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FRANKLIN AMERICAN MORTGAGE CHAMPIONSHIP


May 6, 2006


Cristie Kerr


FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE

PAUL ROVNAK: Cristie, thanks for coming in and joining us. Another great round. 66, 14 under. You should have a good shot at this thing tomorrow. Talk about your day and we'll take questions.

CRISTIE KERR: I came off the golf course yesterday a little confused because I hit it so bad and shot 3 under, so I must have been doing a lot of things well. I talked to my coach and worked on some things tonight and this morning, and didn't hit it perfectly out there, but coming in I hit it a lot better and got a lot of confidence with the putter going.

Almost made two shots from the fairway on 14 and 17, both of them coming unbelievably close because I asked the crowd. I just played really, really well and played with a lot of confidence. I feel like I'll have a good shot at it tomorrow.

PAUL ROVNAK: We'll take questions.

Q. You had 32 on the back. It seems you were attacking the par 5s. Obviously that's where a lot of the scoring is going to come from with the conditions like this, I'm assuming?

CRISTIE KERR: Yes. You can only really get to two of the Par 5s, but I was playing very well, very solidly today. I'm good with my routine and hitting the shots the distance and the direction I was looking at. Yesterday I hit it awful. And I had the putter working.

On 17, with my putt, it bounced right off the starter or I probably would have made that also. I got hot coming in. There is a lot of golf left tomorrow.

Q. Talk about the conditions of the course today. Is it drying out? What do you expect tomorrow if there's rain in the forecast.

CRISTIE KERR: The greens have gotten in considerably better shape. They are still soft and receptive in spots. We only had one shot on the par 3, fifth hole today which released out a couple of yards. But they are a lot better, but still with all the players on them, like on 17 and 11 there are some greens that have a lot of heel prints and spike marks and stuff.

But the course has held extremely well in the conditions, given how much rain they've gotten in the last week. The fairways are still very, very soft. We've had to play with clean and place the last three days and probably will play again tomorrow. I'm not 100 percent certain of that, but there is a ton of mud on the ball. And they did the right thing by doing that, because it's the same for everybody, as long as they start it that way.

Q. With Angela staying strong today and putting up the round she did today, how important was it for you to finish strong and post that good number coming in?

CRISTIE KERR: It was very important. You don't want to be more than a couple of shots out on average to have a chance to win the tournament. If you're a couple back, 3, 4, even 5, if you get beyond that, it's difficult even playing a good round to make up shots. But it's not easy holding the lead.

I've won six tournaments and all in different ways, and it's not easy playing with the lead. I'm going to sleep well tonight and come out and, you know, if I'm firing on all cylinders, I'll be firing at the pin.

Q. I know every player wants to lead going into each round, but

CRISTIE KERR: Statistically it depends on the player, but statistically it's not always an advantage.

Q. Do you kind of like that lurking kind of role, okay, I can attack, maybe not all eyes are on me right now? Do you like that? Does it make you more aggressive? Is that conducive to your game?

CRISTIE KERR: There is a lot of strategy either way. You want to be leading, obviously, because you're ahead of the field. But being a couple of shots back is not bad either. It just depends on you know, how well I play dictates the situation. And that's what I'm aiming for tomorrow, is to come out hopefully hitting the ball well, controlling the distance on my irons and hitting the ball well and making some putts. It's all about momentum in these things. And I can really only control what I'm going to do and maybe that would be good enough.

Q. You mentioned that you talked to your coach and worked on a couple of things. Was it more your woods and irons?

CRISTIE KERR: No, just my setup got a little off with my ball striking yesterday. Setup, more than anything else, it affects your golf swing, so I just worked on my setup.

Q. Who is your coach?

CRISTIE KERR: Bryan Lebedevitch, a very long name. He's the Director of Schools for the Jim McLean Golf School at PGA West.

End of FastScripts.

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