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HSBC WOMEN'S CHAMPIONS


February 29, 2008


Paula Creamer


TANAH MERAH, SINGAPORE

THE MODERATOR: After two rounds, seven off the lead but you're still in the hunt. Talk about how you played today and how you feel going into the weekend.
PAULA CREAMER: I did not play good at all today. Nothing clicked out there for me. I never hit a solid shot all day. I don't know what it was. I never felt comfortable on the driving range, and it kind of just started from there. Today I just kind of let it carry into the round, and it was unfortunate because it was a big day. A lot of separation happened today. You have to look at it as you have two days left and that's a lot of golf.

Q. It couldn't be that you're feeling too well and you need to go out tonight and catch another cold?
PAULA CREAMER: Yeah, I need to get sick again (laughter). No, I don't know. Like I said, I think it was just not my day, and tomorrow we'll try and go out and go as low as we can.

Q. This is the first time you've played with Lorena this year, I think. Pretty impressive?
PAULA CREAMER: Yeah, she played great today. She did. She hit a lot of really solid shots, a lot of good putts. You know it was hard to base a lot of distance wise off my driver today. I know she's always longer than me, but I hit it so bad it was hard to feel like I was ever competing against her in the field out there today. But no, she played well, obviously.

Q. Can you just talk about the 16th hole? What were you trying to do there off the tee? And after that you deliberately laid up there, you didn't go to the green?
PAULA CREAMER: No, I hit driver, thank you very much (laughter). Ai hit driver, also, and she was right next to me, so anything else (laughter)? No, honestly, I didn't catch it there. Downwind I can easily hit it on the left half of that green. And then I got way too cute with the chip and then I missed a two-and-a-half footer for par, a horrible bogey. My caddie and I were talking about it just now at lunch; we were giving two shots to the field, and you can't do that on that kind of hole. These rounds have been so long that you're out there and it's just kind of draining. I think mentally I kind of let it slip on that hole.

Q. You still seemed to stay very even-tempered considering it was a -- you said it, not me, a bad day. I suppose it's easy if you're still in second place. Were you happy how patient you stayed with yourself?
PAULA CREAMER: You know, I've been really working on trying to stay patient out on the golf course. It's something that I used to try and I think be too aggressive and just get too worked up over things and not patient. It's hurt me in the past. I tried to stay even out there. I think it's something that I've worked on, and I'm glad that you said that. It's a big part of who I am; I'm an aggressive person, and if I'm out there I can't really play that way. Birdies won't really come that way.

Q. If this had been last year, would your round of 4-under par, would you have gotten frustrated?
PAULA CREAMER: Honestly, the way that I played and looking at the board and the way I played and still shot 1-under par, and I feel that I played horribly, I think that it would have been a different story two years ago. Last year I really tried to be patient down the stretch in the later part of the season than before then. I really do think I would have gotten my way out on the golf course.

Q. Hi, Paula. I'm just doing something on the golf course itself and how it's been prepared. How do you feel the state of the course is and how does it really compare to the courses that you guys play in America?
PAULA CREAMER: It's a great golf course. It's in good shape. The greens are very difficult. There's going to be some tough pin placements tomorrow because they always put a dog out there. They know where they're at. But it's a good course. Off the tee you have to hit the fairways and on the greens you have to be really precise with your irons. Like I said yesterday, you have to make a lot of breaking putts. There's a lot of undulations. It takes a lot of creativity you have to imagine out on these golf courses.

Q. How is this different from American courses?
PAULA CREAMER: Hmm. There's so many types of golf courses in America that it's just difficult to say. Lorena and I were talking about on -- I don't remember which hole it was, but it's narrow. It's not tree-lined but it's still narrow, lots of bunkering. But it's definitely up there in the rankings of places, on the list of golf courses, and today shows it.

Q. Yesterday you said that it was good that you were to hang back and be kind of free from all the attention, but today you found yourself in the spotlight. How did being around Lorena, what sort of effect did it have on your game?
PAULA CREAMER: The reason why I played bad wasn't because of that. I let old swing habits get brought back to the golf course and not the things that I've been working on, but it had nothing to do with playing where I'm at. But it was great. There was a lot of people out there. It was a lot of fun to be able to play in front of everybody. It's always nice when you have a gallery, it's nice to be able to perform. It didn't really happen out there today. It's still nice that they came out and supported us.

Q. Given your aggressive attitude, is the strategy with the seven-shot deficit tomorrow to go out there and really attack?
PAULA CREAMER: When I can, definitely. When it's there, I'll take it. Like I said, there's a lot of hard pin placements out there tomorrow, so you have to kind of pick and choose where you want to be aggressive. But I do. I want to go out there and I need to shoot several under par to get myself back into it. But I'm not going to force things.

Q. What do you think it's going to take for the field to catch up with Lorena, and for yourself essentially? What extra things can you do or what's it going to take to catch up with her?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, I'm going to need a lot more birdies and less bogeys, that's for sure. I can't really worry too much about what she's going to do because you know she's going to go out there and shoot under par, and I'm going to have to just try and do a little better over the next two days.

Q. How good is she? Today the course is playing two, three shots harder, and she's gone out and improved on yesterday.
PAULA CREAMER: She played great today. Her score showed it. That was a great bogey she made on that par 5, things like that, being able to recover after that. That's huge, and that's what shows on her score card. It could have been a disastrous hole but it turned out to be a bogey. But she didn't make any mistakes. Other than that, she never had to save par. That's kind of how I played yesterday. I never had to save par and was one back behind her, that kind of mindset going into it.

Q. Can you stand there and admire the player, or are you just so competitive that you're just focused on beating her?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, I'm not playing her, I'm playing the golf course and I'm playing 78 other players out there. She's definitely brought a lot to women's golf and I have a lot of respect for her. But when I'm out there, I'm not watching her, I'm worrying about what I'm doing.

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