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WEGMANS LPGA CHAMPIONSHIPJune 6, 2013Paige MacKenziePITTSFORD, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: Okay. I'd like to welcome Paige Mackenzie into the interview room. Not exactly what you were hoping to be doing at this time of the day sitting in the interview room. PAIGE MACKENZIE: No. There's not much else I can do, so happy to be here. THE MODERATOR: Just explain what it's like this morning when you arrive early for an early tee time, get yourself kind of prepped to play and then have to deal with the rain delays we've had and knowing the first round has to be moved all the way until tomorrow. PAIGE MACKENZIE: Right. Well, my tee time was supposed to be 7:37, so I did the usual. I have to get up two hours ahead, wake up at 5:30, go to the golf course, eat my breakfast. I was running about five minutes behind going into the locker room, making my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the day, and that's when I was literally about to walk out the door and Wendy Ward comes in grabs my shoulders and goes "we're not playing" and turns me around, and we obviously had the delay and have continued to have the delay. THE MODERATOR: We just had Brittany Lang in here, and we were asking her how she killed the time, and she said she was talking a lot about her wedding with people who were in the locker room. What did you guys do to kind of kill time during the delay this morning? PAIGE MACKENZIE: Fortunately there's a few computers in there, and I have not made any travel arrangements for the next, I don't know, the rest of the year. So I booked some flights and hotels. Literally I didn't have a flight to Arkansas, which is in two weeks. THE MODERATOR: So at least you were able to catch up on a little bit of‑‑ PAIGE MACKENZIE: Yeah. It was tough I needed to do anyway. So I got it done. I mean I now have the whole afternoon free because I've done what I needed to do already. THE MODERATOR: When you look at the weather issues that the LPGA has had over the past couple weeks, we had a lot of rain in the Bahamas that caused big changes to that event to be made, last week there were some high winds, what's it kind of been like for players to have to kind of mentally go through this challenge each week where Mother Nature hasn't exactly been as kind to the tour as players might like? PAIGE MACKENZIE: Well, unfortunately, I mean it's just part of the game, and anybody that's played, whether it's professional golf, amateur golf, college golf, we go through events like this, and I learned very quickly my rookie season, when the event got completely called in Arkansas and only 18 holes were played in the four‑day span, that you just kind of have to be willing to go with the flow, and there's going to be surprises like this. We're a pretty flexible tour, and the players are pretty accommodating to situations like this. I think the hardest part is just on the rookies, you know, that want to go play, and you know, it's the first major here for them. THE MODERATOR: We've been hearing from players all week about how difficult this golf course is playing due to the thicker rough. What does this weather, now having this much rain, how is it going to change the way the course plays over the next few days? PAIGE MACKENZIE: Honestly, actually, other than the fact the rain is going to make the rough a bit heavier potentially, it's actually a little bit better because it's easier to hit fairways when they don't bounce out. So the firmer the fairways are, the more likely they're going to run through into the rough. So in reality you almost have a better chance of hitting the fairways the softer it is. Obviously it's going to be make it longer. But no, the rough this year in my opinion is the longest that I've ever seen it. It's always healthy, but it's like Sunday rough on Tuesday, so it'll be interesting not having cut it what it's going to look like on Sunday with this kind of moisture and if it's going to continue to grow the next four days. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Paige. Q. You mentioned it makes maybe the fairways easier to hit. Does it make the greens more receptive too? PAIGE MACKENZIE: Certainly. Absolutely. Absolutely. Q. Just to follow up on that in terms of scoring, there's been some low scores here ‑‑ PAIGE MACKENZIE: You know, it's so hard to predict what kind of scores this course is going to produce, mostly because, A, it has a lot to do if there's wind. But also it rewards really great play. So if you're hitting the ball well, you can score well. If you're not, there's going to be some huge scores, because it's extremely penalizing if you're missing fairways and missing greens. So it's kind of hard. You know, the one year that Cristie Kerr won by I don't know how many, like a dozen it rewards good play, and she was hitting the ball amazing and making putts. So it has the potential to produce low scores, but you just have to be on your game every single shot because it does not allow any mistakes at all. Q. So you have the rest of the day to relax, but the forecast doesn't exactly look great for the rest of the week. Just kind of ‑‑ what will it take mentally to survive this week of delays and then potential marathon days after that? PAIGE MACKENZIE: No, that's a good question, because most of us are in our fourth week in a row, and it was going to be kind of a week of survival anyway. I remember talking to friends and family at home saying you can't even talk about when I'm coming home because I really, really need to focus on the next four days, because I don't even want to hear about what my dog is doing at home at all because I really am tired. I'm worn down and I want to go home, but I need to focus and stay in the present on what I'm doing here. So on top of that, now we're going to be dealing with this kind of weather and potentially long days. You're right, it's going to be a real drain mentally to stay focused. Q. And I don't know if they'd go to Tuesday or not, but how many ‑‑ do you feel like this championship needs to be 72 holes? Would 54 holes be okay for a major? Like what do players think? PAIGE MACKENZIE: In my opinion we don't want to be unreasonable on travel schedules. I mean bottom line is this is our seventh out of eighth week in a row. We're going to have less than a week home, two more including another major. Not that they're going to consider our fatigue and travel schedule, but I don't think it'll go to Tuesday. And I think that's okay. I think if we can get 54 holes in, I think that's fine, personally. THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for Paige? Well, enjoy the rest of your afternoon. PAIGE MACKENZIE: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Hopefully you can find some fun things to do to keep you occupied and hopefully we will see you in here tomorrow after some great golf. PAIGE MACKENZIE: Yeah. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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