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MICHELOB ULTRA OPEN AT KINGSMILL

May 8, 2009

Cristie Kerr

WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA

CRISTIE KERR: Started on the back. 10, 11, 12. Hit 7-iron, made about a 12-footer. Hit a little 8-iron on 13 to about 15 feet, made that.
Birdied 17, hit low 8-iron to about 12 feet, made that. Pitching wedge on No. 1. I hit the pin, ricocheted about five feet, made that for birdie.
Then 3, hit sand wedge to about six feet, made that. Fourth hole, hit 9-iron to about 15 feet, made that. Fifth hole, 9-iron to about six feet, made that.
Seven, I was short of the green like 40 yards, pitched it up there about five feet, made that. Then I made about a 10-footer on the last hole, 9-footer on the last hole to save par. Hit kind of a bad drive, went too long near the green and got up-and-down.
JASON TAYLOR: All right. Well, Cristie, thanks for coming in. Excellent round for you today, 8-under in round two, 10-under overall.
CRISTIE KERR: 10-under, yeah. We like under.
JASON TAYLOR: 10-under overall. Currently four shots back of the leader right now. Tied with her on the record with your 8-under score. If you would, just talk a little about your day.
CRISTIE KERR: I think I hit it a lot better than yesterday. You know, I had been hooking the ball and kind of sorted that out today and hit a lot of fairways and just started hitting it better, started hitting a little bit closer to the hole.
You know, I've been putting well all year, so if I give myself a lot of chances on the greens, I'm going to make a lot. Even shooting 2-under yesterday, I had six birdies, so I've had a lot of birdies the last couple days.
JASON TAYLOR: Questions?

Q. You've had success here. How much confidence does that give you, even with Lorena right now?
CRISTIE KERR: I've always loved Kingsmill, coming here. I stay with a terrific family, the Whitakers. I've stayed with them since the first year, and they've always been good luck for me.
I just have great memories here, and the course is set to make some low scores, so you kind of have to take advantage of that and try and get a low score, and I was able to do that today.

Q. How much pressure does the fact that there are low scores up already put on you when you come in before you start to go out there and get it going?
CRISTIE KERR: Well, you know, I've been out here long enough to kind of know not to really put the pressure on myself, to kind of look at the scores and judge and say, hey, you know, the scoring is good. There's a potential for that kind of round, because you still gotta go out there every shot and do your job, and if you do your job, then obviously you'll yield a low number.

Q. You've had a very good year so far. Are you getting antsy to hold up a trophy?
CRISTIE KERR: I am. You know, but I know if I keep putting myself in this position, that it'll happen. I've done very well being process oriented on the course and not really thinking about results because I don't do well when I think about results. I do well when I think about my process and kind of getting involved in that. So that's what I've stuck to. I've done a lot of mental training and it's paid off.

Q. You mentioned the conditions are good for low scores.
CRISTIE KERR: Well, the greens are amazing considering the amount of rain they've had. And they've gotten better every day.
So the greens -- you know, usually with wet conditions you might get a lot of spike marks or whatever, but the greens have been great.
We're playing lift-clean-and-place in place which is absolutely necessary because the golf course is still very, very wet. You know, when you get ball in hand, knowing you get a good lie sometimes can make the average score about a shot lower or something per round per person, you know, which playing the ball down is really not possible here because of all the rain. So those kinds of -- you know, we have also -- the greens are not overly hard yet, so they're receptive, so you can get the ball around the hole. And you know, if you're hitting it moderately well and putting well, you can throw up a low number.

Q. At what point in your round -- obviously you got off to a bad start. At what point did you feel like you might be able to become a contender?
CRISTIE KERR: It's kind of weird. I actually woke up kind of feeling that.
You know, I birdied 12, which is a really good par-4, and that kind of jump-started my round. You know, the putt went in on the next hole and I just said let's just see how well we can do with every shot and see how well we're going to do.
And you just kind of ride the momentum. You don't really think about it too much. You know, I try and stay in the present because you always still have shots ahead of you.
And even the last hole, you know, I kind of had a bad drive, left me way back. And you know, I just kind of got out of it a little bit, but that's the anti-hook move that I've put in there that's fixed it. It left me a long number on the green, and I just kind of blocked it again.
So I'll go to the range and kind of work on that. I might be getting a little tired late in the day. It tends to be a long day when you play late in threesomes. So I'm going to go work on that.

Q. Do you look at the leaderboard much at all on Thursday and Friday or do you just concentrate on kind of what you were doing?
CRISTIE KERR: I look. I mean there's really no harm in looking. You just kind of want to see where you are.
Every time you look up Lorena's got four or five more shots to her name. So you gotta -- you gotta stay somewhat in sight, I would say. Obviously you can only do as well as you can out there, but it's nice to kind of know when you're playing well and making birdies to know where you stand.

Q. How has your game changed since 2005 and how have you changed?
CRISTIE KERR: It's a very broad question. I think I've just gotten better. I've worked on the mental side of the game, trying to get to that next level where I can be in contention more.
That's where I'd like to be. So I've tried to -- I'm not as fit as I was in 2005, but I'll work on that.
Just continue to evolve. I'm older.

Q. Did you leave any shots out there today?
CRISTIE KERR: Did I leave any shots out there? Well, let's see. My first hole today, No. 10, misread that slightly. No. 11, misread that slightly.
Let's see. Left is short and hard on 14. 15, I actually probably should have birdied. I had like a perfect lob wedge, and I kind of blocked it a little bit and then didn't hit a very good putt. 16 was good. 17. 18 was kind of a tough putt.
Yeah. There are always shots that you leave out there.

Q. How much does the momentum kind of build for you?
CRISTIE KERR: If you stay out of your way, it tends to build a lot.

Q. You say you're older. Is that why -- how much does it help the fact that goes into the weekend?
CRISTIE KERR: I'm older, not by much obviously, but it's my 13th year on Tour. I've won a lot of tournaments. I've won a major. I'm seeking that place to get to the next level, and I've put a lot of work into that.
You know, hopefully older is wiser.

Q. When you see Lorena tearing it up like that, is there like an, oh, crap mentality, that you have to do so much?
CRISTIE KERR: Not necessarily. I mean she does that. She makes a lot of birdies and she's got a really, really good short game. So when you're saving a lot of shots and making birdies, she has a really low stroke average. And I've played with her since she came out on Tour, and it's definitely no surprise. But nobody has a perfect golf game.
You know, and it's -- come Sunday, you know, if you stay right there with her, you know, anything can happen. It's not a given that she's going to win. You know, you just gotta be able to put pressure on whoever the leader is, whether it's her or somebody else.

Q. How much is your mental strength part of the game?
CRISTIE KERR: I started working with a mental coach, Dr. Joe Parent, wrote the book, Zen Golf and I've just been working a lot with him since last year. Obviously it's a little bit too in-depth to get into.

Q. What would Joe say about the fact that you woke up thinking about a low number today?
CRISTIE KERR: It's not like thinking about it really. It's just kind of felt it. He would probably tell me to do that more often.
But he firmly believes that, you know, that's just math. You know, adding all those things up, that you really have to go through the process each time, each shot of what you're trying to do and get involved in that. And he says, if you do that well every single time, you add them up and at the end you'll probably be pretty happy, and today I was.
JASON TAYLOR: All right. Thanks, Cristie.
CRISTIE KERR: Thanks.

End of FastScripts

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