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WENDY'S CHAMPIONSHIP FOR CHILDREN

August 25, 2006

Mikaela Parmlid

DUBLIN, OHIO

PAUL ROVNAK: Mikaela, thanks for coming in and joining us. Second straight 67 puts you at 10 under par for the tournament. A great position heading into the weekend. Go ahead and talk about your day and then we'll take some questions.

MIKAELA PARMLID: I've been playing amazing the last three weeks, really, and I haven't putted as well. So finally I talked to my teacher right before the tournament and he helped me out a little bit and the putts started dropping. I've been playing really good. So 10 under isn't even really pushing it.

Q. Talk about what part of your game was good today. What did you do best? What phase of your game was good?

MIKAELA PARMLID: I'm hitting pretty long, straight drives, I think I did pretty much. And I hit them close to the pin, as well as make a few putts. There's always going to be putts that go to the side. I made a few of them and made very few mistakes.

Q. Have the conditions changed at all from the first round? Did you notice where they might have a lot of the players have said that the course was watered a little too much. I wondered if they might have cut back a little today. Could you tell?

MIKAELA PARMLID: No, but I played in the afternoon yesterday, so they might have dried up. We were the next to last group so the greens were a little bumpy. To me, it hasn't, but I can imagine the players at the beginning of the round yesterday.

It's playing pretty good. The fairways are rolling a little bit, and they are sticking on the greens. I like it.

Q. Some of the players that played early yesterday said that because the greens would be bumpy later in the day they didn't expect to see as many good stores as were shot in the morning. How did you manage 67 yesterday afternoon if the greens were bumpy?

MIKAELA PARMLID: I had 18 close chances. It could have been a lot lower yesterday.

Q. Can you kind of put a number on that? For instance, if you would have hit every putt inside 15 foot, what would you have shot yesterday? Any idea?

MIKAELA PARMLID: I maybe had three putts outside of 15 feet, four putts, so 13, 14 under 13 under probably, 12, 13 maybe not. Yeah, around there. It was close. I was putting for birdie on every hole. It was fun.

Q. When you have the success that you did in college, winning the NCAA and everything like that, and as well as the expectations there are for young players coming out on this tour now to succeed right away, how would you describe your first couple years out here? And where are you right now as far as your development? Do you think you've come along slower than expected or not?

MIKAELA PARMLID: No, I came out here and I figured pretty quickly it was a lot tougher than in college. And my game wasn't really my off the tee, I wasn't good enough to pretty much win out here. Because you have to hit it dead straight, especially when the courses are a lot tighter.

So I changed my swing and I've changed coach. It's taken me a year and a half, and now I'm hitting the ball as good as I can ever hit it. I'm ready to start playing amazing golf again. I gave myself two years. I knew it would take me a year and a half to start playing good golf again.

Q. Talk about the excitement of being near or at the top of the leaderboard going into round three.

MIKAELA PARMLID: It's fun. I enjoy this. I play games with myself. And hopefully the putts will drop. I used to love to play in front of crowds. So hopefully it will work out tomorrow, as well.

Q. When you said you used to love to play in front of crowds

MIKAELA PARMLID: I do now as well, I just haven't done it as much as I was in college.

Q. That's what I was going to ask. The crowds haven't been as big lately?

MIKAELA PARMLID: There was a good crowd in Canada, and I played good in Canada. I've been playing good the last three weeks. But in college, I finished I was in contention in every tournament.

Q. You mentioned changing your swing because when you first came out you didn't drive it as well as you needed to. When you get to a place like this, I know that Jee Lee yesterday was saying she doesn't have to worry about she can pound it off the tee because the fairways are so wide. Is that a good feeling for you, as well, when you come to a place like this, where you can just

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes, but I've been hitting the ball on the line for four weeks now. It's amazing how you know, you put out goals at the beginning of the year, and that was my goal. My goal was to start hitting the ball really well off the tee and under pressure, and just hit it has hard as you can and it should go dead straight.

Q. You said you play games. You mean just sort of fun little games within the game itself? Did you say you play games when you're putting?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes, I play games with myself.

Q. What do you mean?

MIKAELA PARMLID: You put up goals within a few holes. Hopefully you can do this in a few holes and when that's over you put up a new game. It helps me to kind of get going.

Q. What games did you play today with yourself?

MIKAELA PARMLID: I play games every three holes, just try to make as many putts as I can.

Q. You want to birdie all three?

MIKAELA PARMLID: No, you play match play against yourself. I like it.

Q. The other thing I was going to ask was, when you come from Sweden, grow up in Sweden as a golfer, given the history that that country has in the game, and you're good, what are the expectations like and maybe the pressure that you might put on yourself to fulfill those expectations?

MIKAELA PARMLID: I don't put that much pressure on myself. We are fortunate to come from Sweden. We have been brought up in an amazing way with all the junior programs. And I've pretty much gone the whole way, you know, through national team how it all works in Sweden, you play in your region and then you qualify for national levels and you do that until you're 18. And you get on the national teams and travel around the world. It's very organized and very fun. And you travel with all your friends.

I was fortunate to be brought up there. It is pressure. It was probably more pressure, but I like pressure. As long as I can handle the pressure, it's good. And you've got to know you know when the pressure from outside is more, you've got to put less on yourself.

Q. What's it like for Annika in Sweden?

MIKAELA PARMLID: What it's like for Annika?

Q. Yes, what's it like for Annika in Sweden? Can you make a comparison?

MIKAELA PARMLID: She's a hero.

Q. Would it be relative to what she's like in the United States. Is she Tiger over there?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes. She's as much of a hero as Sweden can ever get. We've had a lot of heroes, like Bjorn Borg. There are a lot of No. 1's in the world from Sweden; in tennis, in I don't know exactly all the sports, but we always get a lot of Olympic medals. And she's won the prizes for the most acknowledged athlete year after year.

Q. Did you start playing golf because of one of those heroes or did you just like the game?

MIKAELA PARMLID: I did. Annika has been a hero for me, too, when I was growing up especially. And I knew it was possible to get to one of the top spots in the world. It's what drives you to practice all those hours.

Q. When did you first meet her? What do you remember about how you felt?

MIKAELA PARMLID: I met her in Sweden at her tournament now, but it used to be HP Open or Compaq Open. And I got a picture with her there, and I met her. Actually, I met her the year before, but I didn't really get to meet her that well. She just kind of told us a little bit what was going on and played soccer with us and had a good time, with all the juniors.

Q. How old were you?

MIKAELA PARMLID: I was 15, 16.

Q. Do you remember how you felt or what she said?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Actually, I met Charlotta when I was 16, before I met Annika, in a Best Buy in Scottsdale, Arizona. And I was amazed then. I remember that. I was thrilled.

Q. What were you buying?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Just a CD.

Q. What was she buying? A big screen?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes. (Laughter.) No.

Q. So that was a year before you met Annika you met Charlotta?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes. I have to push it one year. I was probably 16, 17 when I met Charlotta, and Annika the year after.

Q. What were you doing in Scottsdale when you were 16 or 17? Were you going to high school there?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes, I was in high school for a year as an exchange student. I wanted to play golf in Scottsdale. I heard it was an amazing place.

Q. So you went your senior year in Arizona before going to USC?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes.

PAUL ROVNAK: To the best of your memory, if you could take us over your birdies and one bogey today.

You birdied No. 4, the par 5. Do you remember what you hit in?

MIKAELA PARMLID: I had 233 to the hole. Is that really No. 4?

PAUL ROVNAK: No. 4, the par 5.

MIKAELA PARMLID: I hit a 3 wood onto the green there.

PAUL ROVNAK: Two putts?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Two putts.

PAUL ROVNAK: Do you know how far the first putt was?

MIKAELA PARMLID: It was just on the right side of the green. It was probably 16 yards maybe, 15 yards.

PAUL ROVNAK: Then you bogeyed No. 5.

MIKAELA PARMLID: It caught the lip on my drive. I just laid up and just missed the putt laid up and had a wedge in and missed the putt for a par.

PAUL ROVNAK: Do you know how far the putt was?

MIKAELA PARMLID: 15 feet maybe.

PAUL ROVNAK: Then you birdied No. 6, the par 3.

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes, I hit 5 iron 169 yards into the wind and knocked the birdie putt straight in from 15 feet maybe.

PAUL ROVNAK: No. 11, the par 5.

MIKAELA PARMLID: No. 11, I hit we were on the clock then and I hit I had 216 to the front and I hit a rescue wood into the bunker about 50 yards to the green. I sort of played it smart and made it up and down from there for birdie.

PAUL ROVNAK: Do you know how far that putt was?

MIKAELA PARMLID: 5 feet.

PAUL ROVNAK: Did you hit sand wedge out of the bunker?

MIKAELA PARMLID: No, wedge.

PAUL ROVNAK: 12?

MIKAELA PARMLID: I hit it on the left side in the rough, actually, and knocked a three quarter 9 from 125 yards right at the pin and made a putt from 15 feet.

PAUL ROVNAK: 14, the par 5.

MIKAELA PARMLID: I was on the top of the hill. I hit a three quarter 8, 131 yards into the wind, and I knocked it to one foot.

PAUL ROVNAK: 17, the par 3.

MIKAELA PARMLID: I hit it to maybe seven feet, 9 iron.

Q. Judging from what you said about yesterday and from some of these numbers, you're dialed in with your irons.

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes.

Q. Is that, like you said, just the last four weeks?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes, I've been playing as good as it gets.

Q. You said you were on the clock, right?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes, for five holes.

Q. You said you were on the clock on 11. When did you go on?

MIKAELA PARMLID: On 9.

Q. Then went off on 15, probably?

MIKAELA PARMLID: Yes, before the par 5.

Q. You were on the clock or the whole group?

MIKAELA PARMLID: The whole group. We were waiting on 7 and then suddenly the group in front of us went vroom.

End of FastScripts.

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