Final round interviews from the HypoVereinsbank Ladies German Open, presented by Audi

HypoVereinsbank Ladies German Open, presented by Audi
Golfpark Gut Häusern, Munich, Germany
Sunday 1st June 2008
Final round interviews

Amy, you had a comfortable lead entering the final round. There was no need to be nervous was there?
Amy Yang: I don’t know why I was still so nervous.

How does it feel to win as a professional as opposed to as an amateur?
Amy Yang: I’m so happy now. I practised really hard to get this but I need to work harder.

Why?
Amy Yang: I just found last week after playing with Suzann that I needed to practise more to be like her.

Did you feel you played better this week?
Amy Yang: No; just about the same.

How does this feel compared to when you won as an amateur?
Amy Yang: I don’t remember, it was a long time ago, like two years ago.

There must be one difference. When you win as an amateur you don’t get any money!
What will you do now?
Amy Yang: I will try some Monday qualifying for the next few weeks. I will be away for maybe four or three weeks.

What is the main goal?
Amy Yang: I want to go to the LPGA Tour. I went to Q School last year but didn’t play too well so I have a conditional card.

How have you changed since winning the ANZ Ladies Masters?
Amy Yang: Last year at the ANZ Ladies Masters I was defending champion and I missed the cut. I was really busy with school studies and I couldn’t practise much and my game went down. Now it’s okay. I finished high school last year and I am concentrating on golf. It’s good.

Who is your coach?
Amy Yang: I’m still talking with my coach in Australia but it’s too far away. I’m looking for a new coach.

What were you thinking on the last hole?
Amy Yang: I was so nervous I was shaking. Did you see me?

What do you think about this tournament?
Amy Yang: It was a good week. The course condition was very nice and the greens were getting better every day.

Where do you go next week?
Amy Yang: After next week I have US Open qualifying on Monday 9th.
I was thinking from quite a long time ago, in China all the buildings collapsed and so what I thought was, if I win the tournament, I want to give my prize money to help them. Only a few days ago they had a big rain storm so a lot of people lost their house. That’s what I was thinking.

Are you giving all of it away?
Amy Yang: Yes.

Can you talk about golf in Korea?
Amy Yang: It’s quite a small country and we usually practise on the mats. It’s really hard to get on the golf course.

How many do they have?
Amy Yang: I think they have quite a lot but it’s hard to practise over there. For me it was anyway.

Do you have a personal connection to China?
Amy Yang: No. I saw it on the news. It’s really sad.

Gwladys Nocera (FRA) 68-70-69-65 (-16) and Michelle Wie (USA) 68-69-70-67 (-14)

Gwladys, can we have some impressions from your round today?
Gwladys Nocera: I played some good golf today. It was fun playing with Michelle for all of us. It pushes us to play better. I played okay. It’s golf. Sometimes you miss a short putt and sometimes you make a long one. I had fun and it was a great day. It was hot. There were so many people there it was amazing to see that and pretty nice. I had a great day.

Michelle, everybody here says you gave them a lot of motivation to play well. How was it yourself?
Michelle Wie: I had a lot of motivation to do well here too. Coming out here and being welcomed by all the players is a really good feeling. It seems like a really fun tour to play on and I had a lot of fun today. Gwladys played well today and kind of pushed me to play better. It was a good group. We had a lot of fun today.

Did your play fulfill your expectations?
Michelle Wie: I’m glad that I shot under par; it feels good. I feel that I left a lot of shots out there; a lot of putts; on the par fives a couple. It feels like it’s coming along. It feels like I’m recovering, getting back on track and getting back to where I used to be.

How much confidence will you take back to America with you after a top ten result on the LET?
Michelle Wie: I’ll take a lot of confidence out of this tournament. Ending up with 14-under; it has been a really long time since I’ve shot that score so now I know what it feels like and I can put it in the memory bank. I feel like I can go lower. I feel like I can do a lot better. That said, I will take a lot of confidence away from this tournament.

How would you feel about coming back next year?
Michelle Wie: It’s a great event and I would love to. We’ll see how it goes. I had a lot of fun and hopefully I’ll play again next year.

Did you end up in one of the beer gardens?
Michelle Wie: No, I didn’t. I don’t really drink.

Gwladys, what so you think about coming back next year?
Gwladys Nocera: Of course, I think I will.

How did you feel about the new tournament, it was a seven year interruption?
Gwladys Nocera: I think it’s great. It’s the first time in seven years that Germany had a tournament and I think you did great. Just look at how many people came to watch. I guess you did a lot of work on communication and it’s been really great. The course is great and the greens were good. It’s going to be hard to do better but I’m sure you can.

Would you like a longer yardage?
Gwladys Nocera: Probably yes, just on a couple of holes, but you have to deal with what comes to you and even if it’s short you have to show that you’re better than the other ones. You have to deal with it but I think longer is good sometimes.

Michelle, after the first three days you said that you were frustrated. This is your best round of the year. Will you go back to the States frustrated?
Michelle Wie: I feel a lot more confident about my game. I think a person’s greed means that you always want something more. If you look at my score, 14-under-par, I’m very happy with it but at the same time I could have done better. I definitely won’t go back to the States frustrated. I feel like I wish I made a putt here or there. That’s golf. I’ll go back with a lot of confidence. I know what I need to work on. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the summer.

What are the things that you need to work on?
Michelle Wie: Making putts and hitting my irons a bit closer. Over the last couple of days I felt that my irons weren’t as sharp as I wanted them to be so I’ll work on my distance with my irons and everything I guess. I’ll just fine tune it.

Gwladys, how does this tournament compare to the rest of the tournaments on the LET? How would you rate this one?
Gwladys Nocera: It’s pretty good. Like I said, the course is nice and that for us is the most important thing. We come here to play golf. The greens were good which is very important for us. The whole organisation: we’ve been treated well by the sponsors and I give it a good rating.

Michelle, your next steps?
Michelle Wie: I go back to the States and I have US Open qualifying. Then I have the Wegmans after that.

That’s Maryland?
Michelle Wie: Yes.

Do you have four events lined up after that?
Michelle Wie: Yes.

What would you like to work on?
Michelle Wie: I can’t really think of anything right now. A better rhythm, anything that will make the ball go straighter I guess! I haven’t really figured that out. I’ll just ask David. (Laughter).

Martina Eberl (GER) 71-67-72-70 (-8)
Quick quotes
It’s been a week like no other in my life. I think the jobs I had I think I did them well. I tried my best of course and I’m glad I could play decent golf on the side as well. Next year I think I will be more used to it. This year was completely new for me and about my golf, I just putted like a dog. I player really well but at the end of the day I’m disappointed. I’m also happy that it’s over and I think all of us did a great job here.

Question regarding the high number of spectators (16,800 for the week)…
The hope was for 7,000 and I said it was going to be 10,000. To have 17,000 people is amazing. Every girl I played with every day, I said: “Are you ready for some people?” And they were – which was good! We are not used to having a crowd with us every day. You have that at the British Open or at Evian but that’s not every week. I’m glad I had that experience and I think it will help me for next year.

How many spectators do you usually get?
In Great Britain you get more and Australia is the most extreme I think. Because this is just a 250,000 euro event it’s never been like that before, at least since I’ve been on tour and that’s been six years.
I am so proud. In 1990, at my old home course, Golfclub Worthsee, there was the Lufthansa German Open and I hadn’t really started playing golf at that time; not really. I saw Trish Johnson playing there and I thought as a little girl, “One day I want to do the same. I want to be there and I want to compete.” At the end of the day now I’m here competing with them and it’s the German Open and I’m the patron of it. It’s amazing and I can’t describe it in words. That’s how proud I am.”