	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

U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 12, 2009

Cristie Kerr

BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA

Q. Cristie, what are your emotions like right now?
CRISTIE KERR: I'm obviously disappointed. I did everything the same. I prepared the same. I just got out there and the rhythm, the swing kind of felt the same, and it wasn't really nerves. It was just sort of I couldn't even hit the fairway with the 7-iron on 15. So obviously it was a little bit off. And it's unfortunate.
You know, if it was the first day of the tournament, nobody focuses on it, but since I had the lead and I didn't play well, you definitely focus on it, but Eun He, she played great and made some amazing putts coming down the straight, and obviously the birdie on 18, that's as good as it gets, rolling in that putt.

Q. That birdie on 18, you had a good view of it. What did you see?
CRISTIE KERR: Of her putt? I was kind of down the ridge, but it just looked like it was the right pace and obviously it went right in the middle.

Q. When you had to make yours, what were you seeing as far as your putt?
CRISTIE KERR: It was a hard left-to-right breaker up the slope, and I hit a great putt. I hit a great putt. She probably would have made it anyways. Probably wouldn't have mattered. But if I would have made it, maybe she wouldn't have made it.
Obviously today wasn't my day. Nothing went in. Even the good putts I hit didn't go in. And that's kind of tough. You need to get that good feeling and that good momentum on the greens at an Open. And I played great for probably three-and-a-half days and played bad for a half day today.
I still hit a lot of really good shots and a lot of really good putts. Just didn't quite happen for me.

Q. What did you hit into 16 there? What were you between and what did you decide?
CRISTIE KERR: I hit the 6-iron there. Just wasn't quite there on the putt. Wanted to make it too much, and that affected my pace. And I probably should have had my caddie come in and read it with me, but in those situations I usually don't. I usually read it myself and that was my fault.

Q. So you just hit it to the break then?
CRISTIE KERR: Oh, I hit it so hard it was ridiculous and I left an even more difficult second putt than I had the first putt. It was almost a hacker putt I hit it so bad.

Q. When she doubled No. 10, did you say to yourself, maybe it is my day?
CRISTIE KERR: No, because I knew that -- I mean not playing the way I did the last three days, this golf course is pretty much all I can handle, and I just didn't play as well. And there were a couple other people having a good day out there, and you just never know at an Open. You shoot 2-under and the leader shoots +4, and it's going to bring a lot of people back into the mix.
And I didn't go out and do all the things as well as I did the last three days. It wasn't for lack of trying. I had a good warmup, and you know, maybe I was just a little tighter out there today. Maybe it was a little bit of the pressure. Who knows? But I couldn't even hit the fairway with a 7-iron on 15. So obviously it was not as rosy feeling with he swing as I had the last three days. But it's still not an excuse. I shouldn't have three-putted 15. I kind of gave it away.

Q. Could you feel instantly it wasn't quite the way it was the last three days?
CRISTIE KERR: I hit a bad drive on 1 and made bogey, which is not the way you want to start out, but just yeah, it just didn't feel the same.
I mean let's call it the situation that didn't make it feel the same, but if I can learn from it and be better for it the next time. I can hold my head up high. I left everything out on the golf course. I tried my heart out.

Q. You kicked your bag on the 17th tee.
CRISTIE KERR: Yeah. I was a little frustrated.

Q. It was caught on tape, I think.
CRISTIE KERR: Yeah. It's okay. It was my bag. It's not somebody in the crowd.

Q. Cristie, what do players know about Ji? What's she good at?
CRISTIE KERR: She's just real steady. Steady wins Opens. And like I said, I mean I played poor enough to kind of give it away, but at the same time, I mean if she doesn't make the birdie on 18, then I was out by one. So even playing as poorly as I did, the course still played really hard and I just couldn't get the ball in the hole today.

Q. Can you speak about the course and what kind of a test it offered?
CRISTIE KERR: It's an amazing golf course, an amazing test, and you know, they moved a bunch of tees up today, but it didn't make it play any easier.
Maybe it did for other people. Maybe I should have played it tougher, way back every tee way back like I did the last three days, but I tried, I hit a great putt on 15.
17 and 18 were good putts. I mean the putt on the par-5, I hit a great 3-wood into the green on 12 and it just was a little bit left, just a little bit.
I was trying to knock it into the right bunker, if I missed it, and it was one of the only shots I hit left. So I hit a great bunker shot out there, hit a great putt. That didn't go in. My par putt on 13 I hit way too hard. So I had a little issue with the speed on the greens today and a little issue with my swing and it was enough to make the difference.

Q. Was that a bit of a lonely feeling, all these people out there and you're trying so hard?
CRISTIE KERR: Yeah. The crowd was definitely on my side, and I really thank them for supporting me. I wish I could have done better, but sometimes it just doesn't work.

Q. Do you know her very well?
CRISTIE KERR: Eun Hee?

Q. Yeah.
CRISTIE KERR: I know her through playing on Tour. She's very quiet, very nice.

Q. Does she speak much English out there with you?
CRISTIE KERR: We have little conversations out there. She speaks about as much English as I speak Korean.

Q. How hard is it to do what she did, get those three birdies out there on the Back 9?
CRISTIE KERR: That's all it takes sometimes. She knocked it close on 13 and then amazing putt on 14. She hit a birdie on 16 as well. She was the better person on the Back 9 for sure.
Had I made that birdie on 10, could have been different. You know, the birdie on 12, could have been different. Nothing was going in, and you need to see something going in. It was nice seeing the par putt on 14 go in, but you know, that tried to go out, too.

Q. Were you tempted at 15 to go for it?
CRISTIE KERR: I was.

Q. And what was the decision?
CRISTIE KERR: Well, he just said, if you knock it on the back of the green, it's almost an impossible two-putt, so you know, just try and hit -- I didn't even hit the fairway with a 7-iron off the tee there. You know, just try and get a wedge up there. We actually had a perfect number in. Even in the rough it was a good lie. So I hit a great putt there. That could have gone in.

Q. What did you have left on 18 and what did you hit in there?
CRISTIE KERR: I had 160 yards to the hole, downwind. Had it been on a level lie, I think it would have gotten up there. I hit 8-iron. I hit it actually really good. But you go over the green there, you're dead, at least from where I was. I had a chance to make it.
But this course is one of the tougher Open courses that I've played in. If you're not on top of your game, +4 is kind of an average score on this course.
It was disappointing today, but really, I tried my heart out. I left everything out there. I just wasn't the better person today, and if I would have shot even par or 1-under, I would have walked away with it, but that's not going to happen.

Q. How long is this going to bother you?
CRISTIE KERR: It bothered me that I three-putted 16, but you know what, I really wanted to make it, so I just rammed it by the hole.
I don't really think it's going to bother me too much, because I don't feel like it was mental. You know, I felt like it was more physical today than mental. Had it been, you know, I made some stupid mental errors out there, but I felt like it was just a little off here, a little off there, and if I would have found a couple more fairways and gotten into the groove with my irons. I hit it out of the rough all day. You're not going to hit it close to the hole like that. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297