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MICHELOB ULTRA OPEN AT KINGSMILL

May 5, 2005

Laura Diaz

WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA

PAUL ROVNAK: Okay, Laura, thanks for coming in and speaking with us. Let's go over your scorecard before we take some questions.

LAURA DIAZ: I started on 10, so I will start on 10 whether or not I will remember very well. It is late.

I birdied 11. And I had a 106 yards to the pin. I hit a 50 degree wedge that I pulled slightly. The wind, as Paul said as I came in here, was a little tricky out there. It was swirling at times. 106 is a little less than I would normally hit my 50 degree. Anyway, hit it 15 feet and made the putt.

14, I had 121 yards, and I hit just a little pitching wedge to about three feet.

15, I was close to pin high, left of the green in two, and I made it. I was probably ten yards off the green and didn't make a good chip except that it was on line and hit the flag stick and went three feet. I chipped that with a sand wedge.

I bogeyed 17. I pulled my 7 iron left of the green. Thankfully it didn't hit any spectators. It got the tree and shot it down. The wind was tough on that hole. I made a push chip from probably five yards short of the green. I missed about the 25 footer for par.

Then on 2 I had 175 yards to the pin, and I just totally missed it. I was trying to hit a 5 iron but not full out. And I hit it thin and really bad. It was in the bunker and I hit it just over the green. After I hit it in the bunker, then I almost made a 20 footer, I guess, for par.

On 16, 154 yards to the green uphill in to some winds.

I hit 17 to about 20 feet.

7, I hit 5 iron into the green. I had 26 yards to the pin. It was downwind. The before short of the green is a little firm. It was playing like a 175 short. It hit where I wanted it to, but it released back in the bunker. Then I made the 20 footer. Didn't hit a very good bunker shot.

PAUL ROVNAK: Sounds like you made some long putts. 20, 15. How tough were the conditions out there with the wind blowing?

LAURA DIAZ: I think definitely the toughest part was the wind. It was swirling a lot. In the morning when my caddie gets up, he checks to see how the wind is going to be throughout the day. On the front it was northeast wind on the back, it was more easterly wind.

That doesn't it is not consistent all the time. We were going off that to begin with, but then on holes where trees are blocking or it just decide it wants to switch. I think the wind was the trickiest part.

For me mentally this course is extremely challenging. It was definitely the other aspect that I was battling out there today.

Q. With that said, are there certain pins like 17 that you won't go after, that you pick a spot on the green and try to hit it there because of the water on the right?

LAURA DIAZ: No. For me mentally it is challenging because I haven't played well here in the past. So it is kind of a battle. But with the changes I feel like we are playing a new golf course. That actually was really good for me.

But there are definitely pins that you don't go at. I don't go at most of the pins, to be honest with you. I try to work the ball in front of the right side. If the wind is left to right, start left to the pin and work it in.

The greens are firmer so we have to calculate that in most of our shots.

Q. How much different are the greens from previous years? They seem to be a lot faster than they were in the past. Is that true or does the wind make them faster?

LAURA DIAZ: I don't think they are faster. I think they are less sloped and I think they are tricky because I have a lot of putts that I read that are double breakers. That is what I was expecting when I was playing my practice round. Even in the Pro Am, I look at it and be like, That looks like it goes right to left in the beginning and then left to right in the last six feet or whatever. I had the same thing today.

Even though they took off the undulations out there, is very subtle undulations that are still there. I think most of the changes came outside of the green. You know, like coming up to the green there is not these highs and lows. We don't have to go up super steep climbs from the green to the tee. It is great. The course is in really good shape.

Q. Surprised how good a shape it is knowing they had to completely renovate it in a year?

LAURA DIAZ: No. Other places yes, but this place is top notch. Kingsmill and Michelob ULTRA have blown the LPGA away. Nothing surprises me when it comes to here. They are so good to us. If anyone is going to get a course ready in a short period of time, I would say they will be the ones to do it.

Q. You sound like you are happy with the changes. You didn't like it before?

LAURA DIAZ: I liked it, my golf game didn't like it. Yeah, I just I don't know why, but I really it was extremely challenging to me before and it is still extremely challenging to me.

This week I tried an experiment where I played 27 holes on Tuesday, which was a little crazy but my coach Ron Fhilo was trying to think of a way to get me more familiar with the golf course, and that is kind of what we came up with. Maybe that helped. I don't know. That's a lot of golf, if I do that for the rest of the season.

Q. F a l l o p?

LAURA DIAZ: F h i l o.

Q. No brace at all. Are you completely healthy now?

LAURA DIAZ: Completely? Not completely, I would go with 98 percent. I had surgery a year and a half ago. After a year I was perfect, good. But I wasn't released to do some activities. I am doing some of them now against some doctors' advice but I am trying to work my way back into, like, running and stuff like that. It was actually stronger a year after surgery than the right ankle.

So it is doing really well.

Q. You have got on your wind breaker with the zippers sleeves and all that, did you at any time have a little bit less today?

LAURA DIAZ: I put it on in between shots. There were a few holes had it in my golf bag the whole hole, but it was really helping block the wind. I have got a long underwear shirt on and a long sleeve shirt, and I was not totally warm. So the jacket was perfect, but I didn't feel as though it was cold enough where I needed it all the time.

Q. When you know bad weather is coming like the rain tomorrow, do you do anything differently today, or tonight do you chip around in the room?

LAURA DIAZ: No. That would be crazy, wouldn't it? No. I think that I practice the same no matter how I play, no matter what the weather is expected to be. I think we're all kind of a little nervous from the reports that we are hearing, it will be really bad tomorrow. There is nothing you can do about it. It is just the weather and we will have to go with it.

Q. Just put on more under armor tomorrow?

LAURA DIAZ: I will probably for sure have my complete rainsuit on tomorrow, maybe some long underwear, too. 38 is what I am hearing in the morning.

Q. 38, what time do you tee off?

LAURA DIAZ: Nine something.

PAUL ROVNAK: Any more questions for Laura? Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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