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THE SOLHEIM CUP


August 21, 2009


Brittany Lang

Morgan Pressel

Michelle Wie West


SUGAR GROVE, ILLINOIS

MIKE SCANLAN: We'd like to welcome Brittany Lang, Michelle Wie and Morgan Pressel who played this morning. We'll start with Brittany, who alongside Brittany Lincicome, had a 5 & 4 win. Brittany Lang, your first-ever Solheim Cup match, you're now 1 and 0 as a rookie. If you would, just take us through the match and how exciting it was to be out there.
BRITTANY LANG: Yeah, starting on the first tee was very electrifying. I was pretty amped up on the first hole, but I calmed down toward the second and third hole, and Brittany Lincicome helped me out a bunch, just calming me down, helping me through it.
It took me probably five or six holes to get comfortable out there, and once I birdied hole 7, I felt very comfortable and confident, and we just played pretty solid. We played, you know, ideally when I wasn't in the hole, Brittany was putting for birdie and vice versa, so it was pretty good.
MIKE SCANLAN: Michelle and Morgan, you halved your match this morning. If you would, just take us through it. We'll start with Michelle. In your first-ever Solheim Cup match how do you feel you played?
MICHELLE WIE: I think this is the most fun I've ever had playing golf. It was just unbelievable, the crowds, the cheers, the pressure, everything about it. It was the most fun I've ever had on the golf course, and it was nothing like I've ever experienced before.
I think Morgan played great, I played great. We work really well as a team. Catriona and Maria played excellent. They played really well. I was just so pumped up. I'm still pumped up. I'm still shaking from the round, it was just so much fun.
MIKE SCANLAN: Morgan, I know you're disappointed, but what can you take from today and what can you take moving forward from it?
MORGAN PRESSEL: Yeah, you know, it didn't look too good there for us for a while. It looked like we might lose pretty bad. But we hung in there. Michelle had a great birdie on 13, and I birdied 14 to put us back at 1-up, and we hung in there.
I didn't play so great down the stretch, but we got a half point out of it, and we've got to go cheer on our teammates this afternoon.

Q. Michelle, as well as you played this morning, which was very well, as did Cristie Kerr, were you both slightly surprised to be not playing this afternoon?
MICHELLE WIE: You know, I think we all had an agreement that we were all trying not to play five matches.
You know, I leave that decision up to Beth. I obviously want to play as much as I can, but I think we have such a strong team, and I think that the players that are playing this afternoon are going to do so well.
I think I'm going to use this as a time off and practice and cheer on my teammates. I think this is also the fun part of it, as well, not playing and going out there and cheering for my teammates. That's part of the experience, as well. You know, I can't wait to go out there and start the chants and really root on my teammates. I think it's going to be a great experience.

Q. Michelle and Morgan, can you talk about the emotion in your match when you were 2-down? You guys won three straight holes, and right in front of you, you saw the first point won. It was pretty emotional there. And then when you left, it looked like you had lost because of the way it ended. Can you talk about the range of emotions you guys went through in the last four or five holes?
MORGAN PRESSEL: Yeah, we got to watch Brittany Squared play some pretty good golf in front of us there, and we were clapping for them quite a bit. It was great to watch them win on 14 there. I had told Michelle on the tee, this is my turn for a birdie, and I finally made one.
But you know, it was -- we never really got too down on ourselves. We knew there was a lot of golf left to play. I mean, half points are important. But for a while there it looked like we were going to pull out the full point, so that was definitely a downer at the end. But a half point is a half point, and we'll see how big of a deal that is come Sunday.

Q. Michelle, what was the story with the drop on 18, and did that delay bother you at all?
MICHELLE WIE: Well, you know, it was just a -- it was, I guess the rules official had gone out before, and they thought it was ground under repair, but they didn't think anyone was going to hit it there, so they didn't mark it. And my ball got there, and I was like wondering if it was ground under repair or not.
So then I guess they were just talking about why it wasn't marked, and they just wanted an explanation. So it was a tough shot. I didn't hit it as well as I wanted to. But it just kind of happened, I guess.

Q. Just two quick ones for Michelle. How far were you from the green on 18 at that moment there? How far did you have left on that shot?
MICHELLE WIE: I had about like 155.

Q. You said it was the most fun you've had playing golf. Can you talk about why, what made it so fun?
MORGAN PRESSEL: Her teammate, of course.
MICHELLE WIE: I mean, obviously playing with Morgan was fun. But it's just the crowds were unbelievable. You know, they're making songs for you. You've got our Junior Solheim Cup team, which was just so awesome. They started singing.
Walking down each tee box to each green felt like you were walking down 18 in contention in a Major, and you times that by 100, and that's what it felt like. It was unbelievable. The first tee box, it was like nothing I could experience. I was very nervous. Very.

Q. Brittany, can we get your thoughts on the first tee? I know it was your first experience, as well.
BRITTANY LANG: Yeah, it was like Michelle said, unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was nothing like a Major, a U.S. Open. That's the biggest arena I've ever been in right there, and I was very nervous, very excited, anxious to get started, and once I saw the tee shot in the air, I was pretty calm.

Q. Morgan and Michelle, and Brittany, could you weigh in on this question, too? Three or four years ago it would have seemed hard to imagine you two paired together. You were kind of portrayed as adversaries. Now you're friends. Can you talk about the evolution of your relationship? And Brittany, if you could weigh in on observing that.
MORGAN PRESSEL: How about if Brittany starts answering that one.
BRITTANY LANG: That's a pretty easy one. I didn't know you were enemies.
MORGAN PRESSEL: That's how the media portrayed us.
BRITTANY LANG: But I know they're pretty good friends now. They got past their differences. I'm just kidding. I didn't know they were ever enemies. We all get along great. I don't know what you want me to say.

Q. Brittany, can you talk a little bit, is momentum tangible? You guys played so well. Do you feel that, or is it really the shot-by-shot thing?
BRITTANY LANG: In match play, definitely, especially in something like this, it is definitely momentum has everything to do with it.
Every time Brittany and I would win a hole, we wouldn't get too excited. We just kept saying, okay, birdie the next hole, keep pressing, keep pressing. We never let up all day, because we knew, even if we won a hole here or there, as long as we kept winning holes, they'd get worn out. It's all about momentum in this, absolutely.

Q. Brittany, golfers have the reputation of not wanting distractions, wanting peace and quiet. Was there ever a point at all during the round today that kind of the extra boisterousness felt like a distraction or maybe was a challenge to your game?
BRITTANY LANG: You mean the crowd?

Q. Yeah.
BRITTANY LANG: No, not at all. I mean, I enjoyed every second of it. I took it all in, I was very focused and I tried to get my job done. But I took everything in. It was an unbelievable experience, and I think the crowds make the event. Without the crowds, it probably wouldn't be that much fun. It just was -- definitely the crowds make it more fun.

Q. For anybody, is it strange to be wearing all that blue, considering that's the color that we identify with Europe?
MORGAN PRESSEL: We're red, white and blue, too. We have blue.
BRITTANY LANG: It's Duke blue, too, and we all look good in blue.

Q. When you guys went to the last hole knowing that you only needed to half it, what was the emotion of that like and how did you guys kind of keep yourselves in control knowing that you needed just to get through that one?
BRITTANY LANG: On our last hole? I had absolutely no idea that we needed to half that hole. I was so out to lunch. I was so -- I mean, I had no clue.
I mean, when they got done and they started shaking hands, I was like, oh, my gosh, that's it? Honestly, I had no idea. Brittany knew, though. She's an experienced veteran.
MORGAN PRESSEL: That's okay. Michelle didn't know, either.
MICHELLE WIE: It was pure confusion.
BRITTANY LANG: You were so focused.
MICHELLE WIE: I know, it was just like --
MORGAN PRESSEL: You knew that putt on 17 was to win the match.
MICHELLE WIE: Oh, yeah, I knew that.
MORGAN PRESSEL: I can't believe that putt didn't go in. That was amazing.

Q. Michelle, were you at all surprised about the atmosphere and just how it was out there?
MICHELLE WIE: I mean, everyone has been hyping it up, but I mean, I don't think I was surprised. It was just the coolest thing I've ever done.
I mean, it was unbelievable. You just get the fire -- every putt and every shot you're thinking, God, let's make this crowd erupt. They're ready to explode, and let's do it. I mean, that was all I was thinking. They just really motivated me into making some putts, hitting some shots. It was unbelievable.
MORGAN PRESSEL: It was pretty cool this morning, I was putting on my shoes in our room, and the door was open, and I could already hear the chants coming from the first tee, already the USA cheers.
I heard it the whole time I was on the driving range. There's nothing quite like that.

Q. Michelle, the hole that -- I think it was the 15th hole where your tee shot went right and you were tucked back and you had to hit the fairway wood and you hit the green in two, can you tell us what your yardage was and what club you used and what your thoughts are about how that particular shot played into the next few holes?
MICHELLE WIE: Well, I was glad there were so many people because they walked down the line and it was not that bad. But I had a 210-yard shot with a 5-wood. I thought I hit a pretty good shot, I won't lie.
MORGAN PRESSEL: Me, too.
MICHELLE WIE: Thank you.

Q. This goes to all three of you guys. Pretty much every round exceeded five hours and 20 minutes. Pace of play was pretty slow. Were you guys familiar with how slow pace was going out there and what would you attribute it to?
MORGAN PRESSEL: We don't play foursomes in a normal round. We normally play threesomes, and it takes us just under five hours usually to play in threesomes, which is very slow. So we're used to being out there forever.
BRITTANY LANG: Yes, we are.
MORGAN PRESSEL: But at first I thought we were playing really slow the first couple holes, and we caught up, so I guess we weren't as slow as I thought we were.
We were all so focused on our match and so into it that it didn't really matter. At one point I looked at my watch and I was like, wow, it's already after 1:00 o'clock. It just didn't feel like we had been out there that long because we were enjoying it so much.
MIKE SCANLAN: All right, ladies, we'll let you get back out there and cheer your team on.

End of FastScripts




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