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WEETABIX WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 29, 2005

Cristie Kerr

SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND

PAUL ROVNAK: Cristie, thank you for coming in and speaking with us. We appreciate your time. You had a 66 today, six birdies and no bogeys, and now you're right in the thick of this thing, just your comments on that.

CRISTIE KERR: I played very well today. The conditions were awful yesterday. You know, 1 over yesterday felt like a 3 under round.

Today, we only had, you know, light wind and a little bit of mist at the end, and we're very fortunate with the conditions because it looks like it's deteriorating. Again, I feel like I've been playing very solidly the last month or so and everything just hasn't come together. I think a little bit of that has just been focus.

You know, the last two days I've really focused in a lot better, and I've changed putters at the beginning of the week and I putted very well which has been kind of lacking the last month or so. Just getting over an injury, as well. I'm feeling a lot better now. I haven't had any pain the last two weeks. I had a rib injury.

Q. What kind of injury?

CRISTIE KERR: Rib. I sprained a rib exercising. You know, everything, the stars are starting to align again which is nice.

PAUL ROVNAK: Before we take questions, can you take us through your score card?

CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, the first hole I made birdie. I hit 5 iron to the green. I was on the side of the green and made a 65 foot putt, and it was 7:30 in the morning and I had no reaction to it. I was like, "It actually went in?" I didn't have a reaction, like, "Oh, it went in," which was kind of funny.

Second hole, I hit a pitching wedge to about 18 feet and made that.

5, I hit a sand wedge from about 100 yards and almost holed it out. Made about a 2 footer behind the hole for birdie.

The seventh hole, I made birdie, the par 3. I hit 7 iron to nine feet right of the hole and made that.

I had a par streak until the 17th hole where I hit a lob wedge from about 70 yard to about ten feet behind the hole and made that for birdie.

18, I actually didn't think I could get to the green and it just caught my 3 wood just perfect. And it looked hot and it had a lot of over spin on it and got on to the green, on to the green about seven or eight yards. I hit 3 wood on to the green and putted from about 45, 50 feet and had a tap in for my second putt.

This is a very special time for me and my dad and boyfriend and some family is here. My mom is not here, but I'm sure she's thinking about me at home and just a special time to have your family around you.

Q. In the other majors, have you been knocking on the door this year?

CRISTIE KERR: Well, I felt like I was playing pretty well at the Kraft Nabisco but I think Annika kind of lapped the field there.

At the U.S. Open, I actually got really close on Sunday. On Sunday on the 11th hole, I had an eagle putt that I could have sworn was going to go in but it just didn't. That would have got me within one or two shots of where the lead was at the time and I just made a couple bogeys coming in.

The other major, McDonald's, I didn't play well on Sunday at McDonald's. I was in the Top 10 entering the Sunday on McDonald's and just didn't play well there. I've played pretty well this year overall. Been hitting a little bit of a dry spell the last month or so, but again I felt like I just played well and stuff has not been happening.

Q. Do you enjoy playing over here?

CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, absolutely, this is honestly some of my favorite golf to play. I enjoy the challenges and the conditions, but you have to be up to the challenge mentally. At a time where I've been lacking a little bit of focus, the conditions on this course makes you focus in or you've not going to be able to play well. So I really enjoy this kind of golf over here.

Q. Any reason for the change with the putting?

CRISTIE KERR: Missing short putts. Sometimes when you get so used to something and seeing it all the time, you just get used to seeing the same thing so you just can't distinguish where you're aiming. Sometimes it's just good to make a change. I was playing with the regular 2 ball putter. I went to the 2 ball putter this week, and the speed on my putts were very good. And that putter is fun to putt with because you feel like you're going to make a lot of putts, so I did the last two days.

Q. Can you talk about the condition yesterday and relative to other days?

CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, after we got done signing the score card, my caddie, he goes, "Partner, been caddying for a long time," and he's caddied for Chi Chi Rodriguez, he's caddied for Juli Inkster a lot of players. He said, "This is one of toughest days we've had to caddie in."

I said, "Well, this is one of the toughest days we've had to play in." It was really tough. I think on hole 13, I hit a with the conditions and the wind and everything, you're just trying to hit it straight; you don't care necessarily how far it goes. You want to keep the ball down. If you swing hard at it, it launch it is up in the air. It was raining so hard and it was I mean, and the wind was blowing 40 plus miles an hour and it was raining so hard. We said, let's wait a minute to see if it stops and it got heavier, and it didn't look like it was going to let up. Lorie Kane said, she's just glad she's not the one that had to hit first. It was awful yesterday. I don't know what the forecast is for this afternoon but I'm just glad we got to play in some scorable conditions.

Q. Your lack of focus, was that primarily because of the injury?

CRISTIE KERR: I think it was a combination of everything. Sometimes when you get injured, your confidence goes down a little bit. Yeah, I couldn't I had a rib injury coming here, honestly don't even know how I did it, but I have a muscle/nerve doctor I go to see and he works on all of the muscles around it and everything and he was surprised I could even play in The Match Play in New Jersey.

You know, when you cannot hit it hard and you can't hit it far, sometimes your confidence goes. I think it's attributed a little bit to having an injury. I had a lot of success in the beginning of the year and sometimes when you achieve a lot of goals you set for yourself, you say, okay, what's next. And sometimes it's good to kind of step back and have a little time off and refocus on everything. I'm feeling a lot better. I'm not having any pain or on any strong anti inflammatories. I was on over a thousand milligrams of Naprosyn a day, which is for the body is a lot to take.

I'm feeling a lot better and just being really positive and enjoying myself with my game right now and working hard. You've just got to know that when you're kind of in a little slump, it's going to turn around. That's what I've kind of resigned to just kind of wait around for it and I'm playing a lot better so I'm happy about that.

Q. Will you play other courses this week or anything?

CRISTIE KERR: I don't think we're really going to have time. My family has kind of talked about taking somewhat of a vacation and going and playing Ballybunion and Prestwick and a lot of the other golf courses. Hopefully we'll be able to do that. We definitely enjoy it. We just have to figure out when the best time of year to come is so we don't have any of this rain stuff. (Laughter).

End of FastScripts.

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