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ADT CHAMPIONSHIPNovember 18, 2008Morgan PresselWEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Thanks for joining us. Just talk a little bit about being here at ADT. You have one win on the year at Kapalua, and five Top 10 finishes. Talk about how you feel this week. MORGAN PRESSEL: Well, I'm excited to play at home as always here at Trump International. It's one of my favorite spots. Somewhere where I come to practice quite a lot when I'm home in general. So it's always nice to be here. Definitely, coming off of a win at Kapalua, I feel a little bit more confident about my game than I have earlier in the year. I mean, it's still a work in progress. And it's truthfully not even close, so hopefully I can have another good week this week after the few poor weeks I had in Asia. So maybe this is the time to bounce back again. Q. Was there a while this year where you were concerned that you'd be home this weekend, but not necessarily here this weekend? MORGAN PRESSEL: Actually, I said I was going to leave. I wasn't going to stay. Yeah, I mean, there was a time when I didn't qualify in the first half, and I was not playing well at all through the second half. And I knew that I was going to be making changes, and I kind of said well now is the time to make changes and not necessarily focus on short-term of playing in the ADT championship, but of long-term of playing a lot better through the next many years on tour. That was always something that I said. I said if I make these changes and work hard and I don't make ADT, it's not the end of the world. But I'm definitely happy with how things went at Kapalua, and that got me in, so... Q. Could you talk about your thought process in making the changes, and how difficult it is to do that in the middle of the season as opposed to three or four months off-season? MORGAN PRESSEL: Well, it's better to make changes than to continue to playing poorly (laughing). That was kind of my mindset. I didn't want to continue playing like that. Continue beating myself up over the poor play, and it just kind of it feeds on itself after a while. I mean, it's not easy to make a change while you're playing, and that's why I took off Mobile so I could have a good month to practice and spent a lot of time training in the gym and things like that. You know, it's just something that I kind of set my mind to in the middle of the season. I said, you know, I'm not too worried about even when I went to Navistar this year, I tried to play and not really focus on how I finished. But just testing my swing on on the course, and seeing how it worked. Not necessarily worrying so much about the score, but trying to see progress and things like that. Q. There's not going to be an ADT next year, per se. They're going to move it to the beginning of the 2010 season. Wondering what your thoughts are as far as starting with kind of the biggest purse event right out of the chute, versus kind of an end of the year deal? Pros and cons, you might say? MORGAN PRESSEL: Well, it's not the biggest purse. It's the biggest winner's paycheck. You know, it will give us a big event to start the season. I'm not totally sure on on exactly how -- I think it's going to be a similar format, is that what I've heard. I mean, I've got to play this week, first, and then I can worry about a year and a half from now. But we don't even know where it's going to be or anything like that, so... Q. Could you talk about what led you to Adam, and what specific changes are you concentrating on? MORGAN PRESSEL: Well, just a couple of recommendations from my manager, Chris Armstrong, my caddie, Jon Yarborough, as well as just a little bit of research on my own. Anthony's obviously been playing, Anthony Kim's been playing great this year. Cami's had a great year, and we do work well together. It's been very good. We're working on a lot of different things, trying to generate more club head speed through the ball. More solid shots. Just really opening up the club face a little bit more. Set at the top, and more powerful positions through the ball. Try not to bore you with lots of details, but that's the gist of what we're trying to do. Q. Have you gotten longer? MORGAN PRESSEL: We're getting there. I mean it was -- I mean I had gotten shorter, so now I'm kind of back to where I was. Now, I mean, first of all we've got to get the technique down, then we can try to speed it up. You've got to first component is technique, second is speed. Q. Can you talk about how hard it is for an elite player to add yards? MORGAN PRESSEL: Well, it's not easy. It's something that's -- it's not easy to make a change period in terms of I mean some of these habits have been engrained for all the years I've been playing golf. So old habits are definitely hard to break. But it's something that you've just got to spend a lot of time on and you've got to be patient with it. That's sometimes hard for me, I'm not the most patient person in the world. That definitely gets in my way sometimes, but it will come. You know, spending a lot of time in the gym, I mean, there's a lot to it. The fact that I'm so short means that there's hopefully there are more yards out there for me. Q. Was there a specific tournament, a specific round that was kind of a low point that made you say I have got to take the drastic action and do it right now? MORGAN PRESSEL: No, I've had a lot of that this year (laughing). I had a long stretch starting with Rochester this year where I was on the road for seven weeks, and I finished poorly at Evian and missed the cut at the British. And I was pretty upset about that. Just after that that it's not where I said this is it, we need to make a change. But it was something that I had been thinking about. You know, just another set of eyes. Somebody who sees something a little differently. Q. I'm wondering as one of the younger players out here, obviously this is Annika's swan song week and you're probably going to field a lot of questions relating to her. If, in any way, she might have influenced you? MORGAN PRESSEL: Absolutely. Q. She got players into the gymnasium and working out and another variety of ways. MORGAN PRESSEL: Absolutely. I've grown up watching Annika, starting when I guess she won the Open in '95 and '96, I think, is when she won her Opens. And she's definitely been on top almost the whole time while I've been growing up and playing the game and winning all the events that she has. Like you said, she definitely started the fitness craze out on tour. It's just taken off, and now it used to be if you were one of the only ones who went in the gym, you were definitely on top. Now if you don't go in the gym all the time, you're just passed like crazy. So she definitely started that trend, and she's just a very classy person. She's very competitive. She goes about her business and does her own thing, and it's certainly paid off. Q. The format has been the story the last couple of years. Is it less so now? Are you used to it? Or does it still take some adjustment playing to a second cut and then playing basically a winner-take-all? MORGAN PRESSEL: I don't know if you ever really get used to the format. It's definitely a bit crazy. That's part of the reason why it's like that. It's a story line, and it draws attention. I mean, it makes it exciting. It definitely makes it exciting come Sunday. I mean, what can you do? You've just got to play well. Like last year, the three scores, I just know I shot 65 the second day, and maybe even or 1 over the first day, and the third day, if I would have shot them in a different order, I would have made it to Sunday. So it's that kind of thing that you've just got to take. I mean, what can you do? You've just got to play well every day, and hope that you're there on Sunday, and then go for birdies. It's a tough golf course. It's definitely a course where you've got to stay patient and know that you do wash your scores the first two days, so a bad number's not the end of the world. You've just got to come back with a few birdies and get in there for Saturday and the same for Sunday. So definitely teaches you patience out here on this golf course. Especially, if the wind blows like it had this morning. Q. Do you think all the money should be official? The first place money, should it all be official, the whole million? MORGAN PRESSEL: Yeah, I mean it's an official event, so. I know people talk about how it skews the money list, and it certainly does to an extent. And the purse breakdown isn't quite ideal, and it's definitely something that I think we'll see changed, hopefully, in the next few years, because I think that that's probably the next big issue. Q. Do you really believe that this weekend will be the last time we'll see Annika play in an LPGA event? MORGAN PRESSEL: For a while. I don't know. I don't know how long. Maybe she won't get the itch to play again, but I would think that somebody as competitive as she would. Just like Nancy Lopez, comeback. I don't know if Annika would want to play if she couldn't really play well and practice and give it her all. She's getting married and probably going to start a family. I don't know if she'd be interested in that. Those are all personal preferences. Q. To sort of go back to the scheduled question earlier, there's going to be some changes to the schedule. There are some spots or issues right now on the tour. As somebody who is as involved with a lot of endorsers as you are. When you look at where this economy is going, I know you're young and all of that, but do you have great concern right now over the state of this game, particularly because there are so many big companies that are facing so many big problems and a lot of them have names attached to tournaments on this tour? MORGAN PRESSEL: Absolutely. The LPGA Tour is definitely in a tough spot right now in terms of sponsors. I don't think it's just the LPGA Tour. But I think the PGA TOUR is going to see some of it as well with all of the financial companies that they're associated with that have had their share of problems. It's just it's a tough time right now. You know, hopefully, we just got to continue to give the best product, to provide the best product that we can, and be as appealing to potential sponsors as possible. Q. Not too get too into your own personal situations right now, but have you lost any sponsorships or any deals that might have extended to '09? Have you seen them go away in the short term? MORGAN PRESSEL: Not at the moment, no. Q. Getting back to the format, do you find that you change your approach or mindset from Thursday-Friday, to Saturday. Being or even Sunday, being that it's only 18 holes and you've got to -- there's less room for patience, I guess? MORGAN PRESSEL: Sorry, repeat that. I was thinking about something else. Sorry, I want to go back to that question. SemGroup did go bankrupt, so they are no longer going to be my sponsor. But it was a year to year deal, so anyways. I was just thinking about that, sorry (laughing). Q. I was just asking if the approach changes in the format for you as a player going from Thursday-Friday, to the weekend rounds because there's only 18 holes to get it done. MORGAN PRESSEL: Uh-huh. I mean, when you only have 18 holes, it's what this event was intended to create, which is a shootout. You just -- you've got seven other players and yourself, and you've got to just go all out. You've got to stay patient, because it is a difficult golf course, and that forces patience, and forces you to not be too overly aggressive. They've definitely changed some holes out here to where you can no longer even be as aggressive as you used to be. The holes are like, what is it, 6, where if you move the tee up you can go for the green. But they entirely shaved off the right side, and that didn't used to be like that. So if you get up there or go just over the green, you're going to go into the water. Things like that. So they've definitely made the golf course a little bit more challenging over the years that I've played here. But I think it sets up well for the type of event they have here, so... Q. It's kind of odd in that the first two days are almost like Q-school, because 16th is as good as first, because they throw the scores out and you start over. You get to the weekend, and it's stand on the gas pedal. Kind of position yourself to make a sprint? MORGAN PRESSEL: To an extent. I mean, when I did go through Q-school, I remember the first Q-school out in Palm Springs, first stage, I was just like right on the number at 30 after three days. I was sweating it out. It was just because I had the mindset that 30 would make it. There are times where we still -- every week we still play to win tournaments. So you've still got to play for the top of the leaderboard, even though it really doesn't matter. If you do play well, it just gives you more confidence through the weekend. You just kind of can't really have that mindset out here. Q. Play down to your expectations, is that what you're saying? MORGAN PRESSEL: Uh-huh. Q. Could you talk about what the winning meant, especially when you look back at some of the changes you're going through? I was wondering how much was your confidence tested this year and how did winning help that? MORGAN PRESSEL: Well, I mean, any time that you play poorly or I play poorly it's definitely -- it's not a confidence builder. I mean, the thing that continued to improve throughout the year was my putting. So that basically held me in the rest of it. It wasn't pretty. So the few event that's I did play well, I putted well where the golf course was a little shorter, it suited me better, for instance, at sigh base and things like that. So going to Kapalua with Gary sitting there behind you, and I had a friend of mine said that I had so much going on that week that I got out of my own way. I had a lot to do in terms of sponsor relations and clinics and dinners. It was great. It was great to see the LPGA at Kapalua with the times that I've been there and I've enjoyed it, and they can come and enjoy it themselves. Then to win on top of it was just great. Especially, coming off swing changes and playing not so great at Danville. Sometimes it just clicks, you never know. Q. Did you learn anything about yourself this year that you didn't know? Or did you relearn something? MORGAN PRESSEL: I think that you can just -- I mean, it's not really -- it's something that you always know, you just kind of never give up on yourself. It's sometimes you need a little change here or there to give yourself a little more confidences. I mean, you just don't give up, you never know. Even as poorly as I play in Danville, I played a lot better in Hawaii. You've just got to take it as it comes. You never know what might happen next week. End of FastScripts |
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