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MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLAJune 9, 2009Paula CreamerHAVRE DE GRACE, MARYLAND DANA GROSS-RHODE: Thank you all for joining us. Paula, welcome to the interview room here at the McDonald's LPGA Championship. You've been out on the course a couple of times this week, and it's rained a little bit the past couple of days. How has that affected the course from past years? PAULA CREAMER: Well, thank you for coming. Yes, it is, it's wet and it's playing pretty long. The greens are probably the best I've actually ever seen them roll. They are not the fastest they have ever been, but there's not many spike marks or indentations out there. They are rolling really nicely. This golf course has always been one of our longer stops on Tour, just because of all the rain that we get, and the rough is so thick, which is great. I think it's the thickest it ever been, especially around the greens. So that's something that I like. It makes it a premium on hitting the fairways and the greens. Q. Are you physically 100% or close? PAULA CREAMER: I would say I'm close. Just I need more time in the gym getting my strength back. It's coming slowly. It's not what it was at the beginning of the year by any means. Still half a club shorter than what I was, but I do feel a lot stronger. I can pretty much eat whatever I want. I've gone out of the country once and that was fine, and then that week I actually went off my medication, so I've been doing pretty well these last couple of weeks, which actually is a wonderful feeling. Especially in conditions like this when it's so hot out and it's just a drain constantly and you are sweating and you have to have that fluid; being able to keep things down is very important here. Q. What was it? PAULA CREAMER: They don't know. My doctors haven't really figured it out yet. I guess it's a good thing, but it also would have been nice to know if there was something serious or something that I could prevent. But we don't know. Maybe just bad luck, who knows. Q. Do you approach majors differently or are you changing the way you approach them? Can you speak to that? PAULA CREAMER: You know, I've played this course enough. I played today, it was the first time I've been on the course and I'll play tomorrow. You know, I'm trying to go at it just like I do any other tournament, focus on my short game, focus on putting, if I'm hitting the ball really well. A major, I feel like every time I play in a major event, I learn something new, and your preparation is something that Annika has always talked about and Lorena has talked about. I think it is very important to enter each event the same way. Q. We were just talking to Cristie Kerr and she's talked a lot about her mental game and how she's worked on it over the last year. Do you have any particular strategies in regard to your mental game; none that you want to give away right now, but in general? PAULA CREAMER: Just in -- Q. Do you feel like your mental game, you're there 100% and there's nothing that you would really change; if you feel like you're on the 18th and you're leading and if you're going to win, do you feel completely comfortable? PAULA CREAMER: Of course. I think a lot of that has to do with my past experience and playing in junior events and amateur events, just knowing what it takes to win tournaments, and also, obviously my LPGA wins, too. But I think that my mental game has always been one of my toughest parts about what I think I have to offer on the golf course. I'll never quit and I'll be out there; you'll have to take me off if I'm dying maybe. Other than that, I love to compete. I love that pressure. I love feeling like I'm coming down the stretch and need to make a couple of birdies. Lately these last couple of tournaments, I've felt more like myself, being able to fight and grind it out and just make some good scores. So I do feel like my mental game is probably one of my toughest parts of my golf. Q. The LPGA is doing what it can to attract sponsors in a tough economy. How important do you feel it is for the American players like yourself to kind of step forward and play well to attract that kind of attention from sponsors? PAULA CREAMER: I think it's always important for the Americans to step forward. There are so many players out here, everybody is going through a tough time right now, sponsors, my sponsors, everybody is. You know, it's something that we are going to have to get through and hopefully we can find a way, but at the end of the day, I think sports and things like that bring I guess happiness to people, and I want to be able to perform and I want to be able to put smiles on people's faces. Q. Have you seen an increase in your Twitter following in the last week? PAULA CREAMER: I guess so, yes, I have, uh-huh. I just started -- when did I start, I think Corning, Christina put it on my phone in Corning on Friday, so it's been a couple weeks now. Q. How often do you do it? PAULA CREAMER: I do it -- what is it, the verb is to Tweet; I do that, just three or four a day, just facts, something that I go through or what it happening for me. Lately it's been a lot about the Magic. Overall I think it's pretty neat to correspond with your fans. There's the right times to do that and I think it's based around the timing of your schedule and when you should do it. Q. Can you just talk a little about this tournament leaving Bulle Rock and McDonald's leaving, and are you concerned about the event's future? PAULA CREAMER: Yes, I am concerned. You know, I said it at Sybase; I'm 22 years old, this is my fifth year on Tour, and we don't know where one of our majors is going to be. It is, it's a scary thought, but hopefully everything will fall into the right place. There's only so much we can do and we'll see what happens. But it is sad that we are leaving Bulle Rock. It's been great and it's been nice coming here. It's unfortunate. McDonald's has been a wonderful sponsor for the LPGA Tour and it's sad that we have lost them. Q. I'm just wondering if every time you come to a major, are you tired of people saying when is Paula going to win a major and is the pressure any different now than it was five years ago? PAULA CREAMER: I'm kind of used to it now. I know, what am I going to be asked many my press conference today; how come you haven't won a major. I don't label myself that way. I feel like I'm a tough competitor and I feel like it's about timing. Hopefully I can put four good rounds of golf together. It's honestly quite flattering, as well. Like I said, I'm 22 years old, my fifth year out here, and I feel like I should have won majors. It's not that; I think it's just a learning experience and we'll see what happens. DANA GROSS-RHODE: On that note, Paula, good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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