your instincts?

REILLEY RANKIN: You mean an example when I lost it?

Q. No, an example of not trusting yourself, something you possibly did before that you discovered last week that you should have been doing that you're trying to stay away from now.

REILLEY RANKIN: Well, when I said just trying to trust my instincts this is really hard. It goes as far as when I think I'm going to play a Titleist 2 on the first hole, I'm going to pull 2s out of my bag, not to say maybe I want to play 3s or 1s or 4s. Whatever I first thought of, whatever number I first thought of, that's what I played. For me then I think of the 3. It turns the simplest decision into a complicated one and now you have four choices, so really, like, I mean, one time out there I was switching balls, and my instinct said a 1 or a 3 and I grabbed a 4 out and I put it back. I know that's small.

Q. Does it extend into club selection and how you're picking the first club you think of and maybe picking the first line you read for a putt?

REILLEY RANKIN: Yeah, and instead of being aggressive, I think, before I realized this, I would I don't like to say grip or choke, but I call it a chain, like a chain 8 iron, and I think my arm speed is probably a little slower, take some spin off of the shot, and I was hitting a lot of those probably in a situation where I didn't need to, instead of just trusting the aggressive play instead of hitting a 9 iron. I guess that's the best example.

Or the line of a putt, I'd over read it and think about it too much and try and read it perfect. Well, nobody wins a golf tournament hitting all perfect shots.

Q. Can you give us the distance on your birdie putts? If you could tell us what club you hit in, as well.

REILLEY RANKIN: I might need my caddie.

Q. Well, just tell us what you know.

REILLEY RANKIN: All right. No. 1, I birdied 1, and it was about six inches, and I hit 9 iron, I think.

No. 3, it was about five feet, and I think I hit 9 iron.

No. 4, I hit sand wedge, and it was about 15 feet.

No. 5, I want to say I hit 7 iron. I can't remember. It might have been a 9 iron. 9 iron, and it was about four feet.

No. 7, I hit 7 iron, I think, about five feet, four feet.

No. 9, I hit 5 iron for my second shot, and I was just pin high on the fringe. I technically one putted but two putted for birdie.

Q. How far do you think from the fringe?

REILLEY RANKIN: About 25, 30 feet, I guess.

Q. And then the birdie on 15, the par 3?

REILLEY RANKIN: 15, I hit 6 iron, and I hit it long and made the putt from the fringe, probably about 20 feet, 15 feet.

Q. Considering how the course played before you got all this rain, you would think that it might set you up with a little more run and some shorter approach shots, but it seemed like from the clubs you were getting today your approaches were still plenty short. Is it playing much differently or not?

REILLEY RANKIN: Well, from Tuesday to yesterday when we first started, the course was playing a lot different. It was a little harder and faster, and then today I mean, you use almost every club in your bag pretty much. In the practice round actually, when was it yesterday, when it was downwind it had changed a lot. Yesterday I was hitting a 4 iron, 5 iron into par 4s. The wind yesterday morning before it rained or afternoon, I mean.

Q. You came into this weekend just outside the Top 10 in driving average, inside the Top 10 in greens in regulation but you haven't so far translated into good finishes. After today do you feel like your putter is going to get hot or you've turned a corner?

REILLEY RANKIN: Yeah, I feel like I'm having a hot putting week, turning things around. I've definitely hit more greens this year than in college when we had stats, but in college my birdie conversion was a lot higher. The putts per green was a lot lower. If you look at my putts per green, it's off the chart. It's probably in the 200. I don't know what it's in. Yes, I was very aware of that. I don't know about driving did you say driving accuracy?

Q. Driving average.

REILLEY RANKIN: I don't even worry about that. Who cares how far you hit it? But I knew my greens in regulation were high, and I compared it to Annika, and we had the same amount of rounds and she had hit 31 more greens than I had out of like 34 rounds, so it's less than a green per round, and she's won three or four times.

Q. Have you changed anything with the putter recently?

REILLEY RANKIN: I changed putters recently, and David Moreland on the PGA Tour, when I went home, David helped me a lot and I went to his house and he gave me the putter I have now, and I put a Georgia grip on it. That's probably the most important part.

End of FastScripts.

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