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MICHELOB ULTRA OPEN AT KINGSMILL

May 4, 2005

Paula Creamer

MICHELOB ULTRA OPEN AT KINGSMILL

PAUL ROVNAK: All right, Paula, thanks for coming in. You are having a great year this year, 2 Top 10s, you are blowing everybody away. This is a big week; the best of the best are here. Let's talk about your impressions coming in to this week.

PAULA CREAMER: I am thrilled to be here. I have heard great things about this golf course. It sets up well for my game. It is definitely a thinker's golf course. It is in great condition. The greens are quick. That is a good test of golf.

PAUL ROVNAK: This is our third year here they redid the course after last year. Does that play for advantage for you.

PAULA CREAMER: I guess. I mean everybody sees it for the first time. They don't know much about it as they do in the practice rounds. It brings everybody back from one group and it is playing long, so you have to be consistent with your irons or your long irons.

Like I said, the greens are small. Sometimes out there you are hitting a iron into that that are not real big. That is what I like.

Q. Do you feel like you are settled in the routine of being out here now?

PAULA CREAMER: I do. I am comfortable. I am learning about my caddy.

Q. Your former caddie?

PAULA CREAMER: I feel very comfortable out here.

Q. Has it been what you expected?

PAULA CREAMER: It has been in certain degrees. On the golf course it is the same thing: It is just learning how to pace yourself. I am always wondering what to do during my downtime. It is things that you wouldn't necessarily know what to do before you got here. I feel that playing in my amateur and junior tournaments has got me to be able to play out here.

Q. Some older players talk about how much easier it is to make a living as opposed to 20 years ago. That might hurt younger players to grind it out against someone like Annika. Has it been hard for you to grind it out?

PAULA CREAMER: I am a person that likes to look at the leaderboard. That motivates me to play well and get better. The purses are much bigger now. There is so much competition out here. It is not just one person to blow everybody away; it is a pretty big handful. It is just the timing of everything.

Q. I understand there is a big sister relationship you were talking about on the LPGA Web site with Laurie King (ph). Can you talk about what she has done about that?

PAULA CREAMER: You know, we have a very good relationship. She looks after me. When I need help with something she is always there. We talk a lot. I call her. Especially with what I'm going through now with Colin and everything. She is there for me. It is tough to not. I wouldn't know what it would be like. If there wasn't somebody there like her it would be hard for me.

Q. Do you have a pretty good relationship?

PAULA CREAMER: I mean, yes, of course. We both have the same dreams. He has been out here for quite a long time. She has experienced a lot of things. She was in my position at one time. You know, we have a lot of things to talk about. We get along very well.

Q. Is there anything that she said that stuck with you, that she said so far?

PAULA CREAMER: She told me, you know, "Just go out there and have fun," and "There is always next week." People say that all the time. But when you are out here, it is a reality there is always next week to do well, just to always have fun.

Q. Are you still in high school?

PAULA CREAMER: Yes.

Q. Are you going to classes regularly?

PAULA CREAMER: No, not anymore.

Q. How does it work?

PAULA CREAMER: I am done with school. I have my graduation in two week. The week of Corning I will be going home to graduate. I didn't have to take any classes this semester, just last semester.

Q. Are you going to college?

PAULA CREAMER: I'm going to college. I will probably be getting my degree online. We haven't decided. I will probably start in the off season so I can get some classes out of the way.

Q. Can I ask you, Annika is going for six straight wins. Is that something you can conceive anybody doing out here?

PAULA CREAMER: I believe so, yes. She is the best player in the world. You get on the streak, and you have confidence in yourself; anything can happen.

But, there are a lot of players out there that are not going to make that easy.

Q. As someone up and coming in golf has she been a role model? Is she the standard for you?

PAULA CREAMER: She has raised the bar for women's golf. If you are going to win, you have to beat Annika; that is the bottom line right now.

Like I said, if I want to be the No. 1 player in the world, you have to outplay her. She is making golf the way it is right now.

Q. Do you think the bigger sports world should be paying attention to what she is doing now?

PAULA CREAMER: I never really thought about that that much. Annika has accomplished so much. She has put women's golf where it is right now. I think if more people know about it, it would definitely help the LPGA as well.

Q. How are you feeling about your game? What do you feel you need to build on?

PAULA CREAMER: I am very confident in my game right now. I am hitting the ball well, putting well. Right now I am just experiencing on a golf course things that I wouldn't experience. The more times you do that, the more comfortable you feel out there, just being able to score.

Q. Do you think the gap between Annika and the rest of the LPGA players is growing or shrinking?

PAULA CREAMER: Well, I believe lately it has been growing. She has been blowing people out of the water. I think when one person does that, then I believe that more people believe in themselves.

Q. Is Solheim still a possibility?

PAULA CREAMER: Goodness. Even when things are going tough out there, I will come in and I will stop. No matter how bad it is, you have to get your points and keep gunning for that. It is a big goal and big dream to hopefully do well here. This is a big one.

Q. Tell us what happened to your caddy and how it happened.

PAULA CREAMER: On No. 4 yesterday the grass was wet. He was walking in a bunker, I started chipping. I hear my name being called down a hill. He was like, "Paula." I was like, "What are you doing down there? What are you doing down there?" He was like, "I heard my ankle crack and pop. I can't see. I am dizzy."

Luckily there were other caddies walking the course. "Can you come over and help him up?" He tried to hobble on it. It was just too hard on them to pick him up. The doctors said it was good.

He broke his trimalleolar.

Q. Can you spell it?

PAULA CREAMER: I know the ending. I have seen the word. The doctors told me about it. It is a little ball in your foot. It has 3 bones, he broke all 3 bone in his foot. The ball would have gone to the side of his foot. That would have been incredibly hard for surgery they say. That is what normally happens when your ankle breaks. It helped out with the surgery.

Angela Stanford drove by in her car. My dad called here to get someone to come get him. They went to the hospital in the ambulance and he was in surgery to get a plate and bolts in his ankle.

Q. Did he just take a bad step?

PAULA CREAMER: I asked him about it and he said he fell down the hill. He didn't I don't know how it happened necessarily. Just thinking of it cracking and popping doesn't settle well with me.

He said he was walking down and his feet slipped out from under him. He tried to save himself and fell on it.

Q. Who is on the bag now?

PAULA CREAMER: My boyfriend is getting here at nine.

Q. What is his name?

PAULA CREAMER: Tarik Can. Something with the Can last name is a comfort for me.

He caddied for me before. He caddied for me at the Open at ShopRite. I am comfortable with him. He has seen the golf course before, but not the new thing.

Q. How do you still his name?

PAULA CREAMER: T a r i k, Last name is C a n.

Q. Does he go to school with you?

PAULA CREAMER: He went to the University of Texas but is transferring to Augusta State in the fall. He went to the golf academy with me.

Q. He obviously plays, is he trying to become a professional?

PAULA CREAMER: I think in time, not right now. He is going through school but in time.

PAUL ROVNAK: Any more questions?

Q. I know you don't have a track record here, but if you have already answered this I am sorry, what kind of player do you think suits this course?

PAULA CREAMER: Someone who hits a high ball to the greens, I believe. The greens are firm right now; you have to be able to spin it. It is thinker's golf course, I said that before. You have to put the ball in the right place. You have to be consistent with your long irons. It is wet out there, so the ball is not traveling as far.

PAUL ROVNAK: Everybody all set? Thank you. Thank you, Paula.

PAULA CREAMER: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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