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THE SOLHEIM CUP

September 12, 2003

Cristie Kerr

Kelli Kuehne

MALMO, SWEDEN

NEAL REID: Congratulations on the win this afternoon. You were the first group out. After a tough morning for the U.S. team, I was wondering if you could just talk about your mentality going out there and how you feel about the match. Start with you, Cristie and we'll come back to Kelli.

CRISTIE KERR: I played against Laura Davies before, and we had Catriona Matthew with us this time. They're both very strong players and Laura tends to make a lot of birdies, so I knew that we had to come out strong from the beginning and kind of be unrelenting, if you will. Just never really -- getting two balls on the fairway, two balls on the green. We did that a lot. And I think it kept the pressure on. We gave ourselves chances at birdies for a lot of the holes because we did that. We kept the ball in play. I think that's very important in the fourball is to get the ball in play. We did that. Kelli made three or four really clutch putts to keep us in the match and to keep our momentum going. And that was very important.

KELLI KUEHNE: For me this morning Cristie and I came out to watch the foursome matches early. We walked the first couple of holes together watching -- we watched Meg and Rosie. Then we were just kind of following a couple of groups just to kind of get the momentum and kind of let the tone be set. And I kind of wanted to walk through some of the holes so I knew what I was getting into being here in Sweden. Boomer and I basically ham and egged it. I've known Cristie since I was 10 years old. We're very familiar with each other's games. Whenever I had a putt for birdie, Cristie was typically up there to give me par. She was already in the hole. So I had basically a free run at it. That always makes it a lot easier to make the putts when you don't have to worry about the 2, 3, 4, and 5 footer coming back. So I think that was something we did very well. We were able to keep the momentum going and came out with the win.

Q. Can both of you talk about how you feel going into tomorrow. The score is a lot closer now.

CRISTIE KERR: I think the whole team feels very positive going into tomorrow. Obviously we rallied and came back strong in the afternoon. We all have things we need to work on in our games, but that's really not the point of the team competition. We've all played really well as the team today. Going forward tomorrow we'll see if we can be that much better.

KELLI KUEHNE: Tomorrow is basically a whole new day. We finished up strongly this afternoon. The European team always tends to be better in the foursome matches than the U.S. team has always fared. We can't really explain why, but the European team has always dominated the foursome matches. We made a good rally this afternoon, come out tomorrow, the slate is clean and you start all over. Hopefully we can pick up tomorrow where we left off tonight.

Q. Are there enough toilets out there?

CRISTIE KERR: No, there weren't.

KELLI KUEHNE: I had to go for about three holes.

CRISTIE KERR: I did, too. We were on the same schedule.

KELLI KUEHNE: But I made it.

Q. On that note, is there a sense of relief after what happened, to get the first point under your belt after what happened at Interlachen last year?

KELLI KUEHNE: I'm really excited. Unfortunately I can't paint a picture for how my record was 0 and 4 last year because I played 32 of the best holes in my career and I lost both matches 3 and 2. Or was that 30 holes? Higher math. I played exceptionally well the first day, the foursome match with Meg Mallon, and I played very well with Juli Inkster. Match play is a bit harsh in the sense that there's one winner typically. So it's, I was kind of on the wrong side of it last year. I played well. I played exceptionally well Friday. I didn't play my best on Saturday and Sunday, but unfortunately that's the thing that everyone tends to harp on. And that's okay. I accept that. I am so excited to be able to put points on the board for the U.S. team. It's an honor to be here. I'm thrilled that my captain had the trust and the faith in me to come back and try again and give me the opportunity.

Q. Juli and Beth were saying they were pleased to be playing together for the first time when in the past they've been paired with younger players. You obviously felt very comfortable with playing with each other?

KELLI KUEHNE: Like I said I met Boomer when I was 10 years old. I'm one of the few who can get away with calling her that.

Q. What did you call her?

KELLI KUEHNE: Boomer.

Q. Why Boomer?

KELLI KUEHNE: Because when she was little she used to boom it, and her dad used to call her boom it.

CRISTIE KERR: Good answer.

KELLI KUEHNE: She wasn't so little when she was little. I was this little peanut and she was always a big girl.

CRISTIE KERR: I was bigger.

KELLI KUEHNE: I know she's lost about 50 pounds several years ago. I'm one of the few who can get away with still calling her Boomer because it's just something that stuck. The first tournament I ever played internationally I played against Cristie.

CRISTIE KERR: That extra weight tends to get the ball out there a little farther.

KELLI KUEHNE: I've called her Boomer my whole life. I've known her since I was 10. She was in my wedding. I'm going to be in her wedding. We've been friends for life. We played a lot of practice rounds together. We hang out on the LPGA tour together. We both felt very comfortable with playing together.

Q. Do you have a name for Kelli we should know?

CRISTIE KERR: Punky, P U N K Y. Because she's got spunk, and she's -- there's nothing else to say.

Q. Cristie, is it fair to say at the side of the 17th green there when you two hugged, you seemed more excited for her than for yourself?

CRISTIE KERR: I was. Because I know coming out of last year's matches that she played and she didn't walk away with any points. And I played really well and only walked away with one point last year. When I got maybe a little down on myself -- maybe I got a little bit down on myself today, but she picked me right up. And I kept in mind that I really wanted her to get a full point. I wanted her to know what that felt like. And I played -- maybe I dug down deep when I wasn't swinging as well as I could have and hit the shots that I needed to. I wanted her to come away with a point today more for her than myself to be quite unselfish, if that's the word. Of course I wanted to win a point, but I really wanted her to get one.

Q. Was playing in this match a breeze compared to losing all the weight you lost and the effort that that took?

CRISTIE KERR: I wouldn't call it that. But losing weight is -- you've got to do it for years if you're going to do it the right way for the amount of weight that I had lost. It's a totally different issue and I don't think comparable.

Q. Cristie, the last time you were sitting here you talked about the ping pong table that you wanted for the team room. Did you get one?

CRISTIE KERR: No. I know the Europeans have one.

KELLI KUEHNE: We can hear it when we're in the lobby. We don't have one.

CRISTIE KERR: What do I think about that? Quite honestly I don't think we even have time to play ping pong this week, so it's all right.

Q. Have you talked to Trip since the Walker Cup? If so, did he give you any advice or motivation?

KELLI KUEHNE: I haven't talked to him. My mom was in Wales last week with Trip.

Q. Yorkshire?

KELLI KUEHNE: Sorry. Long week. My mom was with Trip last week. We kind of traded messages and my mom was kind of the messenger between the two. She stayed over. She flew to Copenhagen and came to watch me this week. You can't miss her. She's got the red, white and blue hair.

End of FastScripts.

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