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MICHELOB ULTRA OPEN AT KINGSMILL

May 12, 2007

Paula Creamer

WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA

MIKE SCANLAN: 67 today, you're 7-under for the tournament and now you're really in the hunt. You're four back from the leader in the clubhouse. Can you just go through how this week's been for you, and most notably today?
PAULA CREAMER: The past two weeks, I've hit the ball really good. I gave myself a lot of chances for birdies out there, just hitting it close. I didn't miss any greens today. I think I missed two fairways. I'm trying to stay patient, but, you know, taking advantage of the holes that you need to make birdie.
Today, like I said, I gave myself plenty of chances. I made two good birdies coming down the stretch and two good saves, par putts on 17 and 18, and we'll just take it how it goes tomorrow. But I'm glad to be four back right now.
MIKE SCANLAN: Can we go through your scorecard quick. Birdie on 2, the par 3.
PAULA CREAMER: It was 175, I hit 5-iron to about 20 feet.
Birdie on 6. I had 130. I hit 8-iron to four feet.
Birdie on 15. I had 200 to the front and I hit just a three rescue, but I hit it right and I got up-and-down and made about a 10-footer.
16, I had 155. I hit 6-iron to about ten feet.
MIKE SCANLAN: And your par putts on 17 and 18, how far were those?
PAULA CREAMER: 17, I had a total mis-club. So I had about a 45-footer, and I made probably about an 8-, 9-footer for par.
Then 18, I hit my drive way right and I had, I think it was 195 to the pin into the wind. I hit 4-rescue and I made about a four-and-a-half, 5-footer for par.

Q. Four strokes has been done a couple of times this year on Tour, coming from behind, is there any sort of advantage to being in that position lurking, as opposed to being chased?
PAULA CREAMER: Oh, yeah, you can go out and be aggressive. You can be somewhere around the leader, which is what you want. Of course I'd rather be in the lead, but it's good to come back from behind. I think it can be done. You post up a good score and just see what happens.
But I think it's all about confidence out here, if you're rolling the putter good, hitting your irons good, anything can happen.

Q. You said you gave yourself plenty of chances. Were there some makeable ones that you thought you missed today? Can you be specific?
PAULA CREAMER: Oh, definitely. Where it really was kind of frustrating was 8, 9, 10, 11 in there. 8, I missed a 3-footer for birdie. 9, I missed a 10-footer for birdie. 10, I missed a ten tooter for birdie. 11, I missed a 5-footer. 13, maybe a
15-footer. 14, same, 15 feet.
Whenever I had a wedge in my hand, I didn't capitalize on that. I've just been struggling with 50, 65 yards in and I haven't given myself a real good chance. But that middle section there was difficult.

Q. Just mis-reads?
PAULA CREAMER: Like hanging-on-the-edge kind of putts. I've done that all week and last week. I switched putters and I feel good about it. It's just a matter of time of when they are going to fall.

Q. How key is it for you, a lot of people this week have been making a couple of birdies and then giving one back. How key is it for you to get through a round without giving any back?
PAULA CREAMER: Oh, it's huge. I've had three bogeys in this tournament, and that was on 18, 3 and 7. 3 and 7 are par 5s. That's like giving away three shots there.
It's big. When you get on a roll out here, you can make a lot of birdies, and you just don't want to give any shots back. Saving those par putts are bigger than some of the birdies that you make. I think that that's where I'm pleased with my round is it could have gotten away from me at the end with the two, 17, 18 but I finished strong.

Q. Does that allow you to get over the frustration of the missed birdie putts is that you have not made a bogey?
PAULA CREAMER: I think so. You can only ask for chances. You can only give your putter a chance, and I think that's the biggest thing. When you don't do that, then it's almost frustrating, but when you get up-and-down, I think that's a bigger satisfaction. But you don't want to go out there and just try to make pars, that's for sure.

Q. From the looks of things now, are you expecting the leaderboard will be pretty jumbled tomorrow morning?
PAULA CREAMER: Yes. I think there's going to be some low numbers coming out there. It's Sunday, I saw some of the pins, there's some real difficult ones. You just have to go out there and take your shots when you have them.
I think the par 5s are going to be big. You have to be able to go out there and birdie 3, 7 -- and what is that, 15. Those are big holes right there.
But I think that it's going to be an exciting Sunday. I think there's going to be a pretty good finish. Let's hope so.

Q. When you start a third round and you see that the leader has not won before, do you almost naturally expect that they are going to come back a little bit to you?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, no, because mentally you have to feel that you have to go out and play good. You don't want somebody to think that. I feel that Sarah Lee, I played with her last week in Tulsa, she's a good player and she's very consistent. She hits a lot of greens, a lot of fairways.
But you know at the end of the day, you're really not playing here and playing that leader until Sunday on those last nine hose. You're playing the golf course up until then. Then you go out and you see what you have to do.
But it is -- she hasn't won yet and I think that there's going to be a lot of people gunning for you and I know what that position feels like and you have to be able to handle that.

Q. There was a 63 on Thursday, a 63 today; given what you think and know about the pin placements tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, would it surprise you to see a 63, 64 tomorrow?
PAULA CREAMER: It would be a good score tomorrow. But I mean, it's a good score any day, let alone on Sunday.
I don't think you're going to need to shoot 63 to win. I think that you're just going to have to shoot under par, of course, but I'm going to have to go low, but I don't think you have to get crazy out there.

Q. When did you switch putters? Was that this week?
PAULA CREAMER: Yes, actually I won with my putter that I'm using now in Japan my first year and then I switched back to my 2-Ball, and I switched at Tulsa to my TaylorMade putter.
MIKE SCANLAN: Paula, thanks a lot, good luck.

End of FastScripts

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