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CME GROUP TITLEHOLDERS

November 17, 2011

Karrie Webb

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Karrie Webb into the interview room. Congratulations on a great round today, 5-under. Can you take me through your day and what were some of the key holes and how you were able to shoot so well today.
KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, it was a really good day. Gradually my swing got a little bit better as the day went on. I struggled a little bit early on but managed to -- well, I holed a bunker shot on the 7th hole and that sort of settled me down a little bit and played pretty consistently good for the rest of the round.
Even though I didn't feel like I was striking the ball as well as I could, I was leaving myself in areas where I could make putts, and I think that's a big key around here.

Q. You got off to such a hot start this year winning back-to-back events. Can you take me through your year and how it's been and how you feel about your game heading into this week?
KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, obviously got to have to a great start, and I think expectation levels rise a little bit. But I felt like I played okay up until the U.S. Open. I had a good U.S. Open, one of my better ones for a while, so I was happy about that. But then a disappointing Evian and the British, and really a flat time with that.
And then I decided to make a few swing changes and get ready for the beginning of next year. I played Mizuno Classic a couple weeks ago, and the last couple rounds -- it's still a little bit inconsistent, but I felt a lot more comfortable over the ball and with the changes I've made, became a little bit more consistent. I've seen it in practice a lot, but once -- you just have that little more tension, once the gun goes off, I'm having trouble getting relaxed over the ball and doing stuff I'm doing on the range.

Q. What exactly were the changes that you made?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, it's very technical, but my arms were traveling too far this way. My swing wasn't getting too long, but my hands were going too far, which created a downward sort of slide hold-on move, which I lost yardage and also was very inconsistent with the contact that I was making, so I really had to tidy that up in my backswing and then also try and set the slide. So sometimes that comes in -- it was pretty much engrained for the whole year, so it takes a while to get that going without thinking about it.

Q. With the Presidents Cup being played in Australia, so many Australians in it at Royal Melbourne, do you have to force yourself to turn off the TV? Have you been watching it at all?
KARRIE WEBB: I did watch a little bit of about last year, although I had a pretty big week at the beginning of the week, so I actually fell asleep watching it last night at 10:15. But I can tell you that I'm already a little scared about our tournament there at the start of next year. I'm hoping we don't have green speeds of 14.
Although I was talking to Jason, Yani's caddie today, and he's from Melbourne, and Royal Melbourne has got a whole summer of hot, dry heat just to make those greens just even firmer than what they already are. I was a little scared going to sleep last night.

Q. Did you have an emergency session with Ian at some point to get started on these swing changes, and at this point in your career do you ever get tired of having to kind of take a whole second half of the season to work on something like that?
KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, it wasn't -- we worked on it in Korea. I think I finally -- Ian tried not to do too much through the majors, but really at the end of the day, that didn't happen because I didn't play as great as I would have liked through that stretch. So when we were in Korea we decided it didn't matter how I played through the rest of the year, that I needed to get going on that. It was almost overwhelming because I got a lot of information in a one-week span, so it took a while for it to all sort out in my head. But yes, I do get tired of doing that.

Q. Was there a swing tendency that you've had before or something new that cropped up?
KARRIE WEBB: A little bit of both. It's probably -- my arm travel is probably something I should have been working on a lot sooner, and it only has to just continually gradually get worse before you realize how far it's gone. And the downward slide move is probably more about 15, 12 years ago. I used to have a big move off the ball so I had to slide through the ball to get back to it. So that was something that's always been there. That and the combination of what was going on, it just wasn't working.

Q. What's your schedule after this?
KARRIE WEBB: I'm done.

Q. For how long?
KARRIE WEBB: Until the beginning of next year, the Australian Open.

Q. So is it important to you to play well to end the season on a good note? Does that actually help it going into the off-season?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, it's always nice to go into the off-season playing well. You know, I wanted to play well; it doesn't matter that I've got a couple months off. You always want to do well, and when you've got a break it's nice to finish on a good note. But for me it's more -- I want to put the clubs up for a couple weeks, few weeks, so it was more about trying to get as far as I can with these changes before I take a break.

Q. What does having the Australian Open as an official event, what does that do for golf in Australia, and what was your reaction to that?
KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, I think it's going to be amazing for women's golf. I think it's just a little kick in the pants that we probably needed down there just to bring some excitement to the tournament. I mean, it's been a great tournament, the Australian Open, for a few years, because we play all the sand belt courses down there, we played Kingston Heath and Commonwealth the last couple years. You know, it's had that feel to it, it's just now adding the LPGA brand to it is -- it's going to create a lot of excitement, and it's also a couple weeks after the Australian Open tennis, which has sort of been squashed right in after that where the Melbourne crowds who have been at the tennis for two weeks haven't come out, but I think the crowds will be great down there, and the LPGA will bring a lot of excitement to it, so I think it'll be a great event.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much for joining us, and best of luck the rest of the week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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