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CN CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 16, 2007

Kelli Kuehne

EDMONTON, ALBERTA

THE MODERATOR: I want to thank you all for coming in. Kelli, you just had your best round of the season by three strokes, you're 5-under par and in second place with a 66. That's pretty good. How is it playing out there? The wind didn't seem to give you any trouble today.
KELLI KUEHNE: I played really well. I hit a lot of fairways and I a lot of greens, so I gave myself several opportunities to make birdies, and luckily I was able to capitalize on them.
THE MODERATOR: Can we go over your scorecard? No. 7 was the first birdie.
KELLI KUEHNE: Let me think what I did. Driver, 7-iron to about 12 feet.
No. 8, I believe I hit a little 7-wood to about 35 feet, made that.
No. 12, I actually hit a not-so-hot 8-iron on the back fringe and frayed about a 25-footer for birdie.
15, I knocked it about 12 feet with a 9-iron.
16, I hit a 6-iron and made about a 10-footer.

Q. It's still early. How do you make sure you keep it on an even keel from today on?
KELLI KUEHNE: Have you seen my year (laughing)? I mean, like you said, it's the first round, and it takes four days. It's just one day at a time. I've got some things I need to go work on practice-wise. I'm going to go out and play tomorrow and keep going. I'm certainly not even remotely planning on getting ahead of myself. It's a great round and a good thing for me, but it's one day.

Q. (No microphone.)
KELLI KUEHNE: You know, I've been really close. I've been talking to my caddie and talking with my brother and talking with my coaches. I feel like I'm really, really close. I've played well, I just have not been able to get the scoring aspect of it together. And today it just kind of worked.
I missed two putts inside five feet for birdie today, so I made several putts but they were a little bit longer. I mean, I felt like I put myself in position and prepared this year as best as I've done in a really long time on Tour for me, but I just haven't had a result. So today something kind of kicked in and worked a little bit better for me.

Q. I wanted to ask you about your putting, and obviously it sounds like maybe some of the lengthier putts you didn't have to make you made and got you on a bit of a roll. Was it a little different feeling because it sounds like you made pretty lengthy putts to make birdie today.
KELLI KUEHNE: I did. I knocked it like three feet on the third hole and hit a good putt, kind of horseshoed around, and I thought, oh, man, that's a missed opportunity. That was on No. 3. And then I lipped out again on No. 6. Then I made it again on 7 and I made it again on 8.
That's definitely something that's been lacking for me is I've kind of hit a lot of really good putts in my mind but I've kind of caught the high edge or the low edge, and today they seemed to be -- the speeds and the lines were matching up better.

Q. You said you talked to your brother. Was that Hank?
KELLI KUEHNE: Hank, yeah.

Q. Is Hank still playing?
KELLI KUEHNE: He is. He's hurt. I actually stole his caddie and coach. His caddie is on my bag this week.

Q. Who is that?
KELLI KUEHNE: His name is Nick Helwit. That's my brother's caddie, but my brother is out for the rest of the year with a back injury. I called my brother begging to borrow his caddie.

Q. Do you think that might have helped?
KELLI KUEHNE: It certainly doesn't hurt because I spend a lot of the off-season in Florida practicing with my brother, and Nick helps my brother with his golf swing. Nick used to be Butch Harmon's assistant.
So to kind of make sense of all this, Nick and my brother helped me out a lot in the off-season while I was practicing in Florida while it was too cold in Texas. So I spent quite a bit of time around Nick. He actually caddied for me last year in Canada, as well. So I'm definitely comfortable with him. He's kind of like extended family because he lives with my brother right now in Florida, so it was just kind of a lucky thing for me. I didn't have a caddie, he's just kind of sitting there while my brother is doing rehab on his back, so it just happened to line up for us.

Q. Apparently when you're missing some three-footers and five-footers and the 35-footers are going in, there's got to be an element where you get some luck here. Between the caddie and the putts, do you feel like maybe you're starting to get some luck?
KELLI KUEHNE: You know, it's one of those things, in order to win you have to be good and you have to be lucky.
I did -- I saw golf last week from a little bit different perspective. I did some commentating for the U.S. Women's Amateur. And it just kind of changed my perspective because it made me think of the times I won the Am in '95 and '96, and I remember how well I played, but I also do remember getting some breaks. It just kind of changed my perspective to actually watch and spectate golf because that's not something I'm used to doing.
But you're right, it is the thing that if you hit good shots, eventually -- you stay the course, and I have goals and objectives, and there's been times when I want to completely throw that in the wash and by the wayside. But today something that I've been doing worked out.

Q. (No microphone.)
KELLI KUEHNE: No, I'd rather be good than lucky. I always say that. And then when I'm good and unlucky, I always change my mind, which is unfair. I would like to be good and lucky. I mean, that's the hope, I think. But you just keep working on it every day.

Q. Talk about the golf course a little bit. Are we going to see a lot of -5s and -6s out there?
KELLI KUEHNE: It is possible. The course is in great shape. The fairways are -- they're in prime condition, so you have a perfect lie and it sets up a good opportunity into the greens. The greens, if you stay below the hole, I think you have a great opportunity. I'm not -- obviously I play late tomorrow, so they're probably not going to be as good for me tomorrow as they were this morning. So that's certainly an element you have to take into account. They should speed up, too, quite a bit with the wind.
I mean, the course has gotten better each day. The greens have gotten faster. But we haven't had the traffic and the wind, so we'll see how they are tomorrow.

Q. Does this course fit your game, though?
KELLI KUEHNE: I would like to think it does. It depends on how I hit it. It depends on how I play the hole.
If I keep hitting it well off the tee and keep hitting greens, then I would like to think that it would fit my game well.

Q. When you look back on your amateur success and the player you were back then, did you envision back then that it would be easier to find success on the LPGA Tour?
KELLI KUEHNE: Sure, absolutely. I mean, when you're 19 you think Albert Einstein is not very smart. I certainly look back at it now, I turned 30 this year, so it's a bit of an awakening, and in a good way. It's incredibly humbling. I realized Albert Einstein is way smarter than I'll ever be. Although I've learned a lot, I still have so much to learn.
No, I thought I'd come out as soon as I turned pro and win five events, there was no question about it. But I wouldn't change a thing about it because personally the things I've been through, it's made me such a more well-rounded person, and I wouldn't trade that.

Q. I was just going to ask you about I know in reading your bio you're a big campaigner for juvenile diabetes. Is there a patch that you wear?
KELLI KUEHNE: It's my insulin pump.

Q. When you struggle in golf, where does it compare to maybe dealing with that, having to wear a pump and the things you go through with it? Does it hamper you at all?
KELLI KUEHNE: Well, I've been diabetic for 20 years, so I guess I could blame shooting 76 on being diabetic, but I don't think that's very fair. I've been diabetic since I was 10, so I'm going into my 20th year next month being diabetic.
I don't really remember my life that much before I had an eating regimen, before I worked with a nutritionist. My diet is basically orchestrated with my doctor and with my trainer. I just choose to go on the insulin pump because that was the best type of insulin therapy for me. I took two shots a day for ten years, and it's a lot easier -- this is basically an artificial pancreas. It's in my stomach, which if you want to see it, I will gladly show it to you, it's not a big deal. It's almost like a Band-Aid and then there's -- there was a needle but the needle pulls out, and it's called a cannula, which is a really thin plastic pipe, six millimeters underneath my skin. So it's basically subcutaneous. The medicine goes from in here through this cord into my body, and I get insulin like every six to eight minutes. It's computer programmed like that.
So I didn't come up with that number, it's something that my doctor by checking my blood sugars, you figure out what type of -- what amount of insulin you need.
Then when I eat a meal, I give myself a bolus, which is a clump of insulin, like two and a half to three units. Do you understand what I'm saying?
So basically the idea of the pump, instead of taking shots, is anytime you eat your blood sugar level goes up. So when my blood sugar goes up I hit a couple buttons on my pump and I offset the peaks and valleys.
It's just a lot more -- advanced probably isn't the right word, but it's a lot more technically sound way to mimic a healthy person's pancreas. That's why I chose the pump for me. It's been excellent for me.

Q. (No microphone.)
KELLI KUEHNE: I will have been on the pump for ten years in September, as well. It's something I switched to immediately after I turned pro, a year after I turned pro actually, and it's kept my blood sugar level a lot more stable.
But I can taste my blood sugar in my mouth if it's high or low, and I can usually prevent the highs or prevent the lows. But it's just helped control my range and get my range get a lot tighter having the pump because if my blood sugar is say 170, normal range is like 80 to 120, I can give myself half a unit of insulin instead of having to take half a unit through a needle, so it's much more convenient.
When I shower basically I unhook it. I can take it off and not have to reset up the whole unit, take a shower, take it off, get out, put it back on.

Q. Are there any other factors that come into play with that like during the course of a round, adrenaline, any of that stuff?
KELLI KUEHNE: Sure.

Q. How does all that work?
KELLI KUEHNE: Adrenaline and exercise act as insulin basically. So when I'm training really hard or when it's really hot outside, I actually can turn down the amount of insulin I get per hour. So I can fine-tune it based on my schedule. If I'm traveling I need more insulin, if I'm really active, I need less insulin.

Q. You're coming up 17 and you're in the lead by one stroke on Sunday, do you do something?
KELLI KUEHNE: I eat (laughing). Not typically. I have a blood sugar machine in my bag where if I need to check my blood sugar, I can. You typically will see me eat something about every four holes. That's just something to try and maintain and keep my blood sugar level consistent.

Q. What do you eat?
KELLI KUEHNE: I eat basically a sports bar that's low carb. I don't get to do the hot dog stand.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, and good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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