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December 4, 2010
ORLANDO, FLORIDA
HEATHER DONOFRIO: We are here with Maria Hjorth, at 5-under par for the tournament, one off the lead. Can you tell us a little bit about your round?
MARIA HJORTH: It was a very solid round. I'm very happy with the way I played. A few bogeys but everybody makes bogeys out on this course so you just kind of -- you get on with it and try to find a birdie somewhere.
Q. In your mind, what is it that is keeping the scores from going lower out there?
MARIA HJORTH: It's just the greens really that makes it so difficult, because you can hit a lot of good shots, but you might get penalized because you can have the wrong bounce and they go off the green and just the slopes on the greens. They are fairly firm, as well, and I think some of the girls, I'm lucky enough to hit it far and maybe shorter irons into the greens, so you can get a little bit of stop on them.
But it seems like a lot of girls are hit longer clubs into the greens, and that makes it harder, too. Some of them are pretty small, so it's difficult to get the ball to stop on the green. I think that's definitely the main reason.
Q. Just to follow up on that point, you also hit the ball a bit higher than a lot of the other players. How much does that help you here?
MARIA HJORTH: Oh, it definitely helps. Obviously if you're hitting the ball higher and coming in with shorter irons, it's going to make a huge difference. If you hit a 7-iron higher, then all of a sudden you have two clubs shorter than the other girls, and it definitely makes a big difference.
Q. You are one of the longer, higher-ball hitters; have the grooves made any difference for you this year, have you heard any chatter about that, or is that an issue that's been pretty much dead from the get-go?
MARIA HJORTH: I think for us on the ladies tour, I don't think it's made any difference whatsoever. I think it makes for of a difference on the men's tour, with the rough that they play in and the spin on the ball.
But for us, I haven't really -- I was actually hoping, I needless spin, so I was hoping that the grooves were going to help me out a little bit and give me less spin. But I still find that they spin quite a lot. So I really haven't seen a huge difference.
Q. With the course playing the way it is, obviously this is not a two-woman race to the finish tomorrow; how many do you think are still in this for the win?
MARIA HJORTH: Well, still there's quite a few. If you are under par going into tomorrow, I still think there's a chance. Like you see, it's so easy to shoot just even par. If someone shoots 4- or 5-under coming from the back of the field, and we are staying at around 5- or 6-under, then obviously there's quite a few people that's got a chance.
HEATHER DONOFRIO: How is it playing a tournament sleeping in your own bed?
MARIA HJORTH: It's very nice, yeah. It's really, really nice. It's weird, though, because you don't really organize the same way as when you're out on the road, you have your thing and whatever you're going to wear, and now you have like a wardrobe, so are you going to wear this, are you going to wear that. (Laughter).
So it is very weird to stay at home but it's really, really nice. It's nice to be able to come home and relax and spend some time with the family.
Q. What part of town?
MARIA HJORTH: I'm just up actually on Apopka, very close to Bay Hill.
Q. Amy Yang had a rough start with that double-bogey early and she seems to have a real ability to fight back. Your observations on her game?
MARIA HJORTH: Obviously her game suits this course, as well. She is one of the longer hitters as well and also hits it very high. So you know, for us being up there on the top, maybe it's made a bit of a difference being a little bit higher ball flight.
She's playing very solid, and obviously coming back with birdies on 17 and 18, which are great scores on those two holes, it's a very, very good come back. We'll have a good fight out there tomorrow.
End of FastScripts
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