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RICOH WOMEN'S BRITISH OPENJuly 31, 2007Michelle Wie WestST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND COLIN CALLANDER: Michelle, welcome to the home of golf. Sorry it's so cold today. I understand you played the course today. What were your initial thoughts? MICHELLE WIE: You know, it's so lovely. It's the greatest honour being able to play here. Just watching it on TV and actually playing it is completely different. You know, when you're watching it on TV, everything seems like it's straight in front of you. Everything looks like, 'oh, this looks like a straight course, a lot of bunkers,' but it's just so different when you play it. I never realised that almost every shot on the front nine is a blind tee shot. I had my caddie and David everyone telling me to hit it that way and that way. I'm like, "What, hit it down the middle, hit it down this fairway, hit it down another fairway?" It's the most interesting golf course I've ever played. You have these golf courses and the first time where you actually aim to hit it in another fairway -- well, this year, I've been doing it on accident but now I've been doing it on purpose (giggling). It's just really interesting. And the greens, they are very strange and interesting. The ledges, there's like Mt. Everest on the greens, basically, and you have to putt from like 50 yards away from the greens. It's just so amazing. It's just breathtaking and it's quickly become almost one of my favourite golf courses. It's so interesting. Q. What do you know from what you've watched on television? MICHELLE WIE: Well, I've seen obviously Tiger play here. He made the golf course seem like a real easy golf course. But my goal is to play like him this week, not to hit it in any of the pot bunkers for all four days, and that is the way to play this golf course. If you hit in a pot bunker you have to chip out, you have to like blast it out. I've seen John Daly play here, and obviously, you know, seeing people tee off, walking over the bridge; obviously seeing Jack Nicklaus and him waving over the bridge, which I imitated after walking home from dinner. But it's just really cool, actually seeing them play here, but like I said, it's completely different playing it. Q. What will you do for your tee shots this week? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, there's a lot of -- you know, using a lot of drivers, using a lot of hybrids. Obviously depends how the wind blows, because it changes, even during the day and even during the round. It depends how the wind blows, but definitely my main goal is to avoid the bunkers. Q. Is it intimidating playing the Old Course knowing all the history it has? MICHELLE WIE: I guess it's intimidating because there's so much history on it. I mean, it's the golf course; so it's intimidating where you're actually playing, like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm actually playing here. It's like you can't believe it. But when you're actually on the golf course, you're so intrigued by it, that I actually don't -- it is a very tough golf course. But I feel like there's so many ways to play it that you just have to use your imagination and creativity. And it brings out so much more out of you than playing, just hit the fairway, land it all the way to the hole where you have to like chip it around and hit around the boulders, hit around the hills and miss the pot bunkers. It's really exciting. Q. Some of the other players have been using local caddies in practice rounds this week. Have you done the same? MICHELLE WIE: You know, my caddie has played here before for the British -- for one of the tournaments that they played here; I forgot which one. David Leadbetter, my coach, has obviously taught a lot of the players that won here, like Nick Faldo and a lot of the great players like Ernie and them. So he obviously knows where to go. And like today, he was telling them to hit the ball, my tee shot in all of these places and I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. But actually when I got there, it was like the place to be. So you just have to really trust your lines and trust your caddies this week. COLIN CALLANDER: What is your caddie's name? MICHELLE WIE: David Clark. Q. What would you consider to be a successful performance this week? MICHELLE WIE: Well, you know, I think this week, I will consider the fact of, you know, I can play pain-free completely. I felt like last week was a really good, I felt like last week I was feeling a lot better and not hurting this much. This week I would really like it to be 100% pain-free, because obviously it's a lot harder this week and you have to hit a lot of knock-down shots which requires hitting into the ground. If I can go through this week without having any pain, no stinging, no letting go of the club, I'll be very happy. But obviously shooting a low score would be really nice, too. Q. How is the wrist bearing up to the hard St Andrews turf? MICHELLE WIE: You know, a couple of shots felt like I was playing on concrete, but it's been going really well. I'm real happy about it. Q. How difficult is it to play in a wind like this? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I did. It's amazing because everyone has been telling me, oh, you must be -- you're playing in Hawaii but the wind here is completely different in Hawaii. Actually like the wind in Hawaii because it cools you down, but over here you're freezing as it is already and then it's blowing 50 miles an hour. It's a heavy wind and it makes this golf course a lot more interesting. I think it wouldn't be a links golf course without the wind, so it's going to be really awesome. Q. Are you feeling more confident? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I do. I'm starting to build more confidence, because last week, you know, I hit a lot of good drives. It's getting better. Definitely working on hitting off the deck and hitting off the tees and hitting different shots, but I'm starting to feeling like I'm getting stronger and I can handle the long length of driver. I feel like I'm starting to have authority over the clubs and the clubs are not having authority over me. I'm feeling a lot stronger and on the road to recovery and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable. Q. Has it been tough coping with the problems you have had this year? MICHELLE WIE: You know, it's been really interesting because up till this year, if you look at the tournaments I've played at, I've had fun, and every single tournament I've played exactly how I wanted to. I wish I would have won, but that problem is a good problem to have. Every single time I went out there, everything seemed really easy. My life was going exactly how I planned it. It was on a very fast track and then I hit my first bump. And obviously with my wrist, I've been struggling with my right wrist end of last year and then I, you know, fell and I really injured my left (wrist). So it's been my first little bump. So I feel like, you know, it's going to make me a stronger player after all of this has happened after I get through this. Like I said, my wrist is definitely recovering. And at first, you know, I would have to say that I underestimated how badly I injured my wrist. At first, I was like, 'oh, I'm out of cast now, I should be right where I left it,' and it isn't. You have to start back at square one. I felt like I just have to build up, build up, build up, until it gets really easy and natural for me, because I'm still thinking about what I have to do. It's not coming 100% natural to me. I'm still thinking about, what do I do off of here, and I'm still thinking about my swing more than I want to. So I definitely think that this year has been a very hard year for me because things have not gone the way I wanted to, especially with my wrist and my body not being able to hit the ball. I've been hitting -- not being able to hit the as far as I wanted to hit it, and obviously, leaving myself in really awkward positions. I feel like what doesn't kill me is going to make me stronger. I just have to get through this and I feel like I'm on the way to getting through it. I feel like I'm on the way to recovery and I just need to be patient with myself and not underestimate my situation right now and not underestimate how injured I was and how I need to get through this. Because it's -- golf is a hard game as it is, and I'm just working now on the way to recovery and I just need to be patient with myself. Q. Do you regret coming back as soon as you did? MICHELLE WIE: No, I don't regret it at all. I don't feel like I came back too soon. Obviously I wish I could sleep and let myself recover but that's not the way life works. Like I said, it was my first injury, and I didn't know how to go about it. I just thought, I'm young and I can beat myself again. But you know, I felt like I took enough time. I felt like I took I don't know how many months off not playing. It was hard for me to fit another minute watching golf on TV anymore. I had to be out there, and I don't think it would have helped for me to rest a lot more, because I have to gain experience; and over the past couple of years, I gained a lot of strength by hitting golf balls. I try and hit golf balls for hours and that's where I gained a lot of strength. So I felt like I had to do that all over again to gain my strength and to get the experience of playing golf again, playing in tournaments, being in competition, being competitive. So I just have to be out there, and I just feel like it's a very slow recovery. Q. So you can't make it any worse if you're playing? MICHELLE WIE: I feel like as of now, everything is healed. The bones got back together really nicely, and you know, just have to make it stronger. I haven't used for a long time so it's kind of really weak. I've been having a lot of problems with it because it's really weak and I've been hitting a lot of golf balls. I've been starting a new workout program and really getting my wrist really strong, my body strong, my shoulders strong, every part of my body strong so it can support the wrist. I do feel like it's getting stronger, but I think any kind of injury sucks really. Q. From the outside it looked like your confidence took a big hit in Switzerland last year. MICHELLE WIE: I have to say, you know, starting before -- a little bit before the tournament, my right wrist unfortunately started hurting. But got back to school, started college applications. I have to go school and then after a week of school, I had to leave again. So I had to do a lot of work. I'm not making any excuses about it. I really enjoyed playing in Switzerland, but obviously I didn't play as well as I wanted to. But that's just the way it is. Sometimes I play good and sometimes I play bad. You know, I just feel like I'm getting better. Q. Do you think your problem started with what happened in Switzerland MICHELLE WIE: No, I don't think it's because of Switzerland. I think it's because of what state my body was in. I was struggling with injuries and you can -- you can compensate until a certain point. You can compensate, you can like try to fix it. You can ignore the pain as long as you can, but at a certain point it's going to hit you and it unfortunately did. You know, it's just unfortunately after that, I hit two shots off the cart path at Samsung, and one I accidentally hit fat, which was quite smart of me. But at a certain point, you just can't compensate anymore. I just felt like after the Sony I just had to stop and rest it and decided I had to run and unfortunately I hurt my left. But it's been a very unfortunate series of events that happened. I feel like last week, after playing under par for the first time in a very long time, it felt really good. Last week it felt like I was hitting the ball a lot more solid, a lot more consistent. Like I said, I almost played pain-free last week, so I feel like I'm getting a lot better. I don't want to look back anymore. I just want to look forward. Q. Other than the injury, do you think public expectation adds to the pressure on you? MICHELLE WIE: You know, I didn't really feel that. Obviously you know, there are points in my life where I do feel pressured, but that's what I took on. I mean, I didn't start playing golf and I didn't turn pro knowing, that, oh, this is going to be an easy life; there's going to be no pressure and this is going to be wonderful. It doesn't start out that way. I knew what I was going to put myself into, and I enjoy it. I enjoy the pressure and I enjoy the stress because it makes life a lot more interesting. I feel like it's going to be bad when people start to not have an expectation. I think it's great that people have expectations of me, whether it's higher than what I have of myself or lower than what I have of myself because I think that expectations are great, and if I can fulfill them, that's wonderful. I'm going to try as hard to fulfill what I have myself, and as of right now that's playing pain-free, that's playing confidently and that's like when I'm having fun and I feel like I'm doing that. Q. Do you plan to play more golf next year than this year? MICHELLE WIE: Well, you know, hopefully I'll be able to play more golf than I have been in high school because I can, you know, change up my schedule. I can make my own schedule and my own courses at Stanford. Hopefully I'll be able to practise a little bit more, play a little more tournaments, take more online courses. I'm definitely excited to go to Stanford. It was a dream come true when I got into Stanford. It's going to be a lot of fun. Q. How many tournaments will you be playing? MICHELLE WIE: Well, I mean, I'm not really sure. I just have to see what I can do and how many I can play. But I definitely want to try playing more. Q. Has your recent problems been physical or psychological? MICHELLE WIE: Well, I think -- I think it's a combination of both. You know, you always have -- I think every athlete has mental hurdles to come over when it comes to a tournament, facing pressure, facing golf course. But you know, I just want to -- I want to take the pressure off of me this week and just be able to play pain-free. I don't really see it as hurdles. I see it as challenges. I think it's going to be a good challenge. Q. Do you think you can win this week? MICHELLE WIE: I think that if everything works out, if I hole a few putts, stay out of the pot bunkers like Tiger did and obviously keep it in one of the fairways out here, I think I'll be good. Q. Are you doing to join the LPGA next week? MICHELLE WIE: Well, I haven't made any decisions yet. I'm only 17, so I still have my whole life in front of me so I'm still deciding what I want to do with my life, so we'll see. COLIN CALLANDER: Michelle, thank you very much and very good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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