|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIPApril 5, 2008Cristie KerrRANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA Q. Thanks for coming. Cristie, phenomenal round, 6 under par. You have really moved yourself up the leaderboard. Was it an advantage, obviously, starting this morning, with the wind? But you played well in the wind on the back nine, too. CRISTIE KERR: Absolutely. It was pretty windy, actually, when we started. I just managed to hit it a lot better today. Felt like I played okay the first couple days, but just wasn't quite coming together, and I didn't make the putts that I needed to. And everything kind of went my way today. I hit 11 fairways, 17 greens, and I guess I made 7 birdies, and the other birdies that I missed, I can tell you, there were five or six of them that looked like they were in. You know, it could have been stupid low. But, you know, I think the back nine is playing really, really tough right now, so I think I am going to be within a couple going into tomorrow, and that's what I knew I had to do. You know, when you are playing okay and it's not quite happening, sometimes you just have a really good round in you, and I am going to take that into tomorrow. I got nothing to lose. Q. Tell us about the little omen you ran into last night at dinner. CRISTIE KERR: The what? Q. The little omen that you ran into last night at dinner. CRISTIE KERR: We went to P.F. Chang's, and I went right for the fortune cookie on the left, and it said, "A GREAT DAY AHEAD" in capital letters. So go figure. Maybe that's all it takes. I am not going to double-dip and try and get a different fortune. I don't want a different fortune. Q. Given that you haven't made putts in the first two rounds, to make that like 25-footer for par -- was it on 16 -- how important is that to just -- does that feel like a birdie in a way? CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, absolutely, anytime you make a huge par save, it's just as good as a birdie on a tough hole. And momentum is kind of everything in golf. If you can keep the momentum on your side, there is really nothing you can't do. We have seen that with Annika for many years, and with Lorena, and today I definitely had a momentum on my side, but I played beautiful golf today, I mean, it was really beautiful to watch, if I do say so myself. But, you know, I feel like I deserve that. I feel like I have worked really harped, I have. Put a lot of work in on my short game and swing. And, you know, I am not the kind of person that does really well when I put pressure on myself, so going into tomorrow, I am just going to try and hit it down the fairway, hit it on the green, and I know if I get enough putts on it, I am going to be dangerous, because I love to putt, I love putting on these kinds of greens. And my new caddy, Jeff King, is a huge asset for me, he charts all the slopes on the green and the whole Indio thing everybody says here, there might be a little bit of that in there, but when you know where the slopes are going, it takes a lot, if not most, of the guesswork out. Q. Cristie, I saw you at 18 looking at the scoreboard for a long time. It looked like you were confused. They had the wrong score up, obviously. CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, I thought, well, we are not at 5. Not yet, anyway. Q. I think the electronic boards also -- CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, I think they misrecorded it, I was having a birdie on 10 or something. But it happens a lot, though, that the scores get messed up kind of, you know, throughout the day. You know, people ask, in realtime scoring, all the time, "What happened there?" You made an ace, or you a made a nine, and you made a par. It just depends. Q. You knew, obviously? CRISTIE KERR: Yeah. Q. Cristie, you were seven back to start the day. CRISTIE KERR: I cannot hear you. I am sorry. Q. You were seven shots back to start the day, 5 under being the lead. I mean, did you think, in your mind, you had to shoot 65, 66, in order to make a move? CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, absolutely. I knew the conditions. Q. Assuming that the lead is going to stay somewhere around -- CRISTIE KERR: I knew the conditions were going to be tough. They are calling for it to pick up gradually as the day goes on, with the wind, and I knew that -- I mean, it was still windy on the front nine, but I knew if I could take advantage of the conditions and just get that momentum on my side, I mean, that's what you have to do to get back in the golf tournament, especially when you are not playing really poorly. You know, it all came together for me today, and you definitely -- you know, I won the Canadian Open a couple years ago and I was 8 shots back going into the last day, so I am the kind of player that can do that, I can come back, because I am always very optimistic. Q. Looking at your scores this year, it looks like you had low rounds in every tournament, but it's just like you had that 64, the 68, but then there has been one round that's been your undoing. What's been going on there? Has it just been a matter of putting together, you know, three, four good rounds? CRISTIE KERR: Yeah. I think it is. It's been a struggle for consistency with me. Actually, less this year than last year. Last year, besides winning the Open, I only had maybe two or three other top tens. You know, winning the U.S. Open makes everybody forget about that. But, you know, I feel a lot better about my game this year. I have put a lot of work in on my short game. There is some technical things in my short game that got really messed up. I think all of last year my short game was pretty messed up, except for a couple weeks. Just some technical things with the pass, and whatnot, but I have kind of straightened that out and I have worked really, really hard on that, and I have worked really hard on my fundamentals. And it's just a matter of getting a little bit of confidence, knowing you can do it. You know, I played last week but, again, had two or three good rounds and one not-so-good round. So golf is a battle for consistency, that's the name of the game, you know, and that's why Lorena has done so well and Annika has done so well over the last decade, because when you are shooting 3, 4, 5 under, consistently, every day, there is nobody that can touch you. Same thing with Tiger. Q. Cristie, you talk about knowing you can do it. You now know -- CRISTIE KERR: I still can't hear you. It's the fan or something in the background. Q. You now know you can win a Major. CRISTIE KERR: Right. Q. (Inaudible). CRISTIE KERR: I think it helped me today, because I knew that when you are hot, you got to keep -- you got to stay hot. You know, especially when the conditions are tough. It's like -- it's moving 360 degrees. I mean, like a 6 under stays like a 10 or 11 under move with the conditions and the pins and the course playing the way it is, because they are not easy pins out there, so I just -- I actually forgot the question, but that's okay. Yeah, sorry, winning the Open, you kind of learn to recognize when that momentum is and ride it. I know I have done that. I said that to myself today when I had a tough shot to face, I have already won an Open, I can do that, under that much pressure. You know, it's funny, the rounds that I haven't quite played good enough, I felt pressure. Today I felt no pressure. So go figure. It's the game of offenses. Q. Cristie, you putted this well, and what were the lengths of your birdie putts that you made? CRISTIE KERR: You know what? If I hit a lot of greens, I usually do put this well. I had a three-putt today that was my only bogey on 14. I actually had a great shot into the green and a gust of wind got it and it carried just into the slope and then the wind got it and blew it down the hill, and I kind of made a bad first putt. But I usually do putt this well. It's always something I have been very pleased to be very good at. You know, if I hit 18 greens tomorrow with some -- I am not expecting to, it's very difficult conditions, I had a best ball striking round as you can get, and I hit 17 greens, but I hit a lot of greens. If I hit 13, 14, 15 greens tomorrow, I am going to be very dangerous. Q. Cristie, at what point today did you feel you had that momentum? When did you first feel it? Was it on a fairway? Was it while you were putting? CRISTIE KERR: I saw the first putt go in on number 1 -- Q. Right away? CRISTIE KERR: Yeah. I was like, you know what, I got nothing to lose. My fortune said "A GREAT DAY AHEAD" and I believed it. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|