MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY AIG

June 5, 2003

Joanne Mills

Q. How you feel to finish with a 68 today?

JOANNE MILLS: Well, it's probably one of the best rounds I have played in about two months. You know, it's a round that I felt really comfortable at the start of the day with. You know, I had one goal and that was just to hit it on the fairway off the tee and hit it on the green, stay out of the rough at all costs, and I managed to do that and I felt really comfortable, hit a lot of shots just toward the middle of the greens, and I rolled a couple of good putts in when I needed to.

I had probably three greens that I hit it in really close, to about 5, 6, 7, 8 feet, and I missed three of those, so it could have been even better than I had, but just keep it out of the rough, and I did that, really.

Q. Ties your low round of the year, I think.

JOANNE MILLS: Yeah.

Q. And only one off your LPGA lowest round, 67.

JOANNE MILLS: Yep.

Q. So, you must feel pretty good after the first day, especially in these conditions.

JOANNE MILLS: Oh, absolutely. And, you know, it's pretty tough. The course being so wet as it is, you really had to make sure you just clipped the ball off the ground as best you could without hitting it fat, which was going to always be the key not to do today.

You know, I am pretty happy with the way I played today, I just played one shot at a time and let it all happen, really. And you knew the scores were going to be pretty -- on the high side, par was my going to be my goal and if I finished better than that, that would be good, and I was just pleased that I managed to hold it together and only dropped one shot on the day.

Q. Do you feel quite comfortable over here now? This is your third year?

JOANNE MILLS: Second.

Q. Is it much easier than last year?

JOANNE MILLS: Much easier than my rookie year. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I came over last year and I took a fair while to sort of settle in, and the better part of my golf was played later in the year when I was getting used to the tour over here, and it's a lot different than playing in Europe, and -- as you would know. And it was great, just -- everyone is really friendly and I am really enjoying it, settling in and getting to know everybody a lot better now, and my golf is starting to improve now.

Q. Do you enjoy it more?

JOANNE MILLS: It's different. Yeah, I enjoy both tours. They have both got pros and cons, but I am still really enjoying playing over here.

Q. The times you did end up in the rough, how much success did you have chopping it out of there?

JOANNE MILLS: I missed two fairways and I made pars on both of them so I was really happy with that.

Q. Did you hit just punch shots back in the fairway or did you actually try to advance the ball?

JOANNE MILLS: One was on the 15th I missed the fairway to the right, and I didn't have a brilliant lie, but I had I think about 154 to the front so I just tried to get out a 6-iron as far down as I could, and I ended up being about 10 yards short of the green and made a good pitch to about 3 feet.

And the other one was on the 9th, my last hole, and I was lucky enough that it popped up and was sitting up well enough so I could get a fairway wood over it so I could get over the ditch, so that was pretty good to only miss the two fairways that I did.

Q. I guess with the rough being as nasty as it is and the course being as wet as it was, it kind of put a premium on course management, I would imagine.

JOANNE MILLS: Absolutely, that's what my goal was today, to make sure I got on the fairway and got it on the green. And a couple of times I hit a 3-wood off the tee just to make sure I got it on the fairway, especially on a couple par 5's where you really don't need a driver, you can't get enough run out to get it there, course management was good, and played to the green a few times just to get it on the green because you don't want to be playing with the rough around the greens at all, too tough to get a good chip out.

Q. Are you kind of a long hitter?

JOANNE MILLS: I am just average.

Q. Average? Okay. You were not getting a lot of roll out there today we know.

JOANNE MILLS: No, I think a few shots I sucked it back a foot or it bounced forward a foot.

Q. Do you expect the conditions to be much different tomorrow in terms of the golf course?

JOANNE MILLS: I would say fairly similar. I mean, I am out in the first group, I think at 7:30 tomorrow. I am expecting it to probably be about the same, so just hopefully we don't get any rain, and the wind has come up now the last nine holes we played, so hopefully it might dry out a little bit between now and the morning, but we really could do with some maybe helicopters or something like that flying over the course to dry it out a bit.

Q. As well as you played today, are you glad that you get back on the course early tomorrow?

JOANNE MILLS: Yeah, I think so. Normally I don't tend to favor the late start than early the next day, because you don't get too much of a rest, especially if there is a delay, like there is today, but I think now that I have got a bit of a momentum going from my round today. I will be back here in about 11 hours' time, so it will be, hopefully, still going tomorrow morning.

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