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SHOPRITE LPGA CLASSIC

June 5, 2011

Brittany Lincicome

GALLOWAY, NEW JERSEY

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome the 2011 ShopRite Classic Champion, Brittany Lincicome. Brittany, just talk about the day and kind of your emotions coming in. You said it might even help to be in the group behind the leading group and that's where you ended up and you walk away a champion again.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, everything kind of fell my way. It was clearly my week. Everything that progressed today. I started on fire. I made an eagle. I made some birdies. Kind of halfway until the end I left everything short. I got really tight, really super nervous. Couldn't seem to get a putt to the hole and nothing was really happening. It was kind of boring.
So I don't normally look at leaderboards, but I look to the leaderboard on 18 tee. So I knew I was tied. Then I got to 18 tee 1 ahead. Then I knew when I got to 18 green and Jiyai Shin was 10-under, and I'm like, oh, crap.
So I'm in the weeds, like in the bushes, tied for the lead, and I'm like, oh, gosh, this is not where you want to be. But clearly, again, it was just my day. I mean that chip shot I could go out and hit a whole bucket of balls and not get it within five feet like I just did. So that putt and chip were equally as hard and I was shaking like a leaf.
THE MODERATOR: What were your thoughts when you walked up there and saw your lie?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, I heard the crowd. I was like maybe it's just in the bunker and they're going crazy because it's the last hole or what have you. But it was in the trees or in the high stuff when I got up there.
So it wasn't a horrible lie. It wasn't in the tallest of stuff. So I guess if it was going to be there, it was probably the best spot to be. Just kind of told myself don't quit on it. Keep the club head going. Obviously, if you de-cel on it, it's going to go just about two feet. So I just tried to make sure I kept the club going and gutted it out, basically.
THE MODERATOR: You just got a new caddie recently. You and A.J. have just started to work together. How is that to get a win so quickly?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I felt like I've been hitting well. I practiced really hard last week, and our first tournament together was Match Play and we played a whole 15 holes together. So that wasn't a really great test for her to learn anything about my game or for me to tell her anything about my game or what I want from her.
So we just kind of went out this week, and we're just going to go have fun. The more I talk and chattier that I am, the better that I play. So she did a great job that if I was down a little bit to pick me back up and talk about something that I really enjoy, whether it be fishing or my dogs or my friends at home. She just did a great job.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: She used to play on Tour, so she knows what the feeling is.

Q. You mentioned last week that you got in a lot of practice. How much did the practice help you? Are you practicing more now or is it just a matter of getting --
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, it depends on who is in town when I go home, actually. I have a couple of Futures Tours friends in my area, so if they're home I practice more than my Mini Tour buddy who is a guy. If he's in town, we practice every day and play every day, so I work really hard.
So if I go home after Springfield next week and nobody's home, I feel like I don't do anything if nobody's home to kind of motivate me to want to do it. So it just depends on how I'm feeling. Normally I take a few days off when I'm home and go fishing and hang out. Later in the week I get back to it.
I really enjoy playing. I'd rather play 18 holes than go to the driving range for five hours. So normally my day consists of playing, and if I feel I need to work on something, I'll go do it for an hour, not a lot.

Q. On the chip on 18, what were your options? Did you have one club?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, I really only chip with my lob wedge. It was really the only club I think you could have used there. Anyway, I kind of closed the club face a little bit and took it steep like a bunker shot to pop it out of there and get it running. It came out absolutely perfect.

Q. Did the final putt -- how did it break?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: We were trying to play it left edge, left center. My hands were shaking so bad I almost backed off of it again and was going to take a couple more deep breaths to calm myself down. But instead I said we'll go with it and see what happens.
I've only been in one playoff, so I definitely didn't want to go to another playoff.

Q. Was 18 the only time you looked at the leaderboard all day? It was pretty chaotic, people were up-and-down, you know.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Right, it was the first real chance I had to look at it. Even the big leaderboard when you're going from 17 to 18, I missed it right when the scores came up, so I didn't see it on there. I had to wait until the girls were behind us were walking to the 18th tee to see the leaderboard. They either weren't in the right spots or I was just so focus on walking down the fairway that I didn't see a leaderboard all day until 18 tee.

Q. Now that you have won, has it sunk in? What are your thoughts? You said it's been since 2009, that's been about 20 minutes now, so what are your thoughts is?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Not really yet. I'm just in a rush to make a flight and try to get to an outing tomorrow. Probably after tomorrow and early next week it will sink in. But it feels great.
It's like you said, since '09. You don't know if you're ever going to win again or if you'll ever have your time. So it feels fantastic. It's a wonderful tournament. The people do a fantastic job here. The food was amazing this week. That's probably why I played well. Just fat and sassy every day, but it feels great.
My game, I was super happy with the way that I played, and just hopefully bigger and better things are to come.

Q. Just talk about the nervousness, and is it nice to have that feeling again to be in that situation where you have a chance like that?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, I thought the second time around after doing it at Kraft it would be easier this time, but it definitely wasn't. It was pretty much the same. My hands were shaking. I got done, and I was trying to find my scorecard. My hands were shaking so bad, my signature probably looks horrible.
The emotions are still the same. I was trying to talk to Juli Inkster, a veteran, about it. She said it's always going to be there. It's not going to go away. If you weren't nervous, you weren't human, basically, is what she tells me. So it's something I'll have to keep fighting through, I guess. If it's my time, the putt will go in and, if not, we'll go into a playoff.

Q. (Indiscernible), the putt to win or the approach?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: The chip shot on 18. Like I said, I could have a whole bucket of balls and go out there and try it again and not get it within five feet.

Q. When you made it you said, it's mine, right?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah. That's kind of it's my day. That five-footer that I had, it was like if I just had that chip shot. Clearly the putt has to go in. It's not going to get any harder than that.

Q. You didn't have a birdie between 9 and 18, were you getting impatient or were you so nervous it didn't really matter?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, just super nervous. Just got really tentative. All last week I worked on getting the ball to the hole. At Sybase, the Match Play event, I didn't feel like I got one putt to the hole. I wasn't aggressive. The tempo of my stroke was not good. So we worked on that all last week.
It started really well on the front nine. I was really aggressive. One of the holes I blew it by like five feet and had to make the comeback coming back.
So I did really well on the first couple and just got super tight and super nervous. Couldn't really handle it as well as I should have, I guess. But obviously, it's a learning experience. Take it into next week and try to be more aggressive so I won't have to make birdie on the last hole to win.

Q. You got the better of some really good players today. Can you talk a little bit about that in even though Cristie was 80 feet away for eagle, what were your emotions while she was sizing that up?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Kind of felt like Solheim Cup. Everyone at Solheim tells you your opponents are going to make their putts. Just anticipate that they're going to make it. So I was standing there like this could really go.
And Cristie Kerr is the best putter on Tour I think by far. So I thought she'd knock it up there super close to make me be like, oh, gosh, you know. But you've always got to anticipate that they're going to make it. So I told my caddie maybe we should go to the putting green. She told me, why, so your hands can shake? Obviously, that was funny at at the time (laughing).
But, yeah, Cristie Kerr, Catriona Matthews, lot of great names of girls that have won multiple times on Tour. So it's great to come out on top and maybe consider myself one of them now.

Q. You're considered a long hitter. If you look at the par-5s this week, I think it was 7 birdies, an eagle and a par. Is that the difference?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Yeah, they were all reachable on two, which is fantastic. It's nice to get the eagle today. The first couple of days I had 8-iron on the one that I made eagle on because I hit such a good drive. That's nice to take advantage of on the par-5. The par-3s were probably the hardest part out there. So I was really just trying to make pars on the par-3s and birdie the par-5s.

Q. You played the last 38 holes without a bogey.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I know. Not a 5 on the scorecard.

Q. How does that feel?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Luckily again I'm not superstitious, but I kind of am. So I didn't even notice until I signed my scorecard and I got done this evening and looked at it. It was like, oh, gosh, good thing I didn't know that prior because I would have worried about it all day.
Going into yesterday's round I only missed one fairway the first day. Luckily I only missed the first fairway, so that was out of the way and done with. So some things I'm superstitious. Some things it's really weird, but, yeah, that's really funny.

Q. You played tennis, who did you want to win today?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I was hoping Federer would do it, but it was a great match. That's all I did this morning was watch tennis for like four hours.

Q. So you saw the match?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Oh, yeah. That's why I said if I miss my tee time it's because I'm watching tennis.

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