	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

LPGA CORNING CLASSIC

May 21, 2009

Minea Blomqvist

CORNING, NEW YORK

MIKE SCANLAN: Can we do your card? Do you remember all your shots, hopefully?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yes. I do.
MIKE SCANLAN: So birdie on 2.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Birdie on 2, 5-iron in, had like -- I'm going to talk about meters. I mean I had like six-meter putt for eagle.
MIKE SCANLAN: All right. Birdie 4.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yeah. Like four-meter putt for birdie.
MIKE SCANLAN: What did you hit in?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: I actually hit it a little bit left and I had to putt it down, and there is that fold in the back, so it almost ended up being a bad shot, but I came back and had like four-meter putt for birdie.
MIKE SCANLAN: Five.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Like 6-iron in for the second shot, and I had like six-meter eagle putt.
MIKE SCANLAN: Three in a row, 7.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Like eight meters for birdie putt.
MIKE SCANLAN: What club?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: 6-iron.
MIKE SCANLAN: 8?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: I had a 56 in. I had like 80 meters in and had like three meters for birdie.
MIKE SCANLAN: 9?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Like eight meters for birdie.
MIKE SCANLAN: What club in?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: 9-iron, pulled it a little bit left.
MIKE SCANLAN: Okay. Bogey on 13.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: I hit it left and I had a line for the pin, but had a little tough lie, and it went up like 60 meters from the pin and I missed the green from there, chipped it up and putt it in. Bogey.
MIKE SCANLAN: And 16.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: 16, I had like a 52 in, and I had four-meter putt for birdie.
MIKE SCANLAN: And 18.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: 18. Bunker shot in.
MIKE SCANLAN: It went in?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yes. I hit it on the right and then I had to punch it out, so I hit it left.
MIKE SCANLAN: All right, Minea, thanks for coming in. Great round. You're 7-under par and you're tied for the lead right now. If you would, just talk about your day and how you played.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yeah. The whole week has been very relaxed. I have a new caddie. And practice rounds I played in a great group practice round and just had fun, and thought, you know, let's go have a good time.
And it's such a fun golf course that it gives you a chance to compete well. You know, they say "go over the trees." It tells you what you have to do, so I like the golf course like that. And it gives you a lot of chances.
So I just decided I will be patient, and that's what my caddie said all the time as well because we have short irons all the time and you would hope to get them close, but if you don't, just try to get birdie. So it gives you a lot of chances to make birdies.

Q. What brought about the change in caddies?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: I had a good caddie three years pretty much, and I got a little tired last year, so I fired him, and then in January before the season start I'm like, "stupid me, why did I fire my caddie? He was so great."
So this year I have had different caddies. I have been trying -- because this is the last year, so I gotta just try different caddies, and actually my caddie who was two weeks with me and it was working well, he has to go back. His brother had a brain tumor, so he had to go back after last week.
So now I have one caddie only for the week, probably. He has to play here anyway, and he went back to Korea for the week.

Q. What's your caddie's name?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Louie.
MIKE SCANLAN: Did he used to be Rosie Jones's caddie?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yeah.
MIKE SCANLAN: She was talking about him yesterday. Do you know his last name?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Paolini. Paolini. I think so.

Q. Your experience here is pretty limited. I see you just played twice here at Corning.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yes.

Q. And missed a couple of times.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yes.

Q. So you hadn't been successful. What went different today than the previous two years?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: I think the main thing for me, before, this is kind of a short course. You have to hit tee shots with 3-wood and rescue, and before I hadn't picked up the ball at all with my 3-wood, so I hadn't been playing driver anyway from the tee and I got into trouble.
So I played a little smarter today because I feel more comfortable with my rescues and 3-woods. So just tried to play myself in a good spot on the fairway.

Q. Again, a lot of times, people will come in leading in the first round, and you know, by the end of the weekend, it's like, who's that? Do you feel that -- no, I mean that's just how golf is.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yeah.

Q. What will be your mindset coming in tomorrow, where you know, for all we know, someone could shoot a 59 this afternoon and the scores could be crazy. Is it almost a mindset now where birdies feel like pars out there and the eagles are like birdies?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: No. I decided before this week, I think you put a goal for yourself, you know, playing against yourself. All the time I tried to work on focusing on my own things, and you know, I have my own fitness trainer here. I'm trying to focus on my own self all the time. I'm trying to get better.
I know the winning score is going to be over 20- under, so if you want to win, you gotta keep on going. So it's just a game, you know.
I hope to have three more great rounds to go, but I know it's going to be a lot of shots and you're going to miss a lot of shots and you're going to probably make a lot of good shots.

Q. Right now there are a number of players right there with you at 7-under. Who knows what's going to be the lead by the end of the day. I can't recall scores being this good. Did you get the reflection of the clout of this field? You have 28 of the top 30 players here. Do you think so many good scores, is that sort of a reflection of how good the field is here at this tournament this year?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yeah. It's probably better field than other years, isn't it? And you will see top players, you know. We have a lot of long hitters here, some top hitters, so it's going to be a short course for them. You have 9- irons, pitching wedge in all the time. So you're going to make a lot of birdies, you know.

Q. When was the last time you were in this sort of position where you were at or at least near the top of the leaderboard after the first round?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: You know, not in the years I have pretty much never been in a situation like this.

Q. Just your thoughts on being here then?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yeah. But you know, we try to talk with, of course, my coaches, and I try to focus on my own skills, how I can play my own game to get to the leaderboard. And every week you hope this is the week you're going to be there, and you never know. I started well, but I'll just have to keep on going.

Q. How big of a help is it having your new caddie, considering he was caddie for Rosie, I guess when she won here? She's won here twice. And do you think he made a difference in your game today?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yeah. I mean like every week, now when I have been trying different caddies, you have to learn from different caddies a little bit.
I learned from my other guys who went back to Australia, Jason Lott, for two weeks. He teach me a lot about where to be and I'm using that a little this week, just to play smart, not hit like hard shots all the time, maybe creeping down and hit an easy shot.
And this week, you know, like I said, this caddie, Louie, is very relaxed and he keeps me relaxed as well.

Q. Did he have any specific pointers about this course and how to play certain shots?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: No. Today just a couple of holes when I said, maybe driver. He said, hey, take 3-wood. Of course, you get trust from your caddie, you know, for the clubs.

Q. Another player in your group was also close to the top of the leaderboard.
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yes.

Q. What does that do to your mindset as you go through the round? Does that kind of push you or did you try to stay within your own game?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Of course it pushes you. Like last hole, when I missed in the bunker, like "sh-t." You know, she has kind of birdie by that. She would probably make a birdie. So you know, we had a little competition going on, and then I made that bunker shot, so I hung in there.

Q. You can't complain about a 7-under, but is there anything that you want to dial in now that you got the afternoon to yourself?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Just you know, when I go practice, get a little bit more free with my swing, you know. I have been whole week I've been thinking that I swing the club instead of early in the season I've been thinking the club has to be here, and it has to be a little bit not that relaxed.
So this week I just decided, because actually you can't practice that much because you only have like 20 minutes time to be on the range, otherwise you are holding some other players back. So I decided you better hit good this week because you don't have time to practice, so a little bit with my mindset just swinging the club and thinking the club face go up and down.

Q. Are you going to keep one eye on the scoreboard for the afternoon groups?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: You know, I think what I've been thinking, you know, last tournaments, and in the end anyways, it's only one shot. You win by one shot, or somebody wins by one shot. So it's very small things that matter, so I think, you know, thinking that I did have like 200 shots to hit, you know, I don't think I should think about the leaderboard yet.

Q. Did you work with a coach?
MINEA BLOMQVIST: Yes, I am. I worked the Pimo when I was 18 until I was 23, and now I changed my goal to Finnish coach from Finland. So that's why I'm not working with them. Not currently, but I have dinners with them. I talk with them.
Rauhala, that's my swing coach. My fitness trainer is here with me. I have two fitness trainers, but this other one is from Finland, and she's more like my friend as well, and we talk about mental stuff. Every evening we do like listen to nice Thai music, and we do like relaxation. We do those kind of things, just to have fun.
MIKE SCANLAN: Okay. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297