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HSBC WOMEN'S WORLD MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 2, 2005

Marisa Baena

GLADSTONE, NEW JERSEY

PAUL ROVNAK: Marisa, thank you for coming and speaking with us. Congratulations on making it to the semifinals.

MARISA BAENA: Thank you very much.

PAUL ROVNAK: Winning two matches, you just knocked off a Hall of Famer in Karrie Webb. Just talk about that maybe.

MARISA BAENA: I think it's been an incredible week for me. I have been playing probably the best golf I ever have played this season. I just wasn't able to put the four rounds together, and I think with match play, it just gives me the chance of not worrying the next day and just taking hole by hole and shot by shot.

You know, Karrie wasn't putting very good today. She just kept leaving the ball short and short and missed birdie putts. In match play, when you're hitting the ball well like her and I was, it becomes a putting contest. I mean, whoever makes the most putts, that's who will win. And some putts, it was just back and forth. My first bogey of the day was on 16 and I was already 3 up, so to that point I played very solid. I made birdies, the rest of them pars, and putting pressure on her all the time. She had to be making the putts and she wasn't doing it.

I mean, it feels great. I didn't make any mistakes really until 16. At that point, like I said, "I could do it."

17, it was a tough shot, a 4 iron. I just missed my 4 iron on 16 way right, so it was a difficult shot and I was able to do it.

For me winning this position and playing so bad the last two years, it means a lot, it means I'm ready and it's just great. She's probably one of the toughest people you could play this week. She's a Hall of Famer, I don't know how many wins, so it feels great.

Q. You said after the first round victory that you a lot of people get this low and you never come back from it. How low did you get?

MARISA BAENA: I was thinking to quit, and after June of last year, I had a talk to my dad and I said I was going to give myself two more years, and that was it, two years if I didn't achieve what I wanted and enjoy golf again, I'm going to quit. So.

I put a goal, I set a goal in the sense that if in two years, I don't do well, it's enough for me. Being out here is very tiring, it's very hard, and if you're not doing good, that's not the life I want to live. I want to do something else. It was very low. I think when you get to the point, how much can I take it, how many more years; and for me it was about two.

So this year I came very relaxed. I said, you know what, I'm just going to enjoy it. I did all Monday qualifyings, I didn't have my card, so I Monday qualified my first four events and I got into the Top 60 to this tournament. So if you look at this that way, I have been playing really well. It's just the fact that I didn't have my card at the beginning of the year, and a lot of the players have four or five tournaments on top of me and I was doing Monday qualifying. I think in that sense, I was behind everybody.

Q. Obviously tomorrow is a big day, regardless of what happens from here on out, what will this do for you in terms of energizing?

MARISA BAENA: I think pretty much this is what I needed. I think I had got away a little bit in talking myself, and I think what match play has given me is it has given me back the possibility of believing in myself and knowing that, you know, maybe I'm not playing as aggressive as I should when I go out there playing medal play, not taking the risk that I should be taking. It seems like a lot of the times I'm just kind of guarding the ball a lot, and now I see match play, yeah, you have to be more aggressive.

But I think if you want to win out here and you need to shoot 24 under, you've got to play like that, that's the only way. Seven years ago when I came on Tour, yeah, you know, 10 under par was good enough. Nowadays, you really have to go low to win, and that's what I want to do.

Q. What does it say about the format, the golfers who have advanced are perhaps not names that people would necessarily know or recognize when they tune in tomorrow.

MARISA BAENA: I mean, it's like I said, I think match play is just golf, just 18 holes, and I think whoever is hot that day, that's who wins.

And I think a lot of people don't realize, you know, how good all of us are. It's not just happening just on this tour, every time they have the world match for the men, Woods, they are all doing good. It's just a matter of who is putting better that day, who is making more putts. All of us are hitting the ball good at the end, so that's what it comes down to.

Q. You talked about how match play had helped you get more aggressive, did you come here thinking this would help you as much as it has, or is that something you've discovered as you play each match?

MARISA BAENA: I definitely discovered it. I mean, like I said, I was an excellent match player as a young girl in Colombia playing a lot of matches. The U.S. Amateur is my favorite format. I think it just brings everything out of me. It seems to me that I can concentrate better. That's probably one of my biggest problems when I play medal play; I get bored and start thinking of other stuff and I'm not concentrating enough on 18 holes.

I think with match play, I'm always on the edge because I know I have to beat the person right there, and if I don't beat her, well, you know, what I'm going to lose the hole, and I think that is what has shown me to be that I need to learn more how to concentrate in the shot all the time, that's what we do, we concentrate and by 15, you're so tired because you're worried at the end, and you just play shot by shot. It's been great because I've been able to do that, and it's great because the other person keeps me entertained. For me it's entertainment out there, that's how I look at it; I just enjoy it. .

Q. What holes were you playing aggressive on today?

MARISA BAENA: I think, you know, absolutely the par 5s, every time I had a wedge on, which is a few holes, you have wedges to No. 2 No. 5, No. 6, No. 8, No. 9, No. 10, No. 11. I mean, that's where you need to be aggressive, when you have wedges in your hand. No. 7., I had a great shot and almost made it. It was helping that I didn't have to putt for my birdies. They were pretty much just tap ins.

Q. On 16 were you being a little too aggressive or a little cautious?

MARISA BAENA: No, actually, I think I didn't commit enough to my target. I was actually being too cautious, I was playing more left than I wanted to and I just blocked it. I wanted to be more aggressive. I should have taken a different line and I would have hit a better swing.

Q. How has the course between yesterday and today changed, and how has that affected your look at being aggressive?

MARISA BAENA: Actually the course, the flags were much, much more difficult today. There were some flags that were just like, okay, this is borderline. But the course is playing pretty much the same. The ball is rolling and the greens are holding. The greens are slower than what we're used to and I think that's why everybody is having such a hard time with the putting speed because we're used to having faster, you know, faster greens. So sometimes you get you try to get aggressive when you're putting, and what you do is you just take it off line. That's why you're not making so many putts like you normally do.

Q. You knocked off a Hall of Famer today, and looking ahead to tomorrow, suppose it would be Annika Sorenstam, can you describe what a challenge that would be for you to go up against her in match play with so much on the line?

MARISA BAENA: I think it would be the greatest challenge of all. You know, Annika has been the top player for the last four or five years. She's on top of her game. I think either way I look at it it's just fun for me to be out here. I'm enjoying it, I'm having fun. You know, I'll playing good and that's what it matters.

You know, tomorrow is a new day, and like match play, you never know what's going to happen; if that day you wake up and you're making a lot of putts. But most of my rounds I have played have all been under par. I have shot 3 or 4 under in each of the rounds, so I think that gives me a lot of confidence for tomorrow. You have to see how the other player is playing. It will be interesting. I haven't played with Annika in many years, so, you know, I just look at it that it will be a lot of fun.

Q. How many times did you Monday qualify this year, and did the reshuffling get you into the LPGA?

MARISA BAENA: I tried to do Monday qualifying in Hawaii, Phoenix, then which I did not make it. And I Monday qualified in Las Vegas, which I qualified with 65.

Then Tennessee, which I flew all night from Phoenix, from Mexico, took a red eye eye and got there at 10:30 in the morning and teed up at 1:00 and shot 71 and made it.

The following week which was Michelob, I shot 66 and made it, also, there.

After Michelob, there was one week which was Atlanta, we didn't get reshuffled until the following week, which is was five days. I think it was five days. So that's when I got reshuffled. Once I got in, you know, I had been playing good here and there, you know, my only missed the cut of the year has been the Open.

End of FastScripts.

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