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HSBC WOMEN'S CHAMPIONS

February 28, 2008

Lorena Ochoa

TANAH MERAH, SINGAPORE

MIKE SCANLAN: Lorena, welcome, bogey-free 66 today. Your first round of the year. Tell us how it feels.
LORENA OCHOA: Hello, everybody. It was very good. I'm really happy. It was a great day. It was one of those days, I think, that I was getting the ball and making good contact especially, had a lot of birdie chances. It was a great start.
I'm going to take one day at a time. We still have three days to go. But I like where I am.

Q. I counted maybe one mistake all day. Do you normally expect to come straight into the season and play almost faultless golf your first round?
LORENA OCHOA: Well, it's why I took a few more weeks to practise and why I am here. I am 100 per cent ready to go. You're always going to make mistakes, that's for sure. I made more than one, maybe three or four, hitting bad shots, but I was able to make up and downs and make good putts.
It's all about being confident, and I think that was important to me. You know, I don't have to change anything, just try to do the same tomorrow.

Q. Are you sort of aware of your playing partners? Does it make a difference to you if you're playing with Annika and Karrie? Does it make you play better? Are you conscious of that sort of thing?
LORENA OCHOA: Well, I love to play with them. It's something that really motivates me to play better, and it was a great group today. I really enjoyed it. I tried not to concentrate on what they were doing. I tried only to focus on my game.

Q. Does it feel important that you've come out and -- I mean, you've made a statement with that round today, especially given that Annika has talked so much about wanting your No. 1 title back. Do you think that helps? Is it important?
LORENA OCHOA: Well, it's always important to get a good start, yes. You know, but it's only one round. I'm happy. I'm going to now relax in the afternoon and be ready for tomorrow. You know, it's not good to think ahead. This is the first round. Tomorrow I'm going to get here in the morning and do the same thing that I did today and hopefully get a great second round to put myself in good position for the weekend.

Q. How do you plan to play tomorrow? Do you have any special plan?
LORENA OCHOA: No, just do the same. I think that there is no reason why I should change. I'm a little bit tired because of the warmth and the humidity, and I'm just going to do tomorrow like any other day and be ready to play a good round.

Q. Can you just give us a little bit of an idea what you do in the off-season in terms of practise? Are you trying new things? Are you just polishing old skills? What exactly do you do? About how much do you practise when you're really into your practise season?
LORENA OCHOA: I practise from 7:00 in the morning to 2:00 p.m. I practise the short game from 100 yards in from 7:00 to 10:30 in the morning, then take a half an hour break. Then I go to the long game. I always try to work on my backswing, make it shorter and have more control with that. And then we do a couple hours of putting from 11:00 to 1:00, and then after we hit balls.
And in the afternoon I go to the gym. I go to the gym from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
I start practising in January. I took December off. I did it for six weeks.

Q. (Inaudible.)
LORENA OCHOA: I always liked the outdoors, anything that there is a good run where I can go and do some hiking. Off-season I went to the beach and I did a little water skiing. I enjoyed that a lot.

Q. Going back, I'd just like to know what you thought the other three mistakes were you made today because I think I missed them.
LORENA OCHOA: I don't like to think about the mistakes. I made a lot of good ones.

Q. You hit a lot of good ones, didn't you?
LORENA OCHOA: Thank you.

Q. What will you do now?
LORENA OCHOA: I'm going to eat. I'm very hungry. And then I'm going to go and practise my short game a little bit, maybe 45 minutes, and then I'm going back to the hotel to rest.

Q. Would you just quickly take us through your mental preparation, the kind of preparation that you go through to get ready mentally?
LORENA OCHOA: Well, just like any other player, we have a routine that we follow, every time, every practise, every shot on the golf course. You know, when I'm at home, when I need it I see a sports psychologist. It depends on if I'm feeling good, having confidence in my game, and I'm doing okay so far. I'm really excited about the 2008 season, and hopefully everything goes well.

Q. One shot back from Creamer and Ai Miyazato. Any thoughts on them, that you managed to catch them and are playing together?
LORENA OCHOA: I saw Ai on the board and I was very happy. She's one of my favourite players.

Q. You're referring to Creamer or Miyazato?
LORENA OCHOA: Miyazato. I saw her on the board, and she's one of my favourite players, so I'm excited about playing together tomorrow.

Q. Why is she one of your favourite players?
LORENA OCHOA: She's always so happy. She tries to speak Spanish to me, and I like her.

Q. Just switching to men's golf for one minute, Tiger has won the third tournament of the year, he won in Dubai and the Match Play, as well. One of the things they're talking about is could he have the perfect season, winning everything? Is it actually possible in golf to have the perfect season, to actually win every tournament you enter? Is it possible?
LORENA OCHOA: I think it's possible, and I think you first have to believe that it's possible to do it. You know, we all know how good is Tiger and we're all trying to learn from him. Right now I always have in my head always the idea that I will win the tournament. You always have to be ready to win. But this is the first one of the year, and I'm going to try to take one at a time.
MIKE SCANLAN: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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