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BELL MICRO LPGA CLASSIC

September 12, 2008

Michelle Ellis

MOBILE, ALABAMA

JASON TAYLOR: Go beyond the next one, number 12.
MICHELLE ELLIS: Number 12, we -- I can't remember these holes.
JASON TAYLOR: You played them well.
MICHELLE ELLIS: I know. This is my first year of playing, too. 12 was a 3-putt.
JASON TAYLOR: Birdied 13.
MICHELLE ELLIS: Yeah. That was a 2-putt, that par 5.

Q. What did you hit on 13?
MICHELLE ELLIS: We went driver, your driver, 3-wood. Yeah. I hit like a wedge in there, hit it past 15. Able to hit back into the grass for birdie, yeah. That was on par 5.

Q. Then number 18, you birdied?
MICHELLE ELLIS: 18. No. 1 was par, two was par.

Q. Four was your next birdie.
MICHELLE ELLIS: Yeah. Par-4. I hit it right up in front of the greens, hit it up to about five foot and made it.

Q. What did you hit?
MICHELLE ELLIS: Wedge and 8-iron, right up to the front of the green.

Q. And then a double bogey on No. 5.
MICHELLE ELLIS: Yeah. Second shot, into the water.

Q. And then a birdie on No. 6?
MICHELLE ELLIS: Yeah. Driver, 6-wood, and then I had like 75 feet, hit it to about four feet.
JASON TAYLOR: All right, Michelle, you are 6-under overall, currently one back from the leader right now in the clubhouse. Talk about your scoring today.
MICHELLE ELLIS: Well, I've been struggling a bit. I'm not hitting the ball probably as good as I'd like to. I'm struggling a little bit with my setup. I have done that for a while now.
So I've been working harder. It's getting a little more consistent, but still with the wind and the way it is out there today, I played two days and with it really gusting and not blowing the same way all the way around, that's the only thing that's let me down.
I'm used to putting on this surface, grass where I come from in Australia. I'm reading the putts well, and that's what's helping me out a lot at the moment.
JASON TAYLOR: Okay. Questions?

Q. How much of an effect did the wind have today? It just seemed like at times it was really brutal.
MICHELLE ELLIS: It's brutal out there. The course is tough, as I'm sure all the other girls have said. It's a tough course, because you are -- the second shot near the green you need to be on the same plateau as the pin. Makes it even harder to try and judge the wind plus get yourself on that same plateau.
It's a lot of concentration. It's hard work; it's hot. It's swirling. For the morning, I don't know what it's going to do this afternoon, but this morning it really didn't stay the same way. Like you'd go into the wind and you'd think next one's going to be cross, and it just didn't do that. We had some gusts out there that were pretty strong.
It's tough to putt, also, because if you're not on the same plateau, one, it's difficult to putt anyway just on a normal day without having to take into consideration the wind and the ball oscillating and stuff like that.

Q. Without the wind how good a day would it have been do you think?
MICHELLE ELLIS: Without the wind, probably just a couple more under. Just the 6-footers and 5-footers when you do get close aren't always gimmies on these greens. A lot of different things that come into contention with the grain and knowing where that is and then also the wind. So nothing's really given me, like even one-footers I was really concentrating pretty tough on them because they can get away from you out there.

Q. I understand you're kind of dedicating your performance to your father. How's he doing, and tell me a little bit about that.
MICHELLE ELLIS: Yeah. It's been tough. I got to spend three weeks with him during the Evian and British. Yeah, things aren't real good, but he's hanging in there.
I'm trying to -- you know, I think we'll be lucky if he makes it through the new year, which is pretty tough. And he watches me out here playing, so I'd just like to win once. I've been out here a long time. I've had some good finishes, but I'd like to win one while he's still here to see it.

Q. Can you tell me a little bit about his condition, how he is and his illness?
MICHELLE ELLIS: Oh, he has a type of cancer that don't even ask me to try and pronounce. It's very -- it's hard to control it. Chemo and anything doesn't touch it. It's very aggressive.
We've been going up and down this roller coaster for five years. We started off with having his leg removed and then had another operation, and they thought that they got it. So it's been pretty draining on my family and stuff like that. It's not something that's just come up over the last six months or so. So I basically went home to check on my mother was getting a little bit down and losing some strength just trying to stand by him for so long.
So to tell you the truth, I was more worried about Mom, so I went home to spend some time with her and got her back into doing some more things instead of just sitting around.
Dad's still living life and trying to go to work when he can. He's very involved with different things in the town. We've had a lot of support for it, but not too many people over here know exactly what it is. I don't talk about it a hell of a lot, only to my closest friends.
It's been tough. It's tough to be so far away, and I feel guilty sometimes because Mom and them, and my sister is also working hard. They're around it all the time and having to deal with it, but this is what he wants me to do, and it's hard for me to be over here, but if that's what's going to keep him around and watch me play golf for a little bit longer, that's what you need to do.

Q. What's your mom and dad's name?
MICHELLE ELLIS: Bob Ellis and Colleen.

Q. Your sister's name?
MICHELLE ELLIS: Sharon.

Q. I mean how tough is that for you? I would imagine more of the down time away from the course is when it really kind of hits you. Can you just talk about how you deal with that, being the distance and knowing what's going on back home?
MICHELLE ELLIS: Yeah. Like I try and call there as much as I can and talk to Mom and have a chat with Dad. I never really had long conversations with Dad as it is, unless there's sports going on.
But you know, I think the toughest thing -- off the golf course maybe I'm probably a little bit more relaxed. I think I tend to try a little bit too hard on the golf course.
It's hard because there's just different things that, you know, he showed a lot of guts over the last five years, and it's changed my whole outlook on playing golf.
I don't get as upset anymore with bad shots. You wouldn't even know I hit it in the water on No. 5 because I've just changed; and if I had half the guts he has, I'd be a millionaire over and over again.
So I'm just trying to live every day, day by day like he is, and hopefully it'll set a round and have some good finishes.
It's been a tough couple of few years for me since I had my rib injury. I had a great 2003, 2004 chance at the U.S. Open. It's been difficult coming back from that on top of having -- just with my iron job and trying to get my consistency back and my ability to know that I can compete out here.
It's just sort of like all snowballing. And it's tough, but like I said, every time I'm just about to throw a club or get upset about it, I just think about how much he's fighting to stay alive and just keep that sort of momentum that keeps me going.

Q. You said he still tries to go to work as much as he can. What type of work does he do?
MICHELLE ELLIS: He's an accountant, and he does Blackwoods Industrial Sales. It's actually an American-based company, and they're also in conjunction with Home Depot and that.
They're wholly solely involved with big industrial things like the trucks and big things like that. So he's been working for the same company since he was 16. So it's just changed names. It started off as Dunlop.

Q. How old is your dad?
MICHELLE ELLIS: 60. Yeah. 60.

Q. So what's it like to have two Australians in the top three in the leaderboard?
MICHELLE ELLIS: Well, it's always good. You know, we're such a small country and we've had the likes of Karrie lead the way up for us and stuff like that.
We haven't succeeded as much as I probably would -- and the Australians pro golf programs would have liked. I think we've found our own. I'm very, very happy to see Sarah Jane get her card. She's such a sweet girl, and it's going to be great to have a few more of us out here.
We're all sort of one family because it's so far away from home, and we try to stick together, so yeah, it's great to see there's a few Australians.
We like playing in the wind, too. (Laughs). You know, we grow up in that. It's always like that being right on the coast, so we're pretty used to it. Not hurricane- strength wind, but breezy conditions.
JASON TAYLOR: All right. Thanks so much.

End of FastScripts

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