	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

FIELDS OPEN IN HAWAII

February 22, 2007

Meaghan Francella

KAPOLEI, HAWAII

PAM WARNER: Thank you for coming in and joining us today. Great round out there, 4-under, currently in second place. Just talk about how your day went today.
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Well, I started out pretty well. I made a couple birdies on the front side, or on my front side, which is the back nine. I finished the front nine at 4-under and then turned and had a good shot at birdie on 10 and just missed it. Had a little problem on No. 11, which was the second hole; I made triple. One bad golf swing cost me a couple shots and I bogeyed the next hole.
Then I made a great come back. I'm like, oh, there's a lot of birdie holes coming in. Eagled No. 4, birdied 5, which was 14 and 15 for me, and birdied my 17th hole to finish at 4-under. So I played pretty solid all day and was rolling it really well so I knew they were going to go in.
PAM WARNER: Can we go over your score card, you started on the back.
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: I birdied 12, my third. I hit it in there to like six feet and made birdie. I hit a rescue club.
I birdied 13, hit it in to like 16 feet with a gap wedge.
Birdied the next hole, hit it to like four feet with a gripped down 8-iron out of a bad lie.
2, I had like 200 yards in. I tried to grip down on a 3-wood. It was under the tree and just had a really tough pin, and I hit it short and then had another chip shot and 3-putted after that. So I was pretty fired up.
Then bogeyed the next hole. Hit the green in two and 3-putted.
PAM WARNER: How far was your first putt?
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Like 35 feet probably behind the flag. Kind of caught the ring and went down to the left.
Then I hit a 22-degree rescue on No. 5 to ten, 15 feet and made eagle.
Hit it in to six feet with a 7-iron next.
No. 8, the par 3, I hit 8-iron -- we all hit it in the same spot and I got the third look at it. Becky Iverson just missed it, Clarisa just hit it a couple feet by and I got the line and made it from 30 feet.
I had a chance on 9 but didn't go in. It was on the lower right and I had to go up over that hill, not a fun putt.

Q. How did you turn it around with a triple-bogey and a bogey; what was your mind-set going up to that par 5?
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: I knew I could definitely hit the green in two if I hit a good drive. I hit a good drive down there. I had 192 to the front and the was wind was helping right-to-left, so I said, just hit it out to the right, it's going to speed up to the hole and I hit a 22-degree rescue club up there. I had a little downhill lie so I hit it pretty good and rolled right up there.
Yeah, I was really mad, I'm not going to lie, I was really mad after the 11th hole and especially after the bogey. But my friend, Adam, is caddying for me and he's like, "We can make some birdies coming in. Just stay in the present and hit one shot at a time." I tend to get a little excited out there and I had to keep myself calm after I made the turn. I thought I did a pretty good job after No. 12.

Q. When did you figure out that the score was wrong?
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Well, I actually was in the player hospitality tent and looked at, as we were watching GOLF CHANNEL it said 3-under. I was like, that's not right. The rules official came in and I said, Doug, you know, my score's not right. He's like, well, if it's not right at four o'clock then come find me. I'm like, great, that makes me feel good.
So he came back and got me while I was putting and said let's go take care of this, let's go make sure it's right. So we went over to the ninth hole where I finished and looked at the score card and it was right. I think they just corrected it.

Q. How did it happen?
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: No. 8 the lady who was the walking scorer asked me on my finishing hole, she said, "Did you have birdie on No. 8?"
And I said, "Yeah, I had birdie."
She said, "Oh, I wrote down par." So that's where the discrepancy was. But it was correct. So I signed for 68. It was 68.
Especially when you shoot a number like that, you don't want it to be wrong. I'm really an all about my score card, I triple-check it, my caddie checks it, so I knew I was right. So I wasn't extremely concerned but I was a little nervous when I saw 3-under on the TV.

Q. I know last week didn't start off quite like you wanted to, the first round, so what did you work on maybe at the beginning of the week, or did much really change?
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: You know, I think I was really anxious to get started this year. I've been off since September since the FUTURES Tour, so I was a little anxious to get going. I think I pressed a little too hard coming in the second day last week, I was like, oh, I need to make some birdies to make the cut. And really, I only needed to par.
So I watched Juli Inkster and Laura Diaz the last day, I went out there and followed nine holes, and you know, Juli didn't play her best that day on the front nine that I watched, but she was extremely confident. And I think that's something that I learned last week is that I can play out here, and I need to be confident that I can do that. The FUTURES Tour prepared me for that and I've been in contention out there. It's definitely prepared me today. I was a little bit more calm than I normally would be.

Q. (What made you decide to follow Juli)?
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Yeah, Juli Inkster, she's one of the best. I figured I could learn a lot from her. There's a lot of other players I can learn a lot from out here, too. I think you know playing practice rounds with Hall of Famers and people who have won before is only going to help me, and I can only learn from them. So I'm trying to take it all in out here and do what I can to learn.

Q. After that triple, you're up there on the leaderboard after the triple and you kind of went off and then you had the bogey, were you thinking, that's it, the round is kind of ruined?
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: You know, I wasn't -- I wasn't thrilled, but I knew -- I've played enough golf to know that there were a lot of holes left after that. There's still two days of the tournament left, too. There's a lot of birdie opportunities left. I knew I could turn it around. I was putting well and I was hitting the ball so well, so I knew they were going to keep going in. I was rolling it too well for them not to go in. I rolled it well last week. They just didn't drop.

Q. Have you ever had a more adventurous round?
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: I had a 9 in my round. I had wrist surgery like two years ago I think it was or three years ago. And my first tournament back, I started out real well and then took a 9, and then came back and shot 73. I think today was a little bit more adventurous though, to be 4-under and drop down to even and get back to 4-under, it was really up-and-down. Yeah, it was probably my most adventurous round.

Q. When you had the triple, right after that your caddie said there were a lot of birdie -- inaudible?
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: No, he gets just as fired up as I do, so I knew he was being serious. Obviously your caddie is out there to tell you to be encouraging and tell you basically what you want to hear. I knew I could make a lot of birdies coming in. He just said, you're rolling it well, and I had a really good putting practice yesterday. I'm more confident than I've ever been today.

Q. What do you take from today's round? What did you learn about yourself?
MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Well, I know I'm not a quitter. I knew that before I started today, but I think that just proved it even more. Because could I have easily turned the 4-under that I made the turn in, I could have turned that into 8-under. I could have turned it into 76.
So I just wanted to make sure I got it. I wanted to be in red numbers and finish the day; and I really wanted to get it back to how I started, and I did that and I'm pretty proud of myself for that.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297