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RICOH WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN

July 31, 2007

Sherri Steinhauer

ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND

COLIN CALLANDER: Sherri, welcome back. How does it feel to be here as defending champion here at St. Andrews?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: It's an amazing feeling to come here to the home of golf. I have to say, I've just been in awe of the golf course and the city, and the aura is really magnificent here.
COLIN CALLANDER: Have you ever been here in your life before?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: Never.
COLIN CALLANDER: Was the course as you expected it to be?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: I think it's always different from what you see on TV. To actually be on it and see that, really, a lot of the shots are blind shots and being here is completely different than watching it on TV. Everybody who plays golf, everybody should come here at some point.
COLIN CALLANDER: Did it live up to your expectations?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: Oh, yeah. You know, the links-style golf that I played over here before at Royal Lytham, it is really -- with the wind, you've got to hit the ball low, run it up. You know, it's just your true links-style type golf course, and it's so different than back in the United States. It's a whole different type of golf game, and one that I just really, really enjoy because of the imagination that you have to use to play the golf course.

Q. Do you find it intimidating?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: Would I find it intimidating, yeah, but I have to say that yesterday, I hired a local caddie and went out there with my caddie and a local who has worked here for nine years. He was just a tremendous help just pointing out so many different things; that there's no way I would have grasped how to play the golf course on my own.
So just hearing it from experience from someone who just completely knows the golf course and has seen it in every -- well, as he says, every day is different. It's never the same out there. But he's seen it in so many different conditions; that was a huge, huge help.

Q. (What specifically is the local caddie helping you with?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: Yeah, he was basically giving targets. There's a number of different ways that you can approach the golf course. So he was giving me the different schools of thought of ways to approach it. .
He wasn't saying, you know, this hole you have to play like this or you have to play like this. He goes: Now, here are the conditions, if the wind is doing this, you can do this. You know, some people on this hole, some people like to play down here, some people like to go over here. It's what fits your eye. And that was very, very helpful.

Q. Will you use him to caddie for you all week?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: No. I just used him for just the practise round, and I'll have my regular tour caddie caddie for me the rest of the week.
COLIN CALLANDER: Quite a few of the girls have been taking out local caddies to practise, haven't they?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: Yeah, I think just never being here, and because we have such limited time to prepare, it's definitely beneficial.

Q. Have you ever been to Scotland before?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: I've been to Edinburgh, but that's it. I've never been here to St. Andrews.

Q. Is there anything you recognise, any landmarks or anything you've remember seeing on TV?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: Probably Tiger's win last year. He just played flawlessly. It was just a brilliant round of golf and he stayed out of trouble. He makes it look really easy, and I know it's not easy out there.

Q. What else do you think about when you play St. Andrews.
SHERRI STEINHAUER: I guess, you know, when you walk across the bridge, you think of Jack Nicklaus posing for the picture. You think of Tom Morris, the history; it's just hard to describe the feeling. It's a surreal feeling being out there and knowing that you're walking the fairways that all of the greats from the past have walked.

Q. From what you've seen so far how does the Old Course compare with the other links you've played.
SHERRI STEINHAUER: I think it's hard to compare because there's just nothing -- you know, there's golf courses all over the world that people try to -- they try to copy and make a links-style course, but this ground has been here forever and you just cannot recreate something that they haven't made changes to.
Maybe they have, you know, changed the sides of the bunkers or whatever, but the lay of the land is what it was when golf started and, you know, the subtly, changes that have happened. But you can't recreate this golf course. In that respect, knowing that how old it is, it is a great, great golf course.

Q. From your reaction, you seem to be very excited about playing here. Is that the case?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: Absolutely. The players have been talking about it ever since that it was announced that we were going to be playing here in 2007. I know from players that weren't planning on playing even golf this year, but they said, "I'm going to St. Andrews," and not going to miss that opportunity. There has been a buzz for quite some time.

Q. What makes links golf different from the golf you normally play in the States?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: You know, the difference is that you're playing a running game. You're hitting it low, with the wind -- you're hitting it low and you're bumping it up. In the States we don't play like that. But that's the only way that I'm changing is probably making a shorter swing and using a lot of imagination and rolling it up. Like I said, that's not how we play in the United States. But that's what I believe you have to do over here.

Q. Were you surprised at your victory last year?
SHERRI STEINHAUER: Was I surprised at my victory last year?

Q. It had been a while since your previous win.
SHERRI STEINHAUER: Yeah, I guess it had not been since 2004, I had not won since.
But going back to Royal Lytham brought back great memories and I guess those carried over and I came out on top in the end.
But if you say I'm surprised by, you know -- I've been out here a long time, and you expect to do well every week. Obviously when you win, it's a great feeling. I don't know that I was surprised. Not that -- I mean, there's a lot of great -- there's a lot of great players out here, and to beat all of them is truly a wonderful, wonderful feeling.
COLIN CALLANDER: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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