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THE SOLHEIM CUPAugust 22, 2009Cristie KerrKristy McPhersonMorgan PresselMichelle Wie WestSUGAR GROVE, ILLINOIS MIKE SCANLAN: Ladies, thanks for coming in. We'd like to welcome Kristy McPherson and Morgan Pressel, who had a 2-up victory over Helen Alfredsson and Suzann Pettersen; and Cristie Kerr and Michelle Wie, who had a 1-up victory over Mimi Hjorth and Anna Nordqvist. We'll start with Kristy McPherson and Morgan, if you would take us through your match and tell us a little bit about it today. Kristy? KRISTY McPHERSON: Starting with me, huh. Well, we halved the first hole, which felt like a victory to me, because my first two matches we were two down after two, so when Morgan and I were all square after two, it was looking pretty good for us. But yeah, we made a huge birdie on 2 where they hit the green in two. We knew going in with Suzann and Alfie, the two of us aren't necessarily long, so we knew we'd be at a disadvantage, especially on the par-5s. And sure enough, they made eagle on 15 to get it back to 1-up for us. But you know, it was a grind out there. We got off to an early lead, but they fought back and took us all the way to 18. It lasted a little longer than we wanted it to, but we were happy to get the win. MORGAN PRESSEL: Yeah, I think that we played very solid out there today. We hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. We just kept putting the pressure on them. They made a couple putts. Suzann made a great putt on 17 and eagle on 15. But I think that 2 was probably the biggest hole for us because Kristy hit it in there tight, and we deferred going 1-down, I guess, which is easy on a hole where they can get there in two. And to be that early in the match to go 1-down is never a good thing, and we ended up being three up through 6. Suzann wasn't hitting it that great. She hit some uncharacteristic shots, but we were able to take advantage of it. And they came back fighting strong. The par-5 11th was pretty ridiculous, but you know, we knew that our point was really important, and you just kind of have a feeling that Suzann's going to make a putt like that on 17. But the 18th hole hasn't been too kind to us this week, so finally we won two matches there today this afternoon. MIKE SCANLAN: Cristie Kerr and Michelle Wie, if you would just take us through your match. We'll start with Cristie Kerr. CRISTIE KERR: Yeah. It was tough right from the get-go. The first hole I hit a good iron in, and we halved the hole, and I didn't hit a very good bunker shot on the second shot and ended up losing the hole. Then we made great par saves at 3 and 4 with eight- to ten-foot putts that Michelle holed. Halved with birdies, 5. Made a long putt on 6 for birdie to all square the match. It was kind of an interesting match. Next hole we both had to take an unplayable and ended up halving the hole with 6s. We won 8. We lost 9. 10, she hit it stiff. 11, I made about a five-footer, and 12, 13 were pretty good for us. 14, we ended up halving that hole, which was huge. They ended up making a bad three-putt and we snuck out of that one. And 15, I didn't hit a very good iron, but Michelle got it up there real snuggly, and I made the three-footer. I played good on 16. 17 was kind of a lie in the rough that kind of fooled me. I even opened the face up a little bit so that it wouldn't turn over, and I got more grass than ball. Maybe it started to get a little bit more wet. It's kind of a lie that can fool you sometimes. And I mean that halve on that hole was, pardon the expression, but it was -- I'm not going to say it. It was ridiculous. I mean, she hit it over the green, and you know, I just said the only way it's going to stop is if it hits the hole and I actually hit a better shot than that. It was probably one of the best flop shots I've ever hit in my life, especially under the circumstances. I mean, I would put myself up on that shot against almost anybody in the world with how good that was. I mean, it was ridiculous. We ended up halving that hole and then ended up winning the match on 18, which I mean, the 18th hole did owe us. MORGAN PRESSEL: Did you miss a hole or did you make sure you got all of them? CRISTIE KERR: I got all of them. MICHELLE WIE: I think you missed one. CRISTIE KERR: Sorry. It's been a long day. And I just want to say for the record, I have played all 54 holes. Yeah. I did my homework. MIKE SCANLAN: Thank you for that very thorough description, Cristie. CRISTIE KERR: You're welcome. Just wanted to make sure you got it. MICHELLE WIE: So No. 1, I did this. And No. 2 -- how about I just go all over it again. MORGAN PRESSEL: I think she's got it covered. Michelle doesn't really need to say a whole lot. CRISTIE KERR: Yeah. Exactly. On to the next question. MICHELLE WIE: I just want to say that shot on 17 was ridiculous. I mean I -- I think we really worked well as partners today. CRISTIE KERR: We're very comfortable with each other, for sure. MICHELLE WIE: Exactly. You know, I think -- the first couple holes we didn't hit fairways and we didn't hit greens. So it was a struggle, and we got down. And I think it was just both of us were looking too far ahead and we said, come on, we need goals here, fairways and greens, and that's all we're thinking about. And I think that really helped. I think that really -- she calmed me down. CRISTIE KERR: Except when I hit it in the water on 17. That was not quite the green. MICHELLE WIE: I think we worked really well as partners, and I think over the past couple days I feel really lucky to get to know Cristie a lot better because I think she's one of the people I've gotten to know a lot better and got to play a lot of practice rounds with, and I think it's really cool. Q. For Cristie and Morgan, because you guys have done this before, does it give you guys a sense of confidence knowing how well this team has done in singles over the last, you know, two Solheim Cups? I mean nothing's for sure, but talk about going into Sunday? MORGAN PRESSEL: Absolutely. You know, we did lose some ground today, but we're still tied going into singles. We got 12 points available tomorrow, and you know, we have a very, very, very strong team, and you know, you look at the people who have sat on the bench each round, and you'd be pretty amazed at the depth of our team. I think that that will help us tomorrow. Every point is still important. You can't look at the leaderboard. You can't get too far ahead of yourself, and each one of us just has to go out there and beat our opponent to a pulp. That's our goal tomorrow. CRISTIE KERR: Take care of our own match. MORGAN PRESSEL: That's all that matters. In our mind there aren't 12 matches tomorrow. There's one, and that's each of our own. CRISTIE KERR: Very poignant. MORGAN PRESSEL: And we can celebrate afterwards. Hey, that's what you get with lack of college education. No, neither of us went to college. She's the only one that did. You're still in college. CRISTIE KERR: We're a very articulate group over here. (Laughs.) I'm a little slow. I played all 54 holes. MICHELLE WIE: I think it's been a long day. I'm just going to say that. CRISTIE KERR: It's 8:20. Don't you people want to go get a cocktail? Q. Morgan and Cristie Kerr, did both of you realize as you're coming in on the back side that Europe had pulled ahead and how important your matches were, otherwise you face a deficit going into tomorrow? CRISTIE KERR: Absolutely. There's only four matches out there, and we know how important every single match is. You know, you've got to summon that within yourself to try and win your match, and that's what we did. MORGAN PRESSEL: Yeah. We were on -- was it 6 green, and we were the only red number on the board. And at that point, I mean, you never know what's going to happen, but we knew just how important our match was, and I was hoping that, you know, one or two of the other matches could turn it around, but we just needed to win our match, and you know, we played great. We had one bogey today. When you have one bogey in alternate shot, that's pretty darn good. And they put up a very, very tough fight, but we were able to hang in there. And you know, I'm a leaderboard watcher. I like to pay attention, but at the same point Kristy and I were looking at each other saying, this is our match. This is all that matters, and the team needs our point. And we were able to get it done. Q. For Michelle, you expended so much emotion out there today. Did you ever feel like you kind of ran out of gas at any point? MICHELLE WIE: Well, I was running out of gas until I did my first cheer. You know, I think on the first couple of holes it was just kind of like, aww, kind of going down there. But I think that putt on No. 2 really just woke me up, and you know, I just felt so much adrenaline out there. After I was done on 18, I could play 18 more. I was so excited out there. I just had so much fun, and I love match play. I think match play really shows true competition, and I enjoy it so much. So you know, I didn't feel like I ran out of gas. I had nice little downtime between my matches, but it was all good. CRISTIE KERR: Oh, to be 19. (Laughs.) MICHELLE WIE: You're the old lady. CRISTIE KERR: Yes. I am the oldest. Q. How difficult was it to read the putts? MICHELLE WIE: I asked her to see if she could be my caddie. CRISTIE KERR: I don't know why, I can read putts. MORGAN PRESSEL: Not only can she read putts, she can putt. Q. How difficult was it to read? CRISTIE KERR: Yeah. It got really tough on 17 and 18. MICHELLE WIE: You couldn't see anything. It was so dark. CRISTIE KERR: I mean, we probably shouldn't have played, but I don't think any of us wanted to come back at like 6:00 a.m. and finish a half a hole. It was hard to judge my distance with my pitch shot on the last hole. When the depth perception gets messed up, it messes with your feel. I actually hit a very good pitch shot, just flew the hole, and there's a little ledge there. But I mean, Michelle hit an amazing putt. I told her hey, right here, and she hit it right there. I don't know how it stayed out. And I will caddie for you one day, in one tournament. MICHELLE WIE: Really? CRISTIE KERR: They ask me for lessons. MICHELLE WIE: You swear? CRISTIE KERR: I'll caddie for you in a tournament. I might not be able to carry a bag. I don't know if I can carry that big a bag. Might need the double strap, too. Q. Michelle, you've made a lot of great putts in the last couple days. Can you talk about your work with the Stocktons and why you started working with them and what you changed? MICHELLE WIE: You know, I just rang Dave Stockton up. You know, I just didn't feel like I putted my best the last couple weeks, so I just thought I'd have a fresh eye on it, and he was in the area, so we just met up. And you know, he's a really great guy. I just really enjoyed working with him, and I think it proved good so far. Hopefully one more day is going to be good. But you know, I think he's a great guy, and I learned a lot from him. He just has so many great stories to tell, as well, and Morgan can account for this. They're really good guys. Q. Did you have one thought or anything in particular? MICHELLE WIE: Not really. Nothing I want to share right now. CRISTIE KERR: To me who has an instruction background, it seems like she's a lot more still with her body and she's just swinging the putter, and the rhythm of the putter is so much better, which comes from keeping your body still. But the pace she's hitting her putts with are absolutely perfect. MICHELLE WIE: Thank you, Cristie. KRISTY McPHERSON: You're welcome. I answered it for you. Y'all are cute. (Laughs.) Q. Early on in the morning session, did you guys get the sense of maybe you were about to start pulling away from them? MORGAN PRESSEL: Well, certainly. I mean, I'll say, because I was inside watching, that we were up in a couple of the matches, and you know, when Lang and Stanford were dormie 2 and that looked pretty promising, but like I said, those last couple holes had not been our friends this week so far other than this afternoon. So you know, I think that we were happy to be at 6&6 and no worse because at one point it looked like we might even go worse than that, but we were able to pull out another half in alternate shot, which is big for us. And heading into singles tomorrow 8-8, I think it is, right. We'll take it. Q. Michelle, I just am curious. It looked like the team kind of rallied around you there at the end on the putting green. Can you talk a little bit about how this excitement compares to playing in like a PGA TOUR event, because I know you've enjoyed those a lot, and how you've warmed to the Tour? MICHELLE WIE: I mean, it's hard to answer that question because like I said before, it's a completely different feeling because I'm not only playing for myself; I'm playing for my team; I'm playing for my team members and I'm playing for my country. So that in itself I feel like makes for a completely different experience, and you know, what I do in other weeks, I do for myself. You know, I play well because I want to play well, and I do it for my own -- because I want to do it for myself, basically. But you know, this week I do it for my country. I do it for us. I do it for pride, and I don't think it's comparable at all. MORGAN PRESSEL: Good answer. MICHELLE WIE: Thank you, Pressel. MIKE SCANLAN: All right. Thanks for coming in. End of FastScripts |
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