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P&G BEAUTY NW ARKANSAS CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY JOHN Q. HAMMONS

September 9, 2009

Paula Creamer

ROGERS, ARKANSAS

JASON TAYLOR: All right. Welcome, Paula. Thanks for coming in here. Welcome back to Northwest Arkansas. If you can just kind of tell us how you're feeling coming into this week.
PAULA CREAMER: Yeah, these last couple weeks have been pretty tough, being sick and all. But I'm glad to be back. I love this golf course. I love this event.
There's so many wonderful people that come out and watch us, and being with P&G, it's pretty cool, just to have all the different brands and things like that involved with the tournament.
But the golf course is in wonderful shape. It's obviously a little bit more wet now than what it was, but the changes that they made are perfect.
JASON TAYLOR: Questions?

Q. Paula, I guess just to start with, I didn't know what your sickness was. What have you been going through the last few weeks, and have you missed tournaments because of it?
PAULA CREAMER: Yes. I am. I withdraw from Portland two weeks ago I had the flu, and I got bronchitis. So this past week in Canada was pretty difficult just because I didn't have much strength, and I lost a lot of weight, and a lot of just energy in general. But with the altitude and everything, the bronchitis didn't help much.
But I'm starting to get my strength back. I'm trying to -- I'm trying to work out today. I haven't been able to work out just because my body's been so weak.

Q. How much have you been out to see the entire course, and did you get to play a practice round yesterday? And what do you think of the changes and how is that going to play to your game?
PAULA CREAMER: I played 18 holes yesterday, and then I played -- I was on 18 fairways today. I got almost the whole round in. But the changes, I think you definitely need to see -- it's a golf course -- the changes they made on the golf course are there's a lot of bunkers that they added. There's a lot of bunkers that they took away. But the biggest thing is the greens. It's the same golf course, but it's a completely different golf course.

Q. Does the way they changed the areas around the greens, how do you think that will play this week?
PAULA CREAMER: You gotta hit good shots. If you miss it a little bit right, there's a lot more runoff. They've shaved down a lot of areas. Like a big one is No. 2, you know, around the water. I mean if you miss it a little bit, it's sucked back down into the water.
There's certain holes that you have to hit it in the right spot or else you're going to have a very difficult two-putt.

Q. Talk about the Solheim Cup and just kind of the experience and winning that, just kind of what that general experience was like for you guys.
PAULA CREAMER: Well, the Solheim Cup is my favorite event that I have ever played in. I've always said it's better than winning. Whenever you get to wear red, white and blue and you get to be on a team with 12 girls and go out and represent your country, there's nothing better than that.
And to have won always makes it a little bit nicer, a little bit sweeter in that sense. But it was a great week. There was a lot of good golf. We fought hard on Sunday. So did they. They put up a good fight as well. We just came out victorious that day.

Q. Do you form kind of a bond among your teammates when you see them out here now, having gone through that experience with them?
PAULA CREAMER: That was my third Solheim Cup, and every couple years when it comes around, it does. You become -- you're sisters in a sense, and it did.
The couple weeks before and after, you're always together, talking about it, so many memories. There's more memories that are not golf related. They're all what happened in the team room or what happened the night before, things like that, that you really cherish and you kind of go and talk about it with your partners.

Q. One of your teammates, too, was Michelle Wie. How has her success -- is that going to be a really good thing for the Tour and for the attention, she's going to get more fans out here to watch her play?
PAULA CREAMER: I guess so. I mean, she's a great player. She played really well that week, and you know, I'm sure that was a big goal of hers was to get on the team.
And you know, it was, it was nice to have her out there. We had a lot of fun, a lot of good memories, and I'm looking forward to the one in Ireland.

Q. I wanted to just ask one more thing about Michelle. I think golf fans saw a side of her that maybe people didn't realize was there. You know her away from golf and behind the scenes, too. Does she have that personality away from the course and everything that everybody saw her so bubbly and smiley and intense and everything. She's been on such a big spotlight. Does she seem like that away from golf as well?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, that was the first time I really got to hang out with her as well. And I did. I got to see the Michelle Wie that you want to meet, not necessarily the golfer, you know, the person who she is. It was a lot of fun to get to know her and hang out with her.

Q. Being out there in the rain today, did you notice something about some of the drainage issues they've had in the past. They've tried to fix some of those with this redesign. How was it out there today?
PAULA CREAMER: The tee boxes were pretty wet. That's what I noticed. I mean in the morning the balls were running 15, 20 yards, and now, when we were out there the last, on the Back 9, it was just hitting and just stopping in the middle of the fairway. So hopefully it'll have a couple of hours or whatnot to just kind of dry.
But you know, the drainage was good in parts, but there's a lot of low parts on this golf course, and you can just see it. The water builds up. So we'll see.

Q. And for the case of being sick, too, when you wake up and it's raining and you're like, ugh, I gotta play in this weather again. I heard you cough when you came in.
PAULA CREAMER: Yeah. It's awful.

Q. So I'm sure you're kind of still feeling the effects of it. How difficult is it to go out in the rain when you've been sick knowing you could get even more sick?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, it's always the thing that you have to think of. I have to wear my rain gear, even if I'm hot. You have to keep warm, things like that.
But it is, it's hard playing in the rain when you're sick because you're already feeling kind of crummy and not feeling yourself.
But I had a great day. The guys I played with were awesome. They're so much fun. And that's the great thing about Pro-Ams. That's why we have events is because of the Pro-Ams and the people who sponsor us and come out and actually want to play in the rain with us. So it's not really me. It's more for them to come out and tough it out.

Q. Do you feel like there's a let-down period at all after the Solheim Cup where it's kind of weird to get back into the individual competition after such camaraderie and chemistry of a team event like that?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, I put so much pressure on myself for Solheim Cup, for me it's the biggest tournament in my mind. I've always played my best golf, though, when I play in it.
But it is hard afterwards. It is. You know, you catch yourself, you know, wanting to like do something with the crowd or get heavily involved with people. But it's hard, in a sense, but it actually helps you, you know, with your confidence and your motivation and going out there and playing for yourself because if you don't play well, you're not going to get on the team in two years. So it's always in your mind. You're always out there -- yes, you want to play well in your tournaments, but you also want to get on the team in two years.
JASON TAYLOR: All right?

End of FastScripts

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