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SYBASE CLASSIC PRESENTED BY SHOPRITEMay 15, 2008Lorena OchoaCLIFTON, NEW JERSEY ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Lorena, thanks for coming in and joining us today. You're off to a great start, 4-under, 68, and you're currently tied for second. The leader is not in the clubhouse yet, but great round. Can you just talk about how you played? LORENA OCHOA: Hello, everybody. It was a good day. It was very good from the tee. I hit all the fairways, missed the fairways just a couple of times, and I was able to save par, and I had came up with a lot of birdie chances. I didn't make all of them, but I was good with my putts, so it was a good start. I'm excited that things went well today, and I have a good feel for the course, and I'm excited about tomorrow. ASHLEY CUSHMAN: When you play these courses that you come back to defend on, do the good memories from the year before instantly come back in the first round or does it take a couple of days? LORENA OCHOA: Well, you know, I don't even think that I'm trying to defend myself. I just play the way I always play, but it's always good to have good memories. It gives you a nice feel about the greens, the holes, so I guess I like the way I'm feeling right now. I'm going to go and practice a little bit right now in the afternoon, maybe a little bit my chip and putt again and to continue playing good. ASHLEY CUSHMAN: All right. Let's go over your scorecard and then we'll start with questions. Start with the birdie on the fifth hole. LORENA OCHOA: I hit the green on two with a seven-wood, 190 yards, pin high, and two putted for birdie. And then birdie number eight I hit an 8-iron, 143 yards, and I was a little bit long, maybe 15 feet, and I made that for birdie. And then birdie number ten I hit again on 7-iron, 145 yards, and I needed ten feet, and I made that. On 11 I hit the green on two with a seven-wood, 200 yards, and I had like 20 feet for eagle. I just two-putted for birdie. And on the twelfth hole I found the middle of the fairway, 200 yards, and it was like 196. I hit my seven-wood just a little to the right and it bounced on the fringe and hit to the right in the water and opened for bogey. On birdie 17 I hit a 4-iron, again, 200 yards and about 10, 12 feet and I made that for birdie. ASHLEY CUSHMAN: All right. Questions for Lorena. We'll just pass the mic around. Q. Lorena, obviously last week Annika won the tournament. She's playing very well this week. Does it spur you on a little more to see her playing so well at the top of the leaderboard? The competition with Annika right now the way she's playing after what happened last week, does that sort of spur you on a little bit more? LORENA OCHOA: Well, Annika has always been out there, and of course, it makes me want to play good, and that's the way she's been pushing me to huddle around and win tournaments. So it's always good motivation to play next to her. And of course she's playing good. She won the last two tournaments, and I know that it's going to be tough to get not only this win, but to get wins this year, but I'm ready to do it. Q. I saw your putt on 18. It was a downhill putt. I was surprised it came up short. How are the greens rolling, and is the weather affecting the conditions on the greens, on the course? LORENA OCHOA: The greens are a little soft. My putt on 18 was two par, and I was just trying to leave something close because you get a great hit and you could end up way past the hole and in the straw, making up on coming back. So you just need to be careful. You really need to prepare for the downhill where the green is going and be smart to play for birdie. Q. Do you pay attention to the scoreboard at this point in the tournament? And if you look at the scoreboard now, do you say to yourself, "oh, gees, she's there again," as opposed to somebody else? LORENA OCHOA: I do look at the scoreboard. I like to know what I need to shoot, or how many I'm behind from the leaders or if I'm leading the tournament by how many. I like to know. It's always good to know, and if you are right there and you have one more hole and you need to make birdie. Even today in the first round I wanted to finish close to the lead and win the tournament. So I always look at the leaderboard. And seeing Annika's name, we're all used to that. She's there every week. Q. For a long time you were chasing to be No. 1. How does it feel now to be on top, being chased at the No. 1 spot? LORENA OCHOA: I like it. It took me many years to get there, and now that I'm at the top, first I will try to enjoy it as much as I can, but I like to be there. I like to win and I like the competition. I want to make sure I keep working hard to stay there. Q. Lorena, did you feel that the course played very similar to last year or differently? LORENA OCHOA: Very similar. Very similar. I think it's about the same. Hopefully -- you know, the bad weather is coming tomorrow and the next couple days. It's probably going to go over like last year. But it's the same for everybody. We just try to do our best every day. Q. You said you want to keep yourself up at the top of the leaderboard. With the weather looking like it might be as bad as it was last year, are you encouraged about from last year's performance that you might be able to duplicate that here? LORENA OCHOA: I like the weather we have. If it's rainy, if it's sunny, I'm always trying to be positive. It doesn't matter the conditions. And sometimes you win 4-over, sometimes you win 8-under. I'm going to just try to do whatever it takes to win, and I'm positive about it. We've been having bad weather the last couple weeks. I guess one more week it will be fine. Q. On No. 12 after you hit the shot, you did a lot of leaning. Was that a shot that if it's two feet to the left, it's a great shot and two feet to the right, you're in the water? LORENA OCHOA: Exactly. We're probably making three or five and we finish with a five. And you can't control, you know, just 30 inches left or right on the hole. So you have to accept it's just a bad break. I mean it's only the first day, so hopefully I'll get good breaks in the last two days. Q. Lorena, after Tiger got to No. 1, he ripped his swing apart twice and rebuilt his swing to improve. Every golfer wants to improve. Can you ever see yourself undergoing any kind of major swing change to try and get better than you are now? You have a very unique swing as it is. LORENA OCHOA: No. Not on my swing. I don't need to change my swing. There are a lot of things I could improve in my short game. Around the greens, working with different -- with the grass, with my sand wedge, and I have a lot of room for growth in my 80, 90, 100, 110-yard wedges. I need to get up right next to the hole. But not on my swing. Q. There were a couple of putts that were just short or just a little bit long. Do you feel like you left some opportunities out there to score today? LORENA OCHOA: I did. A couple times, you know, I think that's why making that birdie on 17 felt really good. I was so-so all day, but I'm fine. 8-under par, it's good to be in a good position, and hopefully I'll be up there on the weekend. Q. Not that there's a lot of bad weather in Mexico or even Arizona where you went to school, but when you were growing up, did you try to practice in bad weather so you got used to playing in all sorts of different conditions? LORENA OCHOA: All the time. Every time it rained I ran to the golf course and tried to play. Even one year it started snowing and I went and played. It was the first time it snowed in like 160 years in Guadalajara and I go out and play golf. Yeah? ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Any more questions for Lorena? All right. Thank you for your time, and good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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