The Solheim Cup
Rich Harvest Farms
Sugar Grove, Ill.
Aug. 18, 2009
Pre-tournament interviews
EUROPEAN TEAM
Helen Alfredsson & Suzann Pettersen
BETHAN CUTLER: I’d like to introduce Suzann Pettersen from Norway, who’s playing in her fifth Solheim Cup, and Helen Alfredsson from Sweden, who’s playing in your eighth as a player, but obviously in the unique position as the captain in 2007 at Halmstad in Sweden. Helen, could you just give us your thoughts on how the week is shaping up for you so far?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: We are very happy with the team. It’s a great team spirit, and I think everybody is playing pretty good.
BETHAN CUTLER: Obviously you were asked when you first made the team about how does it compare being a player to being a captain. How is it comparing now?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: It’s much easier. I don’t have to go and get anything for anybody, which is nice. I don’t have to worry about anybody but myself, and since we are so selfish, it’s much easier. (Laughter).
I think it’s going to be more obvious when the tournament starts, you know, because you’re out there and you’re sort of involved with 12 players and what they’re doing because you see it, and now you’re sort of on your own and you have to really focus on your own game because you’re playing.
BETHAN CUTLER: And Suzann, you wrote on your Twitter page that this is your favorite week. Why is that?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I just think this is a unique week for us to get together, team up, good friends, fellow competitors. Most of the year we compete by ourselves, we work for ourselves, we play by ourselves. This week we can play for each other, and you build friendships for life and you kind of share the passion. It’s just a week of grinding, and it’s so much fun.
BETHAN CUTLER: You also said that you have a great team. Why do you think that is?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, because we do. But I also think we’re the true underdogs, but I still think we have the best team.
A lot of people over here don’t really know all of our players, which I think could be a good thing. But they’re actually playing very good, all of them.
This could be a very hard week. We’ve got to put the pedal down right off the gates, but I think we’re ready to do that once Friday comes.
Q. Helen, I’m curious, 1990 you played in the first event, I believe. Can you talk a little bit about the evolution of The Solheim Cup? Sort of walk me through what your impressions have been over the years with this event.
HELEN ALFREDSSON: Well, obviously it’s amazing. I think in 1990 we could hardly give the tickets away, and here we are cheering ourselves on and just seeing what women’s golf has come to when we see all the tents and all the hoopla around it. It’s an amazing feeling to have been there from the very get go with Mickey, sitting next to you. It was a lot of fun. We still have the same fun in the team room, but outside it’s grown a lot.
Q. Helen, Juli Inkster was in here earlier, and she said this is possibly the strongest European team ever in The Solheim Cup. Would you agree with that?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: Absolutely. I think, like Suzann was saying, some of these younger ones that are not very well known over here, I played with Tania today and Gwladys has been over a few times, maybe not played as well, but they play quite impressive golf, which is very nice to see. Yeah, I would tend to agree with her.
Q. Just as a follow up to that, statistics indicate how difficult it is to win on U.S. soil. How big is the home ground advantage and especially having home crowds?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: Well, I think for us that are playing, we know that the Americans like to shout and scream, and the players that have been over here, we all know how it works.
But that’s the same on our side, as well. Of course it’s a little bit of an advantage, but I think it helps that you have been around it, and we try to tell the young ones that’s just how it’s going to be. You just have to focus hard on what you’re trying to do.
Q. Suzann, how does it feel to get your old captain back as a player on your team?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I prefer her as a teammate. She’s a player who will fight her heart out, but she also was a great captain.
It’s two – I mean, she knows what it’s like to be on both sides now, but I think she did a great job in Halmstad. You are faced with a lot of different challenges that week, and you try to build your own team, and I think we were fairly close to getting the Cup back. And to have her sitting here playing, I think it’s quite impressive that she’s here.
No, I think so. Same with Juli Inkster and Laura Davies. There’s so many veterans playing in the Solheim this year. I prefer her as a teammate.
Q. Would you like to tee up with her on Friday morning?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I’m not going to tell you everything.
Q. I was going to ask you, what difference, if anything, and are you pleased about Four-balls starting the competition rather than Foursomes? What are your thoughts or feelings about that?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I thought that was a bad move, to be honest, because it’s always fun to go out in a foursome because it’s very hard for the captain to see who’s actually playing well because you don’t get in your own rhythm, so it’s kind of a guess for the four-ball.
Now you can kind of play your own ball in the morning, get comfortable, and then it’s always easy to play foursomes in the afternoon. I thought it was a lot of fun playing a foursome in the morning straight out of the gate. I mean, it’s such a huge test. You might not hit that many shots your first 30, 40 minutes, depending on how the course sets up. You might only putt really.
This makes it easier for the captains.
HELEN ALFREDSSON: I didn’t even know it had changed, but that’s okay. I’m sure it’s good. (Laughter).
Q. How much more difficult will it be for your captain with all these oldies on the team who won’t be able to play five matches or whatever? How will she cope with that?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: We are stronger than you think. Age is just a number, dear. (Laughter). We have all the young ones. This is where we send them out, go, go, go.
Q. How did you find that when you were captain, having to gauge who was able to play, who you were going to rest when?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: Well, I think you more judged what they were playing. It’s a week that you have more energy than you ever thought you would have.
You achieve more than – all of us, I think both teams, always say that you wish you could play like this every day because the intensity and the way you hit your shots and the focus that you manage, it’s a very unique week in many ways, but that’s certainly one of them. But we see so many good shots and such good play.
You have all the energy from your teammates, as well. When you’re by yourself, every time you go in the team room, there’s somebody there. You laugh all the time and you get all this energy, and of course you’re falling dead on Monday, but it doesn’t matter; it’s all over then.
Q. How do you both like the golf course, and are there any particular keys to playing it well?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: The course is great. It’s in very, very good shape. Obviously there hasn’t been too many players out here before we got here. There’s only 50 members here.
As soft as it is right now, the fairways are fairly wide, I would say. The greens, I would say, there’s small undulations and sort of slopes on the front nine compared to the back nine. Some par 5s are reachable. There’s some good, solid par 4s out there.
So I mean, if it stays wet, it’s going to play long, which I think is good for us. We have a lot of good ball strikers on our team. We can hit the ball high and soft and kind of shape it both ways.
Front nine you have a few more doglegs in corners, and I think on the front nine you’ve just got to make sure you’re positioned to attack the pin.
HELEN ALFREDSSON: I think it’s a very nice golf course. It’s a very fun match playing golf course. It’s tough. You have to hit good shots. I don’t know, I was very happy and very impressed when I got here. I really like it.
Q. Helen, what’s the single best thing not being a captain?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: That you don’t have to do anything for anybody else. You can sleep better. You know, you do your own thing.
I enjoyed very much being a captain. I had such a great team. But when you’re as emotional as I am, you lead 12 players in a different way than when you’re on your own. You’re all a team, but you still concentrate on your task at hand rather than worrying about everybody else.
Q. Has being captain made you a better team member, or are you more sympathetic now towards your captain?
HELEN ALFREDSSON: You should know that. No, we’re never empathetic to anybody.
Q. Just checking.
HELEN ALFREDSSON: You were hoping, but no, sorry. (Laughter).
U.S. TEAM
Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis & Juli Inkster
MIKE SCANLAN: Thanks for coming in. Welcome to the 2009 Solheim Cup at Rich Harvest Farms. This is the first press conference of the week. On my immediate left, Natalie Gulbis, a three time U.S. Solheim Cup team member; on my next left, Paula Creamer, also a three time member from California; and all the way at the end, Juli Inkster making her eighth appearance, a World Golf Hall of Famer, and she’s tied with Meg Mallon for the most points scored by a U.S. player in Solheim Cup history. So Juli, as the veteran, how does it feel to be here in Sugar Grove this week?
JULI INKSTER: It feels great. We’re having a great time. Meg and Beth are doing a great job keeping us loose, a lot of activities. We have ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’ and ‘Ring Around the Rosy,’ so it’s kind of great. (Laughter).
No, we’ve had a lot of fun. It’s a great group of gals, and the course, the whole setup being right out here at the golf course is fun, having some late night putting contests, some putting, some talks, so it’s been good.
MIKE SCANLAN: Paula, your third Solheim Cup. Everybody knows you love playing for the USA. Just talk about being back here.
PAULA CREAMER: This is always the highlight of my career and always has been. I look forward to this every two years.
It’s exciting. This is a great golf course. It’s a great match play event, and like Juli said, being on – we call it campus, being on campus is really neat, being able to walk out on the driving range, walk out onto the putting green, just the whole atmosphere, it’s just a great venue.
MIKE SCANLAN: Nat, also a third time on the team, if you would, just talk about being here and what this means to you.
NATALIE GULBIS: I think being on the team is the best part of this week. We play an individual sport where we’re competing against each other week in and week out, and to be able to come together and play with these best players in the world and be wearing the American colors and playing for the United States and playing in front of these fans, but it’s all the interaction stuff with the team, from the practice rounds to coming up here in a couple days to the matches.
Q. For any and all who want to address this, how would you describe this property for somebody who’s never seen it? Not the golf course so much, but everything around it.
JULI INKSTER: A lot. It’s a lot of property. (Laughter).
It’s very spread out. You know, he (Jerry Rich) has a lot of different things. He has a car warehouse, he’s got a horse farm, he’s got a plantation house. He’s got the rooms we’re staying in, plus he’s got a clubhouse. He’s got a lot of property. He’s got three or four ponds out there that are stocked with fish. So it’s kind of like a vacation retreat, so you can do pretty much whatever you want.
NATALIE GULBIS: It has everything out here. I know some of the girls have done everything from horseback riding. We went and fished, some of the girls went and took bike rides around. We had our opening party last night at a car museum that had these amazing cars, and then it’s got this great golf course, too. It’s really beautiful, this whole area. Everywhere you look it’s just really, really pretty.
Q. Because you’re staying so close together, is there interaction with the Europeans? What’s it like when we’re not around here? Does that make for a better rivalry kind of thing?
JULI INKSTER: You know, they’re on the other side. We’re in the step houses over there (laughter), so we try not to interact with the little people (laughter).
But no, we haven’t seen them much. They’re kind of doing their own thing and we’re doing our own thing, and we kind of meet on the driving range and on the putting green.
PAULA CREAMER: The first time we saw them was probably today on the driving range. We haven’t really run into each other at all.
JULI INKSTER: Like I said, the place is so big, so they have their team room where they eat, so…
Q. Juli, this is the longest course to stage a Solheim Cup. With the heavy rains over the weekend, how much longer is it playing in practice, and do you think it favors one team more than the other?
JULI INKSTER: Well, it is drying out. You know, they’ve got some good holes out there. But they’re the type of holes you’ve got to shape the shot.
You know, I think – well, the Europeans have a very long team. They all hit the ball – most of them hit the ball extremely long. So it would probably favor them on the par 5s. But we’ve got a few girls that can bomb it, too.
Basically in match play it comes down to who makes the most putts. They’ve got I think one of their best teams they’ve ever had is this year.
Q. If you could just describe the course itself. Does it remind you of any other courses you guys might play on Tour or any other courses?
PAULA CREAMER: It’s a pretty wide open golf course. You miss the fairways, you’re in very thick rough. These greens are humongous. I think it comes down to somebody with great iron, the ability to take a little off, put a little bit more on irons, put them in the right sections of these greens. The speed of these greens, hopefully by Friday they want them to be around a 12. They can definitely get to that. I think that they’re very close.
But it’s all going to come down to who gives themselves more chances for birdies; somebody that can drive the ball is going to be able to put themselves in position the most.
Q. Also for whoever wants to address this, how does the atmosphere of the Solheim Cup differ from a regular Tour event – maybe you’ll be more nervous from the team aspect, but in terms of interaction with the fans and how involved the fans get how much red, white and blue is all over the place?
PAULA CREAMER: Solheim Cup for me is all about the fans. It’s unbelievable the interaction you can have as team players. When you’re standing on the tee box and in the fairway, you can motivate everybody so much by just hands in the air, whereas normally you’re walking down the fairway you’re focused on what you’re doing, but we need the fans. It’s all about that camaraderie and that patriotism we’re going out there and playing for.
JULI INKSTER: They’re our sixth man out there this week. We need them out there.
Q. Just to follow up on fans, I understand at least half the people who are going to be here this week are actually from out of state. Juli, you’ve played in a bunch of these, and this is your third for the other two. Do you recognize the same fans?
JULI INKSTER: I’m not that good, no.
Q. The group has a following, though.
JULI INKSTER: Yeah, they say we haven’t missed one, this is our whatever Solheim. You kind of see some of the same people out here, but there’s so many people out here that it’s hard to recognize even your family. (Laughter).
They tell you how many they’ve been to, and then you say, ‘Thanks for coming,’ ‘Thanks for coming out and supporting us.’
Q. Can you talk about how this event, how this is your eighth one, how it has evolved as far as the following and the atmosphere since playing your first one?
JULI INKSTER: It’s been great. It’s great that the Solheims give us this opportunity to have this opportunity. I think it’s very important for women’s golf to have a tournament like this and to keep it going.
Like Paula said, here she’s one or two or three in the world, and she said this is her favorite tournament to play in. It’s great for Michelle Wie just having her first tournament, to give them the opportunity to play in something like this for your country besides playing for yourself. There’s no greater reward or thrill than doing that and doing that with 11 other teammates.
We don’t get to play team sports, so this is our team sport. The Solheims have been awesome. They’ve dumped a lot of money in starting out to get this thing going, and it’s our job to keep it going. With your help and with the fans and the players’ compassion for this tournament, hopefully it’ll live on for a long time.
Q. Paula, you’ve had quite a bit of a journey already to The Solheim Cup. How important was it on your debut in ’05 to have someone of that experience in your corner, and do you remember how nervous you were when you hit your first shot?
PAULA CREAMER: Luckily my first shot was in the fairway. I didn’t have to tee off that day. Actually my first couple matches were with veterans. My first one was with Beth Daniel and then I played with Juli that afternoon.
But it was very important. I was 19. I felt like this was just the highlight of my career. My goal was to make that team. I wanted to make it outright, and I did. Being paired with Juli and Beth was probably one of the coolest moments I’ve ever had on the golf course. Just being out there watching her dance, you see this growing up and you see Juli out there on the green.
But it’s an amazing week, it really is. There’s so many memories that we have that we can all take. It really means so much to everybody in red, white and blue.
Q. Any highlights from the practice round in terms of anything funny or interesting? Any good interaction with fans or anybody young, anything like that?
JULI INKSTER: I won some money from Natalie today.
NATALIE GULBIS: I haven’t paid up yet.
Q. How much?
JULI INKSTER: Fast payments, fast friends.
NATALIE GULBIS: We cannot disclose amounts, but I will be dipping into the wallet today. (Laughter).
PAULA CREAMER: There hasn’t been any – I played with Christina today. That’s always very entertaining.
NATALIE GULBIS: I think one of the cool things about this week is not only do we have our practice rounds together, but we do everything together as a team, whether it’s having team dinners, or last night people are playing games.
We had half of them in the team trailer that were playing games, and the other half of us were on the putting green until the very last moment when we had a team meeting, and we just do everything as a team. It’s not like when we get off the golf course we go into the room by ourselves. We love this week.
JULI INKSTER: I mean, it’s like last night, we’re on the putting green, and Morgan brings out her computer, and we’re playing some songs, and Michelle is breaking it down. It was pretty funny. Just stuff like that, you can’t put a price on, just little things like that that you get to share with your teammates.
NATALIE GULBIS: We’re saying how great would it be if we played together as a team every single week. It’s a great week.
U.S. TEAM
Brittany Lang, Kristy McPherson & Michelle Wie
MIKE SCANLAN: Thanks for coming in. We’d like to welcome the U.S. Team rookies to the press conference area, Michelle Wie from Hawai’i, Kristy McPherson from South Carolina, and Brittany Lang from the great state of Texas. Michelle, we’ll start with you. Just talk about being on the team for the first time and how the week has been for you so far.
MICHELLE WIE: It’s been so exciting. It’s a great honor and a privilege to represent my country, and I really haven’t seen so many people on the practice round before. I mean, the bleachers are filled on a Tuesday, so I can’t imagine what Friday will be like.
I think just everyone is so proud of our country, and just for us to represent it and to be part of a team with so many great players has just been such an honor. It’s been so much fun getting to know everyone.
MIKE SCANLAN: Kristy Mac, your thoughts?
KRISTY McPHERSON: I agree with Michelle. The practice rounds the first two days have been kind of overwhelming. It’s cool to have so many people out here on Monday and Tuesday and just to sign some autographs and see a lot of red, white and blue in the stands.
I haven’t been nervous yet, but I know when Friday comes, we’re going to get the nerves going. But yeah, it really is a great honor to not only play what we normally play an individual game, but to play for 11 other girls and three great captains and our whole country. Come Friday it’s going to be so exciting.
MIKE SCANLAN: Brittany?
BRITTANY LANG: The thing that I have really enjoyed the past few months is just the camaraderie, just hanging out with everybody, getting to know them, playing the practice rounds, just having fun. That’s probably been the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I’ve just enjoyed that, just hanging out with the girls.
Q. Any of you guys done any activities like fishing or biking or anything that you wouldn’t be doing a couple days before a normal tournament?
KRISTY McPHERSON: No fishing. Ask B. Lang about the ping pong.
BRITTANY LANG: Oh, shush. I beat Lincicome, though. Lincicome is good. But yeah, we’ve been playing pool and ping pong, and she’s really good at ping pong, so I lost. Paula and I played Kristy and Lincicome, and we got killed.
KRISTY McPHERSON: A couple times in a row.
BRITTANY LANG: We’re not good. But then I came out on top and beat Brittany.
MICHELLE WIE: I didn’t even try. Me and Morgan played – yeah, we just didn’t try. It’s okay, we’ll stick to golf.
Q. I know you guys are rookies, but what has being all in the same area been like for you guys, in terms of either just getting to know your teammates or some of the team building? It is a different thing to have this sort of campus as some of the other ladies were calling it.
KRISTY McPHERSON: Yeah, I’m kind of shocked we haven’t had the rookie initiation yet. They haven’t made us feel like rookies yet, so it’s been really cool being in there with girls like Juli, who has out here so many times, and Kerr has played so many; Paula has been successful in Solheims. And just for them, I think they’re excited to have us on the team and we’re excited to be there.
But just like Brittany said, the coolest thing is just hanging out with 11 cool girls that are just good friends, and for one week every two years, now we get to play with each other, pull for each other so hard and get to have each other’s backs and play for our country together. So that’s been the cool part.
Q. Do you know the golf course well enough yet? I know you’ve only had a couple days out there. Are you feeling comfortable with it?
BRITTANY LANG: Yeah, well, we had a couple practices here beforehand. We played one 18 hole round after the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, and then after the British we had two rounds, and now we’ve got these two days. So I feel pretty comfortable on it, and I’m sure these girls feel the same way.
You know, we got to see the course the first two times and now we can actually get a feel for the greens and everything, how they’re going to be in the tournament.
Q. Just to follow up, how will the course play as far as match play standpoint? Are there going to be a lot of birdies out there, or are there going to be holes where par might be a good score?
KRISTY McPHERSON: Michelle plays a different game than we play, so a lot more birdies for her.
MICHELLE WIE: No, no really. It depends on where they stick the flags. They can make the course pretty easy, they can make the course really difficult. I think just depending on the situations.
If they cut the rough, it could be really easy, but if they keep growing the rough out, it’s going to be really tough. You can get in some sticky situations. But I think it’s a good match play golf course. It’s a lot of risk and reward. You can take the risk, but the reward will also be great. So I think it’s a great match play course.
I think no matter what course we play on, match play is a different game. You play your opponent, and you just have to play your own game and you just have to try to come out on top.
Q. Michelle, you are pretty used to media scrutiny and big crowds over the years, you played Curtis Cup. Even it’s early in the week, does this feel very different to anything you’ve done before?
MICHELLE WIE: I think the one difference that I feel different from the Curtis Cup is that we’re on home ground. I think Curtis Cup, it was about the fun of trying to silence the crowd, hit a great shot, and they don’t really clap.
But here, you know, you hit it on the green, and even on Tuesday and they’re roaring your name, they’re yelling your name, and I think that’s the biggest difference that I felt, just being on home ground and seeing your country’s flags being waved around at all times. It’s so fabulous.
But you know, me and Brittany were on the Curtis Cup, so we’re always talking about our good old days.
BRITTANY LANG: Our redemption.
MICHELLE WIE: Exactly, getting our redemption back. But it’s been fun. We’ve been saying from the beginning, just getting to know these girls and being all in the same house and having the putting green just right outside our front door has just been so great, and to have all these extra activities has been such a fun time.
Q. Are there any one or two holes that stick out here, or how would you describe the course itself? Does it remind you of any other courses that you play?
MICHELLE WIE: I think it has a really different characteristic from the entire golf course. I think Mr. Rich did a wonderful job. I don’t know how he made the golf course and figured it out. And I think it’s a lot of fun.
KRISTY McPHERSON: Yeah, it’s definitely a lot of holes, like Michelle said, depending on pin placement, pars are good scores. I think 17 is going to be a key hole out here, which is a long hole. Maybe not so long for these ladies, but a long hole, one of the most difficult holes with a narrow green over water. I think that was a turning point in our match, in our fun little match today. I think throughout the week you’ll see a lot of excitement on 17 and maybe some of the matches ending there.
BRITTANY LANG: I birdied 17 today (laughter), but I think it’s a fair course.
KRISTY McPHERSON: What did you hit into?
BRITTANY LANG: Knocked down 6.
KRISTY McPHERSON: I hit every bit of a 3 iron hybrid.
BRITTANY LANG: No, it’s a very fair course. There’s a lot of holes where you can capitalize and make birdies and hit 8 iron, whatever, something like that. But then there’s a fair amount of holes – like myself, I’m not as long as Michelle, but I’m probably 10 yards behind her, a fairly long hitter, and I’m hitting driver, 3- and 4 iron into some of these greens maybe four times throughout a round.
Most of the other girls are hitting 3 woods or 3 irons, so I think it’s a fair course, but it’s definitely a good challenge, sloping greens and the rough. But I think it’s a fair test.
Q. Michelle, where do you put your sunglasses when you’re wearing that cap?
MICHELLE WIE: I either wear them or put them in my bag.
Q. Are any of you getting up at 18, reaching the green in two at 18?
KRISTY McPHERSON: I’m not.
BRITTANY LANG: I haven’t hit a good drive there yet, so I don’t know.
MICHELLE WIE: I think so.
KRISTY McPHERSON: Christina got there today in our group. She got down the hill and got there in two. But I think there’s probably four or five girls on our team that can probably reach 18 in two.
MICHELLE WIE: It’s the smallest green on the golf course, as well.
BRITTANY LANG: It just depends on your drive. It’s weird. Like if you get down that hill there, then you can get there.
Q. But it looked to me as if it wasn’t necessarily safe to take a driver because you can go down that slope so easily.
KRISTY McPHERSON: I think that’s the best part about having best ball and having a partner because like if I’m playing with them, I’m going to hit it in the fairway and say, ‘Ya’ll go for it,’ give them a chance to get it down there. It’s a tight tee ball to get it down there. But these girls are good. They can get it down there.
MICHELLE WIE: I think it’s definitely the risk and reward. I think the reward is really great if you hit it down there because you can get it on. But you have to take the risk.
Q. As rookies can you guys talk a little bit about who you’ve played with the last couple days? I don’t know if Beth already knows what pairs work for you guys yet, but what has it meant for you guys to play with some of the other veterans or each other to see what works? Are you guys kind of getting a handle on that right now?
KRISTY McPHERSON: She’s switched it up quite a bit. I played a different group today than I have the last few times we’ve been here. But she’s trying to keep us guessing. So if you find out, you let me know.
But I don’t think any of us really know. I think we have kind of an idea of a few people she might put us with. But yeah, I think our three captains, they’ve been through a lot of Solheims, so I think they know what they’re doing. I think whatever pairings they come up with are going to be the right pairings.
Q. Michelle, with your career and ancestry, I want to ask you what Yang’s victory in the PGA Championship meant to you and how much you got to see of it on TV?
MICHELLE WIE: I think it was great. I was really pulling for him. I played a practice round with him back in Japan, and I just thought he was the nicest guy and a really great player.
You know, I saw him at the Reno Tahoe. We always were kind of close. He’s a really great guy, and I was really glad to see him pull through. It was very unfortunate for Tiger, but I thought it was good.
You know, golf is interesting; you can play bad or you can play good. But I thought it was really great, just because I know him personally and he gave me a couple putting tips here and there, so I was pulling for him.
But I think it was pretty cool because if I tried to lift a golf bag, all my clubs would fall out the other side. But I thought it was pretty cool he did that.
I didn’t see any of it because I was on a plane, and we had to get rerouted to Indianapolis to refuel and then try to go back again. But I unfortunately couldn’t see any of it.
Q. I don’t think I’ve ever asked a fashion question during one of these, but are you going to be wearing that hat during the competition?
BRITTANY LANG: We might not let her. Just kidding. (Laughter).
MICHELLE WIE: I mean, yeah, sure. I’ll wear it.
Q. Have you guys had a chance to get outside and see the area at all while you’ve been here?
KRISTY McPHERSON: No. We have been here the whole time. But fortunately it’s not a bad place to be. They’re treating us really well, and they have us busy, especially this week. They’ve treated us so well here, you wouldn’t really want to go anywhere else.
The first time we were here, myself and Angela and Brittany went over to a Cubs game and got to spend a little bit of time in the city. But I don’t think we’ll get much time this week for any of that.
MICHELLE WIE: Well, I really wanted to go to Lollapalooza, but unfortunately we didn’t go, but oh, well.
Q. Kristy, at the Women’s Open you talked a little bit about hoping that your fellow South Carolinian, Beth Daniel, would pick you for the team. I was wondering if you had any interesting moments with Beth, having been picked, and just some discussions because she’s someone I believe you said you’ve looked up to for a long time.
KRISTY McPHERSON: Yeah, she’s always been my favorite, growing up in South Carolina, and our Player of the Year Award was always the Beth Daniel Award. Obviously I worked hard for that award a couple times, but it was more exciting that I got to meet her so that she could give me that award.
Growing up, she was always my idol; I always looked up to her, and when I found out she was going to be the captain, that just gave me more motivation to want to be on this team.
It’s been cool. You know, it’s nice to actually be able to live out, literally, a dream, a dream come true. It’s been really cool that my first Solheim, my favorite player is our captain.
We throw out a little South Carolina. We’ve got our own little words. Meg is trying to make fun of us a little bit. Meg came up to me yesterday and said, ‘What do you call a guy that doesn’t have any hair?
’ I’m like, ‘He’s bald headed.’ Not ‘bald,’ ‘he’s bald headed.’ She’s like, ‘You and Beth are the only two I’ve ever heard that have ever said that. That’s definitely a South Carolina thing.’
But Beth was singing a little karaoke to me in the trailer earlier today, we were singing a little country together and bringing back the Carolinas together. It’s just a really cool experience to be on her team.
