U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 26, 2008

Louise Friberg

FULL AUDIO INTERVIEW

RAND JERRIS: We're joined by Louise Friberg with a round of 4- under par 69 in the first round this morning at Interlachen. Maybe you can just start us off with some general comments what was it like to shoot 69 in your first round in the Women's Open.

LOUISE FRIBERG: It was comfortable. It was nice. I put the ball in good positions today. I made a few good putts. I left a little bit out there, but it was just a nice golfing day, I guess.

RAND JERRIS: Were you surprised by your score? Or did you play well in practice rounds? Did you see a low score coming?

LOUISE FRIBERG: Yeah, you know, the past few weeks I've actually been hitting the ball really well. I've struggled a lot with my short game, my putting. And today is just -- it was great.

So I sort of saw it coming, that a good round was going to come, but I just didn't know when. I tend to focus just on the process out there, so I care about the result, but I don't -- I tell myself I don't care about the result.

RAND JERRIS: Was it the putting today? Was the putting the difference?

LOUISE FRIBERG: Yeah, I got to know the greens really really well Tuesday, Wednesday, and right off I really liked the pace of the greens and was able to read them -- I wouldn't say easily -- but I'm able to read them pretty well. So just the consistency of the greens really helped me to get my stroke back and to be a little bit more confident out there.

RAND JERRIS: Going to ask you to go through the birdies and bogey on your card. You had a birdie on No. 12.

LOUISE FRIBERG: Yes. I think I had 174 yards to the pin. I hit a 6-iron to the right of the pin to about 18 feet. And then made that. It was just a right-to-left putt.

RAND JERRIS: Next birdie was at 15.

LOUISE FRIBERG: 15, I hit a driver off the tee, I had 78 yards left to the pin so I hit my 60 degree wedge to about I would say eight or nine feet.

2, the par-5, yeah, I hit a driver off the tee, cut it, and then I had 195 yards left to the pin. And I hit my four hybrid, but it came out a little short, so it came back. And then I just chipped to about five feet and made a putt.

4, the par-3, I had 182 to the hole, but it was playing a little bit shorter. It plays downhill, so I hit a 7-iron to about I want to say maybe 10 feet maybe, 11 feet. And it was just a straight putt. So it was easy.

No. 6, I had a 3-wood off the tee, I had 165 yards left to the hole. And I hit a cut 6-iron to about two feet.

RAND JERRIS: Then you gave one back on the final hole.

LOUISE FRIBERG: I did, but I'll take that one back tomorrow.

(Laughter.)

RAND JERRIS: Can you tell us what happened there?

LOUISE FRIBERG: I should have backed off the drive there. I didn't like the visual of the tee shot for some reason. And I figured it's, if I back off it's not going to look any different. So I just hit. But I should have backed off and sort of got my mental groove back in.

And so I hit a tree to the right and had a long way in. I had like 1 -- no, I had 208 to the pin actually. I hit my 3 hybrid a little left and then chipped, 2-putt, and that's how to make a bogey there.

Q. Obviously this has been a pretty special rookie year. Can you talk a little bit about how you sort of set up your success this year at the beginning of Mexico and how it feels coming here this week.

LOUISE FRIBERG: To be honest with you going into this LPGA season I didn't really know what to expect. I'm a rookie and never really played a LPGA event. So I did not have that much expectations.

I missed my first cut, the first tournament, finished 7th, and then all of a sudden I won. And it, the win just dropped straight out of the sky. I was a little surprised.

A lot of media stuff I wasn't used to. Which, I like it, but it takes a bit of organization to get everything right. And it's not always easy for me.

So but it was great. And then it's been a roller coaster since the win. A little bit up-and-down, but I think I'm getting my game to where I want it a little bit more and getting used to everything around it.

So now this round was good for my confidence again.

Q. Lorena mentioned that she was kind of frustrated with herself that it took her probably six seven holes to get aggressive, she was kind of playing conservative thinking U.S. Open, were you aggressive right from the start and if so why was that the case?

LOUISE FRIBERG: I think I was fairly aggressive from the start. I started off on 10. So starting with a par-5 you know you're going to have a short club in. Hit a good third shot there. And I guess on my first two putts I wasn't aggressive enough, I could have hit them just a little bit harder because they came out, not short, but just on the short side.

But then I, no, I didn't feel like I wasn't aggressive enough from the start, I was following my plan the whole time. And yeah.

Q. How is the course playing? Was there any difference? Some mentioned that maybe they put more water on the greens overnight. How did it play today compared to the practice rounds?

LOUISE FRIBERG: I think it played pretty similar. My game plan was to hit a lot of three quarter shots instead of hitting full wedges into the greens just to control the spin a little bit easier. And I practiced that during the practice rounds and I think it was pretty much the same today. So maybe a little bit softer but not much. Not that I noticed. Not the shots that I hit.

Q. You say you bogeyed 9, right?

LOUISE FRIBERG: Yes.

Q. Did you get, you didn't get behind the hole, did you?

LOUISE FRIBERG: I'm sorry, what?

Q. You didn't get behind the green?

LOUISE FRIBERG: No, I hit it left. Yeah.

Q. Can you talk about how scary it is to be up behind that hole? I've watched people in the practice rounds Michelle Wie I guess got behind it and took a nine. What's it like being behind the green on No. 9?

LOUISE FRIBERG: I don't know, I haven't been there and I'm not planning on being there either. So I couldn't tell you.

(Laughter.)

It's a lot more comfortable to be short of the hole or left or right. I tell you that.

But a lot, it takes quite a bit to get long of the hole there because most shots are actually going to come back and feed back. So yeah, I don't know. I hope I won't get there this week.

Q. You may have already said this and I didn't hear it how many U.S. Opens have you played?

LOUISE FRIBERG: Zero. This is my first U.S. Open. I played a British Open for first time last year. But this is my first U.S. Open.

Q. And what were your expectations of this championship coming in here?

LOUISE FRIBERG: Well, I was asking around because everyone was like, oh, the U.S. Open is so different. And I thought, you know, what's so different about it? So I asked them what should I be prepared for. And they said lots more people, just a little bit different organization.

And yeah, there is lots more people and different organization. But they said the rough would be brutal, the greens would be way, way fast. But obviously it's easy for me to say today that the rough is not brutal because I haven't been in much. But during the practice round I didn't think it was that bad. I mean, I wouldn't have a horror dream about it or anything. I like the setup of the course.