Thursday October 4, 2007
Sophie Gustafson (Sweden) 66 (-7)
Q. When you birdied the second, was it a long putt?
SOPHIE GUSTAFSON: It might have been 12 feet.
Q. You had an eagle at the third. What club did you hit?
SOPHIE GUSTAFSON: At the third I hit a five-iron to seven feet.
Q. At the fifth you had a birdie…
SOPHIE GUSTAFSON: I chipped it (dead).
Q. You bogeyed the sixth – what happened?
SOPHIE GUSTAFSON: I missed the green and I chipped it to about eight feet and missed it.
Q. Seven?
SOPHIE GUSTAFSON: That was the par five. I hit my second shot over the green and chipped it to maybe 12 feet.
Q. Ten?
SOPHIE GUSTAFSON: I had a four iron up there and two putts.
Q. 16?
SOPHIE GUSTAFSON: I hit a lob wedge to 12 feet.
Q. 18?
SOPHIE GUSTAFSON: Seven-wood and two puts.
Q. Audrey (your caddy) said that it could have been even better than seven-under?
SOPHIE GUSTAFSON: I missed quite a few birdie opportunities. But seven-under is not a bad start.
Q. What about the course?
SOPHIE GUSTAFSON: It’s tight but if you hit the fairways then you’re going to have a short shot in. The key this week is to be very straight.
Linda Wessberg (Sweden) 67 (-6)
Q. Great round today. First of all can you talk about your excellent front nine where you were five-under?
LINDA WESSBERG: I played really well. I started firing them at the pin and on the short par five, that really got me started. I missed the green actually. It was a chip and a putt there. Then on five, the par-four, and then I had three birdies in a row. I made a chip on nine the par five. I actually bogeyed 10 which was annoying. That was a par-five as well. I missed the tee shot so I had to chip it out a little and then I missed the green with my approach shot. I wasn’t playing great on the back nine but I made a lot of up and downs in a few places. It was pretty solid. I putted really well, which helps.
Q. You birdied 17 and 18 as well.
LINDA WESSBERG: You have a cross wind on 17 but its ot blowing that hard so I hit an eight-iron, pin high. I amde a putt from four metres. 18, hit a good tee shot, missed the approach shot, hit it a little fat but had about 40 metres to the pin. I made an up and down from there.
Q. What brought you back to Madrid?
LINDA WESSBERG: I was playing in Alabama last week and I wasn’t in the tournament in California. I thought I would come back and play here. I thought I wasn’t going to get into Asia so I would finish here and have a bit of a break. I got into Asia though so… I’m going home for a week and then heading to Asia for two weeks.
Q. Do you think you can do the business this week?
LINDA WESSBERG: I’m just going to try and do what I did today. I played really well and enjoyed myself. I’ll take one shot at a time, try to stay to my game plan. There are a lot of good players in the field.
Q. You have been playing really well. Is there anything specific that you were working on that paid off?
LINDA WESSBERG: When I went over to America after Australia this year and I had to Monday qualify I think that made me a little tougher as a person. It’s hard to say, what I’ve known I probably would have done earlier. You know, hard work, paying off. It’s totally different over there because the rough is thicker and you have to hit different shots over there so I tried to learn to stay patient.
Q. You have your full card next year?
LINDA WESSBERG: Yes, thank you.
Q. Can you talk about The Solheim Cup. You played really well and had a great singles victory.
LINDA WESSBERG: It was a great week and I can highly recommend anyone to try and get into the team. I knew it was going to be a tough week. I didn’t know it was going to be that tough. There is so much stuff going on and places to be at certain times. There was really no practise and I’m used to practising quite a lot. Obviously I go to practise the first two days quite a bit because I didn’t play until Saturday afternoon. It’s probably one of the best weeks I’ve ever had on the golf course. It was a lot of fun. I put a lot of pressure on myself for being a pick and playing on home soil but I really enjoyed it and I think I stayed pretty calm. I was probably more nervous when the other girls played because you know you can’t do anything!
Q. Winning your first point must have been quite a high point.
LINDA WESSBERG: Yes. I thought it was kind of stupid that I had to finish it but I asked a rules official if I had to play. He said I could give it away if I wanted to but they were going to finish it and I was like, “No way!” It was great.
Q. I see you’re wearing your necklace and perhaps you can just explain a little bit about what it means?
LINDA WESSBERG: Its says Carpe Momentum and we got it from Helen. I really like it though – its heavy. She really wanted us to focus and take every chance that we could take. Everyone tried their best.
Q. Hopefully we’ll see you back on the team in two years.
LINDA WESSBERG: That’s my goal so we’ll see!
Laura Cabanillas (Spain) 69 (-4)

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