U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

December 11, 2020

Cristie Kerr

Champions Golf Club

Flash Interview

Q. Cristie Kerr, 2-under 69 on Cypress Creek. A lot of people put expectations on themselves, extra pressure for the U.S. Women's Open, year in, year out. Do you think your expectations being lower have helped you actually this week?

CRISTIE KERR: I do think so, yeah. And I've definitely missed shots I would normally not miss because I'm in pain, but it's actually -- it's kind of a nice mental place to be. I'm not happy how I got here, but maybe it's meant to teach me a lesson, I don't know. God moves in mysterious ways.

Q. Talk us through your round a bit today.

CRISTIE KERR: It's hard to remember it all. I played just pretty solid golf until the last five holes when my rib and my lat and everything back here just started really killing me. Kind of limped in, no pun intended, and you just -- when I got out of position I got it on the green, made par.

I hit a lot of really good shots and hit a lot of good putts that didn't go in or I couldn't quite get the spots on the greens. Just really solid fairways and greens and kind of hung on at the end.

Q. A bogey-free round at the Open, you'd take that any year, right?

CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, any year, any round.

Q. I think it was a 3-wood at 8. Amazing. I would think that had to be one of your best shots of the day. When you were setting up, how were you seeing it? What were you hoping for?

CRISTIE KERR: Well, I was lucky to get in the fairway, first of all. I hooked it so bad off the tee it should have gone out of bounds, but sometimes the saying is you'd rather be lucky than good, and then I had to be good after that.

I just knew I had -- there was water left, and I just felt it, I just saw it, I just saw the little cut with the 3-wood, and I just ended up hitting an amazing shot. I was just trying to get it up anywhere really near the green and I ended up getting it just off the green about 12 feet and almost made birdie. And then made a great birdie after that on 8.

Q. Do you have to compensate in any way, like take a shorter backswing or anything to --

CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, I was kind of -- the last four or five holes, I hit it beautifully until that point, and it just -- this just started hurting so much more, so it just started tightening up. I just sort of wasn't getting through the golf ball the last four or five holes.

I just managed coming in. Hit a great shot at 8 and was able to get a birdie look and made that, but I'm proud of the way I've been hanging in there. Clearly I'm not happy with the way I hit it coming in, but I know that's not fully in my control right now, so I've just got to be patient with myself.

Q. Yesterday you talked about the pain meds and kind of how halfway through you decided that was a good time. Is there a threshold you have right now where you realize, hey, maybe that's something I need to do? And what does that help free up? What does that change in your actual swing?

CRISTIE KERR: It doesn't change anything. It doesn't loosen you up, it just takes away the pain, takes away the edge. But I took one before the round and took one halfway through -- half of one halfway through, and then now I won't take anymore for the rest of the day.

It doesn't do anything to your golf swing. It maybe just mentally, you know you're not going to be -- it's not going to be hurting a ton like when you hit. But that's the best answer I can give you. You try to time it and space it so mentally you don't get spacey on it.

Q. That was my other question. What is the downside of it?

CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, you've got to be careful how much you take, as well. Like it can affect your breathing. But before with a full day, definitely -- when I say one pill, it's like a half of a normal dosage. Other people like would take -- it's like a 50-milligram pill of Tramadol. It was a non-narcotic and now I don't know where it sits on the list, but it's doctor approved and everything is fine, but that's like half of a normal dose. Some people take 100-gram, so that's a 50-gram pill, and then I just took a half on the golf course.

Q. Is it almost like in managing the pain you aren't having to manage your expectations?

CRISTIE KERR: I mean, it definitely has lowered my expectations. I feel like I would have taken very high expectations and not gotten in the accident, but I guess that's a -- if you're going to take something good away from it, I guess that's one thing.

Q. Is there anything else that you're doing other than meds?

CRISTIE KERR: Oh, I'm getting therapy, I'm doing cryotherapy every day, I'm doing LED treatments, I'm icing constantly. I don't have any fractures, but you can't -- it takes time for ribs and intercostals to heal, and I dislocated several ribs. So that should tell you how much pain I'm in.