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NAVISTAR LPGA CLASSIC

September 30, 2007

Maria Hjorth

PRATTVILLE, ALABAMA

PAM WARNER: Maria, thanks for joining us, and congratulations on winning the Navistar LPGA Classic. You must be so excited right now.
MARIA HJORTH: Very, very excited. It's been a while, so just amazing right now.
PAM WARNER: Can you talk a little about the day and how you came up from behind and won it.
MARIA HJORTH: Yeah, I kind of set a goal of 15-under before the day started. And, you know, that's still a low round for me. I had to shoot 6-under.
I was hoping for them not to run away too much. But, you know, I been playing or hitting the driver really well all week. If you do that on a course like this you're going to have another of birdie opportunities. So that's what I did all day.
There were a couple of par putts coming down the stretch that were really important that I made, and overall just a very solid round.
PAM WARNER: Can we go over your scorecard?
MARIA HJORTH: Yeah.
PAM WARNER: Eagle on 5.
MARIA HJORTH: Yeah. I hit a drive and then a 3-wood just right a little bit long of the green, and then I chipped in. It must have been maybe about 30, 30 feet or so.
PAM WARNER: Birdie on 8.
MARIA HJORTH: Yeah. Good drive and kind of just got caught in that little rough just before the bunker in the middle of the fairway. Hit a wedge to about 15 feet and 2-putted.
PAM WARNER: Birdie on 10.
MARIA HJORTH: Yeah. Hit a very good drive and a really, really good 3-wood to about six feet and just missed the putt.
PAM WARNER: And the birdie on 17.
MARIA HJORTH: Yeah. It was -- kind of in the situation where I was in, being tied for the lead coming in with two holes to go, we didn't really feel like we wanted to take that hole on today. I've done it the other three days, but I just hit a rescue off the tee and then laid up with a 7-iron.
Hit a pretty good sand wedge shot in there, but it just was a little bit too far right. It caught the downslope and pitched just over the back of the green maybe a couple paces off the back edge of the green. Then made that putt, which was probably about 20, 25 feet.
PAM WARNER: Questions for Maria.

Q. Is this your best payday as a pro?
MARIA HJORTH: I had a big pay day I guess in the match play as well this year, but it's one of the bigger ones, yes.

Q. What was your thought when that putt went in on 17 giving you that birdie knowing you were 1-up going into the last hole?
MARIA HJORTH: Yeah. I mean Stacy still had to putt her birdie putt, but at least I kind of felt that I have a chance to have a one-shot lead coming down the last. It's always a great feeling having a one-shot lead, even though you know with Lorena's capacity and Stacy's as well they can still birdie.
I knew I have to make -- hit two good shots and make a good par and that was all that I needed now in the end. But it was a great feeling, and I knew that at least I have a very good chance coming into the last hole.

Q. The 17th, how much fringe did you have to go through? Was it a putter all the way, or did you think about chipping?
MARIA HJORTH: No. Being in the situation, if -- you know, because you're a little bit nervous because of being tied in the lead. It's usually a lot easier to putt than to chip. It's easier to make a mistake with a chip than to putt it.
I think it was probably a couple yards over, so I had a couple yards to putt through before I got on the green. I actually thought I putted it a little bit too hard at first, but the fringe kind of pulled it up a little bit more than I thought.
Once it got on the green I saw it was perfect.

Q. Is this your first LPGA win since '99?
MARIA HJORTH: Yes, it is. I won a couple tournaments in Europe, but this is the first LPGA.

Q. Talk about winning again on this Tour. It's been a long time for you and I believe your career has had some peaks and valleys. Talk about what it means to you.
MARIA HJORTH: Oh, it means a lot. You know, it means that all the work that you put in is really the right way you've been working. You know, especially knowing that I guess in 2003 I went back to Q-School, or 2004 I went back to Q-School again to get my card. Coming back from then and having a win now is a great feeling.

Q. What do you think of the truck?
MARIA HJORTH: The truck is good. Yeah. It's pretty cool. I don't really know where to park it though. It's pretty big. I'm looking forward to having a truck for a year ask see what he's like.

Q. I don't know what your schedule is like for the rest of the year, but will this win get you a return trip to Alabama for the Tournament of Champions in November? Will that fit into your schedule?
MARIA HJORTH: I actually don't know right now what I'm going to do. I know that I'll probably get into Samsung as well, which I wasn't in before this week. So I'll have to sit down and see where I'm going to play and what I'm going to do.

Q. You touched on this earlier, but with somebody as hot as Lorena in your group and hovering there and keeping up with you on the 17th at least, does that make it a little more pressure or anything like that?
MARIA HJORTH: Well, absolutely. I mean, being in the same group as her and being, you know, three shots behind her starting the day, she's hard to catch. She always plays so solid, and you know that all of a sudden she can come into a birdie freak and just make four or five birdies.
You really have to keep up. And like I said, I shot 5-under today and it was good enough. I probably didn't think before the day started that 14-under was going to be enough, but it was.
Just didn't make I guess enough birdies today. But being out with Lorena and chasing her, it's always hard to catch her, and I was fortunate to do that today.

End of FastScripts

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