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GINN CLUBS & RESORTS OPEN

April 27, 2006

Laura Diaz

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

PAM WARNER: Laura shot 67, currently tied for second. Just want to talk about your day, coming back from maternity leave, and just talk about that.

LAURA DIAZ: I've been basically off since almost after Solheim I'd say. I injured myself with a few tournaments to go due to my pregnancy. So I feel like I've been gone for a year. But this is a great day today and I'm working my way back into learning how to deal with having a family out here and managing everything. So it was a good day. It's my birthday, and my first under par round of the year. (Applause). So it's pretty exciting for me.

Q. 22, right?

LAURA DIAZ: Yes, 22.

PAM WARNER: Let's go over your score card.

LAURA DIAZ: I started on 10 and I had 233 yards to the pin, and I hit my 3 wood about two feet short of the green. And I chose to putt and I putted it to about six inches.

Birdied 11. I had 116 yards to the flag and I hit 54 degree wedge to about four feet maybe oh, okay, it's coming back to me now, to about 20 feet right of the flag, and I made the putt.

Birdie on 14. I had 137 yards to the pin and I hit it to three feet with a 9 iron.

15, I had 103 yards to the pin. I hit my I think we were into the wind. It's uphill, and I hit a little pitching wedge, which I normally hit about 125 yards. And I hit it close again. I don't remember anything to be honest with you. (Laughter).

I remember 18 making bogey. I had 166 yards and I hit a 5 iron. I didn't hit it very well, but I was on the green and I made a really good first putt. I probably had 60 feet and I had two feet left and I missed it. I don't know what happened there. That was very upsetting.

On 1, I had 144 yards to the pin. I hit pitching wedge because it was dead downwind to about three feet.

I hit the flagstick on 2 even though I didn't make birdie there.

I had about 20 yards from the green on 3 and I hit the flagstick again. That I had about a foot putt for tap in.

And I just made pars the rest of the time.

I got it up and down on the par 3 5, I believe, out of the bunker. I made about a 4 footer.

I think the back nine, my back nine which is the front nine played a lot harder because it was really windy out there and the greens were starting to dry up a little bit. On the front nine, it was still moist from the rain, the greens were holding really nicely, but as the wind picked up in the afternoon on my back nine, I thought it played a little more difficult.

Q. Between the golf skills, physical conditioning and learning the new time demands of being a mom, which has kicked in the slowest or been the hardest to adjust to?

LAURA DIAZ: I got right back into working out right away, so I think my body was definitely adjusting quicker. But my mental side of it wasn't coming along so quickly, trying to manage being a mom I think is the hardest part . In my mind, being okay with leaving him during the day even though I've been leaving him with my mom, I still feel guilty I think. (Baby begins to cry).

Q. How do you spell that? (Laughter.) We normally only hear that much whining on the PGA TOUR. (Laughter)

LAURA DIAZ: I think that's the hardest part mentally, thinking he's in good hands; he's not going to miss you; he doesn't realize that you're gone. And I think last week was the first week that I actually was able to go through a full routine not feeling bad.

And I didn't make the cut last week, but I felt like I was getting back in the groove. I'm the type of person that needs to put in a lot of time to be okay with going home and I wasn't doing that before. Cooper was in the hospital during Nabisco, I went in Wednesday night and I was just out there, playing. I didn't warm up, I took 30 minutes to warm up, where I normally take an hour and ten minutes. I had not gotten back into my routine, and I feel like, now I'm back in my routine. So that's the hardest part being away from him. That was a long answer.

Q. I imagine you probably have a whole new respect for the moms that have been doing this for years and years, Juli Inkster has a whole herd of kids and Carin Koch has a couple.

LAURA DIAZ: Juli has two. And Juli is a great friend of mine and she's been always inspirational for me. But in this time, she's really helped to keep me on line, because she knows it's hard, and she knows how hard I am on myself. She was the same way on herself. And so she really just gives me a lot of comfort in the times when I'm struggling because she knows how bad I want to do well, and she remembers going through it.

I feel really lucky that I have someone like Juli that I can go to that I can talk about how I'm feeling and what I'm going through. She really has given me some great advice. She was the first person today when we got done to give me a big hug and a "great playing" and gave me a high five before we went out to say, "come on, let's have a good day." She's been a great friend, and it's great because she knows exactly what I'm going through. I mean, having had two kids, her first child at the same age, and, you know trying to manage it. She had her mother in law out with her; same type of scenario.

Q. From the perspective of being a new mom, could you give us your thoughts on what the Dowd family is going through here?

LAURA DIAZ: Oh, gosh. No, I can't imagine. I'm sure that the parents are just so thrilled for their daughter. Being a daughter, I can't imagine going through what Dakoda is going through right now. My mom, she's one of my best friends, and I can't imagine having even having to think about her having any type of terminal illness. It freaks me out just the thought of it.

Dakoda played in front of me today, and it's just a great reminder that all we do is play a game. You know, they are dealing with real life issues and we're out there trying to get a white ball in the hole. So it kind of makes you think that a bogey is not that bad. I really feel for them and I'm so proud of Dakoda. I don't know her, I introduced myself to her today when we got done, and she's the cutest little girl. The first thing she said to me was, "You're so pretty." I was like, okay, you need some glasses. (Laughter) Yeah, seriously, we're going to be good friends.

I think it's a great story, and I wish her all the best and I hope she goes out there tomorrow and has another great day like she did today.

Q. Is your plan to travel as a family this year to all of the events and will you play a full schedule?

LAURA DIAZ: Full schedule. In fact, I'm going to play the next six in a row, I think, seven in a row. My mother this is my mother's last week as our full time in any. My husband's cousin is coming out to nanny for the next ten weeks and my mom is coming back. But Kevin, my husband, is caddying for me for an indefinite amount of time, as long as he likes it, I guess. Yeah, to have Cooper right there with us all the time is our plan. Maybe not in Mexico, he might not be going there.

Q. What was the date of birth and was it pretty stress free as far as deliveries go or were there any fireworks and histrionics with that?

LAURA DIAZ: The date of birth is January 16th, and it's my father's birthday.

It was relatively stress free I guess. I did it with no drugs. I went in at seven in the morning and Cooper came into this world at 5:10, after two straight hours of pushing. So other than that, it was uneventful.

Q. Why no drugs?

LAURA DIAZ: Really, I was scared of the epidural. I would do it again because I plan to did it again with my second one if we have a second one. Having no problem getting up right after, I felt great after it was all said and done, and I've been told that sometimes with an epidural you don't feel all that great when it's over with.

But really, I was just scared of getting the epidural. That was the main reason I didn't do it. While I was going through it, I was kind of reconsidering. (Laughter).

But I had a lot of support in that room. I had not only my husband, but my mother and my father were in there as well, my 13 year old niece and my aunt, my mother's sister. Funny enough, one of the ways my mother thought was going to be helpful to get me through was to say, "You're in the lead after nine holes, you've got nine holes to play, come on, make some birdies."

And I'm like, "No golf right now, okay. Please, no golf."

Q. Bad analogy.

LAURA DIAZ: So golf came into the delivery room even though I didn't really think it was going to.

Q. Born in Jacksonville?

LAURA DIAZ: Jacksonville Beach, actually, is where he was born.

End of FastScripts.

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