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SYBASE CLASSIC PRESENTED BY SHOPRITEMay 13, 2009Meaghan FrancellaCLIFTON, NEW JERSEY THE MODERATOR: Meaghan, welcome in. Welcome home, sort of. Not necessarily your home here in New Jersey but pretty close. Must be nice to get back to the northeast. If you would just talk a little bit about the year you've been having, I know you had a real nice finish at Kraft Nabisco, and how you feel about your game right now. MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Yeah, it's always good to be home and sleep in my own bed. I'm actually going to stay up in Jersey the rest of the week. But this year has been a lot of fun. Like you said, I had a really good finish at Kraft, and I think my game is really at the point where something really good is going to happen soon. I'm just going to try and be patient with that and let it happen. But I'm hitting the ball better than I've ever hit it, and my putting has improved tremendously in the past year. I'm excited for the rest of the year. I think it's going to be good. Q. I know last year you came here, you had some health issues, right? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Mm-hmm. Q. How did that affect you the rest of the year and when did your game start to turn around and show signs of improvement? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Yeah, I got sick in March of last year, and I really didn't start feeling good until kind of mid-June, and then I felt like I had to start the season all over again in June. Then August came around, I started to really pick up and felt 100 percent in August and started to play much better. You know, the beginning of last year was tough. I've never experienced anything like that, so kind of a setback. But definitely made me stronger, that's for sure. Q. Was it a lot of off-season work that has improved the putting and the way you're hitting the ball? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Yeah, I started working with Michael Breed on my putting. Last year my mom called me and said, "you know, I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I think you need to call Michael Breed. I saw him on The Golf Channel. I think he's great." I'm like, "Mom, I don't want to hear it." So I went up there without telling her, and I got in his book and had a lesson, and I just remember crying on the putting green with him because I was so frustrated, and he said something that really clicked, and I made like this 30-footer with a lot of left-to-right break, and I just started crying and we hugged on the green. I'm like, "Oh, God, this guy is unbelievable." So he really has me looking at things a lot differently, and he's probably one of the most positive people I've ever met in my entire life. I did a lot of work on mechanics, and then just a lot of work on seeing the ball go in the hole and doing some drills. The drills have now become really easy. I said to him, "Geez, drills are easy now; can I have some more?" He's like, "No, I want them to be easy because then you'll have fun putting." That's been the difference. Q. So it's more of an approach thing than a mechanical thing? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: Yeah, he told me, he said, "Well, your stroke is perfect. I don't know why you're talking about this being bad, this being bad." He goes, "You roll the ball so well." So just the way I go on the green now, I'm excited to take my putter out of the bag. As opposed to the in the past when I got to the green I'm like, oh, God, is this going to go near the hole, and now I feel like my putts keep my attention a lot longer. Q. You never got to the point where you were thinking belly putter? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: I did putt with a belly putter in '06, I think, on the Futures Tour. I couldn't hit the hole from ten feet. I went to a belly putter, but my weight fluctuated a little bit, so I couldn't use it anymore. Q. If you could just indulge a question about Michelle Wie. She's here this week. Has the perspective changed from other players, the fact that she's a full-time member of the LPGA now? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: No, I think everybody is excited to have her out here. I think she's really good for the Tour. She went through the process. She did Q-school, and I really congratulate her on everything she's done. I mean, she's a great player. I think the Tour is excited to have her. All the players seem really happy out here with her. Q. Do you notice a difference in her now, a little bit more mature? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: I think she's definitely matured a lot. I was hitting balls next to her on the range one day, and she's striping it. I think a lot of good things are going to come from her. Q. With regard to Michelle again, what was your take on the route that she was taking prior to going through Q-school and going through it all and becoming a full-time member here? Did you personally wonder why she was doing the things she was doing and maybe hope that she would go the route of Q-school and become full-time here? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: I think everybody goes about things their own way. Somebody is always going to have an opinion about what you're doing. You might think what I did was wrong or somebody might think what I did was right. I don't think anything she did was wrong or right, it was just the decisions she's made. I think she made a really good decision going to Q-school and getting her card that way. I mean, everybody is just different. Everybody goes about things a little differently. Q. Do you think that she's gained a little bit more respect from the other members of the Tour, having now gone through the Q-school process and becoming full-time here rather than kind of sticking and moving and doing the men's events and then coming back? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: I think she's always had respect out here. Like I said before, I think she's a great player. She was young a couple years ago. I think she's matured a little bit. I think she's well respected. I respect her. I mean, I have no problems with her. Q. Will you have family here this week? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: My dad will be here in full force, obviously. He's not allowed to talk to the media. He's actually going to be here today. He had his outfit all laid out on the bed this morning when I left. He's wearing red today. He saves the Carolina blue for the whole week. My uncles will be here and cousins and some family friends. A couple people came up from Florida. They made their way up, stopped in Virginia at Kingsmill last week. We'll have a nice turnout, I think. Q. Will you get over to play Saucon Valley at all just as a practice round before the Women's Open? MEAGHAN FRANCELLA: I won't go there. I'm not in the Open yet, and I'm not going to go there and go get my hopes up to play in the Open if I'm not in it. I never went to Pine Needles to play before the Open in '07; I didn't go to Interlachen last year. I go to the tournament and I prepare the week of the tournament. Every time I go somewhere before I -- I forget where I played, I went prior to the tournament, and I just didn't play well. I was getting too involved in trying to learn the golf course too much. I can map it out on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I should be all right. But I'm just going to worry about the next couple weeks. As of now, I have to go to the qualifier, the 36-hole qualifier the Monday after McDonald's. I'm trying to get a practice round at that golf course before I go play Saucon. THE MODERATOR: Meaghan, thanks so much. End of FastScripts |
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