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KIA CLASSICMarch 24, 2012Yani TsengCARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome our current leader Yani Tseng into the interview room. Congratulations. Nice round of 69 today. Some little interesting moments at the end of the round for you, including that drive on 18. Can you just take me through the day and some of your thoughts on the round overall? YANI TSENG: Actually on No. 18 that was a pretty lucky shot. I don't know how that happened. It goes for the bridge, and the bridge was like three yards wide. People are telling me, Yani, you just hit a 370 there, so that was probably the longest drive I've ever hit. It was fun. I was very happy because I just got lucky there. To be able to hit it on the green for the second shot. But overall with my round I just wasn't happy. I couldn't believe how much short putt I missed out there. I mean, five or six times, especially on the front nine, four in a row, and I didn't make any putts. But I stayed really patient today. I kept telling myself, it's okay. You just need to keep hitting the shot close to the pin, and one day you will make it. And that's all I kept telling myself like one day, one hole, you've got to have one hole to make it. So with 3‑under and bogey‑free today, it was so‑so. I feel like I could have shot so much better than I did today, so much better than 3‑under. But I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully the putts will drop in because the greens were pretty bumpy playing in the afternoon. But I heard tomorrow's going to be bad weather. So hopefully I stay patient another day and I'm looking forward to it. THE MODERATOR: That putt on 17 that you were talking about the frustration, it looked like you were a little frustrated after that one. Did you have to take a breath? Was it starting to kind of build when you were missing some shorter putts like that? YANI TSENG: Yeah, on 17, I couldn't believe I missed that. I made a good stroke. I see my ball it was like boom, boom, boom, and it jumped to the right. It was just like, what is this happening? I mean, you can see very clear the ball is jumping to the right. It's not like I misread it or something. That's sometimes going to happen like this on this golf course. So I guess the only thing is to stay patient and try to make a good stroke on every putt. THE MODERATOR: You've become pretty accustomed heading into the final round with the lead. Is there any different mentality that you take when you do go into Sunday with a three‑shot lead like you have today? YANI TSENG: No, no, I kind of feel pretty relaxed. I mean, I was pretty happy today. But after I'm going to go putt a little bit and practice a little bit. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. I'll play with Jiyai, maybe. I mean, we're good friends, so I think we're going to have lots of fun on the golf course and try to beat each other. THE MODERATOR: Jiyai actually said how excited she was. She was thinking if she made some birdies down the stretch, she might get to play with you tomorrow. YANI TSENG: I can't remember the last time we played. But in the last three weeks she's always in front of me, or I'm always in front of her. So we're just one time last year we practiced together in Orlando. So I haven't played with her for a long time. I think we're both going to make some birdies out there. Q. You've had two chip‑ins and the drive off the cart. Have you had any other breaks that we haven't seen this week? YANI TSENG: No, probably not. But I haven't missed that many short putts in one day though. I mean, last week I had three in one day, but today I had like four or five. But I just stayed really patient. But I guess I got some good breaks and I got some bad breaks. This is golf. Some things are going to happen, and that's why golf is so much fun. Q. Jiyai mentioned playing with you in Singapore. Does that ring a bell? Did you guys play together there? YANI TSENG: This year? We did? I'm sorry. I must have forgotten. Q. She had a similar series of short putts. She actually missed three short putts right around the turn and then came back and made a couple long birdies. Just sort of talk about mentally how you get over that and then start making putts? YANI TSENG: It's tough because, like I say, you just need to keep telling yourself to be patient. Keep telling yourself this is going to happen. It's going to happen to everybody, not just me. It's going to happen to everybody on these greens. So be patient and try to make sure you go through your routine and do the best you can. If you miss, just smile because it's going to happen. You made it and just comes up a little bit because these greens are just like this. Tomorrow I'm just going to be really patient all day.  But of course I'm still hoping to drop some more putts tomorrow. Q. They're anticipating some bad weather tomorrow. That's why tee times have been moved up. Does that just give you one more thing that you have to think about tomorrow, or is that maybe a good thing for you that you're going to be teeing off early? YANI TSENG: I don't know. I think it's a good thing. You finish early. You're driving back home. I have a house in Beaumont. My sister still lives there, so it's a good way to finish early. I heard the weather's going to be bad, and I love the bad weather. I like the wind and the rain. When we played the British Open, it's always like that. But sometimes you don't expect that the weather is going to be like that here. But last week I had a one‑time experience, so I don't worry about too much. Tomorrow I'll just keep warm. Q. Did you miss four straight short putts on the front? YANI TSENG: Yeah. Q. What were the distances on those, and what were the holes? YANI TSENG: On number 1, I made a good putt. Number 2 I missed a six‑footer. Number 3, I missed a three‑footer. Number 4, I missed a five‑footer, and number 6, I missed a six‑footer. Q. Then the one on 17, I know you were disappointed with that because that's below the hole. YANI TSENG: Yeah, that's about three or four feet. So, yeah, that's about it. Q. What was it like standing in the rough, hitting your third shot on 17, and there's like three dozen coots on the green? It's one of those bizarre scenes because you just don't see it in professional golf. What were you thinking? When you're trying to focus and concentrate on where you want to hit your ball on the green and all you see is birds? YANI TSENG: I know. That was very funny because at the beginning of today I just told my caddie that the ducks might be trained before because they never walk on the green. They only walk on the fairway. Until the 17th hole, I saw like all the birds on the green. I was really surprised. But I was ready to hit, and I see all the birds there and I backed out again. I said, I think I'm going to hit the birds and I don't want that. Is there anyway the birds can go away? And my caddie said, f I run there, the birds are going to run away, but if I come back, they're going to go back on the green again. And my caddie just told me, you won't hit a bird, and I said, okay. Then I didn't make birdie, too. So I hit a good shot, and I didn't hit the birds. I was pretty lucky because all the birds were on the green. But that was a great shot I hit. I was just thinking my yardage and where I'm going to hit it. I wasn't thinking if I'm going to hit anything. Q. The back nine, you didn't hit it very well in spots. You were all over the place, but you saved par. You stayed patient. Was the back nine kind of evidence of how you're playing now? That even with these bad shots you can recover. YANI TSENG: Yeah, I mean, if you're on the green, it's easier to recover. Just trying to make two putts. But like you say, on the back nine, I don't have many chances, many birdie chances. I was kind of hitting all over the place. But I stayed patient. I hit on the green, even if it was ten yards or 15 yards, I still tried to make two putts and just save par for everything. I was probably just trying too hard. On the back nine, I didn't have good yardage on my second shot, so that's why sometimes I was finishing very short or finishing too long. Sometimes you just need a little luck to have a full shot or have an easy shot to hit it. Q. How was playing with Se Ri Pak? YANI TSENG: You know, we were having fun. I had so much fun playing with her because we've been playing many, many times. But I've got to say I was not as nervous as four years ago. So today I had so much fun and we talked some. She's a great person, and she's always very nice. She always gave me some experience playing on the Tour. But like today we didn't talk a lot because on the back nine I was all over the place, so we weren't able to walk together very much. But just having so much fun to play with her. Q. What did you talk about? YANI TSENG: I was asking where is good food around here. Oh, I was saying lots of Asian players‑‑ Asian families live around here, because today there were so many Koreans on the golf course. I felt like I was playing in Korea. So there was a big crowd out there, and that's what we were talking about. We were talking about that she was still living in Palm Springs, and she was training there too.  That kind of stuff. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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