	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 18, 2007

Natalie Gulbis

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA

DANA GROSS-RHODE: Natalie, congratulations. This has certainly been an exciting week, and you made it an exciting finish only losing to Lorena by two. Do you want to just talk about your round and the week?
NATALIE GULBIS: Definitely, very, very exciting week. I'm really -- I like the format a lot better than last year where you start over. I think it makes for just exciting TV and exciting media, and it's a lot more pressure on the players every single day to perform and to avoid those playoffs and also to advance to Sunday.

Q. You hit some really, really nice shots starting at about 13, on every hole. Was there ever a point where you just gave up and figured Lorena had it in the bag, and how much did things change on 17?
NATALIE GULBIS: Well, my whole philosophy today was to play aggressive. I was firing at pins from the very first hole. Some of the shots were not going at the pins, but I was still firing at them.
It looked like Lorena had it pretty well sewed up on 14, especially after I had three-putted after an eagle putt. I thought that was my only opportunity.

Q. 15?
NATALIE GULBIS: 15, excuse me. On 15, because even though she was -- she had missed a couple shots, but she always seemed to scramble and get up-and-down. I've played with players like that, and it's just kind of their day.
What's interesting is last year I was actually paired with Julieta Granada and I got to watch her win, and this year I got to witness Lorena winning.

Q. Can you talk about how difficult that shot was that Lorena had on 18? And she's let a few tournaments get away from her over the years, and obviously she had a chance to do that again today.
NATALIE GULBIS: Well, when I saw the tee shot, Lorena is obviously very, very long, so I thought the tee shot was fine. I was surprised it was in the rough. I was pretty excited about my shot, only having 15 feet or so and putting some pressure on her. Lorena was spending a lot of time looking at her lie, so I was assuming that the lie was not very good. She's the best player in the world, so I thought that she would at least -- we'd get kind of an eye-for-an-eye putt at it. She stuck it to like a foot, maybe a foot and a half. She had a tap-in there, so she closed it up really fast with that shot.

Q. Having gotten the job done at Evian this year, does that make it easier to be in these situations for you now?
NATALIE GULBIS: I think what's made it easier is just my preparation week in and week out. Being in the hunt, I've always been an aggressive player when I do get in the hunt, and I enjoy being in that position. That really has not changed much. But it really has changed -- I've stayed consistent to what worked in Evian and what had been working in years past and just continued to stay consistent with what I was doing to prepare for events.

Q. What did you hit in on 18?
NATALIE GULBIS: On 18 I hit a rescue, which would be like a 3 rescue, 3-iron. Lorena had probably like an 8-iron because she cut the corner. I had just watched Paula, and her and I hit the ball about the same distance, so I had aimed about the same spot she did.

Q. When you saw your ball up there in very makable birdie range and you saw Lorena keep staring at the ground, did winning all of a sudden cross your mind?
NATALIE GULBIS: Playoff did. Lorena can make par from anywhere. But I thought I just wanted a chance to be able to make that putt to push it to a playoff. That's what I was hoping for. I didn't even consider that I would be able to win it outright. But I wanted a chance to have that putt really mean something, where my putt didn't really mean anything, my 15-footer. I actually pulled Greg back in for a second. She did have only a foot and a half. I said, "Can I be aggressive? Can I make this? He said, "No, you've got to lag it." It was a very honest statement because these greens can get away from you really fast. There was no way she wasn't going to make that one, one-and-a-half-foot putt.

Q. What were you thinking the front nine when she goes 4-under through the first six and then birdies 9?
NATALIE GULBIS: Well, two things, two parts. The first part is I've seen Lorena get on rolls before and she's the type of player that shoots 62 in an instant. She's a very, very fast starter and she gets on rolls like that. She was putting well so I knew she was going to continue to make birdies and play aggressive.
But this is a very unique golf course being that these last four holes have gotten the best of every single player here at some point over the last four days. It could happen to anybody, so I just -- I wanted to stay close and to see if I could stay within a couple shots.
At that time I think I was five shot back, and I just kept on aiming at pins, trying to maybe hole out a shot. In these sort of events they're very, very fun because you can be so aggressive. It was either kind of win or nothing today.

Q. What did you hit on 17 and how long was the putt? And the second part of the question is how different is it when you've been trailing by a fairly substantial amount all day and you're not creeping up on somebody, but then all of a sudden you're a shot back?
NATALIE GULBIS: It was great. I mean, we know it out there. You know there's momentum shifts. Definitely there is.
When I birdied 13, I think that was the first momentum shift. And she popped in her ten-footer right on top of my birdie putt, so she answered with that one.
On the next hole, which was a tight pin, I went at it and I missed that putt. And when she had pushed it into the right -- I'm sorry, I'm going on into the story of the round, but you definitely know. I knew exactly what was going on at all times. I knew where Paula was at. You know that there's a big jump in finishing first, second or third in this event, and I just tried to keep the pressure on.

Q. What were the distances and the putt? What did you hit at 17?
NATALIE GULBIS: At 17, 150 yards, maybe like 153. I hit a 7-iron just past it. They changed the pin from what it was originally supposed to be, from what we saw yesterday. They moved it in tight.
That putt, as I'm sure you guys saw, was very, very fast. It was a 15-footer that I hit like a one-footer because I had just watched Paula slam it past ten feet from almost the same spot.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Do you want to go over your whole scorecard, starting on 3, birdie.
NATALIE GULBIS: 3, that was a reachable par-5, I just got up-and-down on a chip.
7, I hit it in the water right, and I actually got up-and-down for a really good bogey.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: How far was the putt?
NATALIE GULBIS: The putt was only about a foot, but I had to drop in the drop zone about 50 yards.
On No. 3, I hit driver, 3-wood, 60-degree to like a foot.
On 4, I actually made bogey. I fanned out a 6-iron from 160 yards and didn't get up-and-down.

Q. How far was the two-putt?
NATALIE GULBIS: From about ten feet.
On 6, it was kind of interesting. I hit the pin on 6 and it almost went in the water. I actually thought at first it was in the water, but then the people ran over and said it was okay.
No. 7 was a rescue, 180 yards, so I went right at it, didn't take enough club and went right in the water. Got up-and-down for bogey. It was 50 yards, I hit it to one foot.
9, I hit sand wedge from 100 yards to about 15 feet above the hole and made birdie.
13, I hit a rescue again, a 4 rescue, to about 40 feet, made that putt.

Q. What about the 7th hole? Your bogey was the third best score of the day. What made it play so difficult today?
NATALIE GULBIS: It was a right pin with a right-to-left wind, and for a lot of players that I think you had left in the last eight, with probably the exception of Lorena and maybe Christina Kim, the girls hit the ball right to left, so to attack that pin you had to challenge the water. And if you challenged the water you could either right it and hit it perfect, or do what I did, which was hit it a little right to left and when you hit it into the wind it knocks it down, splash. I watched Mi Hyun Kim in front of me and she hit it left of left and still had it come back and she hit it into the water somewhere else.

Q. I just want to get your thoughts on Lorena's season, eight wins, $4 something million to basically obliterate that $3 million by $1 and a half million. She probably ended the season in an appropriate fashion?
NATALIE GULBIS: Before this week Lorena had an absolutely incredible year at the Rolex where she got the Player of the Year awards this week. It was pretty unbelievable to cross $3 million in a season, to win seven times and to have -- I think she had 20 Top 10s. It was unbelievable the year she had.
To come in this week and to put another million up there, I think that record is going to stand for quite a long time, and she's had an absolutely phenomenal year.

Q. On 15 staring at that eagle putt, what type of opportunity did you think you had, and then when you wound up walking away with par, what was your --
NATALIE GULBIS: I thought that was my opportunity to have a two-shot swing with Lorena, and being a putt that's downhill, downgrain, you really could not be that aggressive with it, but I wanted to give it a chance. The putt when I came back, that was just lapsing in execution there because even being that aggressive, I would expect to make the seven- or eight-footer coming back, but I wanted to give it a chance.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Thank you very much for coming in. Natalie, great season. Good luck next year.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297