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ADT CHAMPIONSHIP

November 21, 2004

Cristie Kerr

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA

DANA VON LOUDA: You gave it a good run today in regulation, one playoff hole. You said you hit your second shot on 18 well during the playoff but you had a downhill lie.

CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, I was on a pretty severe downhill lie. I hit a perfect club in, and on those kind of lies, the ball can really get away from you, fading or slicing. And I knew the lie was such, and I was trying to hit it at the back left bunker behind the green, and I knew the ball would come off the slope, let the contour of the green take it down to the hole. I hit it solid, but it shot off way to the right and never carried the other margin of the hazard.

It was kind of one of those things, I had some putts coming in that basically caught the lips, and you kind of wonder if it's fated to maybe not be your tournament. I played about as hard as I could. And I played three bogey free rounds this week, and I'm pretty proud of that.

DANA VON LOUDA: Let's go over your score card real quick.

CRISTIE KERR: Second hole, I hit a sand wedge and made about a 12 footer.

The next hole I hit a sand wedge to about six feet, made that.

9, I hit, again, a sand wedge and made about an eight footer for birdie.

On 15, I almost holed out. I hit lob wedge to about four or five inches.

And then a putt on 16, hit a good putt, but it broke off a little too much.

And the putt on 17 caught the low lip and didn't go in.

18 played tough all week, and I'm still looking at bogey free because it was in regulation. Unfortunately, not the playoff. But I played as well as I have all year. I played better this week than I have all year. It's kind of odd, because we were both, Annika and I were both five shots clear of the rest of the field. And that's happened to me a couple of times this year. I have to hang in there, keep my head up and it will be my time.

Q. (No microphone.)

CRISTIE KERR: A solid wood, a really solid sliced one.

Q. (No microphone?)

CRISTIE KERR: The yardage when I dropped it? The first shot I had 188 to the hole, a little into the wind. And actually, I thought it was going to be perfect, because when I hit it, I hit it really solid so I'm thinking it's going to start online, but it started way off to the right. On severe lies sometimes it's hard to predict how the ball is going to come off.

I played my heart out and I'm a little disappointed, but not a whole lot, because I did all I could do and I was faced with a really, really tough shot in the playoff. It wasn't meant to be.

Q. (No microphone.)

CRISTIE KERR: I had 108 to the pin. We've been hitting 5 irons, 4 irons and 7 woods all week, and then to have a wedge, I didn't think the ball was going to spin back like that. I almost chipped in. I almost made her make her putt.

Q. The tee shot the second time around 18, too far to the left

CRISTIE KERR: I'm not as long as Annika is. I've got to go out more to the left. I might have only pulled it seven or eight yards, but I hit it really solid. Where it hit, I thought it would come off the hill a little bit more, but it was soft on the hill and it stayed on the downslope. It's really unfortunate, but that's the way it goes in playoffs, when you only have 1 or 2 or 3, maybe 7 holes to play.

Q. Did it make you want it more?

CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, I think for sure. But I said to myself, I've been here, I've been in a playoff and I've won. I was not intimidated at all, but there was so much adrenaline. The whole round for me, my heart rate was so up I had to eat constantly to replace what I was losing and burning calories. When I finished in regulation, some of that adrenaline kind of went out and I kind of came back to normal. I wonder if that had anything to do with, you know, the way I played on the playoff hole.

You just can't predict it. Annika had just come off the green, I had to run into the clubhouse to use the bathroom. I think it was to her advantage that she just finished and then she went right back out. Maybe that had something to do with it. We'll never know.

Q. On the first shot we couldn't see it, did it actually hit inside the has order?

CRISTIE KERR: No, I think it was slicing too much that it never crossed the other side of the margin of the hazard. Apparently I mean, I kind of looked away, and Annika said it crossed right here. She's very honorable, and I wasn't going to question it, because I knew it was slicing a lot. But I tried to give myself a good number for my fourth shot, try to hole it out. When it was in the air I thought it was perfect, but it came up short. I'm not using to hitting wedges in.

Q. The disappointment, I know you had your family here and a lot of people here from the Miami area, trying to win in front of a lot of fans, talk about that.

CRISTIE KERR: Maybe in the very back of my mind I thought about that. I think they are pretty pleased with my performance, and I was trying to my heart out. It's disappointing but, when you're dealing with Annika Sorenstam, I mean, you can't say if she wasn't in the field, but I mean, I beat the rest of the field by five shots. I have to be pretty proud of that.

Q. Can you talk about, you almost holed that last chip. Talk about regrouping, getting it together and still trying to putt pressure on her?

CRISTIE KERR: I knew her par putt wasn't going to be a bargain. I was on the same line and I misread it, so there was a pretty good chance she was going to misread it too, which in this case she did. I just tried to chip it in, trying to make her make her putt, and I almost did. Again, not fated to be my tournament.

Q. You said maybe it wasn't your fate to win this tournament. Were you fighting any of those thoughts during the round?

CRISTIE KERR: No, not really. I think that's something you look back on. I had a lot of good putts out there. Even the putt on 12 I thought I made. I hit a good putt on 11, as well. It didn't break the way I thought it was going to break. I'm getting stronger and stronger coming down the stretch, and I'm happy with the improvement I'm seeing in myself and the way I'm holding up under pressure.

I had a huge adrenaline drop when I went into the playoff. It's better to be more on edge, you know. You kind of expected it would go into a playoff, but there's not much you can do when your hormones drastically drop like that. I was definitely still a little bit on edge, but nothing like during the regulation.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about your expectations coming into this year before you win three times. It's the conclusion of one year. Can you talk about your thoughts about next year too?

CRISTIE KERR: I'm just really happy to see that I was able to have a breakout year. Everybody said, "This is your year," but you still have to go out and do it. I think I'm capable of doing this all the time, every year. All I'm concerned with is getting better, getting into contention more, winning tournaments.

I don't think people realize how hard it is to do what Annika has done the last six years. She's won almost 50 times in the last six years. Tiger's record would probably stand up to that, but I don't think he's won that many times in the last six years. She's been a dominating force on our Tour and I just don't think I think she's the most underappreciated athlete that we have right now.

I aspire to have the kind of success that she's had, but those are just goals. You have to work for them. You have to get there slowly. The press will say, "Now we expect Cristie to win three or four times a year," but as long as I improvement, I don't care what the result is. It will take care of itself.

End of FastScripts.

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