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KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIPApril 3, 2014Nicole CastraleRANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA KELLY THESIER: Good afternoon, welcome to the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Like to welcome our first guest from round one, way to get off to a tough start, Nicole Castrale, shot a 1‑‑ under 71 in the first round. What was working well in your game? NICOLE CASTRALE: I stayed really patient out there. Being from here I think I tend to force it a little bit and always try to play well instead of letting it come to me. I hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, missed a lot of good birdie opportunities on the front nine today. Stayed patient and made a couple on 11 and 12 and just kind of hung in there. Missed a few fairways, but got it back in play and was still able to save par. It's a great golf course. One of the best golf courses we play all year. It's just round one, but it's nice to start under par. Q. You talk about being from here. You literally live just miles down the road, am I correct about that? NICOLE CASTRALE: Yeah, I would say it took us 11 minutes to get here this morning. So definitely nice to sleep in your own bed. Q. When you have a tournament that's that close to home and it's a major championship how much pressure does that add to you? Do you think about it more? Do you want to play better here because of that? NICOLE CASTRALE: I've always wanted to play well here. I've always thought this golf course set up very well for my game. But, again, I always thought I forced it a bit. Really, the logistics, I would say I don't really worry too much about getting people tickets and all that. Luckily, my husband, Craig takes care of that and drops them off at will call and does what he needs to. So it's just good. I have a lot of local support, family support, so it's nice to always be here. Q. How are you feeling? I know you eight months ago underwent hip surgery. You've been back so far this year, you've been playing well. How are you feeling overall? How has that impacted? Is the game different now with having a healthy hip? NICOLE CASTRALE: I would say it's been very different. Good and bad at times. I feel really good considering it was just about seven months ago I really didn't think I'd feel this good at the beginning of the season. I would say I'm probably about 70%, health‑wise, which I feel like I'm about 200% compared to how I was playing last year. I would say things have changed. I now have a right hip that works, so it's nice. I've been able to pick up some speed, which is good, so I'm hitting further off the tee, which is always a good help, which also leads to a little more inconsistency just because I have a little more speed. Sometimes I'm a little more erratic. So I've been trying to work on keeping it more in play. Q. How significant is it that you are able to play in three consecutive weeks at this point in the recovery, if you will? NICOLE CASTRALE: I would say when we sat down when I was about done with rehab, right about the start of the new year, we looked at it and said very unlikely that I would play Phoenix, Kia and here. We thought for sure that I'd be in a lot more pain than I'm in now. That I wouldn't have the endurance. So luckily I had played well enough last year that I was still able to get myself into Thailand and Singapore. So those two were a real test to see how my hip held up, and when I came back from those two events, I felt great. So we said, let's go. Let's play all three. Sitting here right now, it was a good choice. Like I said, I'm not in much pain at all. There might be a slight amount of fatigue. But after everything I went through, those four months of rehab, I'm very pleased to where we're at right now. Q. Surgery was what month, August? NICOLE CASTRALE: September 4th. Q. And you didn't touch a golf club until January? NICOLE CASTRALE: Maybe December 28th. So almost January 1st. No, we wanted to give myself a chance to get my hip to where I wouldn't have to come in and start babying shots. I trained extremely hard in Phoenix where I had last time at Fischer Institute and had a great team behind me. Honestly, after all of this, I feel like I've come back stronger, which I wouldn't have guessed when I had surgery. So, like I said, I feel good, and have a great group of people behind me. I'm just trying to move forward and keep getting better each week. Q. You're kind of the queen of rehab. NICOLE CASTRALE: I know. I think I'd be a physical therapist in my next life. Q. But you're also kind of known to be a little bit hard on yourself on the golf course when you're not doing just what you expect to do. How difficult is it to be kind to yourself and still be competitive? NICOLE CASTRALE: You know, these first four events that I've played, I've had a lot of good things, and I've hit a lot of good shots and saw really signs of playing really well. I've also had the flip side of it of hit some shots and just kind of where did that come from? So we knew that I was going to have to be very patient coming back from this surgery just because I basically have a new hip and it's a whole new dynamic. My golf swing is just different than it's ever been which is a good thing. So patience is definitely, I've been working on it. And coming into a major, that's good. KELLY THESIER: Most people in this room know that you're a mom and you travel a lot. What's that difference meant in your golf career? You've gone through a lot with injuries in your career, but what's being a mom in your career mean now? NICOLE CASTRALE: It's the best thing to be able to go home and she could care a less what I shoot. Whether I play good or bad, she just wants to‑‑ she grabs golf balls out of my bag, and she's always like where did daddy go? So to her, golf is irrelevant. She knows I do it, but to be able to go home and sit on the couch and watch Thomas the Train or Dora The Explorer, that is the best part of the day. KELLY THESIER: For you, it's such a family out here with Craig, your husband being your caddie, and you guys travel with Eleni, how does that help having that family atmosphere? It's different sometimes than some players who can get away at times, but family is always there for you. NICOLE CASTRALE: Family is always there, and I've always grown up in a very tight family. So that's always been very important. You know, it's hard. You can't quite devote as much to golf as maybe you would in the past. Luckily I have a great team around me, so they're always like go do what you need to. But still first and foremost I'm a mom, so there is that time that I want to spend with her. You just have to balance it. Juli Inkster is a perfect example of being able to balance it and still be a Hall of Famer. She's one of my close friends out here. So I've learned a lot from her. You know, we live a pretty great life to be able to go out here and play golf for a living and still have a family on the side. We're pretty fortunate. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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