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SYBASE CLASSIC PRESENTED BY SHOPRITE

May 14, 2008

Karrie Webb

CLIFTON, NEW JERSEY

ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Karrie, exciting season for you so far. You already have two Top-5 finishes in your six starts. Can you talk about the season and what's working for you?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, I've been swung at it well for probably the last -- well, for the whole year, I felt like I've swung at it pretty well and just the two Top-5 finishes were weeks that I putted pretty decently. And on weeks I'm struggling to keep up with the low scores that are being shot out here, really I've got to get the putter to start working a little bit better and once that happens, I think it sort of flows to the rest of your game to the point where you swing at it better because you can swing at it more confidently and know that if you do miss a shot you're going to get it up-and-down because you'll make the putt for par.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: A few changes here to the Upper Montclair Country Club compared to last year, I don't know if you've had a chance to take notice.
KARRIE WEBB: I haven't been on the course yet.

Q. Talk a little if you would about a post-Annika LPGA Tour, how you see things shaking out going forward, what life will be like out here without her.
KARRIE WEBB: Well, I think obviously when a player of Annika's calibre decides to retire, I think it's going to be a big hole to fill. You know, she's been a mainstay and you know, been the No. 1 player in the world for many years and someone that's in contention each and every week. So to not see her out here or on the leaderboards or on TV, it will be a big void to fill.
I think that we have the talent to do that. Obviously Lorena Ochoa is starting to fill that void now with the play that she's had in the last two or three years.
I think you know when I first came out on Tour, we were starting to lose the Nancy Lopezes and the Pat Bradleys and the Patty Sheehans of my first couple of years on Tour, and that was the question that was being asked then; is that we didn't have characters of that caliber on Tour. And I think, you know, there was plenty of players that eventually stepped up and filled that role.
So for a while, we are going to miss Annika. I think the Tour will always miss a player like Annika. But along the way, new stories will come, great players will come out and you know, I think they will more than come close to filling Annika's shoes.

Q. There's a wealth of talent out here right now. Do you see Lorena as a player for the ages? Is she going to keep the No. 1 spot for several years to come or do you see it getting traded around now among any number of players?
KARRIE WEBB: I don't know. It will depend if -- the difficult question to answer is you watch Annika dominate for, you know, however many years, five, six years in a row that she did, and everyone thinks that is pretty easy to do because you see Tiger doing it, as well, and it's a really difficult thing to do to go year after year after year after year. I think it's hard to do week-after-week after week-after-week, let alone year after year after year of playing such high-quality golf.
So, you know, it will depend if Lorena can keep up that standard. It kind of a superhuman standard. So I wouldn't be knocking her if next year, she's God forbid, fourth on the Money List. The way she's playing now, I think you'll see her as the No. 1 player in the world or at least the No. 2 player in the world for the next five years at least.

Q. You, Annika and Lorena have been the dominant players in the last decade or so. What similarities or differences do you see for the three of you, and is there anything in particular with Lorena now in the last year or two that has really elevated her to the next level?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, I think our similarities are that we all had the burning desire to be the best player in the world. I think everybody does. But you know I think for a period of time, just speaking from my experience, I woke up every morning and that's what I wanted, when I went to the course -- obviously I wanted to play well, but I had the burning desire to it continue to be the best player in the world and in order to achieve it first and then maintain it as long as possible.
But I think our approaches to becoming that are very different. You know, I think I fit sort of in the middle of the three of us. I think Annika is definitely very methodical, a tactician, and she really sticks to her game plan almost machine-like, how she got herself around the golf course.
Whereas Lorena is very flamboyant, she's the type of player that if she misses a drive way right, it's not a surprise to the people playing with her, but it's not a surprise that she rips it 300 down the middle, either and hits a great iron shot.
So she is more of an aggressive player and is a fantastic putter, and I think I fall in the middle of that, where I have a certain aggression but also sort of follow Annika's style in playing to plot my way around the golf course, as well.

Q. (No microphone).
KARRIE WEBB: For a short period of time there, she would win -- she was having more chances of winning and not getting the job done, and once she learned how to get the job done, you know, I think that was sort of -- that was the key for the explosion of great play for her was that she knew how to win from behind and she knew how to win with the lead, and she's just playing with a world of confidence. She tightened the driver up -- like I said, she still has the possibility of missing a drive, but she doesn't miss fairways or as wide as she used to. She would have one or two really stray drives around, which knocks your confidence all day. I don't think she does that as much. I think she's in play more and she's a great iron player and then again a great putter.

Q. You mentioned desire awhile ago. After the amount of time you've been a professional, is it harder to maintain that desire and focus to be the best player in the world?
KARRIE WEBB: It's just different. It's not -- I still have the desire. I still want to be as good as I can be. I know I'm not fulfilling my potential as a player right now. I know I can play better than what I've been playing. You know, there's the desire to prove that to myself and to prove that to anyone who doesn't believe that. So you know, it is a little bit different. I think I still work as hard on my game, but I just try not to be as hard on myself as I was in my 20s. I think that's probably the only difference.

Q. When you fix your putting, you're going to start winning again?
KARRIE WEBB: I guarantee you I have a few more chances of winning if I can get the putter working and seeing the ball go in the hole.

Q. Can you just go over when you're making up your schedule, what are the things that lead you to decide to play in one tournament or another? Obviously the majors are a given, but when you're filling out the schedule, the other things you look at?
KARRIE WEBB: I think it's a little bit different now to what it was when I was younger. I try not to -- well, I don't even think I'm depending on what the end of my year looks like, but up until the end of August, playing two tournaments in a row, I won't be playing anymore than that. I think just to try and stay a little bit more fresh ask and not feel like you're out here grinding. When I was younger I was okay with the grinding and now I'm not okay with it. It takes more of a toll on me than it used to.
So this year, I tried to do that. It actually worked out perfectly where I could play two on, one off, and pretty much all the way through to the end of August at least.
And then you know, I'm trying to play a schedule now that when I'm at a tournament, so that I really want to be at that tournament. I don't want to just play tournaments to makeup numbers anymore. I used to set a certain amount of tournaments a year that I would like to play and I would like to slowly start cutting that back the next few years, so that I'm really 100% wanting to be at every single tournament, looking forward to that tournament as well as what goes on outside the golf tournament and try and really enjoy being at each tournament site.
I think that will keep my mind a little fresher and hopefully maybe play a little bit more consistently well.

Q. Where were you when you found out about Annika, and were you surprised at all considering she worked so hard to get back from all her problems?
KARRIE WEBB: I was actually here yesterday, and I had actually heard a rumor, and believe it or not there are actually rumors out on Tour. I had heard the rumor the night before and then when I heard, because yesterday that she had called a press conference, I obviously knew that the rumor was true and that she was going to retire.
I'm not too surprised. I know she's been talking about it for a few years, and I think perhaps maybe she thought she might last year, but I'm sure with the injury that she had, she probably didn't want to finish on that note and she's already had a great year now, she's already won three times so it would not matter how she played the rest of the year, so she's proven to herself, which is probably the most important thing that she can come back from that injury and play well.
I wasn't too surprised, just knowing her that well, but knowing what she said in the press in the last few years.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Karrie, thanks for your time today and good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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