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PURE SILK-BAHAMAS LPGA CLASSICJanuary 25, 2014Lizette SalasPARADISE ISLAND, THE BAHAMAS THE MODERATOR: Here we are with Lizette Salas. Great round today. Actually Choi just made birdie, so she's at 15‑under. You finished 14‑under. You're in a great position for tomorrow. Can you talk a little bit about how you feel headed into tomorrow? LIZETTE SALAS: I feel great. I've been bogey‑free the last two days, and just feeling great on the greens, visualizing a lot, and the fact that I've been feeling a little under the weather kind of just makes my mind blank and just focus on targets and just having fun. I'd rather be playing than lying in bed and feeling sorry for myself. I was just feeling really great out there and having my caddie with me, too, just making everything simple and fun. 7‑under to start the year is a great score for me. THE MODERATOR: You said you were feeling great out there. Physically you're feeling great? LIZETTE SALAS: Yeah, like 75 percent physically great, and mentally I was feeling awesome. I was feeling like myself, and I was working really hard during the off‑season with my coach. Seeing results this quickly, I've been feeling really good about it. THE MODERATOR: And you did battle the flu bug yesterday. LIZETTE SALAS: Yeah. Q. Pulling a Michael Jordan action, really focusing do you feel? LIZETTE SALAS: Someone sent me that video, too, the Michael Jordan‑‑ THE MODERATOR: The flu game? LIZETTE SALAS: Yeah, the flu game. THE MODERATOR: You talked a little bit about that, it does make you focus, feeling under the weather like that. LIZETTE SALAS: Yeah, you just focus on swinging freely and not really focusing on mechanics, on trying to be perfect. So yesterday on the range I was just trying to loosen up as much as I could, and when I got on the first hole, I was like, let's just try to have as much fun as I can, and birdied the first three holes. I'm just really trying to have as much fun as I can and smile a lot, and even though I might not feel 100 percent, hopefully my game can make up for that. THE MODERATOR: You rested last night? LIZETTE SALAS: Oh, yeah, I was in bed. Everyone was at the beach party, and I was just saying I had my own party in my hotel room. You know, you just kind of have to roll with the punches. I have my mom here, so she took great care of me yesterday, and we've been helping each other out. She was feeling under the weather, as well. It's a team effort. The trainers here have been helping me out. I felt great today, a lot better than yesterday. THE MODERATOR: More of the same tonight, rest and‑‑ LIZETTE SALAS: Yeah, a lot of rest, a lot of hydration and drink lots of liquids. I was catching up on my Spanish soap operas last night, so maybe that helped, I don't know. THE MODERATOR: Tomorrow you're in a position to win your first Tour event. How are the nerves right now? Are you feeling good? LIZETTE SALAS: You know, I felt a little nerves coming down the stretch, but that's normal. A win is always something on my mind, and it's been a goal of mine since last year, and I came close in Hawai'i and been in contention a couple times. It's something I've worked on for so long, but now it's my third season on the LPGA and got some experience under my belt, and being on the Solheim Cup, working on those nerves. So I feel like I've gone through experiences where it can help me tomorrow. Tomorrow is just another day, and I'm going to try and go as play as best I can, and tomorrow is purple day, so hopefully that'll help, too. THE MODERATOR: You mentioned Hawai'i. You love island golf apparently. LIZETTE SALAS: I guess so. THE MODERATOR: Can you talk about that? Is there something specific? LIZETTE SALAS: You know, just a lot of imagination. You can't fight this wind, and you just have to play with it. You can't always take fire at the pin. You just have to pick a palm tree or pick a bunker that you have to aim at and just let the wind feed it to the hole. I really like that, and I like Bermuda greens. I don't know, it seems to fit my game, so we'll see what happens tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing, and if I hit a bad shot, well, you've got to go with it. If I hit a good one, then same deal. THE MODERATOR: After you made the turn, can you talk a little bit about the back nine? You birdied three of the first four holes to jump into the lead. Talk about your play on the back nine. LIZETTE SALAS: Yeah. You know, those putts were over 10 feet, so it wasn't like I was knocking it close to the pin. I was just giving myself good chances for birdie. I hit a great shot on 13, the par‑4, and almost made birdie on 14, as well. So I was just giving myself good rolls for birdie. The birdie on 15 was just‑‑ gave me that extra momentum to keep going. 16 is always just a tough pin, so par is a great score on that hole. For the first time I hit a really bad shot on 17, so luckily I got up‑and‑down. But yeah, once I hit the turn, I was just on it and wanted to make as many birdies as I could. You can't always play perfect, and that's the thing about this game. I was just trying to play it as best I could coming down the stretch. Q. Five different players had a share of the lead today. Could you sense out there that a lot was happening? LIZETTE SALAS: To be honest, I wasn't really looking at the leaderboard up until I got to the 14th hole. Yesterday you saw a lot of deep rounds going on, and Saturday is called moving day for a reason, so I was kind of suspecting someone was going to‑‑ it's going to be tight up on the leaderboard. To see scores like this today, I'm not at all surprised. I'm just lucky to be one of those leaders up on the leaderboard. Q. Being in the last group one shot back, would you prefer conditions like today where there would be a lot of birdies out there or would you prefer it to be tougher? LIZETTE SALAS: I'd rather it be tougher to be honest. That's where the best players come out is you've got to hit some tough shots and you've got to get up‑and‑down from some really tough situations. Yeah, it was beautiful today, but you never know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, so you've just got to be ready for whatever comes at you. I'd like to see it gust a little bit just to make things a little more interesting. Q. As a player does a packed leaderboard generate excitement? Does that have an effect on you? LIZETTE SALAS: Not really. You know a lot of these players. You're good friends with them, and so whichever pairing you're with, you know you're just going to have a good time. It's also great for fans to have such great leaders, being more involved with the fans. Everyone loves watching us, so that makes it a lot better for us, too. Q. Does it make a difference for you mentally going into second position one shot behind NaYeon rather than having a share of the lead? LIZETTE SALAS: Well, to be‑‑ I don't know if I have been this close after the third round. One shot does make a difference in my mind. Regardless if I was co‑leading or one shot back, my goal for tomorrow is just to play the best I can and to play the golf that I know how to play, and come tomorrow if someone else is holding that trophy or if I'm holding it, I'm going to react the same way or I'm going to go about it the same way as if it was a different tournament. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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