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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 1, 2007

Cristie Kerr

SOUTHERN PINES, NORTH CAROLINA

CRISTIE KERR: Okay. I'm like up here all by myself. Is somebody going to ask me questions?

Q. Talk about that walk up 18.
CRISTIE KERR: Oh, very emotional. I was still very like, "Oh, I got to make par, I got to make par." Because you hate to finish on a bogey, especially as hard as I fought through the round with my swing and everything. So just really special, hard to fight back the tears. I saw it all week. The same scene. And it happened. So it's pretty amazing.

Q. You had the thousand yard stare going the whole round it seemed and then obviously all the emotion poured out at the end.
CRISTIE KERR: Absolutely, I was definitely fighting my golf swing. But that's probably part nerves, it was a very, very emotional day and I didn't get off to a great start, hitting it where I did on the first hole, but I managed to muddle through it and get a great chance at birdie, and, wow, there we go.

Q. The shot on 14, the second most difficult hole and you birdied that to really set the tone. Can you talk about that?
CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, I said on after I had that swing on 12 I said, well, kind of what I'm doing with may practice swing is not working, I just got to find a way to just make it a little bit better.
And I kind of thought back to what I worked on the range with my coach Brian on, when I kind of got it going that way, earlier in the week, and whatever I did worked. I hit an amazing shot on 14 and, yeah, I've been walking putts in all week. That was a pretty damn good one.

Q. You said you saw it coming all week. Why is this place a place you feel so comfortable with?

CRISTIE KERR: I don't know. Just some things are meant to happen. I felt like that when I came here in '96 and was low amateur, played great here in 2001, I guess. The last time we had the U.S. Open here. I finished fourth.
And just everything this year has been pointing to this tournament. Hadn't played great coming out of the box on the LPGA Tour and as of late I've just really worked really hard on my game and I've had some success as of late and whatever it took I was going to win this tournament this week. Hitting it bad, hitting it crooked, I would have made putts from, well, I did make putts from everywhere, but I would have made longer ones if I had to.

Q. Was it any easier at 18 having a two stroke cushion, on the nerves stepping up?

CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, I would say. But I wouldn't say much, not much different. No, it was pretty awesome to look back when you're on the front of the green and you see this sea of people kind of engulfing the whole green. I definitely, whoever took that picture, I want it.

Q. The story of your putter has kind of taken on a life of its own. What was it about it when you grabbed it that you said, okay, this is going to give me a chance to shake these things that have been plaguing me?

CRISTIE KERR: Well, it was a lot of things with my game. Putting was definitely a problem, ball striking was a problem. So I started hitting it better and just wasn't getting the success on the greens that I was looking for.
So I was in Korea, I said that, that's it, I don't care, I'm not playing another round with my putter that I was using at the time, and I pulled four or five out and they don't even have cups like in the practice greens there, I was putting to like a tee or one those things you stick into the green.
So I put the chalk line down and I was seeing if it would go through the legs of the thing. And just felt, it felt right. Just felt like what I was looking for. The feel that I had been missing was there. And I putted unbelievable with it since I've had it. I'll pay for every putter if I can put like that.

Q. What are you going to do with the trophy?

CRISTIE KERR: Take it for a swim. No. I'm going to give it a very, very special place in my house. And I might even like build some lights and stuff around it. I don't know.

Q. You mentioned the putt on 14, how about the drive on 17. That was a tough hole?

CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, I actually kind of hooked it a little bit. But I hit it solid enough, had enough adrenaline to hit it solid enough and had kind of been tired of missing it to the right, so I stayed to myself, just stay in there and rip it. And I did. And it I can tell you, it makes it, that makes all the difference in the world on that hole. If you can have a 7-iron in versus a 7-wood. It's a huge difference on that hole. I hit a 7-iron in. I hit a 7-iron in this morning too.

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