KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP

March 28, 2004

Michelle Wie West

THE MODERATOR: Michelle, great playing today. Thanks for joining us.

MICHELLE WIE: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on a great week. We have got a lot of things to write about here. Can you just tell us how you feel after four days and start there.

MICHELLE WIE: Well, I kind of feel drained right now. I'm just so tired. It's just been four long, hot days. And today was I think more tiring because every putt that I had to make was a par putt and that's a lot harder mentally than a birdie putt. And I think I did good. I was tired but I just made a promise to myself today even if nothing works out that I'm still going to fight until the end. And I did. And it was really tough.

THE MODERATOR: Start with some questions.

Q. Is there any disappointment? Or are you still happy with your development from last year?

MICHELLE WIE: Well I did achieve my goal of getting Top 5. But I'm a little bit disappointed because I wanted to shoot 8 under par and that was my goal. And I just shot 7 under. But I'm still happy. I shot a lot better than last year.

Q. Talk about your putting a little bit more. Like you said, you made every par putt you had to, but you didn't seem to have the speed on some of the birdie putts especially on the front nine. Was it just a mindset of being not too aggressive or?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, I thought the greens were going to be a little bit faster today. Since it was Sunday. I just thought yesterday my birdie putts were too firm so they lipped out so today I was going to try to hit it the right speed and get it to drop and that ended up playing too conservatively.

Q. (Inaudible.)

MICHELLE WIE: I think my game's pretty good right now. I just need to be more consistent. I was consistent, but like during my round I think that I need I don't know how to explain it. It's just that I don't know. It's just hard to explain.

Q. Is that part of the mentally exhausting part of being in the grind on the hunt on the last day. What do you take away from that kind of experience?

MICHELLE WIE: I think I learned a lot from today. I think that my mindset was pretty good today. It was just that I wasn't thinking about other people's scores I was just thinking about let's just shoot 70 and see what happens. And it was just that nothing was really working today. Nothing, really. I didn't really give myself a chance to go under par, more under par. I had chances to go over par, but that was it.

Q. You say your goal was to shoot 8 under and finish in the Top 5. When will you start thinking about coming here to win?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, I did think about winning this year and I thought 8 under would win. But the LPGA every year they get a lot better. The scores are a lot better. I think that I need to shoot more under par. I think about next year I think 12 under is going to win maybe.

Q. Now the media and the public, we expect from you something spectacular and winning. How are you going to prepare yourself for the times like that?

MICHELLE WIE: People's expectations really don't really hit me as much. I have really high expectations for myself. And what I want to do is most important for me, not what other people want me to do.

Q. Was there a key moment on the front nine where you felt like that you might have lost that momentum? Was it maybe that sand wedge into the 9th green or any other short putts? Did you feel discouraged at any point there?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, I think it was the second hole. I think that was the turning point for me. I think if I just hit it to the middle of the fairway it would have been like an easy birdie hole. But even if I did go in the rough I was just thinking just lay up to the left side of the fairway, and then just you have enough room to make a birdie. And I did. It went all as planned, but my 60 wedge that I hit in there, it just didn't go as far as I wanted it to. So I think from there it kind of changed from making birdie to keep on making pars. It was a little bit shaky from there.

Q. How about that fairway where it seemed like only you were only a pace or two on your drive.

MICHELLE WIE: What?

Q. How far did you miss that fairway with your drive on No. 2?

MICHELLE WIE: It was only about a couple of yards. Not really big or anything.

Q. How bad was the lie?

MICHELLE WIE: It was pretty bad. It was like an uphill lie and I just couldn't hit a fairway wood or a long iron out of there. It was just too hard.

Q. After being in contention the last few years on the back nine what do you feel like you need to do to jump in that lake?

MICHELLE WIE: What I need to do? I think the game has to go to another level. It's one process to get there, but it's a whole different story to get from there to the top. I think right now I'm easily able to get there and into the position, but I need to work on my game a little bit harder to jump to the next level of getting better and then to winning.

Q. Do you feel like you need more practice winning, maybe playing probably a lower level of competition and dominating before you come out here on this TOUR?

MICHELLE WIE: Winning junior tournaments and winning LPGA tournaments are a totally different story. Every one was like you should win all your age groups before you come here, but I already did that. I just want to make it clear that I won everything in my age group before I jumped here. I mean, it was like for my age group, my winning percentage was a hundred percent. And then even like when I get there, it's just that people expect you to win so even if you win you gain nothing and if you lose then it becomes like a whole big story or issue like I was breaking apart or anything. And when I was 12 I had the chance to rise to another level to play on the LPGA event. And I just couldn't let that go. And ones you get up there it's kind of hard to come back down.

Q. How do you choose the outfit for the day? Do you first pick up your earrings or how is that done?

MICHELLE WIE: Well, for this whole week my mom just like planned out my outfit. And I was going to go with a black belt but it was too boring, you know and plus it was going to be really hot. So I just picked the pink belt and then for my earrings, I mean it's a black earring with like silver stripes on it. And these are my mom's when she was young, so I just picked these because white and black, you know, kind of I don't know.

Q. What is your schedule for the next week? Straight back to school tomorrow?

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, unfortunately I'm going to school tomorrow and then on Tuesday I go to school and then it's back to my normal life. But I have a week off. So I'm not going to play golf for the whole next week. I think me and my friends are going to go to the movies or something and just like hang out. It's going to be fun.

THE MODERATOR: Anybody else? Questions for Michelle?

Q. (Inaudible.)

MICHELLE WIE: The longest putt I made was like 10 feet and the shortest I made was six inches.

Q. (Inaudible.)

MICHELLE WIE: Yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Go over your birdie and bogeys real quick.

MICHELLE WIE: No. 1 I hit a pretty good drive and I hit 52 and I had about a nine foot for birdie.

Number 10 I made the bogey. I just like pulled that driver left and then I was so grateful that I didn't go OB. And I just, I don't know what happened in that bunker shot. I just hit it so bad. Then I hit like a 52 and I tried to bump and run it up there. And I had about a 10 footer for par and then I missed that.

Then No. 11 I hit a great drive just like yesterday. It didn't go as far, but it was okay. And I tried to hit a 5 iron, I didn't want to hit a 4 iron in there because it would be too low, but I think I should have hit a 4 iron and try to roll it and I tried to hit it on the high side and I was a little bit short. And I hit a 52 like bump and run it. And I had about six feet for birdie.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thanks.

End of FastScripts.