WEETABIX WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 9, 2002

Mhairi McKay

LAURA NEAL: How this round compare to yesterday?

MHAIRI McKAY: It didn't really look good when I looked outside the window this morning, I knew it was going to be a tough day. It was raining first thing and well, when it's cold as well in the morning, it's hard to get warmed up. The ball is not going to fly as far. The wind was a little -- prevailing wind and that makes the front nine play really long and there were some tough shots out there. I am delighted with even par, I think.

LAURA NEAL: You are very pleased to come out even?

MHAIRI McKAY: Yes, absolutely.

Q. What kind of mindset do you need to play well here? Just kind of minimize your mistakes?

MHAIRI McKAY: Absolutely minimize the mistakes. Par is a good score and you just can't -- I think you have to play a lot more conservatively, play for the middle of the greens. You can't really attack flags. You just have to be really patient and to stay focused. I think it's easy just to try to force something to happen, but you can't do that. That's when the course will beat you.

Q. What kind of lie did you have on that chip on 17?

MHAIRI McKAY: The ball was sitting below my feet and I was just trying to chip the top of the hole there and (inaudible) down to the hole, came out with a shot and sent it across the other side of the green, then I misjudged the my first putt; didn't hit a very good second putt. Bogey.

Q. Can you assess your position heading into the weekend?

MHAIRI McKAY: I am absolutely thrilled. 4-under is a great. Really depends what happens with the wind this afternoon but certainly this morning's conditions were very hard. At the moment the wind isn't as strong as when we first started this morning - 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 were playing very, very long; going in with woods into a lot of those greens and long irons. So hopefully 4-under is going to be fairly close to contention. We have just have to wait and see what the next few hours will bring. The course isn't playing easy at the moment.

Q. Compared to how you felt before the tournament started, do you think now you can kind of relax and enjoy the weekend?

MHAIRI McKAY: I am certainly more relaxed about the weekend and yeah, definitely just trying to enjoy this weekend and hopefully be playing the way I played today and yesterday.

Q. What irons do you carry?

MHAIRI McKAY: 3 woods, driver, 5-wood, 3 iron to lob wedge.

Q. Do you think carrying woods is a disadvantage to some of these players?

MHAIRI McKAY: I think if the wind were what it was this morning, then I would consider a disadvantage because you really have to control your ball flight out there.

Q. Were you surprised to see Annika struggling like she was?

MHAIRI McKAY: Just got unlucky in some nasty lies lie; not necessarily far off the fairway and just in some unlucky positions, like on number 5, and I think sometimes, you know, it's hard to pick up the ground especially in the conditions that we played in.

Q. What did you mean, that it would be hard to pick up ground if you get behind?

MHAIRI McKAY: It's hard to pick up the shots if you drop a couple. If you try to force it, I think sometimes you end up dropping more shots. Just the weather that we had this morning, birdies were going to be really difficult to find. Especially had to wait until it turned back downwind, 12 through 18.

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