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SYBASE CLASSIC PRESENTED BY SHOPRITE

May 15, 2008

Rachel Hetherington

CLIFTON, NEW JERSEY

ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Rachel, thanks for coming in and joining us today. Great round out there, 5 under par, 67, and you're tied for the lead, so going in, playing the afternoon with Annika playing in the morning and putting up that 5-under, were you chasing that score or what was your plan?
RACHEL HETHERINGTON: Actually, I haven't been playing all that consistently for a while, so I just really wanted to play the golf course and get out and play as well as I can and obviously get off to a good start because that's one thing I haven't really done very well this year.

Q. Can we go over your scorecards, the birdies and bogeys, starting with the first birdie on the second hole.
RACHEL HETHERINGTON: The second hole I hit a pitching wedge to four feet for birdie, and then on the third hole -- I'm trying to think what it was there. Oh, okay. I missed the green. I hit a 4-iron right to the green and had two putts from 10 feet for birdie. And then 7, I hit a sand wedge to 10 feet and made the putt for birdie. And then on 8 I hit a 7-iron to about 25 feet for a birdie. And 9, I hit a 6-iron to about 8 feet for a birdie there. 11, I hit a 3-wood on the green in two, and I two-putted from about 12 feet for birdie. And then on 16 I missed the fairway left and I hit a 7-iron out of the bunker on the left onto the green and had a 20-foot putt, and I made that for birdie.

Q. All right. Rachel, you had those back-to-back-to-back birdies on 7, 8 and 9. Did you really pick up momentum there or --
RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I did, yeah. You know, when you're struggling a little bit and you're making birdies and bogeys and you just want a little consistency and to get off to a good start, and I hit the ball pretty well today. I felt good and I felt good a lot of the times that I play and 7, 8 and 9 really kind of got me going and gave me some confidence to finish the round off well.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: If we can just use the microphone, we'll take questions for Rachel.

Q. Hi. You said you haven't been playing that consistently. What part of your game has been giving you trouble?
RACHEL HETHERINGTON: Probably been something a little different every day. For the most part my driving has been a little patchy, and you know, my putting hasn't been great. Today I made some good solid 20-, 25- footers for birdie, which was good, but other than that, you know, there wasn't a lot of difference. I've got a new cap on this week, which was the biggest difference for me, some Dove Chocolate, so that was probably the difference today.

Q. And when you joined Annika on top of the leaderboard, how exciting is that for you?
RACHEL HETHERINGTON: It's great. You know, as I said, too, when you've kind of been up and down a little bit and not playing all that consistently, you know, it's exciting to be in contention with good players. I think it makes you play better, and you know, just to have a good round, it gives you confidence, and that's what I'm going to build on.

Q. There's been a lot of discussion about Anna, Lorena, Lorena, Annika. Does that get to you? I mean you've accomplished things in your career, yet you've been sort of under the radar for a lot of years.
RACHEL HETHERINGTON: Right.

Q. Does it bother you? Do you think it bothers other players or do you think, okay, I'm glad to be under the radar?
RACHEL HETHERINGTON: I think, you know, it's great for the Tour, and for the most part, you know, I think every player on Tour wins, when it's great for the Tour. And I mean Annika has just had a phenomenal career and is a phenomenal player, and Lorena is so exciting and is a brilliant player as well, so they both deserve the attention they're getting. And it's exciting for the Tour to have some great players and some exciting players, and you know, you kind of never know who's going to be on the leaderboard or who's going to have the best round of the day every day. So you know, that's exciting, and I've got a lot of good memories from some duels with Annika, and you know, that's exciting for me as well.

Q. When you have a round like this, do you hope you're at the beginning of getting your game back, or do you go out tomorrow and say "I don't know" or how do you approach that?
RACHEL HETHERINGTON: You know, I don't think there's any hope in golf. You know, there's no point going out there and hoping because it just doesn't work. You've gotta work hard and trust yourself, and you know, when I haven't been scoring all that great, my confidence is the first thing that goes. So you wish you could hope because the game would be a lot easier, but you don't. But having a good round today, you know, it's really just -- it shows me that I'm working on the correct things. And I've been hitting the ball very well for quite a while and I just haven't kind of put it together, so it's a good start to the tournament, but you know, I want to continue to work on all the areas that worked well today.

Q. Is it easier going out in the later groupings where you know sort of what the score is and you can just sort of play or would you rather go out first and make the number and let everyone else come in?
RACHEL HETHERINGTON: It kind of depends on how you're playing. I don't really mind either way because I've had to work myself so hard and just play my own game because you can kind of get tied up in watching leaderboards, and if you're not going well, then it kind of exacerbates the problem, but if you're playing well, it's kind of good to have some scores up there and know what you're going after as well, so it helps if you're playing well.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Are there any more questions for Rachel? All right. Well, thanks for taking time out to come in here, and good luck the next three rounds.
RACHEL HETHERINGTON: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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