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RICOH WOMEN'S BRITISH OPENSeptember 14, 2012Michelle Wie WestWIRRAL, ENGLAND COLIN CALLANDER:  Ladies and gentlemen, Michelle Wie has been kind enough to come in today to talk about everything that's happened or not happened. Must have been very frustrating for you all today. MICHELLE WIE: I mean, it was a long day for sure and waiting. Came to the course at 5.00am. It was dark at that point and I was walking past the third hole and it was raining sideways at that point. I've never seen conditions like that in my life. Got there, stopped raining but the wind kept blowing and blowing and kept getting worse. It was hard to tell at the first tee because it was sheltered with a tent a little bit. But once we got out there, 11, 12, it was pretty bad. COLIN CALLANDER: Were all the balls actually moving on the greens at that stage? MICHELLE WIE: Oh, yeah, I mean, my ball was barely staying on the tee on 12. I mean, it was about to fall off. It was just like wobbling all over the place. When the gusts come over you, literally, almost fell over a couple of times. I saw Cristie almost fell over on her shot. And especially on the 12th green, the balls were not staying at all. They were rolling, seven, eight feet. COLIN CALLANDER: So it was clearly the correct decision? MICHELLE WIE: I think so. Q. I remember you once saying that Hawai'i was very windy at times, but not as bad as this? MICHELLE WIE: No. I would say windy conditions would be 15 miles an hour, 20 is really bad. The gusts were going up to 35 this morning. That's really, really, really, really windy. Q. Did you think it was playable when you teed off and at what point did you think it should have been stopped? MICHELLE WIE: I think it was a very tough call to make just because, I mean, I thought it was very iffy when I went out. I put a couple balls on the green, on the practise green right before I went out and the balls were not stopping on the practise green. And mind you, that's a very flat surface. But it was very had hard to tell because she have some sheltered areas and you have some very open areas. Starting on the back nine, the first tee box, the 10th tee box was sheltered with a tent, so it was hard to tell. Our rules official came up to us on the first hole and they were like, play may be suspended or may be cancelled today, we are see how conditions are, once we got up to the 12th hole, it was clearly‑‑ it was unplayable. Q. Can you briefly walk us throughthe holes you did play today. MICHELLE WIE: I was on 10 today and I missed a birdie putt for par. And then I got to 11 kind of pulled it a little bit left, and interesting, I had a downhill, side downhill lie with the wind off my back from the rough and I really thought I was going to whiff it because I could not get my balance. The gusts were just blowing me over. But I got it out to the right and made a bogey on that hole; under those conditions, you know, not a bad score. And got to 12, I was on the 12th fairway and we were waiting for quite a while because I mean, none of the balls on the greens were stopping once they were marking it. I think Beau, the rules official, was called over about four or five times, and finally the sixth time, Beatrice decided to go up to the green to really make our point that really it's unplayable right now. Q. Do you have any opinion on what should happen now, three rounds or still play the fourth and play on Monday? MICHELLE WIE: You know, I really have no opinion about that. It's the British Open, I would love to see it played four rounds, whether it goes onto Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever. I would love to stay over here longer. But we'll see how it goes. You have to take it round by round. It's their decision to make and I'm just here to play. Q. Were you getting irritated out there the fact that you are were having to play and that scores were going to be absolutely disastrous? MICHELLE WIE: That's the luck of the draw and unfortunately I was not on the good part of the draw today. But you know, it is what it is. You can get irritated at times. But you know, it was the right call that was made just because it was unfair. Tough conditions, I understand, some draws can get tougher conditions than the other and it can be a couple of strokes difference but this was simply unplayable. I think lucky/unlucky was thrown out the window. This is the fair thing to do. Q. What's your form coming in at the time, and if you had planned to peak for this tournament and win the British Open? MICHELLE WIE: Hopefully it's a good time to peak, that's for sure. I'm just taking it slowly. Especially with conditions like this, it's going to be windy for the rest of the week. And especially on a golf course like this, you have to be patient and if you have opportunities, you have to go grab them. Q. Is this is the first time you've played holes in a tournament that don't count? MICHELLE WIE: I think so. I'm trying to think of another time, but it was cancelled before I went out that day so this is the first time play was suspended not by rain, but by wind, so pretty interesting, for sure. It was pretty cool to be out there today. Q. (Inaudible.) MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, the rules official told us on the first tee. We were fully aware. Q. What were the players' reaction in the players' lounge? MICHELLE WIE: Well, we all agreed that it was unplayable. I mean, we were just, you know, telling stories back and forth about how ridiculous the conditions were that we were playing. It was interesting hearing all the stories for sure. Q. Do you play next week? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, I play next week but I don't have to be there ‑‑ by Thursday. Q. Including stories, what were the best ones you heard? MICHELLE WIE: I mean, the 12th holewas pretty good actually. But some of the stories we heard on the front nine, the scores and whatnot. I was thinking today, you know, under these conditions, breaking 90 would be a good thing. Q. If scores didn't mean anything and you could play in these conditions, would you take the opportunity? MICHELLE WIE: That's a very good question. I don't know. I just may, you know, just to see how it would go. But it was just, it was hard. I think it's one day that's really good to be short, because I felt like a flagpole out there; I felt really tall and like I was going all over the place. Q. When you got to the 12th green, did you find yourself what was in a full‑blown row carrying on? MICHELLE WIE: No, we just wanted to get our opinions heard and we just wanted to get a second opinion. You know it's bad when a rules official gets called to the green six times. You know that something's up. It was good. We got the committee to come and look at it. It's hard because some holes were more sheltered than others and 12 was one of the most open holes, especially where the pin was today. COLIN CALLANDER: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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