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HSBC WOMEN'S WORLD MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 22, 2007

Seon Hwa Lee

NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK

DANA GROSS-RHODE: This is your second year on Tour, and currently you are the Rookie of the Year, winning the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year last year, you won the 2006 ShopRite LPGA Classic, and now you've won the HSBC Women's World Match Play and you've qualified for the ADT Championship. While you've won $500,000 here, you also have a chance to earn a million dollars later on down the road. You have a big smile on your face. Can you talk about how you're feeling?
SEON HWA LEE: I mean, I feel really great. This is my first win this year and second win in my career. I feel really great and I really enjoyed match play this week, and I qualified for the ADT. I was really worried about the ADT points before last week, and I won this week, so I don't worry about that anymore. I feel really great.

Q. What were the things you did well this week that led you to victory each step of the way?
SEON HWA LEE: My putter was working really well this week, all week. I missed a couple of fairways, a couple of greens, and then I really -- my putting was really well. I think in match play, putting is really important. My putting was really well this week.

Q. Your victory has further underlined the growing stature of Korean golf; what is the secret of your success, and what do you think is the secret of Korean golf and reaching this level of success?
SEON HWA LEE: A lot of Korean players are playing well on the LPGA Tour. I think the Korean players work really hard and they practice a lot. They have a lot of confidence from their practice.
I mean, that's why the Korean players really play well on the LPGA Tour.

Q. After getting through your first match, 19 holes again D'Alessio, did you feel like you started to gain momentum?
SEON HWA LEE: After the very first match, yeah. The first match was very hard to me because I was 3-down the last four holes. I mean, yeah, that helped a lot because I won the first match and it was really hard and I won. That helps and I had a lot of confidence for the next matches.

Q. Just from coming back?
SEON HWA LEE: Yes.

Q. How important did you think in this match, the last match, to get an early lead to maybe let you control things, how important was that to get ahead of Ai?
SEON HWA LEE: I know that Ai is a really good player and that she has a lot of supporters in Japan.
I think we have a really good friendship. I played with her last year and this is the first time I've played with her this year. But then I really enjoy playing with Ai. I know she's a really good putter and she's going to be tough.
I really tried my best this week.

Q. Your caddie said that you're very focused on the golf course to the point where sometimes he'll try to talk to you to kind of get you to stop thinking about golf; is that a strength of yours, and is that part of your training from growing up?
SEON HWA LEE: No, I think that's -- I mean, that's not a strength.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Have you always played not talking very much?
SEON HWA LEE: I think that's just my personality. He likes to talk a lot because his personality is very different than me. (Laughing).
Yeah, it's just the personality I think.

Q. When different Korean players win on Tour, does that push everybody else to try to win more? Like Se Ri wins last week, you want to win more; Young Kim wins earlier this year and other people want to win more. Does that push you?
SEON HWA LEE: I don't think so. I know the other Korean players really play well, and Se Ri won last week and I've won this week and we have the same sponsors.
I think it's really good for the Korean players, but it's not a push to me. Just everybody plays really well.

Q. This afternoon, you got to 2-up very fast. Did you feel in control after that; that you were very much in control?
SEON HWA LEE: I had played against Mi Hyun Kim this morning, and she is one of the toughest players this week, and she beat a lot of the good players. Yeah, I think that helped a lot.

Q. You played very well in the Lexus Cup last year; is that correct? How much did that experience prepare you for this week in terms of match play?
SEON HWA LEE: Yeah, I played good in the Lexus Cup last year. I won three matches last year, too. I think it helps a lot. It's different format and the last round is single match like this. I played well last year here and then I played well in the Lexus Cup.

Q. Are you at all surprised to have had so much success on this tour so quickly, to win last year and now there's a lot of players, it takes them three, four, five years before they finally pull through?
SEON HWA LEE: Yeah, a little surprised. I won last year and was Rookie of the Year. It was such a great year for me, and now I have won again this year. Yeah, I feel really great and hope I win every year. (Smiling).

Q. Just wondering what you might spend your winnings on?
SEON HWA LEE: I spend money sometimes shopping and sometimes -- actually, I bought a house last year. So sometimes spend to the caddie, sometimes. (Laughter).
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Thank you very much and congratulations.

End of FastScripts

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