WENDY'S CHAMPIONSHIP FOR CHILDREN

August 2, 2002

Michele Vineratos

MODERATOR: Let's go your score card first. Start with No. 4.

MICHELE VINIERATOS: 4, lob wedge. I'm not going to remember how close.

MODERATOR: Just guess.

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I'd say four, five feet.

MODERATOR: That's good enough.

MICHELE VINIERATOS: 5, sand wedge. That was one foot.

MODERATOR: The par 3?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Next birdie was 9.

MODERATOR: But the bogey.

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Bogey, okay. I hit 5-iron right of the hole and just putted it right on past the hole. It's really fast there.

MODERATOR: What was the putt coming back?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: The putt coming back was probably 12 feet.

MODERATOR: No. 9.

MICHELE VINIERATOS: No. 9, that was about 15 feet. I just had a chip.

MODERATOR: 10.

MICHELE VINIERATOS: 10, 8-iron, three feet.

13, lob wedge, six feet.

14, wedge, eight feet.

15, 5-iron, and that was probably 20, 25 feet.

MODERATOR: Then 18.

MICHELE VINIERATOS: 18 I 3-putted. Last putt was probably two and a half, three feet.

MODERATOR: Do you want to tell us how you felt this morning when you started? Were you ready to go?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Yeah. You know, I was looking forward to today. Today is my birthday. Kind of happy starting out. Just started hitting fairways, hitting greens. I hit it well. Things started going well. Putter was rolling well. Birdies started falling.

Q. Was there a particular point in the round where you thought, "I'm not going to shoot 72, I'm going to go lower than that"?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: No. I try to play one shot at a time, make as many birdies as I can.

Q. On No. 6, where you said you putted it past the hole, were you on the fringe on your first putt?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I was on the fringe.

Q. About how far?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Long and right, and probably three feet out on the fringe, three feet off the green.

Q. (Inaudible)?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: 21 feet. I proceeded to hit it about 12 by (laughter).

Q. (Inaudible)?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I've been working very hard this year. I started out with a new pro in February, Craig Shankland. He has helped me just tremendously with my swing, my confidence. He's just been phenomenal. So, yeah, I think maybe I am ready for a breakthrough. I've worked very, very hard. It's showing. My hard work is showing.

Q. What was the strongest part of your game today?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Driving and putting.

Q. We came into this week looking at the yardage on this course, it's about 300 yards longer than New Albany was last year, and we thought it might require the women to hit some longer clubs. It looks from your score card today, seems like it was playing pretty short.

MICHELE VINIERATOS: The fairways were running a little bit today. I was hitting my driver really solid. You know, I hit lob wedges and sand wedges into the par 5. You know, some holes are playing short and some are long.

Q. When you come into a field like this this week, there's some of the top players here, but a lot more of them who aren't. Do you look at that as having a better opportunity than another? Does it open the field up for possibly more winners?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: This is only my third event of the year. I don't really look at it that way. If I played in here week in and week out, I probably would. But I just looked at this as a great opportunity to come out and play well, post a good score and see what happens at the end of the week.

Q. How are you doing on the Futures Tour this week?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I'm sixth on the Money List out there. I'm playing very well.

Q. Is that the best you've been on that tour since you've been out there?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: This late in the season, with three exempt cards at stake, yes.

Q. Also you mentioned, is it Craig Shankland?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Correct.

Q. Where is he from?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: He's over in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Q. What's a good week for you this weekend?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: That's a good question. You know, I don't -- I try not to get ahead of myself. A good week for me would be to keep doing what I'm doing, add up my shots at the end of the week, and see where I end up. If I do that, I've done the best that I can. I'll just see where that takes me.

Q. You've been a pro I think for about maybe 10 or 11 years.

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Correct.

Q. Is it tough to stay out here when it seems like year in and year out it's a struggle to get on the LPGA Tour?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Sometimes it's tough. It was tough after '97. I had my conditional card that year. I kind of, you know, was deciding, maybe I should find something else to do. But I really felt like I belonged out here. You know, for whatever reason, I hadn't gotten the break necessary to be out here full-time. Then I had a few injuries. I wasn't willing to quit amidst injuries. I dedicated myself this year - rededicated myself - found myself a new pro, and here we are.

Q. What did you say that he's done for you? Swing, mental, everything?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Yeah, he's helped me with my swing, and he's just -- he's helped me gain a lot of confidence. It's not like he's really into being a real big mental coach. That's not him. He has definitely helped my confidence.

Q. How so?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: He's shown me that I am a good player, I can compete out here, I do have a good golf swing, keep plugging away, keep working hard. He says, "Keep working hard, your work will show."

Q. What were the injuries you mentioned?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I've had some wrist injuries, heel spurs. Nothing big, but nagging enough injures where I couldn't really practice. I could hit my 30 golf balls in the morning, maybe 30 after I'm done. I just couldn't spend the time hitting golf balls that I needed, wedges and everything else. Chipping and putting wasn't a problem, but the actual grinding it out and beating balls, I just couldn't do.

Q. I read where you won on the Futures Tour. Have you ever led after a round out here on the LPGA?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: No.

Q. You had a good Women's Open?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I did have a good Women's Open. That was my third one. I made the cut. That was a lot of fun. It's a lot like today. The scores weren't quite as good, but it was the same type of feeling.

Q. We were asking some of the players yesterday what they thought you needed to play well on this course, whose game it might suit. Did you get a feeling out there today that it suited your game for any particular reason?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I think that it suits my game because there are opportunities to hit the wedges close. The greens are somewhat undulated. You've got to think yourself around the greens. That helps me.

Q. Wedge is your best club?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I work hard on it. It's a good club for me. But, you know, I put in the work to make sure I get myself to the right number so that I have the club I like in my hand.

Q. Did you play in New Albany at all the last three years?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: No.

Q. Are you of German extraction?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: My father was in the military. I was there two or three months.

Q. Then you moved to Florida?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Well, I think they maybe went to Colorado Springs so he could finish out his time and then we moved to Florida.

Q. (Inaudible)?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: He played some. He passed away in 1990. Not a great golfer. Pretty good athlete. He could go out and shoot 90 or something playing two or three times a year.

Q. You pretty much lived your whole life in Florida, grew up there, stayed there?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Correct, lived my whole life in Florida.

Q. (Inaudible)?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Gator. University of Florida.

Q. Is that close to Daytona?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: It's northwest of Orlando. Halfway between Daytona and Orlando. I-4 to LPGA International.

Q. Anything in particular that attracted you to him?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Some other players had been working with him. I was thinking about a change in coaches. I hadn't been working with anybody regularly, so I talked to those players. They said, "Craig is great. He will definitely help you. You should go see him."

"Okay, I'll go see him."

It was great from the first lesson.

Q. Who were those players that recommended him?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: Becky Iverson, Marilyn Lovander.

Q. This is a touchy question to ask. Once somebody gets into their 30s, they haven't won... Have you set any kind of a timeline of where you want to be, what you want to do, or do you take it as it comes?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I'm taking it as it comes. I feel like if I were to stop improving, I wasn't playing well, not shooting some decent numbers, I think at my age I would probably start to say, "Okay, well, you tried, you had fun, go away." But I feel like I just continue to improve. I'd just like to get my exempt card and play out here week after week.

Q. For a while coming in, you might have been up by four strokes. Are you surprised it was like you and nobody for a few strokes?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I didn't look at any leaderboard, so I didn't know.

Q. You think this course is going to give up maybe more 67s or better than that today?

MICHELE VINIERATOS: I think you'll see a leader besides myself by the end of the day.

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