	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

LPGA CORNING CLASSIC

May 27, 2007

Paula Creamer

CORNING, NEW YORK

PAM WARNER: Paula, thanks for joining us again today. You shot 1-under today and just had a few bogeys down the stretch there, and Young Kim came out with a win.
Just talk about how you played.
PAULA CREAMER: Well, it's obviously very disappointing. I felt like I had been playing good all week, and today it was just a very interesting day.
I didn't really do anything good. I mean, I made some really good saving putts and good birdies at the beginning, but I just couldn't hit a fairway. Everything was right the whole day. I don't think I missed one shot left, left and if I did was it on accident.
It's just unfortunate, but I learned a lot, that's for sure. I want to come back again. I wish we could play this round over again, but I grinded the whole way through. That's the biggest thing. I fought through it and I stayed strong.
Unfortunately the biggest turning point of the day was on 14.

Q. Can we go over your scorecard?
PAULA CREAMER: Uh-huh. Birdie on 2. Hit my drive right in the rough and I just got up to the front edge of the green. I hit like a 5-iron out and I got up and down. I made about a three-footer or so.
Birdie on 3. I hit a 4-iron. It was putting like 185 into the wind. I hit it to about 3, 4 feet.
Birdie on 5. Oh, goodness. I hit driver right. I hit a tree. Came down. I had a 3-wood into the green. It was like 220, and I hit it in the right bunker. And then I had like a 35-yard bunker shot and I hit it to about 6, 7 feet, and I made the birdie putt.
Lovely double on 6. I hit a 4-iron off the tee, and I went like way through the fairway. Normally I hit four rescue and today I hit 4-iron. I had a perfect shot but the tree was a little bit to the left and I hit a tree and it went way right.
I tried to punch it under with a 7-iron. I had about like I want to say 100 front or so from where I was. Then I went way right. Then I chipped it back into the fairway just pin high left on the first cut, and I missed about a 7-footer for bogey.
Birdie on 8. I went driver and then I had about 120 yards. I hit 9-iron to about 10 feet. Made it.
12, birdie. I had 65 -- or, I'm sorry I went driver, 3-wood to about 60 yards and I hit a little 58 degrees wedge to about 5 feet.
Bogey on 14. I hit a good drive down the middle, and then I don't know what happened from the middle of fairway. Hit it right again into the rough. And it was kind of like sitting down, but I hit a 9-iron.
I think I had 110 to the pin, but I hit a little 9 because it was uphill and it just blew out of there to the back and I 3-putted from the back edge the green.
PAM WARNER: Do you know how far away?
PAULA CREAMER: It was like -- yeah, it was like 45 feet. But I thought it was going to be a lot faster. I missed about a 10-footer for par above the hole.
And then bogey on 18. I hit my drive left, believe it or not, left into the left rough and I punched it just to the front of the green and I got above the hole and I missed about a 5-footer for par.

Q. Just talk about the roller coaster ride that was today. You and Young Kim were trading punches it seemed like all day.
PAULA CREAMER: Yeah, I know. Nobody was leading. Somebody would make a bogey and the other person would make a bogey and it would be like a flip flop.
It was just, you know, I really don't know what happened out there. I tried talking it over with Colin, my golf swing, with my caddie, and just couldn't get that confidence back after the second hole. I hit it to the right on that hole and ever since then it was just not happening.
But Young did play consistent, I have to give her that. She made maybe two bogeys. 8 and 9 were her only bogeys. That was a huge swing in that little section. But overall she just played a lot more consistent than I did today.
You can't make all the putts coming down the stretch. I was trying. I was grinding. It was a roller coaster ride, but I was definitely gutting everything out there.

Q. Two holes that probably cost you the tournament were 6 and 14. Were those mental mistakes?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, 14, that's just, you know, you don't miss -- laying up, you know, that's terrible. Missing the lay-up shot with a 6-iron, that's no good on 14.
But 6, I don't know what happened with 6. I hit 4-iron off that tee, and I did hit 4-iron off it two other days and I hit four rescue. That thing just went so far through the fairway.
I wanted to hit an 8-iron but I went to a 7-iron and I probably didn't trust it and hit a tree. Lucky it stayed in bounds, but that's what happens.

Q. Did you have something in your swing that was causing it to go left?
PAUL CREAMER: Something is going on. Something is moving around. I mean, I tried. I tried everything I could out there. But, you know, just I kept thinking to my swing thoughts and nothing really clicked.
But to take second or tie for second after the way I played today, and being in contention a lot of the whole round, for me that's good confidence-wise just knowing that my horrible day went that bad.

Q. On 17 you were only one back. Young Kim laid up. Yours took a bad bounce into the rough and she stiffed it two and a half feet. How demoralizing was that standing on 18?
PAULA CREAMER: That was hard after that hole. Because I had about -- I thought I hit a great wedge out of that was rough, and I guess I flew it too far and it went over. I made a great putt. That thing was almost in the hole.
I don't know how it didn't go in, but it was good. But that was difficult. You know, I mean, it's one of those things you probably hit 3-wood off that tee today but I hit driver because I felt like we have to give it a go one more time just for confidence-wise.
But that was difficult. I mean, it's not over till it's over, but it was pretty hard right there.

Q. Second place on a course you've never played before is not too bad. Do you feel like you're set up for a return trip and making things happen next year?
PAULA CREAMER: Definitely. I'm going to come back. I want to win this tournament. I really do. All the fans are just so wonderful here. I think it's so nice playing in front of people who just want you to do so well and who are pulling for you.
It's difficult for me to have lost this tournament because of all the support from everyone. I think that's the hardest thing.

Q. What are the things that you liked about the course and about the community?
PAULA CREAMER: The course is in great shape. I mean, you missed the fairway and I learned fast that the rough is very thick and it's hard to, you know, work the ball from there.
It's not very long so you're not having 5-irons or chip outs out of it, but I just think that the community here is so supportive. They just love watching their golf and they love presenting such a great showcase this week. It was a great event, and hopefully I can come back many more years.

Q. Seemed to be setting up for a fantastic finish. You had 3, 4 players right in there, and then the last two holes -- could you believe that, you know, the way to finished, that it was a 3-stroke finish? Because obviously it's a little disappointing.
PAULA CREAMER: Sure, I feel like that. No, it didn't feel like a 3-shot win there. But, 17, I -- she hit an awesome shot there. That's a difficult pin and she was 150 out, so that's a pretty good birdie from back there.
But, I mean it's unfortunate. I mean, obviously I really wish I could have won this, but I just couldn't happen out there today.

Q. I'm not sure you're aware, but yourself and Mi-Hyun are the only players in the field this week that have won this year and are on the Top 10 in earnings. Does that say where this Tour is, that, you know, a first-time winner comes out on top and you two have to settle for second, I guess?
PAULA CREAMER: Yeah, I mean, there's been -- I mean, I think a couple times a double winner. I think only Lorena has done it twice this year. That's showing there's a lot of great players out there, and the depth of the LPGA is getting deeper and deeper. That's what we want to see, like the men's Tour. It just goes so deep.
Overall I think Kimmy and I were expected to do well, and I think when you have that little extra pressure self-consciously you're not thinking about it but it's in the back of your mind.
I talked to her afterwards and she was saying, I couldn't putt. I said, I couldn't hit a fairway. So I was like, between the two of us we could do it. That's the way golf is going right now.

Q. (No microphone.)
PAULA CREAMER: Oh, that was 8 and 9 was big. I mean, she made birdie on 7, and I swear, I told Colin I would have bet my life on that putt going in on 7.
From there I was 3 shots back. No, I was 2 and then 3 going into 8, and then we make the turn and we're right there.
But I think that was a very big swing besides the hole, 14. That was the other one.

Q. You seemed to like, right after 14 with your bogey, you came back and had a birdie putt attempt on 15 and lipped out. Was that a big moment for you in terms of your chances to get back into the lead?
PAULA CREAMER: That was huge. I mean, I saw her putt. I hit a great putt. It hit something. I don't know. I thought it made it like -- there's no way that putt goes left to right, it's right to left.
But it went left to right for some reason, and, you know, I think that was a big just for myself a big momentum. You know, it just kind of died right there. I made a great save on the next hole which got it back up again, but my emotions were so much up and down.
Trying to hit under trees, it was a difficult round. I'm exhausted. I feel like I grinded so much out there. The best save ever was on 9 today, under a tree.
But things like that, I just couldn't get any positive things happening near the end.

Q. How does the second-place finish today set you up for the remainder of your season?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, it's good. Second is good at any tournament, you know, but obviously it's not a win. I wanted a win. But, you know, I feel very confident. You know, I'm going to -- my coach comes in next week, so hopefully I'll work with him off the tee with my driver and see what's happening with that.
But, you know, I feel good. I feel good going into the Major. My putting has been really good. That's something that's kind of been my nemesis for a while until I switched my putters. Now I have a lot confidence in that, so we'll see what happens but I do feel good.

Q. What again was your fairways today?
PAULA CREAMER: I was keeping track until I kept having zero, zero, zero. I had 1, 2 -- 3 fairways on the front I hit, and I hit 3 fairways on the back.

Q. Obviously quite a contrast to yesterday.
PAULA CREAMER: 6 fairways out of 14, that's pretty bad. I think I got 14 out of 14 yesterday.
PAM WARNER: Thank you, Paula.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297