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SYBASE CLASSIC PRESENTED BY SHOPRITEMay 14, 2008Meaghan FrancellaCLIFTON, NEW JERSEY ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Meaghan, thanks for coming in and joining us today. Kind of a home tournament for you. You're just miles away from the hometown where you grew up. Welcome to the Sybase Classic, and tell us how it feels to be here this week. MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Yeah, it's always nice to come back home. I went home last night, and I'll probably go home right after this. Just seeing family and a lot of people don't get to come out much; so for them to be able to come out this week is nice. ASHLEY CUSHMAN: You were here last year when it moved from Wykagyl to Upper Montclair, and this year, there's some changes to the course, can you comment on those? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: The golf course is in great shape, and the layout, I really like the layout. It's an old-fashioned golf course. The superintendent just does a great job here. Bottom line, course is always in great shape and the greens always roll great. So you know, it should be a fun week. Q. Yesterday Annika announced she was retiring and Lorena was in here a little bit ago; can you from a player's perspective compare and contrast two No. 1 golfers in the world, these are legends, a growing legend and an established legend, from your perspective and the perspective of your peers. MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Compare both of them? Such a hard question. I guess Annika has done so much for the game. She's obviously 37 years old and Lorena is just starting out her career. I think she's been on Tour six years. I think we have two No. 1 players on Tour. I think, you know, they have both done so many things, and unfortunately we can't have two No. 1 players, but that's really -- I think they are both great players. I can't really say one better thing about the other. Q. After the long chapter Annika has had, does she have it in her? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Absolutely. Lorena is a great player and she's on a streak right now, when she doesn't play well, she still finishes in the Top-10 or Top-5. So I think, you know, she's consistent. She always putts well. She hits the ball a long way, so I can see her competing like this for a very long time. Q. Your first win came very quickly in your career. Did that raise your expectations and how do you feel about how things have gone since last year? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Yeah, I think after last year, not that I didn't expect to have a good year, but it was beyond my expectations. Obviously I didn't expect to win the third event of the year. You know, I had a couple Top-10s there and made over a half million dollars and got my name kind of out there and when I stepped on the first tee in Hawaii this year, I expected to have a great start to the season again. Obviously it didn't happen that way, but you know, I don't use the excuse -- I was sick. I got a parasite when I went to México in the third or fourth event of the year, and I haven't really recovered from it until recently. So that's kind of sent me backwards a little bit this year. I feel good now and I'm hitting the ball better than I've hit it -- I'm hitting it better than I hit it last year. I just haven't made any putts, so hopefully this week I can start making some putts and get on some greens that I really feel comfortable on. Q. You sound like Sergio. MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Yeah, well, Sergio won last week, so maybe I can. Q. In what ways did the parasite affect you? Was it like your strength or endurance? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Yeah, I mean, basically I got sick when I was in México, but I wasn't -- I played but I probably shouldn't have. But it was hard not to play. I get paired with Lorena and Laura Davies. How can you not want to play in that group? It was just a lot on my body. I got to Phoenix, and I'm really dehydrated, and I ended up in the hospital all day Wednesday, and just like, I really wanted to play but couldn't play. So I was in bed basically the whole week. I mean, when you're in bed a whole week, you don't really have much strength and I could barely get out of bed. So it took me a while to really get my strength back. Now I finally feel back to 100%. I kept saying, gosh, I don't understand why I'm not playing well, I'm getting tired, and I've had a couple people say, well, you've got to cut yourself a break; you've been really sick. But yeah, I'm back to normal now I think. Q. Is it something where you feel like -- I don't know, if this is like your 10th event, but does it feel like your third event? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Yeah, people are like, you're going to Corning next week? And I'm like, yeah, why not, I missed the first two cuts of the year and I haven't really gotten a healthy week. I had to sit out Phoenix and then I've been missing the cuts, so I'm really only having two-day weeks, so why not keep playing. The thing , I played on the Duramed FUTURES Tour and played 12 weeks in a row and didn't even flinch. So I just think if I keep playing and once I see the putts go in, I mean, it's going to be good. Q. Do you know where you picked it up? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: I don't know how I got it but I got really sick. I don't know what I ate. I don't know -- Q. It's usually fruit. MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Usually, yeah, that's what I think. Something I picked up. Bad luck. México was very good to me last year and this year it was not good. Q. Along those lines, what kind of reception did you get as defending champ? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: It was really nice. You know, I didn't expect people to remember me. You go places and like after I won last year, I didn't expecting to go to the next tournament and have people know who I was; and then this year, it was really nice. The people in México were so great and were just so happy to have a me back. They are like, "Francella! Francella!" It was really nice to go back. And the golf course, I love it there, I really do. I loved it. I was really upset I couldn't play up to my potential this year. ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Meaghan, thanks for your time and good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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