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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 27, 2007Suzann PettersenSOUTHERN PINES, NORTH CAROLINA RHONDA GLENN: Ladies and gentlemen, we're happy to welcome Suzann Pettersen, who recently won her first Major Championship, it was a very thrilling victory in the McDonald's LPGA Championship. Suzann has played the front nine here once, and the back nine twice. Suzann, let me ask you about how you like the golf course and whether it suits your game.  SUZANN PETTERSEN: I think this is a great golf course. It's a little different from what you expect from a U.S. Open course, but I guess they will make it tough enough. It feels like my game can suit any course, so I'm very familiar with the course. I'm very familiar with the greens. I've got my notes. I've kind of got the strategy ready to get around this course four rounds. My game feels pretty good. RHONDA GLENN: How is it different from a normal U.S. Women's Open golf course? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, just off the tee it doesn't look that tight. You've still got room. You have long par-4s, but the fairways are fairly wide. And the rough is kind of patchy, so you can get lucky if you miss hit a shot or whatever. If you hit it dead center in the fairway and dead center on the greens this week, you'll do fine. RHONDA GLENN: We had a call from some of the news people up in Colorado Springs and Denver area who wanted me to ask Suzann about the upcoming Women's Open Championship in 2011, which was announced today that it will be at the Broadmoor Golf Club. Suzann, you have not played the Broadmoor, but how do you like playing golf in Colorado, because I know you played Cherry Hills last year. SUZANN PETTERSEN: Yeah, we played Cherry Hills, and I would say Denver is one of my -- I haven't been there much, but from what I saw it was a beautiful place. It's a bit like Norway, a lot of mountains and you see the snow on the top of it. It's just a beautiful place. I'm looking forward to going back there in 2011. RHONDA GLENN: You've done fairly well in the Women's Open, you've played I think four times. You've had several high finishes, I believe you finished 10th one year. How does your game now suit winning a Major Championship? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I don't know. I'm just trying to play my game, in the last Major it just seemed to be there when everything happened. I kind of managed myself around pretty nicely, and that's what it's all about this week, again. Being patient, patient, and patient again. People are going to miss fairways. People are going to do mistakes on the greens and so am I, but you have to accept it and you have to just let it bounce off and go for the next shot. And that's what this tournament is all about and that's why it's one of my favorites because you have to grind and you have to fight with whatever you have that week or that day. We'll see on Sunday what it brings you. RHONDA GLENN: You believe that your length off the tee is a definite advantage on this course. SUZANN PETTERSEN: Sure. Some of the par-5s are reachable. It depends a little bit how the course is going to be played. If it rains every afternoon it's going to be soft, so that's almost going to help us a little bit to hold the greens a little better. If you can hit it long and straight you would take that. Q. Have you hit any fairway metals into any par-4s or you don't have to, your length is such that you hit irons? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Into the par-4s? 17 is probably the longest, because you have to be quite aggressive off the line with our distance, otherwise you hit it in the rough right. But yesterday I played with LD, LD had like an 8-iron and I had a 7-iron. But 17 is probably the longest, yeah. Q. 7-iron for you? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Yeah, I think I had like a drive, 6-iron into the middle of the green. Q. I think it's obvious that your confidence is quite high coming off McDonald's. SUZANN PETTERSEN: Yeah, but that's three weeks ago. Q. I was just curious if -- I think when Kraft happened there was a feeling that that might be a tough one to overcome. But where you are now, can you actually use that as even greater confidence from the standpoint that you're a fraction away from having captured the first two Majors of the year? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I guess I'm a bit more relaxed about everything. I know I've done it and I know I can pull it off, if it comes down the stretch, which was probably the nicest thing for me to experience in McDonald's to kind of get over Nabisco again. Other than that I feel great and my thing this week is just to get in the right state of mind again. And this is the week, like I told you, you fight to the very end. Q. How do you get in the right frame of mind? SUZANN PETTERSEN: It has already started. Q. Can you help me with it, though? SUZANN PETTERSEN: It's about experience and you learn how to handle yourself. It started when I woke up this morning, when I entered the golf course this morning. How you proceed. Everything you do on the golf course. You don't stress yourself. You don't let anything annoy you. You don't think bad about anything. You just try to get a positive attitude about the entire place, about the course, and about the game. RHONDA GLENN: You mentioned LD, and that, of course, is Laura Davies. SUZANN PETTERSEN: Laura Davies, sorry. Q. Just wondering if Player of the Year thoughts have started to cross your mind at all? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Not really. I saw the list last week and it was nice to be ahead of Lorena. But I guess she passed me with her win last week. But I can catch her. Q. Can you talk a little bit about what's changed for you now that you're a Major winner? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I don't think anything has changed. Like I told you after I won Kingsmill, it's nice to get used to win tournaments. It was nice to win another tournament and it was a Major, that was a big bonus. I've been lucky. I've been playing great in two big events, and one of them was a Major. Yes, you do prepare a little bit different for a Major. But for me every tournament is as important. You don't want to make it anymore special than it already is. Q. You have a relatively new swing coach, how is that working for you? SUZANN PETTERSEN: That's coming along pretty nice. We had a good five month stretch. Things clicked quicker than we thought, like I adapted to the changes quite quickly. I've been feeling good about it. It's been easy to kind of maintain. And now we're trying to just find the right -- well, he's getting to know my game and how I am approaching my game, especially coming into weeks like this. So he knows me and can get down and not stress too much about anything. Q. How often do you work with him? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I see him quite often, every third week or so. RHONDA GLENN: Who is your swing coach? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Gary Gilchrist. Q. When Annika was in here the other day she was talking about how she always knew you from the Solheim Cups and knew that you could play on this level. Over the last couple of years with the injuries, have you ever wondered that you'd be out here playing at this level and could get there and win the tournaments? Did you have confidence that entire time and how difficult was that period for you? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, yes, I have. But you go through tough times and through those tough times you set new goals. And it's probably not to do with golf. But those goals are going to get you back on the golf course, and once you get back on the golf course you want to start competing again, you want to compete with the best players in the world. I never stopped believing that I could do it, yeah. Q. Did winning at Kingsmill -- how much pressure did that take off you, personally, to get that first win, because obviously since then everything seems to be clicking, as well? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I don't know, it just felt like -- it felt like I've been very close for the last three months -- two months. Like after I played great in Phoenix, and then I played great at Nabisco and then I played good come the next couple of weeks. It wasn't a big surprise that my game was good enough and ready to win. Since I've just tried to maintain and get a little better on everything. Now it's the U.S. Open and this is the big test. Q. There are a ton of international players in the field this week, what do you think that says about the LPGA with such a strong presence from overseas? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I just think the U.S. Open is the biggest event we probably play all year. If you want to test your game, this is the week to test it. It's nice to see all the international players come here, and especially the Europeans. They get to play a good golf course and they get to play with the best players in the world. But also I've been playing practice rounds and you play with all these young American amateurs. So I still think there's a lot of Americans here. RHONDA GLENN: Who are some of them you've played with. SUZANN PETTERSEN: I played with two Duke players, today I played with Jennie Lee and Amanda Blumenherst. Q. You mentioned patience. The first two days of this event sometimes pace of play can be pretty challenging. Are you the kind of player that that wears at if it's slow play and you're not moving along at a good pace or is that something that's sort of not an issue for you at all? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, I'm a pretty slow player, too, am I? There's not much you can do about it. You know certain holes are going to be backups. That one par-3, No. 5, there's usually always backups on this course. As long as you're prepared and it's not like a big surprise it's not a big deal. Q. How does this U.S. Open test you in ways that Kraft and McDonald's don't? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, USGA, they're tough. They don't care if we are -- if we don't agree with the pin placements and stuff. With the LPGA we can always have their comments and they might take into consideration for the next day. But here there's no question. They're in charge and whatever they set up we have to do. But I like that. It might be on the edge sometimes, they might put some tough pin placements out there. But it's our job to be prepared and know where to hit it and know where not to hit it. Q. Are you tested more, though, off the tee, up here, patience-wise more so than the others or what? SUZANN PETTERSEN: It's a little bit -- it's going to be mentally all week. Off the tees, like I said, it's fairly wide. There's a lot of room on the fairways. But it all comes down to having a great strategy coming into the greens and knowing where to hit it and knowing where not to hit it. Q. I just want to follow up. You mentioned all the young players that you've seen. That's one of the story lines this week. Have you been surprised how successful the young players have been on the LPGA Tour so far? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, I feel old out here, and I'm 26. There are so many young players, like 18, 19, 20 years old. They play like they've been here for years. They're ready to take whatever comes down the stretch for them. You see even last week you have a new rookie facing Lorena, and it's just a lot of players and they're so mature for their age and they're great golf players. Q. Why is that, why do you think they're so mature? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I don't know. That's a good question. But a lot of them comes from Korea or Asia. The major part of them comes from Asia. And down there I know the junior program is great. They get into these programs when they're about ten -- 9, 10, 11. So they've been grinding for years and they're ready when they get out here. So I think it's good. It pushes us to kind of work harder and stay on top of our game and get even better, so it's good. Q. We asked Lorena yesterday if she liked being the No. 1 player, because not everybody has a personality to be that target. Do you have that personality and do you want to be the No. 1 player and everything that goes with it, along with just playing golf? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Yeah, I think it's a lot of other things that comes with it, as you say. But it's also one thing you have to prepare for. If you want to be the best you have to prepare to be there when it comes. I think I would like to be in that position. Q. Are we going to see a lot more young players on the LPGA Tour from Norway? Are there a lot of guys coming behind you? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Hopefully. We've got a lot of -- we've got some good programs back home now. The boys are doing really well and the girls are just picking it up. A lot of them goes to college, so they get to know the Americans and the American continent and the courses. So I think that we'll get here. But we're not that many. We're five million people in Norway. So it's not going to be like Korea where you have 30, 40 players on Tour. Q. Is it more like Sweden? SUZANN PETTERSEN: No, we're not even that close to Sweden. We are probably half the amount of golfers in Norway than there are in Sweden. I hope that what I've done and what I've achieved shows that it's possible. RHONDA GLENN: There was another great golfer with Norwegian roots, Babe Zaharias. SUZANN PETTERSEN: Yeah. Q. There's been a lot of talk this week about Lorena and Annika and Morgan and Michelle Wie, and yet here you are, arguably a swing or two from coming in looking for your third straight Major. Do you feel like you're coming in a little under the radar or is that something you even think about? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I haven't thought much about it. This week is just -- I've been so into all my notes and getting ready to play tomorrow morning, I haven't thought much about it. But it's nice to be a bit undercover. Q. Where are you living now? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I live in Orlando. Q. I was curious how the winning McDonald's, how that was received back home? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, I haven't been home, but I think they liked it (laughter). Q. How much did they like it? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, for me it's -- we have so many good athletes back home, especially winter athletes, it's always going to be hard to compare achievements across different sports. Golf is such a big sport, worldwide. I think one of the Norwegian journalists that was there said this would be like winning a gold medal in the Olympics, and it probably is, winning a Major. Q. Did you get a lot of calls from journalists or TV stations back home? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Yeah, it was a little busy. It's okay. Q. Did you enjoy it? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, I'd rather have the calls than not having the calls (laughter). Q. How do you feel about going back to Sweden for Solheim Cup this year? SUZANN PETTERSEN: That's going to be a lot of fun. Q. Have you played the course? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I've played the course. For me it's like I have so great memories from Barsebeck, that it's almost -- it's going to be a bit hard to go back and the memories from Barsebeck is so strong. But everyone says it's going to be even better. So I'm just trying to come there with kind of a neutral attitude to the place and to the event and then just build my -- build kind of confidence from there. It's going to be great. It's the event of the year for us, especially us Europeans, we really look forward to this. Q. Are you going to play Barsebeck before at the Scandinavian TPC? SUZANN PETTERSEN: I haven't decided. It's going to be a tough stretch there playing Evian and the British and going back doesn't forth over the pond. RHONDA GLENN: You seem to focus quite a bit on the mental aspects of golf. Do you work with a sports psychologist? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, I've probably always worked on the mental side, but this year I've put more time into it and I started working with Pia and Lynn, Vision 54. And that kind of got me -- kind of narrowed down the pot. It's very detailed work. And it's detailed work that makes you keep the focus better, I would say. And it's all about managing your own emotions and managing your own behavior on the golf course. Q. Most of us in here think 26 is pretty young. Did you have a specific, wow, I'm really getting old kind of moment out here? SUZANN PETTERSEN: No -- well, when you play with Morgan, it feels like you've been around Paula, Natalie, and you've been around them for years already. But then sometimes you talk and it's like, yeah, but I'm turning -- well, I just turned 19. I'm like, oh, my God, it's like -- but it's like you don't feel like it, but I think maybe it's a good thing to have the little older players, as well. And I'm really glad that I've been able to play golf with Rosie Jones, Meg Mallon, Juli Inkster, those are classic players, and I'm glad to be part of that generation, and at the same time be part of the new generation coming up. I'm right in the middle and I'm really happy for that. Q. You mentioned about Pia and Lynn. I think you were kind of an emotional person, of course you used to be, and now I think you handle yourself better. What was the different thing, after the bad shot, what is your reaction now and then? SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, you probably don't let it get to you as much as you did before. You go out there and golf is not a game of perfection. You try to play whatever you have. And like I said, everyone is going to do mistakes, but who handles the mistakes best is going to win. Like McDonald's my attitude was the same there. You are going to hit bad shots, but you're also going to hit great shots. And let the great shots -- store them in your head and get the kind of -- get those memories stronger than the bad ones and then you'll do fine. And don't let anything get to you. If it's slow play, it's slow play, but don't let it kind of -- there's nothing you can control about it. RHONDA GLENN: Thank you very much, Suzann, and good luck to you tomorrow. |
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