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KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP

April 5, 2009

Brittany Lincicome

RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA

MIKE SCANLAN: Brittany, congratulations on winning the 2009 Kraft Nabisco Championship on what might have been one of the most exciting golf shots that we've seen in while. If you would just take us through the emotions you're feeling right now. I know it's been kind of a whirlwind since you sank that eagle putt, but just talk a little about the day and how you feel now.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I can't even describe it. It's surreal, really. I had not really played great all day. I mean, I was making pars. I was hanging in there but could not really get any birdies to fall. Made a lot of good saves throughout the round, and then 17, I had that short birdie putt, all three of us had short birdie putts and we all three missed them.
It was kind of a bummer, because I thought if we could get one there, and go for 18 in two and get a birdie, I would win or get in a playoff and somewhere close.
Huge shot on 18 and I'm standing over, the hybrid is in my hands; my hands are shaking and my heart is racing. I'm trying to calm myself down by breathing or singing or whatever I can possibly do, and right when I hit it, it came off on the clubface exactly where we wanted to hit it and took the slope like I wanted it to and came really close, thank God. If I had to make anything further than that, my hands were shaking so bad, I was almost crying, the fans were so great and cheering for me and just walking up there was a great feeling.

Q. What club? How narrow?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: It was 210 to the pin and 190 to carry the water, and I hit a gripped hybrid.

Q. What degree?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I believe it said 19. I don't know. (Laughter) whatever Adams Golf gives me.

Q. At what yardage on that hole do you say, okay, I'm going for the green in two, when it's a 485 hole?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Anything really with hybrid. Anything 200, 210 max, to carry the water would have been the cutoff point. The green wouldn't have held with a 3. If I was hitting a hybrid, I was going to go for it. If I was hitting 3-wood, I was going to have to lay-up.

Q. How much did playing with Kristy McPherson help you today, and how much did you talk to her?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: It was great playing with my best friend. I don't get to do that very often, so I think we kept each other pretty calm. We talked throughout the whole day of anything that you could possibly think of, and when we went to 10 tee, I looked at it like we need to make some birdies and we need to get going and one of us needs to win this event.
She made a couple long putts on the back nine for birdies and I was trying to do the same and keep up with her. And just came down to 18 and luckily, my length is a strong point and I bombed it out there and went for the green.

Q. Could you give us an example of maybe something funny that you talked about?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: It was really anything. I was trying to work on breathing. I talked to the Vision 54 ladies this week, and I'm going to go to their school next week. So they just said: Work on your breathing. And if I hit a bad shot, instantly, I have to change it with a positive. So I would either think of my dog or singing or fishing or something to really take my mind off of that shot.
My caddie is a phenomenal lady, and she really helped me get through some of those holes. I was so nervous, my heart was racing so many times, so many points out there. Especially like 17, I had to make that little 4-footer; and 18 obviously I was shaking.
We were just singing a lot of country songs today. She was trying to sing SHeDAISY, but I don't know SHeDAISY. Sugarland or Kenny Chesney was a lot out there.

Q. Are you still going to school next week or did you get your Ph.D today?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I am still going next week. The things that they kind of told me were short-term. I talked to them, I'm like, I need four -- or two things just to get me through the next four days, and it obviously really helped.

Q. How are you going to celebrate your great win? And what do you like to do when you don't play golf?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I don't know. Celebrate? After this, I know I'm going to go hang out -- I'm not drinking. I guess the tournament office is having a little party and some food, so I'll definitely go there. Probably hang out with my friends. I can't stay up too late because I have another outing tomorrow, another Pro-Am tomorrow.
And then if I'm not golfing, I'm either fishing or hanging out with friends watching movies. Anything but golf really.

Q. Early on, Cristie got up by three, and the two of you looked like you were struggling for pars and she was making a couple of birdies out there. At what point, you said it was on 10, you said you have to start making some birdies. What did you feel when you were down by three?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: It was somewhere around that point. I try not to look at the leaderboard. It makes me really nervous to see where I am or where I stand. I try not to look at it, but somehow I just happened to glance at it and know that we were 3-down are I was 3-down. I don't know what Kristy McPherson was at the time, but that's around the time I looked at her and said: We need to kick this in gear and get something going, I think around 10. She made two really long putts for birdie on the back. We were just trying to motivate each other to try to get each other to play good.

Q. Talk about your feelings and emotions and how you can compare your nerves on 18 to anything else you ever have done. And a follow-up to being with your best friend coming down 18 in a major to win; that's got to be unbelievable.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: That was pretty awesome. I don't even know how to describe the feeling I felt. At one point; that I could get sick at any moment because I was shaking and so nervous; or I was going to pass out because I was trying to breathe really heavy or slow my breath down but take really long breaths.
To have Kristy McPherson there, I tried -- I think it really helped me, and her, probably, to relax and to hit some good shots. Not that I didn't want Cristie Kerr to win, but Kristy McPherson is my best friend. I was looking at her like, one of the two of us has to win. We need to kick in gear and get it going. Cristie Kerr is a great girl and love her to death, but McPherson is my really close friend. It was cool to see one of us win it.

Q. What was it like to be a part of that final threesome where at one point, all three of you led at various times in that round? Of course you led when it most mattered. But to be part of a final group where you had to hit a great shot to win it, but nobody was conceding anything.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Unfortunately I haven't been in that situation in a really long time. So I think that was why I felt a little bit more pressure or I was a little bit more nervous because I have not been in the final group for a long time.
It's nice to get back in there and to actually pull it out in the end and to know that I can do it, and from here on out, if I do get in that situation again, just know that I have the shot to pull it off.

Q. Didn't you have some injuries and a rough spell? Can you just refresh us on what you went through to get here?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: It was just a combination of things. It was a few injuries. It was a huge swing change. It was -- I took way too much time off in the off-season. I bought a boat and went fishing every day. Just didn't practice as much as I should, and the swing changes, I wasn't ready when I got to Hawaii. And then it just kind of went downhill from there, if that was possible. It was just a lot of combinations of bad thing.
But I switched coaches the beginning of this year, and trying to do all of the right things. I tried to practice more in the off-season. I've been working out harder and now I'm going to go see the ladies at Vision 54 and try to get the mental side of it down.

Q. What were the injuries?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Just back and wrist. They weren't serious. They were just things that bothered me occasionally.

Q. Is the water heated?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: No. It's freezing. (Laughter) It is freezing, yes.

Q. I guess you never gave yourself a chance to think about jumping in there because you still had to make a putt and you might have got into a playoff?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Absolutely. Earlier in the week my dad and caddie were talking about how they were going to jump in if they had to, and every time they talked about it, it made me nervous; you have to stop talking about it because I don't want to get ahead of myself. When it came down to it, I looked at Mike and said, when do I get to jump in the water; I had no idea how the presentation was going to go.

Q. What is your workout schedule, weights or cycling, running? What do you do?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Even when I home, it's normally a lot of like the bands, it's not really heavy weights. It's just a lot of reps, cardio, core. We do a lot of abs. Obviously your abs are your strength. But it's not heavy lifting, though.

Q. Talking about the week ahead, the Masters coming up, are you going to watch it? Who are you going to root for, and who do you expect to win?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Obviously Tiger. He has -- that was easy, wasn't it? He's the best. And to see him come back from an injury and to do what he does, it's really cool to see. I'm putting all my money on Tiger.

Q. Can you talk about how your swing has changed specifically?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: It's just take away. If I take it back shut is when I get in trouble so I just try to work on taking it back more open. The last two weeks that I've been playing, I felt even in MÃ©xico, the last three weeks, I felt like I've been hitting really, really well and keeping it in play.
Knock-on-wood, I have not hit a ball really out-of-bounds or in a water hazard in a while, so obviously that's going to help. But if I know where the golf ball is going, I can be aggressive. And my putting has real limb proved, too. Short putts has really improved.

Q. I know your parents are on the road with you a lot. Your mom is not here this week. What's she been doing at home, freaking out?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I have not even got to use my phone to see how crazy it looks. She's been -- we own a day care, so she's been home running the day care and taking care of my dog. The dog is too big to take on the road, so she has to take care of him.
She was out actually last week in Phoenix, so she got to see me last week. So I'm sure she's dying to talk to me, though.
MIKE SCANLAN: You started this year kind of far out of the Solheim Cup race, but obviously this is double points, so you get 120 points for this victory, and that puts you into the Top-10. If you works just talk about what the Solheim Cup means to you; and I know you might not even have realized how important this victory was for making the '09 team.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Somebody earlier in the year had asked that, what my goals were, and Solheim Cup was probably my No. 1 focus. To be on that team and to represent your country, there's no feeling like it. It's really cool. That would be my No. 1 goal would be to play on the Solheim.
I forget who asked, but they said, what was your second goal, and I said either a win or a major. I guess I need to talk about it more, apparently. But to get on the Solheim Cup team would be a dream come true.
MIKE SCANLAN: Congratulations.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Thank you so much.

End of FastScripts

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