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P&G BEAUTY NW ARKANSAS CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY JOHN Q. HAMMONS

July 5, 2008

Kristy McPherson

ROGERS, ARKANSAS

ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Kristy, thanks for coming in and joining us today. There must be something about this tournament because I remember sitting up here with you last year and you had shot a career low at that time, and yesterday you came out here, another career low with a 64, and today you find yourself at the top of the leader board with an 11-under two-round score. Can you just kind of talk about how you feel and what suits your game about this course?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: I'm happy to have 36 holes in right now, that's for sure. Last year I was sitting up here and thinking are we going to get a golf tournament in and we didn't.
The golf course has gotten a lot of rain both years. It's a ball strikers' golf course right now. You can throw the ball right to the flag. And I went back to my old faithful belly putter this week, and finally got the ball in the hole again. Been hitting the ball really well last couple months just struggling with (inaudible) and that's the only difference this week.
But, you know, I just love coming here. Feel like I'm coming home. Unbelievable housing, which makes the whole week so much easier, you know, just everybody makes you feel welcome, everybody is cheering for you. I feel like I'm playing in South Carolina.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: And I believe this is the first time since you have joined the LPGA Tour that you are going to go into the final round at the top of the leader board. Any nerves, jitters, or how are you handling those feelings right now?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Not nervous at all. I would not be surprised if I'm not at the top of the leader board at the end of the day or end of the round, whatever that may be. But there's some low scores out there. Some of the girls could come up there and, you know, be a few shots ahead of me, and I'm okay with that too.
But, you know, I played real well both rounds. I played solid golf this afternoon, just hit a lot of edges, that was the only difference between yesterday's round and today's. But just, you know, wherever I am at the end of the day, I'm just excited to go and try to make a lot more birdies.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Let's go over your scorecard really quick, the bogeys and birdies, starting with the bogey on 2. What happened the there?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: I've got a few too many sixes on the scorecards last two days. Those add up pretty quickly.
Hit a great shot in there but it stopped short of where I thought it was going to be, about 16 feet short of the hole, and just three putted. Blew though first one by. My feel for putting was not right this morning.
I was in the middle of my nap when they called and said, You are on the tee box in 30 minutes. And so I ran and didn't get to putt after the morning round. And my first four holes I blew the ball by. Fortunately, I made the others, but that one there I hit about eight feet past the hole and missed that coming back.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: You recovered with that birdie on 7. Tell us about that one.
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Birdie on 7, relatively short Par 5 for us, just had it to about 30 yards short of the green and chipped up there about two feet and made that.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Birdie on 8?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Birdie on 8. Hit a good little 7-iron in there about five feet.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Okay. Birdie on 10?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Birdie on 10. I had a wedge in to five feet there.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Bogey on 13?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Bogey on 13. Yeah, that one's suppose to be the easiest hole on the golf course isn't it? Just had like a couple yards short of the green in the rough and kind of a sketchy lie and just went right underneath it. Then still chipped it. Hit a really poor chip shot about 15, 18 feet past the hole.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Two-putt from 18 then?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Yeah.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Birdie on 14?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: I came back with a birdie. Hit the wedge up there about eight, nine feet.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: And the final birdie on 18 to tie you for the lead?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: 18. Hit a little chip nine on up there and thought it was all over the flag and nobody clapped so that had me worried, but just off the back fridge which was about a 20-footer and downhill, made the putt there.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Questions for the leader in the clubhouse?

Q. Before this weekend, when was the last time you had used the belly putter and why did you go away from it?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: I took the belly putter out after Tulsa. Actually, Sunday of Tulsa I just switched putters. We had 40-mile-an-hour winds there all week, and it was very ungulated greens and the belly putter is really tough to get with speed. My speed was so bad that week I just got so frustrated.
I've been through about six putters since then, and finally had a week off and I said, forget it, I'm going back-- we're back with the belly putter last week. And it's really -- I've always had a hard time releasing the putter, and I just can't release the short putter right now. So with the belly it just makes it easier to get on that plain.

Q. You talked about it being a ball striker's golf course right now. Talk about with the rain the course has gotten, you know, I mean, what kind of conditions does that make for all the golfers out there? Is it easier? I mean, just --
KRISTY MCPHERSON: We are fortunate that the golf course is in as great shape as it is right now. We played it up the last two days, and I've had very little mud on the ball really. But you get to play it up. You get to tee it up in the fairway. You know, you got it nice and fluffy and the greens are very, very receptive. They're really soft greens. Very few are releasing on the greens.
So, I mean, you get a number there is not a lot of question about it. You pick your number and you get that number. And very few of them have really, really thrown me off when they hit the green.

Q. Really quickly, on your first hole, the first hole of your second round, you hit your tee shot, and your second shot you were over on the right side, and you hit a great shot there through the trees. Can you talk us what was going through your mind right there?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: That was a really good shot. Best shot I've hit in two days. The tee ball you know just running around got up there and wasn't quiet that -- flared my tee ball right. The only tee ball I hit right. My normal miss is left. Obviously, I was steering away from that. And got a pretty good gap but there's a pot bunker short and I had 113 front and 123 flag and it really set up great with the lie. Had a little below my feet. Just punched a little 6-iron up there and it ran up to about 16 feet.

Q. Were you surprised how well it turned out?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: It was exactly what I was trying to do, but how many times do you do exactly what you are trying to do really? I was trying to just miss that pot bunker. If it hit the pot bunker, then it was going to have enough speed on it to come out of it and end up just short of the green. But it hit perfectly right there and end up with a good birdie opportunity.

Q. What was it like to be in the group with Angela today? Did you at any time kind of just think-- I know you concentrate on your game, but at any time did you just notice what was going on with her?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Absolutely. She's unbelievable. I was excited to get in the pairing I had. Both Jimin and Angela are great girls to play with. And Angela's got by far, in my opinion, the best golf swing out here. It's just fun to watch. She is a great player at 19 years old, and it's unbelievable. You don't realize how low she is going then all of a sudden it's like, whoa, when am I going to get the tee box back?
But I didn't play bad golf this afternoon. I just got lapped. I mean, I just told her, I said, Girl, you are something special. You know what I mean? She has already made a name for herself, already a great player and going to have many more good things to come for her.

Q. You mentioned getting woken up from a nap. How much of your pre-round routine did you miss? I mean, was it just like, oh, shoot I got to go play?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Luckily I got a five-hole warm-up this morning. But, yeah, it did. I kept getting the e-mails about delays and delays and then so I was actually like, well, I'm going to take a little -- I only got about four hours of sleep last night-- I'm going to take me a little nap. I told my sister, wake me up at 11:30. I laid down at 11:00.
As soon as I laid down, the phone rang, Kristy, where are you? I'm in my housing. They said, You are on the tee. You got an 11:30 tee time. I said, I was planning on a 12:47 tee time. I rushed over here, had 20 minutes and hit a few balls. Didn't get to putt like I'd like to. But you know that's how it goes.
I'm very lucky that I got in 36 holes now. We actually had the best swing of tee times there I think.

Q. Kind of what he was asking, but also just how did this course change? How did the challenge at the course kind of change when it's so wet? I mean, is this a course where the challenge is exponentially more when it's hard out here and dry and everything?
KRISTY MCPHERSON: I think some of the greens could really get firm. The last two years we've been here we've obviously had a lot of rain. I played back in college my freshman year, SCC Championship, and it was the toughest course I think I played in college. We had the rough up, the greens firm, and the last two years we've gotten a lot of rain which changed it a lot.
But it's not a long golf course for us. So, you know, just putting a lot of wedges in your hand, a lot of 8 and 9-irons, a lot of scoring clubs, which I think brings it back together.
I mean some of these long girls are getting to a lot more Par 5s than I am, but still, I'm going to have a wedge in my hand which makes it a lit easier there.
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: All right. Kristy, I think you are overdue for sleep.
KRISTY MCPHERSON: It's my nap time now .
ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Thank you so much. Great round.
KRISTY MCPHERSON: Thanks.

End of FastScripts

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