U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 2, 2004

Michelle Ellis

Q. Michelle, where is your mindset, happy, sad, glad, surprised?

MICHELLE ELLIS: Oh, obviously I'm excited to be two shots back after two rounds at the U.S. Open. It is my this is my fifth U.S. Open and as the more you play the more you get acclimatized to what goes on here. And it's a good, the course suits me. I'm just hoping to putt a little bit better over the weekend.

Q. Did you bring in any kind of different kind of game plan playing your fifth Open?

MICHELLE ELLIS: Yeah, of course, the more you play, the smarter you get. I think, obviously, myself and my caddy have worked very hard on, in the practice rounds, to leave ourselves, give ourselves the best opportunity when we miss greens. Obviously that's the most difficult part about this golf course. It's very forgiving off the tee, but you can hit 18 greens around here and still shoot 90 if you leave yourself in the wrong spot. So that's basically all we have been doing is really taking into account where the pins are and leaving ourselves the best opportunity we can to have a putt at birdie.

Q. What's your evaluation, your description of the two rounds that you've had here?

MICHELLE ELLIS: My description?

Q. Yeah. How you feel you've played.

MICHELLE ELLIS: I think I've struck the ball really, really well. I don't think I've hit the ball any different than I have on Tour during this year. I think it basically comes down to a thought process on our game plan. We have really stuck to it and I think that's basically what it comes down to. Our concentration level is pretty not saying that I concentrate less at normal Tour events. But a course like this you got to keep your guard up all the time or it's going to come up and bite you.

So I'm really excited about the way I've played. I'm hitting the ball great, I wish I was putting a little bit better. I'm working on that. I had a lot of opportunities today. But you win some, you lose some.

Q. Your history in the U.S. Opens that you've played in before, have you been this close at this point before?

MICHELLE ELLIS: No. Except for last year I made cut in each event and finished top 20, top 30. Didn't do anything spectacular. I think, as I said at the beginning, it's, you grow at the more Opens you play, the smarter you get. And not all Open golf courses suit everybody either. I just feel as though this one, it's not overly long, I think just the smarter person at the end of the week's going to win this event.

Q. Course playing a lot different than you saw in the early week, Tuesday, Wednesday?

MICHELLE ELLIS: Of course. It wasn't running out as much. The greens were a little bit more receptive on the par 3s especially too. You could really fly it in there. We're hitting a few longer irons than yesterday because the fairways aren't running. But when that breeze got up when I was playing my front nine, which was the back nine, it was pretty tough to sort of because you're not getting the distance off the tees we had yesterday afternoon.

Q. The way the greens are, do you find yourself with more spots where you can get a little aggressive?

MICHELLE ELLIS: Yeah. Especially on the par 5s and like the par 3s, like I say you could really fire at them because you knew they were going to stop today as opposed to yesterday and even during the practice rounds.

Q. For those of us who didn't see your round can you go over your birdies?

MICHELLE ELLIS: Well, I started on number 10. Hit it to like a foot. I stuck that.

Then No. 12, hit a little wedge in there to about five feet. Holed that.

13, just short of the green, chipped up to about four feet, holed that.

Then just played pretty steady through there and then made the turn, birdie on No. 2, hit 7 iron up to about 15 feet, holed that.

And I don't know. A hundred footer on number 6. Hit a terrible shot in there and hit a good putt and it went in.

Q. Any break to it?

MICHELLE ELLIS: Yeah, a big right to left swinger. There's always a lot of break in these greens.

Q. (Inaudible.)

MICHELLE ELLIS: Of course, that was, that sort of got me, I was getting a little down on myself. I had hit a lot of great shots, had a lot of great opportunities, and especially on those sort of holes when you got the shorter irons in your hand. I didn't make the greatest shot, so I was a little bit annoyed, but I was lifted after I holed that.

Q. What was your club at 10?

MICHELLE ELLIS: Just gripped down a 6 iron.

Q. How far out were you?

MICHELLE ELLIS: Yardage there, I think we had like 160 I was thinking 160.

Q. (Inaudible.)

MICHELLE ELLIS: Every one has a chance.

Q. Did it have a chance?

MICHELLE ELLIS: Oh, yes. Yeah.

Q. By the hole?

MICHELLE ELLIS: Yeah. Just right near the hole. I don't know how it missed because it was on the left hand side of the hole like this (Indicating).

Q. What do you draw from your amateur days as a champion there going into this weekend? Is there anything from there?

MICHELLE ELLIS: I think it's a little different, the Australian championships I've won, I've won a couple stroke play, but most of them were match play. Yeah, of course, I've been in the situation before, it's not that I'm not saying that I'm going to stand on the first tee and not be nervous, but I think a combination of being nervous and the excitement of being in position is going to, it will help me out, because the excitement sort of keeps you to forget about the whole thing of it being the U.S. Open and it keeps your nerves down a little bit.

End of FastScripts.