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SBS OPEN AT TURTLE BAY

February 11, 2009

Morgan Pressel

KAHUKU, HAWAII

MIKE SCANLAN: Morgan, welcome to the SBS Open here at Turtle Bay. If you would, just talk a bit about how excited you are to be back, what kind of things you did in the off season, how you're feeling.
MORGAN PRESSEL: It's always nice to come to Hawaii, it's always nice to start a season here, especially my personal favorite, the island Kapalua Resorts. And the last trip I had here was pretty successful, so it's nice to return. But I had a good off season. It always seems like it's too short, but I had a lot of preparations for the year, a lot of physical training, worked a lot with my coach, and really tried to make sure my swing is much better this year. That's my goal.
MIKE SCANLAN: Questions for Morgan?

Q. What kicked in at Kapalua last year?
MORGAN PRESSEL: Sometimes it just works. Sometimes you just get lucky. I hadn't played very well leading up to it, and quite honestly, didn't play very well after that. But for one week at the end of the year it all came together. I was like, wow, I hit the ball great and made the shots that I needed to at the right time.
It's all about timing, but it proves to me, well, even if I do have a few flaws on some other week, I can go out there and win, so it's definitely a confidence booster in that sense. It's a mental game.

Q. What are you looking forward to most this year?
MORGAN PRESSEL: I'm just looking forward to hopefully playing well. That's what I'm out here to do. I'm out here to win. I'm out here to compete. I want to compete more often.
I missed quite a few cuts last year and had quite a few disappointments. You're never going to eliminate disappointments, but hopefully minimize them. That's a big goal, and I want to win. So I'm not going to put a number, I'm not going to put a limit or set the bar too high either way, but I'm out here grinding every week.
MIKE SCANLAN: You talk about, I know last year you were trying to add some distance. How is that going and is that something you worked on in the off season as well?
MORGAN PRESSEL: It's definitely something I worked on in the off season. I had a couple of training routines that I've been integrating into my playing, working on more powerful positions in my swing as well as I spend quite a bit of time with Callaway on equipment in Carlsbad and even just at home, but we'll see. (Laughs). Certainly my irons came to be just a little bit stronger, a little bit more powerful, hitting it more consistently solid, and then hopefully from there it'll grow.

Q. What would you miss most if this event did not return to Turtle Bay?
MORGAN PRESSEL: It's Hawaii. It's always nice to come here to this event. They treat us really well here at Turtle Bay. It's a beautiful event right on the North Shore here, and certainly look forward to coming out here, and going to Kapalua next week for vacation, so I wouldn't be able to tie it in as nicely. And it certainly would be disappointing.

Q. There's a great rookie class this year. Would you consider yourself one of the veterans?
MORGAN PRESSEL: I know. I kind of had a realization the other day that, wow, this is my fourth trip to Turtle Bay, and think back to my rookie year when I left all my shirts at home (laughs) and think about how far I've come since then.
It is a great rookie class, a lot of good young players, a lot of good young American players, and I think that'll be great for the Tour. It'll be another great story line, and we'll definitely see how it plays out throughout the year.
MIKE SCANLAN: Does the fact this is a Solheim Cup year change any of your goals?
MORGAN PRESSEL: No. You gotta play well, and if you play well, you make the team. You can't really start the three months. Just go out there and if I accomplish my other goals, Solheim Cup won't be a problem.

Q. What will you do at Kapalua next week? Work on your game?
MORGAN PRESSEL: Yeah. I'll work on it a little bit. (Laughs). No. I'll probably -- I won't play every day, but I'll maybe go down to the learning center and hit some balls, and that's probably one of my favorite spots in the hole world to hit golf balls. It's so pretty. Might be part of the reason I want to be on the range all afternoon every day just because I don't want to leave because they're so pretty, especially at this time of the year with the whale watching in that area. It's beautiful.
MIKE SCANLAN: Anything else? Morgan, thanks for coming in. Good luck this week.
MORGAN PRESSEL: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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