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LPGA CORNING CLASSIC

May 26, 2006

Vicki Goetze-Ackerman

CORNING, NEW YORK

PAM WARNER: Vicki, thanks for coming in and joining us today. You're in as the leader right now. Just talk about your round today and where you're at.

VICKI GOETZE-ACKERMAN: Well, I shot 4-under. It was kind of a relatively steady round, nothing too exciting. I felt pretty comfortable, not as comfortable as yesterday with my ball-striking, so I was fighting that just a little out there, but not hitting any swirly shots at all.

I hit a lot of greens, hit 13 greens and took advantage of the par 5s on the front, which is great. You've got to do that. The front, you've got to make some birdies, because the back is pretty difficult to go at. And I snuck in one birdie on the back. That's pretty much the gist of it. I can tell you what I hit.

PAM WARNER: Let's go over your scorecard.

VICKI GOETZE-ACKERMAN: 15, I hit three-quarter 9-iron and I hit it to about six feet, and I made that.

And then No. 2, I hit it just short of the green, but I was in the rough and I chipped it by probably eight feet and made birdie.

Then No. 5, I hit in two, and I 2-putted.

And then 8, I hit a three-quarter 8-iron to within a foot.

PAM WARNER: What was the 2-putt on 5? What was your first putt?

VICKI GOETZE-ACKERMAN: It was probably 25 feet. And I did hit 4-wood in.

PAM WARNER: We'll take questions.

Q. You always seem to be on the leaderboard at this tournament. Is there something about this course that you like? What is it about Corning, you seem to flourish here?

VICKI GOETZE-ACKERMAN: I don't know. I do really like the golf course. I felt very comfortable on it. It's a fun golf course. I've played it well and I've played it poorly. I've done it both out here. I mean, I felt going into this week that my game was really coming around and it just wasn't quite getting it done. And I felt, well, if there was any week that could spark it to get it back to where I want it to be is here, because at least I've played well here and had had success.

I was pretty excited for this point of the schedule to come, and hopefully I'll keep it going. The crowds are great. It's funny because you see the same people every year and it's so nice. I don't know if it's a comfort level of some sort, but whatever it is I guess I'll keep being here every year.

Q. How important, given the time off and the way it has been going and so forth, how important was it to back up yesterday's round with another good one?

VICKI GOETZE-ACKERMAN: Very good. I shot 68 in Phoenix and proceeded to miss the cut. I guess I kind of expected to not do that, at least. I didn't know what I would do today, but not do that. Because I felt I was playing a lot better, just not scoring. So I think it's definitely a confidence booster.

I mean any time you hit good shots and you see some results actually paying off with all the work you've done, it's nice, when you can build on some confidence, because there haven't been a lot of great things that have happened this year to feel all right about myself, but I have been working it, trying to stay as positive as I can, and we'll see what happens out here.

Q. With a 75 or something, is it a little easier to deal with when you go home to the baby?

VICKI GOETZE-ACKERMAN: You would think, but...

Q. Maybe not 75?

VICKI GOETZE-ACKERMAN: Well, I thought my patience with my golf would be a lot higher after having the baby, but my theory is I have so much patience with Jake that I lose it on the golf course. But it does keep it in perspective, and I do have my priorities. And I think ultimately it's going to help me in the long run because I have a tendency to overkill and overpractice and wear myself out, whereas I don't have time to do that now, which was bad in the beginning because I sure needed the time. I didn't realize how rusty I would be coming back out on tour.

Now that I'm feeling more comfortable, I don't need to hit balls for three hours and chip and putt for another three hours. I need to rest and spend time with him.

Q. How difficult has it been? Is it more difficult than you expected it would be?

VICKI GOETZE-ACKERMAN: Well, the golf, I didn't expect to play as poorly, to be honest with you. I didn't expect to be as nervous when I started the season. I didn't expect my short game to be so pathetic. There was a lot of things that I didn't expect. I felt like the beginning -- you know, Jake, I have to say I'm really fortunate with the child that I have. He's really easy going. He's not a high maintenance baby. I've never had another child, but from what I gather, I'm pretty lucky. But I think I just always felt I wasn't giving him enough time.

And then I've had numerous talks with Juli Inkster, and she kind of put it all in perspective. Granted we're playing X amount of weeks in the year, and maybe on a given day you don't get to spend the time you want, but then you have how many weeks we're not playing and you have all the time in the world with him. So I try to think of it as quality rather than quantity. And once I got that into perspective, as well as trying to be on our board and not feeling like I'm running like a chick with my head cut off, that I started feeling much better about things.

Q. How much time did you take off?

VICKI GOETZE-ACKERMAN: Well, I stopped playing in the middle of June, and we didn't tee it up until the middle of February. When I got to the beginning of July, I still casually played. You know, I'll keep practicing, I can work on things with my swing. Well, my belly got so big and I pulled a muscle in my belly that they made me stop playing golf. So I didn't hit a shot until Thanksgiving.

Q. Is this the first time since you started golfing that you went eight months without playing?

VICKI GOETZE-ACKERMAN: It was frightening. I thought all the bad things that were in my swing would go away with that much time, but they're still there. I was like, gosh, they didn't go away. Actually, I have to say it was really scary hitting a shot because I felt I didn't know what I was doing. And I had a C-section, so I was so afraid something bad was going to happen with that, because I had some complications after having my child. I was like, gosh, I hope I don't hurt myself again.

But it ended up, once I took the first swing and I thought, okay, I can move, I'm all right, then it was fine.

PAM WARNER: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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