	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ADT CHAMPIONSHIP

November 13, 2007

Karrie Webb

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA

DANA GROSS-RHODE: Thank you all for joining us for Karrie Webb's press conference. Karrie, you're ready to kind of wrap up the season, but it's been a good season, topped $13 million career earnings this season and you've had a couple of Top 10s your last starts. Wrap up what it means to be here at ADT and the season overall.
KARRIE WEBB: It's always good to make the season ender. I'm obviously pleased to be here. I get to stay at home this week, so that's always good. I'm not overly happy about my year. It's been a little up-and-down and obviously not anywhere near the kind of golf I played last year, so a little disappointed with that.
But hopefully looking forward to having a good week this week, and hopefully that will give me a boost to start again next year.

Q. You've gotten to play here more than just the tournament, right? You probably know it as well as anybody. Just talk about this golf course, how it's evolved. Has it become a place that you've learned to like, or did you always like it, and what do you like about it?
KARRIE WEBB: I think I've grown to like it more and more, the more years that I've practiced out here and obviously played the tournament.
Sometimes I think that it's almost a disadvantage for me to play here a lot because the greens never putt this fast, very rarely, during a season of just member golf out here. You know, I think it plays a lot different during the tournament than what I'm used to playing in my day in and day out when I'm out here practicing.
But it's just such a great facility, and as the course has matured, the course has gotten to be in even better condition. I think this is the best I've seen the course for the tournament, the best shape I've seen the course in the seven times we've been here now, so I think that's pretty exciting for everybody, and I think it's going to be just as challenging as ever.

Q. What do you most like about the test?
KARRIE WEBB: I think it's just one of those courses where -- it's always windy at this time of the year, so obviously that always poses a challenge. It's one of those courses where it's fairly generous off the tee I would say. You know, if you're driving it pretty well, that's key. Obviously you don't want to be hitting out of the rough every day.
But I think the toughest ask is your iron approach shots into the greens because there's just no bail-out. Most courses are designed where one side of the green is a better up-and-down chance than the other, but this course, there's just no bail-out. You have to stand up there and grit your teeth and hit the best shot you can, and then if you don't hit a good shot, then it's a really tough ask to get up-and-down out here.
I think, I don't know what the stats say, but I would hazard a guess that anyone who wins here hits lots of greens every year.

Q. Have you been able to put your finger on what hasn't been the same this year, what you haven't been able to do as well?
KARRIE WEBB: My putting. I had a terrible summer with the putter. I probably swung it better; for a two- or three-month period there was probably the most consistent I've swung the club in almost my entire career, I think, and got absolutely nothing out of it except frustration because I just putted so poorly during the summer.

Q. Looking back, you had a fabulous start in Australia winning both events. Your expectations at the start of the year, was it really high? Were you expecting a lot coming off five wins last year and two wins to follow up? What was it like to -- I guess what you just said about being frustrated with the putting. The question I'm trying to ask is what was your mindset let's say for the first half of the season?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, I think obviously starting the year off the way I did, you know, I already had higher expectations than I did starting the year before, and then starting the way I did. I actually played quite well in Hawaii, as well. It really -- I started putting probably a little too much pressure on myself, and then when things didn't start going well, you start pressing and you're not making putts. One part of your game goes off, then it sort of goes throughout your game mentally, you lose confidence, and it's just one of those things.
I'm looking forward to hopefully having a good week this week and then putting the clubs away for a while and just have a fresh mind starting next year, maybe lower expectations than I did this year, and hopefully that makes me play a little bit more relaxed golf and just go from there.

Q. You've been out here I guess about a decade now. Could you talk about and compare the talent level now with the kids, Ochoa and that group, versus the group when you first came out, and just talk in terms of stronger then or now, and what do you see this year, four different winners in majors?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, I think the talent was very strong when I first came out. I think the depth of the small groups of players, I don't think it is any more talented now than it was when I first came out, or the era before me. I think that there's always groups of players that are highly talented. I think just the difference now is that the standard of golf on the whole is much higher.
You know, but I think the younger players, Lorena and Paula and Morgan, Natalie, they're a very exciting group of players to watch. I guess watching it from -- after having been there and played for 12 years out here, it's fun to see them learning and playing well. They've all been great for the promotion of the Tour, as well, and all great personalities. You know, they're all really good girls and good to watch and obviously great to compete against.

Q. Can I follow up with that? Does this year -- does their capability motivate you any more or would you be motivated anyway coming off a year in which you expected more out of yourself?
KARRIE WEBB: I think that's what motivated me a couple years ago, to have the year I did last year, and obviously they do motivate me. I don't think my talent level is any less than theirs. I think I'm still capable of having results that I had last year. I might not be able to stack them up one after the other like I did when I was younger. I might not have the hunger I did when I was younger. I still have that determination. I still hate playing badly, and I still work really hard.
All that grouped together, you know, I'm going to come out next year and hopefully be fresh and not put so much pressure on myself, start enjoying the game again, which is what my goal was a couple years ago. I have to get back into thinking like that again. At the start of the year it's always good because you can erase what happened last year; you start fresh again.

Q. At what point did you notice the putting getting away from you this season, and was it something that kind of slowly started to go wrong, or did you just notice something -- what was going is all of a sudden not going?
KARRIE WEBB: I started missing short putts again, which I had struggled with a few years before, or before last year. You start missing short putts and then you're not putting aggressively on your long putts because you don't want to work on a two- or three-footer coming back. So then I wasn't making my 10-, 15-, 20-footers like I was last year, so it's just a snowball effect. I didn't work any less hard on my putting, it's just one of those things.

Q. At what point in the season was it, the summer?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, actually I played Hawaii and I putted obviously nicely in Australia and Hawaii and then turned up at Phoenix and that's when I started missing short ones. I mean, it wasn't an immediate thing but just continued throughout the summer where I started to really lose confidence with it.

Q. One of the format changes this year is if you're fortunate enough to make the final eight on Sunday, they're going to draw names out of the hat and they're going to pick which spots you'd like to play. If you were in that situation and you were first, where would you want to pick to play out of?
KARRIE WEBB: I'm not sure. I think I'd have to see obviously how I was playing, how I felt. I don't think I'd be in the last group. I wouldn't put myself in the last group. I think I'm pretty sure about that.
I think it's easier to play the last few holes if you're playing well without having to press to make birdies. If you're setting a score -- I don't want to be the first group out. I'd probably be in the middle two, just because you can -- you sort of already know what the pace of scoring is, but you're not the last so you're not sort of trying to make up shots.
Generally if you're in the last group on Sunday, you've normally got a lead. When you're all tired, then it seems like you're playing catch-up all day. If I had first pick I probably wouldn't put myself in the first or last group.

Q. Annika without a victory, you guys have banged heads for a while, great match, rivalry. What do you see out of her next year and the next couple years for her?
KARRIE WEBB: I don't know. I think obviously if Annika puts her mind to wanting to play good golf, she will. I don't doubt that for a second. I think it's all in what she wants to do. I know she's started a couple of different business ventures, and whether or not that's something -- I know obviously it's important to her, but if it's where she's going to be spending more of her time, whether that affects how she plays. But I know if she puts 100 percent into playing, she'll play good.

Q. Suzann Pettersen has been on a nice little run here at the end. Just curious your observations on her game and how she's improved.
KARRIE WEBB: Well, I've always thought up until this year that Suzanne was a bit of an underachiever out here. I played with her when she first came out on the European Tour. I'm always confused about what year this is, but it was I think 2002 I played with her in the final group at the Australian Open. You know, she was only 19 then and just bundles of talent.
She did have a successful year in Europe, I think, that following year. But I was just surprised, obviously she has had injury problems, and I think she also got into some bad technical stuff with a coach she was working with. You know, she's extremely talented, hits the ball great, hits it a long way and can hit different shots, which is, I guess, key to playing consistent golf.
And then if her short game is on, her putting is on, there's not much stopping her.

Q. How long a drive is it commuting from your house? How long a drive to this golf club, and how often do you get to practice or play this golf course?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, this course is only open eight months of the year, so generally when it's open I come out here most of the time and practice.
It just depends on how much traffic is sitting on 95, but at the most it's half an hour because I can take surface roads and get here in half an hour, but 15 minutes if it's a good run.

Q. Is the nature of this golf course, the nature of the wind and so much water, can a player lose their temper quicker here? Do you have to be more patient here?
KARRIE WEBB: I guess you can, but it's a course that you want to. It's not like you have to go out there and shoot 6-under every day, either. You know, it's hard to play catch-up on this golf course, but the angrier you are, the harder it is to play it well.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Thank you all for coming in. Karrie, thank you for this and good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297