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WENDY'S CHAMPIONSHIP FOR CHILDREN

August 25, 2006

Marisa Baena

DUBLIN, OHIO

PAUL ROVNAK: Marisa, great round today, bogey free round, 7 under par. And you're 10 under for the tournament. You're right there in the thick of things going into the weekend. Talk about your day and then we'll take some questions.

MARISA BAENA: It was a really good day. I hit the ball very solid. I only missed one green. And actually, No. 6, and I actually made it from the bunker. So that worked out pretty good.

The greens are very receptive so you can definitely go for the flag. In the morning you can definitely make more putts than the afternoon because they are not as bumpy, but I'm very happy. It was a very good round.

PAUL ROVNAK: We'll take questions.

Q. We heard this yesterday, too, and it seems like it's every year here, the greens are very receptive, you can really go at the flag. Is this a lot like a lot of the courses you play or can you really go at this flag here

MARISA BAENA: I remember maybe of the first years we played here it was extremely dry and the course played so tough. For the last four or five years, it's just been raining. And we come here and they hadn't had rain and the greens are just soft. It's a great golf course. Even if the greens are soft, you really have to be striking your irons to shoot good rounds. But I definitely think it makes a big difference.

Q. So the way the course is set up, probably the people that have won here or the people that play well here are people in control of their iron game?

MARISA BAENA: Absolutely, because the fairways are fairly wide. So I definitely think that whoever is hitting the irons of course, you have to make the putts, but the greens here don't have very big breaks. They are very subtle breaks, right edge, left edge. So you can really be aggressive through your lines. There are a few greens that are kind of laid funny. But besides that, they are just great greens. You can really roll your putts for birdie if you're hitting good irons.

Q. You're 10 under right now. Do you think it will go to 20 under to win?

MARISA BAENA: Well, let's put it this way. I don't see where we're going to be getting water. Are we getting rain?

Q. There is a possibility.

MARISA BAENA: Well, I think it depends on whether we're going to get rain or not. I think if the greens stay receptive, it could be a possibility that 20 under could win the tournament. But if we don't get rain, I don't think so, because the greens are definitely drying out.

Today, in the morning, they played like yesterday afternoon. So I'm assuming that today afternoon will play faster. So as the week goes on, I think the greens are going to become firmer. And I think firmer greens are a little bit more difficult.

Q. Talk about the best part of your game today.

MARISA BAENA: I really think I hit my irons very solid, but I made all the putts. That's what it comes down to. I don't know how many putts I had, but it definitely was very few between the last two days. And I think that's what it comes down to, whoever is making the most putts.

Q. How's your mental confidence right now?

MARISA BAENA: I'm feeling pretty good. I think it's been a tough season for me, trying to get healthy. And it's just taken me a long time. I had some stomach problems. This is kind of the first week that I'm actually feeling good. I think it's more that mentally I'm not as tired fighting something, so I felt really relaxed out there.

Q. I've heard it said I know David Duval once said some players are afraid of going really low because there is a mental thing there; they don't think they can or should or something. Is that something that you see out here? Obviously you don't have too much problem with it.

MARISA BAENA: You know, I think sometimes when you're struggling you can actually do that. You can put a break into things. And unfortunately you're thinking ahead of yourself. And I think the part that becomes difficult is you start guiding shots and guiding putts and not letting it flow and let it go and what happens happens.

I think sometimes when I start going low, I always try to I always just try to stick to the moment. If I make the putt, great; if I don't, I don't. I think that has helped me to get over what you said, because I do believe that some people do that. I think when people get to 4 or 5 under, they think, maybe but I think it all comes to putting. If you're making putts, that should keep you low.

Q. We're trying to remember. Did your team win the national title when you played Ohio State?

MARISA BAENA: I did not play at Ohio State. I played at Arizona.

Q. Did Arizona win the national championship when you played at Ohio State in the finals?

MARISA BAENA: No, we did not. We took second or third individually, and I think we finished second as a team. We should have won, but we didn't.

Q. When you talk about your health problems causing you to be tired, is that just stress from dealing with them?

MARISA BAENA: No, I think I had something, a bug or something I picked up in December. I've been sick and I think eventually it just got really bad around Tennessee. And maybe a month and a half ago I got some antibiotics. It's been hard. I lost a few pounds. I played through a lot of pain for a while, couldn't eat very much. But it seems like I always got sick when I was even par. (Inaudible.) It just seems like I always got sick on the golf course. I couldn't figure out what it was. Some people mentioned to me it was stress. They were trying to figure it out.

I took some antibiotics and that seems to help a little bit. Right now I'm on a very strict diet and I'm trying to figure out what things I'm eating that are not agreeing with me. I'm hoping in the next eight weeks that my new diet is going to help me.

Q. You just lost strength because of your

MARISA BAENA: Yes.

Q. It was something intestinal?

MARISA BAENA: Yes. I think I was having problems with my colon.

Q. Are you the type of player that works out a lot away from the course and it did cost you you weren't able to work out as much to keep up your stamina?

MARISA BAENA: The thing about this year, it's been a very interesting year. I started working out because I wanted to do rehab with my back. If I would have been in the shape I was in last year when I got sick, I definitely could not have played. I have no doubt about it.

When I got sick in April, about April, I was as strong as I've ever been physically, that even if I lost weight, and even though I was sick, I was able to play. I didn't lose any distance, but I did have to stop working out, I'm like, how am I supposed to do sit ups with a tummy ache. I can't do that. Actually, I was throwing up and pulled a muscle in my rib cage that is still healing.

So things just went really bad for me for a while. But now I've figured it out and I'm still working, but maybe more legs and arms and staying a little bit away from the core because that muscle is still sore. But I'm eating again, which I'm very happy.

Q. You got the bug in December, but you didn't get sick until April?

MARISA BAENA: Well, I was still sick in December and I got some treatment. I did the treatment for two months and then I ran out of treatment when I was in the States because I was in Colombia. And it took me another month to realize I was really sick. I knew something was wrong. I wasn't sleeping good. I was working out really hard. I was doing a lot of things that I normally can do, which was working out. I was putting stress on my body, I wasn't eating well and wasn't sleeping.

It was a combination of, like you said, being stressed out and it took me a long time to recover because my body was just stressed out, not just because I was sick in my stomach but all the things I did before that. So it was just a combination. It took me a month and a half to realize that. Then I started throwing up and got sick.

A lot times what I ate, it wasn't the right choices and I didn't know. So that took me another month and a half to realize that my diet was really causing the problem. A lot of people said eat milk products, eat a lot more milk, and that made me a lot more sick. So things were just a little bit difficult for me.

Q. (No microphone) Ã¢ï¿½Â¦for about how long?

MARISA BAENA: Well, I finally got it under control about a month ago. So when I went to the British Open and I went to Evian, I was definitely healthier. I took a lot of weeks off. I didn't play two weeks before the British Open and Evian. So I've been taking weeks off to get healthy and work out and take it easy, because like I said, I think my body was a little too stressed.

Q. This is your first week back?

MARISA BAENA: Yes.

Q. Are you laying off of the Frosties?

MARISA BAENA: No Frosties. Everybody is sitting next to me with a Frosty. I'm like, "Don't look." (Laughter.)

Q. Can you give any specifics about the diet?

MARISA BAENA: Well, bread, pasta, eggs, chicken, milk products.

Q. Can't have or can?

MARISA BAENA: Cannot.

Q. What's left?

MARISA BAENA: Exactly. And cooked vegetables, only cooked vegetables. So no salad either.

Q. Beef is okay?

MARISA BAENA: Beef, pork.

Q. Seafood?

MARISA BAENA: A lot of seafood. But in eight weeks you start introducing all this food and eventually you can tell which food is making you sick.

Q. What's your best guess? What do you think it is?

MARISA BAENA: I know milk. That made a big difference with me. But besides that, I don't know. I'm waiting. We'll see.

Q. Did you ever have, before this, did you ever have problems with food in your life?

MARISA BAENA: I have.

Q. You've had a sensitive stomach all your life?

MARISA BAENA: Very bad. This is the second time I've taken antibiotics in a year and a half, which is not good because it kills everything. It's frustrating. I have a very upset stomach from the whole thing. If I go to the extreme, then hopefully I'll learn better.

PAUL ROVNAK: Marisa, take us over your scorecard today. You started on the back. Start with the birdie on 11.

MARISA BAENA: I hit a bad drive, chipped out, hit it about 12 feet, made that.

PAUL ROVNAK: What did you hit for your second shot?

MARISA BAENA: For my third shot?

PAUL ROVNAK: Third shot, yes.

MARISA BAENA: I hit a wedge in.

PAUL ROVNAK: 12.

MARISA BAENA: I hit another wedge.

PAUL ROVNAK: To how close?

MARISA BAENA: About the same, 12 feet.

PAUL ROVNAK: 16, the par 4.

MARISA BAENA: I hit a pitching wedge to about maybe same length, 12 feet, made that.

PAUL ROVNAK: 18.

MARISA BAENA: I hit a 6 iron on 18, and I hit it to about 10 feet.

PAUL ROVNAK: Eagle on 4.

MARISA BAENA: I hit a 4 iron, and I hit it to about 15 feet.

PAUL ROVNAK: Birdie on 6, the par 3.

MARISA BAENA: I lit it right into the bunker and I holed it.

PAUL ROVNAK: What did you hit off the tee?

MARISA BAENA: I hit a 5 iron.

PAUL ROVNAK: And sand wedge out of the bunker.

MARISA BAENA: Yes.

Q. (No microphone.)

MARISA BAENA: I short sided myself, so I had very little green to work with. It was five paces from the flag to the right edge and then to the bunker, so maybe eight yards.

End of FastScripts.

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