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March 31, 2012
RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA
THE MODERATOR: All right. We'd like to welcome one of our current leaders, Karin Sjodin, into the interview room. Congratulations, 4‑under 68 today.
KARIN SJODIN: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Can you just tell me, I guess take me through the day and what it's like now to be tied for the lead going into the final round of a major?
KARIN SJODIN: It feels good. I mean this is where you want to be. The day was kind of smooth, it felt like. I was never in any trouble, apart from one hole where I hit two bad shots. I guess it's good to make them on the same hole, but it was nice and smooth out there.
THE MODERATOR: This is your seventh year on tour and your career best finish is a tie for seventh back in 2006. What are the emotions, I guess going through your head right now as you go into this and knowing what the Kraft is and the tradition and being up there with Yani?
KARIN SJODIN: It feels great to be there. I don't know if I've had time to really think about it much. I just came off the 18th, but it's going to be fun tomorrow, definitely.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Karin?
Q. I was looking at your twitter account. I don't know if you were joking about the dislocating a rib. What was that?
KARIN SJODIN: I don't know. When I walked between 9 and 10 yesterday something happened and I had a hard time breathing and had to ask for the medical ‑‑ for Caroline to come out and tried to pop something back in place. I don't know if it's dislocated, if that's the word that people use. It sounds weird regarding ribs to me, but it hurts, and she taped it up this morning, so it feels better today, and I guess some pills helped, too.
Q. Have you ever had something like that happen before?
KARIN SJODIN: No, no, I haven't, but I've talked to some other players that have had it happen when they were sleeping and woke up in just horrible pain, so I guess it's not as weird as it sounds maybe.
Q. Did it bother you out there today or did the medicine help?
KARIN SJODIN: Yeah, around the turn it started hurting, but then it kind of went away again. So I think the heat probably helps it when it's warm out.
Q. On your bio it says you like to put together eye key /A furniture in your spare team, which seems a cruel way to spend your spare time?
KARIN SJODIN: Yeah.
Q. Does that patience help you ‑‑ obviously you have to be very patient to do that. Did that help you play today in the wind and the conditions?
KARIN SJODIN: Maybe, but I think if you enjoy putting it together, it's not that much about patience. It's more enjoyment, I guess. But it probably helps. I think so.
Q. You've never even made the cut here before. What's different this year? What has changed for you?
KARIN SJODIN: I don't know. I seem to hit it very straight this year compared to in the past, and the rough here is usually very, very punishing, so I think it's been tough for me to play well here because of that and also the fast greens when I haven't had perfect speed on them.
Q. How did the wind affect things? When did it start picking up for you?
KARIN SJODIN: I'd say around the fourth tee box when it really, really started.
Q. What do you do to adjust to that?
KARIN SJODIN: I don't know. You aim towards the direction the wind is coming from and see the ball fly.
Q. Was there a point out there where you started looking, you know, we were talking in here about maybe they may have to even suspend the play if it got much stronger. Was there a point out there where you were kind of looking around going maybe we shouldn't be here?
KARIN SJODIN: Yeah, I think around probably 5, 6 are probably not the holes you really want the wind to pick up on. So I don't know if it was because of the hole we were on or if it was because of the wind, and it seemed a little much, but on 7 my ball was kind of wobbling on the greens. But after that I never thought of it again.
Q. Was there ever a single shot where you backed off a couple times and didn't really know what to do?
KARIN SJODIN: A couple of times I did, but I think playing in wind is more about just trusting the decision you made and hit it as solid as you can because the solid shots don't move too much at least.
Q. You were obviously a great player in college, had a great record in Sweden. Maybe not the success that you want on the LPGA as quickly as you would have wanted. What have been some of the struggles out there and maybe how has your game matured along the way?
KARIN SJODIN: I think in college and amateur golf I lived off of my long drives. I never really realized what my weaknesses were because I could just bomb it up there and had such an advantage because of that. And coming out here all of a sudden there are a lot of people that hit it further.
It took me a while to first realize what I really needed to work on and I guess how to work on those things, to get a plan on how to work on putting when I'd never really dealt with it in the past and things like that. And I think now in every part of the game I know what I want to do and how to work on it, so that helps.
Q. How much has your game changed I guess over the years? What are the biggest differences from when you first came out on tour until now?
KARIN SJODIN: I would say I don't hit it as far, especially not with the driver, but I also don't hit a big push hook. So it's a little more control right now, and also my ‑‑ I would say my putting has improved a lot. It still has ways to go, but it's definitely going in the right direction.
Q. Karin, have you ever played with Yani before, and can you imagine what it will be like tomorrow in the final of a major playing in her group?
KARIN SJODIN: I cannot remember if I have played with her. If I did, it was a while ago.
I mean you see the crowds around that group out there, but I played with I guess it was No. 2 in the world today. It's fun. She's not Yani Tseng, but it was still quite a bit of people out there and more than what you're used to maybe in the first few rounds.
So I think it's just fun to kind of playoff of the crowds a bit, too, so hopefully it will be good.
Q. And did you ever have winds like this at Oklahoma State?
KARIN SJODIN: We got the winds, but not the sand.
Q. You're in a similar position as another player last year who hadn't won on tour and was going up against Yani Tseng. Do you just go out and play your game or do you keep looking over going, well, I have to stay with her?
KARIN SJODIN: You play your game, definitely. I'm playing against the golf course. Whoever I play with isn't really that big a deal, and I think especially when you play twosomes you tend to walk a lot with your caddie and talk to him more than you do the other player, and the tempo is a little higher that way. So I'm going to try to hit every shot to the best of my abilities and what she does, I'm not really that much in control of that.
Q. Karin, I know we talked at Founders a little bit about your off season wasn't typical in the fact that you had a little bit of a case of pneumonia and actually had to pull out of qualifying school for the ladies European Tour. Can you take me through that again and just what that kind of did to you and not having all that time to work on your game in the off season, how it might have affected you?
KARIN SJODIN: I think I had to stop working out, No. 1, and they told me that I shouldn't work out until I stopped coughing, and that wasn't until Dr.Thomas here with the tour gave me some more medicine in Phoenix.
So that way I guess I had more free time, and also on the golf course, in the first couple of weeks I couldn't do anything. So I guess when I'm out there, I probably am maybe a little bit more efficient since I don't have the time I used to.
But I don't know. It seems to maybe be a good way of doing it.
Q. Did you lose strength over that time, too? Are you hitting your clubs any different than what you were before getting sick?
KARIN SJODIN: I don't feel like the driver is going that much shorter. The irons are, but I don't know if that's because of that or other things. It's hard to know, switching equipment and things like that, too. But probably ‑‑ I hope I get weaker from not working out. Otherwise it's a waste.
THE MODERATOR: All right. Any other questions for Karin? Thank you very much and best of luck tomorrow.
KARIN SJODIN: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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