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CN CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 23, 2011

Michelle Wie West

MIRABEL, QUEBEC

THE MODERATOR: All right. We'd like to welcome defending championship, Michelle Wie, into the interview room today. Thanks for joining us.
MICHELLE WIE: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Can you just talk first off a little bit about your memories from last year and what it's like being back at this tournament?
MICHELLE WIE: Obviously I have a lot of great memories from last year.
It's always fun coming back up here and trying to remember different parts of it, and I'm really looking forward to this week.
Played 18 holes this morning and the course looks fantastic. It's in awesome shape, and looks like a very interesting golf course, so I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
THE MODERATOR: We know how busy you are most of the time during the year with school and golf. How has this summer been being kind of able to focus solely on golf?
MICHELLE WIE: It's been good so far. Obviously I didn't play as well as I wanted to so far, but I'm hoping that this week I can turn things around and play some good golf, and it's very exciting to come back here.
THE MODERATOR: I know everybody's talking about the change, the long putter. How has that been for you and what's been the biggest difference that you've noticed?
MICHELLE WIE: I really enjoy it. I like it a lot more. It's been a couple weeks it's been in my bag, and it's been working well so far. Hopefully I can do a lot better with it.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Michelle?

Q. (Indiscernible).
MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. You know, no expectations this week. I'm just going to go out there and try my hardest. I think the last couple weeks I think I've been grinding a little bit too hard out there, and I'm just going to try and relax and just play my game this week. It's a good golf course, good test of your game. There's a couple of holes where it's very slopey, the greens. So I think it's going to be a good test, and hopefully I can play as well as I want to.

Q. You often talk about the importance of going to school and getting your degree. And I guess you're going back for your final year in a few weeks. What is your schedule going to be like after this tournament and how difficult has it been to manage all that schooling and trying to play at an elite level?
MICHELLE WIE: I'm not going to miss a lot of tournaments with school and everything, but it has been a little bit difficult. Obviously hasn't made my life any easier, but like I said before and I always will say, I think education is very important, and I think it was very important for me personally to go, and I don't regret that decision at all. I've learned so much about myself and learned so much about life in general going to college and kind of growing up there. I think it gave me an opportunity to kind of be myself and kind of mature as a person. Obviously it kind of made me, you know, helped me manage my time more and helped me make decisions, smarter decisions. But I really enjoy it. I'm looking forward to graduating, but I think it's going to be a good and it was a very good experience.

Q. How tough was the rough today did you find?
MICHELLE WIE: It was good. It's healthy.

Q. Does it look extra challenging or did it pose any problem for you?
MICHELLE WIE: You know, I think there are some bits where it was a little bit drier and the rough is a little bit down, but there are places where it was very heavy. It's a Tuesday, so by Sunday I assume that they're not going to cut it and it's going to keep on growing.

Q. Did you have a good score today?
MICHELLE WIE: No, I don't really keep score.

Q. I want to ask you a question about your own development and how you do it. I want to know how close you think you are to being the player that you want to be.
MICHELLE WIE: I think, you know, obviously golf is a very long road, and I've had my ups and downs. You know, I've had my good times and I've had my bad times. But I think, you know, through all of that I've been learning about myself.
I'll never know, you know, when I reach my full potential. I think I'll know that after I'm done. It's something that you kind of look at and realize after you're done. You're like, oh, this is when I played my best, because right now it's a constant fight. You know, even when you shoot 64 or 65, you still think you could have done better.
Obviously I do know that I need to be better and I need to work harder at my game, and you know, I want to be at a higher level, and that obviously requires a lot of work, but at the same time it's not something that I can analyze right now about myself. I do know that I always want to get better, and I am trying every day.
And golf is a difficult game. It's not as easy as it seems on TV. It's always a fight, but at the same time I'm very proud of myself for how I've grown and how I've dealt with everything that has been dealt to me. And you know, I'm enjoying it. I think that's the most important thing. I enjoy every day that I go out there. I look forward to the next, and for me that's the most important thing is that I think the game is still fun and it's still very enjoyable and I want to win more than ever.

Q. What's it like to have a contemporary up here like Yani, who's only a year older than you, enjoy the type of success that you've seen her enjoy over the last year and a half or so? Is that sort of a motivating factor for you?
MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, for sure. I think age is really not an issue anymore with any player. You see a lot of young players out there winning majors and that are doing a lot of things, and I think the game has kind of shifted to that more than it has been.
But it is very motivating to see someone like Yani get really good over the last year and a half. It's been good to see, and it's been kind of something that I want to see about myself. I want someone to say next year how good I've come. So like I said before, it's always a fight and I am always working on trying to be a better player and a better person, and we'll see how it goes, but I am trying.

Q. Like I said, can you compare this course to the ones at the Canadian Open last year in Winnipeg? Are they similar? Do you have to approach this one differently?
MICHELLE WIE: I think they're both very challenging. I remember the course last year being very difficult. This year I think is going to be the same. There are some parts of the green where you don't want to hit it to. Like I mentioned before, some of the greens are very slopey, so you want to make sure you're on the bottom side of the hole coming up at it. But I think it requires a lot of planning and just like any other tournament.

Q. How would you rate this course from toughness compared to some of the courses you've played? Above average? Average toughness? In the short amount of time that you've seen it.
MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. I mean the amount of time that I've seen it, it could be very challenging. Obviously if it blew like it did yesterday, it's going to make the course unbelievably harder.
I think it's tough. I think the greens really make the course, and I think you just need to be in the right place.

Q. When you first came on the LPGA, you were the next big thing. How hard was it to live up to the expectations?
MICHELLE WIE: You know, I don't really try to live up to anyone's expectations. I just try to, you know, like I said, try to keep doing my own thing and try to get better every year.
Obviously you hear a lot of it, and it's been fun. It's been fun, playing in tournaments when I was young. And kind of looking back the long road to here, and hopefully a longer road moving forward. And just every day trying to get better. That's really all it is.

Q. Do you feel that there's any more pressure or not at all?
MICHELLE WIE: No. I mean there are times when I did feel pressure, but most times, you know, it was just kind of me out there on the golf course trying to hit a perfect score. You can't really look too far into the future or try and become something that, you know, you aren't at the moment or really want to be. It doesn't happen like that. You just have to try your hardest on every shot and when it all comes together, it all comes together.

Q. Golf is such a game of confidence, coming back to a tournament as defending champ make you feel good going into this week?
MICHELLE WIE: It definitely it feels good coming here and seeing my picture with the trophy. It brings back a lot of memories and hopefully I can do it again. It's a good feeling coming into a tournament and saying you got the trophy, and it does make you want a lot more than that.

Q. Does winning a national open mean a little more than winning any other tournament on Tour?
MICHELLE WIE: I don't really have any preference. I'll take anything.

Q. Is there one area in your game that you would particularly like to improve if you had more time to spend on it, say I'd like to focus more on this, that, whether it's putting or driving or short iron or long iron? Is there one particular aspect that you would like to focus more on?
MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I find that when I try to focus more on one thing the other part of the game kind of goes. So you don't want to spend all your time on one thing because other things will fall apart.
I really just work on everything. There's really not just one thing in particular that I work on. I think I work consistently very hard on putting. You know, I spend a lot of hours away, I mean on the putting green every week. Rosie's been calling the putting green my home away from home these days, which is true, but at the same time, you know, I really work hard at it.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
MICHELLE WIE: Hopefully it is.
THE MODERATOR: Any more questions of Michelle? Thank you very much for joining us.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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