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KAPALUA LPGA CLASSIC

October 17, 2008

Suzann Pettersen

MAUI, HAWAII

MIKE SCANLAN: Let's go over your card.
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Birdie 2, I hit a wedge from 105 yards to 12 feet.
Bogey 7. 3-putt from 20 feet and missed my second putt, it was about four feet.
Bogeyed 12. Three putts from about 20 feet.
Birdie 15. Just two putts from the front of the green and a 2-footer for birdie.
MIKE SCANLAN: Tied for the lead going into the weekend. If you would, just talk about your round today, even par 72.
SUZANN PETTERSEN: It's definitely tough out there in the afternoon. Like you didn't see a lot of low scores yesterday afternoon either. Today I just left way too many putts out there. I would have been happy even with two or 3-under, that's how I felt.
I felt I'm in great position. I didn't lose any ground. I tried to go 2- or 3-under. This wind is definitely holding this course up, because if the wind stops blowing, I wouldn't say a piece of cake, but the wind really toughens up this golf course.
So we have already done six tournament rounds in a row with gusty, windy conditions, so get it while you practice I guess.

Q. You're 4-under on the par 5s, is that something with your length you're trying to take advantage of so far?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Sure, I mean, definitely like on the back side, 15 and 18 were good drives. I would say 15, you should make a birdie if you're in the fairway. It's like a long par 4 and if you make par, you feel like you've lost ground.
18, the pin is a bit -- it's a difficult putt, like on my second shot, especially it's on the downslope and I'm trying to hit a longer iron, and it's just hard.
So I don't know, I mean, I'm trying to be aggressive where I can be aggressive. There's some par 4s, as well, not too long, where you only have like a wedge, 110 yards in. So I think by controlling your trajectory, like I said yesterday, and I love to hit those three-quarter, knock-down shots into the wind. So, yeah, good stuff.

Q. With the wind, do you find that you have to adjust your swing constantly or go downwind as well as into the wind?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: You don't adjust your swing. It the same kind of swing but it's sort of different, like whatever -- like what I'm saying, you try to control the spin of the ball.
So the more spin you have, obviously the more the wind is going to take it. If it you're into the wind, you try to hit the ball with less spin so the wind doesn't affect it as much. So that's why you always see people like us and the guys hit like one, two, three clubs more just to control that because the harder you hit it, it will spin more.
But then if you want the wind to take it, it's kind of the same swing, so you just play around with the club. That's why we have 14 clubs, very fortunate right there.

Q. Playing to the left of the wind, is it easy?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I didn't think so. I would say front nine, like today I played in the afternoon, I won't complain and say we had such an easy conditions in the morning. I don't know what they were in the morning but it wasn't that easy.
When I teed off this afternoon, we teed off on 10, now on 1, and the front nine is very exposed. But when you make the turn at 10, 11, it's not as consistent. That's why it feels a bit long. The back side feels a bit more protected somehow like a bit long, and also this side is pretty much more consistent I would say.

Q. Did that make a difference?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: No, I just didn't putt as well as I did yesterday. That's kind of the difference in the score.

Q. Did you know your ball went into the golf cart on 14?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: No, but my caddie said, "Don't complain. That was a good break." (Laughter) That wasn't the best drive. I didn't aim for it.

Q. As co-leader now, what's your mentality now heading into the weekend? You have a lot of people right behind you. What's your mentality, just to be aggressive?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Yeah, I'm going to try to -- yeah, I don't really care where the other people are. I'm going to try to play this course as best as I can for the next two days, take whatever the course gives us. It may blow more; it may blow less. You never know, so you have to take whatever comes to you.
I'm going to try and play really aggressive, because it's set up for that. The par 5s, if you can knock it up close on the par 5s and chip-and-putt, you can make a good run there.

Q. And kind of off the subject, but there's quite an international representation in the Top-10 right now. Just for you, what's it like being one of the top golfers and to be out here leading the field?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I mean, there's obviously a lot of good golfers coming from Europe. There's been a particular one whose been kind of dominating for the last five years, who we have been kind of been trying to look up to and chase.
The European Tour does a great job. That's pretty much where all of the European, where we start and really get to kind of know how to travel every week and you kind of get to know that tour and use it as a springboard. For us, that's very important so, that by the time you get here, you're used to that and you're used to the kind of daily life, daily experience, daily routine.
So for me, that was a great spring board. Every second year, I represent Europe and we want to kind of keep it that way. It very important for us to keep The European Tour strong. Like I said, Annika has been a role model for all of us, especially for me since I grew up, and she still is. She's just set the standard so high and you have to reach higher and higher, and now Lorena is world No. 1 and she's put it even higher. You are always pushing yourself and trying to get better. They are raising the bar for everybody.

Q. Are there any major adjustments that you have to make between the European course versus Kapalua or other courses?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: In Europe you definitely play more of a variety of different courses. I find over here, it's more care he's and more flying. It's more like if you play 150, you play 150. You don't hit 130 and roll it 20 yards. That's what I found and that's why I adjusted my bag, because as a long hitter, it's nice to come in with the high flights so that you can attack more pins.
Probably in America, it plays a bit softer. But we play places like Half Moon Bay a couple of weeks ago, that was a little different. I like the variety and that's always why I love going back to Europe. This year I played in Ireland, a links course, and I played in Switzerland, a great course. It's just nice to mix it up and you kind of learn and maintain that kind of creativeness that you have with your game I think.

Q. Comparing yesterday's round to today's round, would you say that your fewer putts came yesterday because you were getting closer?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Good question. Probably a little bit closer. But I mean, I hit 16 greens yesterday and 16 greens today and yesterday I had 30 putts and today I had 3. That's four shots right there.
So my long game is pretty much the same. I mean, sometimes it's very hard to get close. Like on the front nine, some of the holes, par is a good score. Other holes, you feel like you should walk off the hole with a birdie.
But I mean, you never know. You've just got to take whatever you put yourself in, you kind of -- but some pins are tough to get close.

Q. You looked disappointed on 18 on the second shot. Did you know where you stood? I know you're going for the lowest score you can, but did you know where you stood at that point?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I was trying to make a birdie. I'm trying to make a four.
It's a bad shot pretty much but I mean, if I hit that good, I hit it to the middle of the green and try to get a 2-putt in for four. That's my strategy. So today what I left myself, it's like deep trouble.

Q. So you knew where Brittany was?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I didn't know where they were or what the score was and what's going on. It's such a tough hole because you can bomb it 300 yards, and especially if you're on the downslope, and to get something up and to come down soft is almost impossible.

Q. Did you come out of that shot?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: It wasn't my best swing, but it's very challenging. I might get two out of five, I don't know how that comes out. That's kind of the difficulty of the stroke.
If it was 8-iron, it wouldn't be a problem. It's a 4-iron. It just hard to get up there; muscles.
MIKE SCANLAN: Thanks, Suzann.

End of FastScripts

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