“It was tough this morning, but I’m very happy right now. I had a really good start, same as yesterday. Two birdies to start. I felt good with my putting, comfortable with my game. A little nervous at the end, but I did it.”

“I got off to kind of a slow start. Not many birdies starting out. Got to No. 8, put a good swing on it, made birdie and just took off from there.”

“In college, we would play 36 hole days. If you’re playing good, it’s a good thing. I am playing good, so I’m looking forward to going back out there.”

“I wasn’t playing poorly on the front nine, but she made a good birdie on No. 2 and I wasn’t able to make many putts. I squared things up on No. 7 with a birdie and then I made bogey on No. 9. I lipped out on 10, birdie on 11, lip out on 12 and then I started to find my putter. I made a huge birdie on 13, huge save on 14 and that kind of took the wind out of her sails. I felt like I was down the hole match, but I won.”

“The speed of the greens is different today, so I think toward the back I was able to find the speed. I’ll go rest and relax, eat some lunch and get ready for the quarterfinals.

“I didn’t play my best. Brittany definitely hit some really good shots out there and just couldn’t take advantage of it. She missed some putts out there and kind of kept me alive, just getting up and down. Made some great birdies on the back nine. I just knew I had to grind it out. I wasn’t hitting it the way I wanted to, but that’s match play.”

“It’s nice to go against players who you’ve been teammates with on the U.S. Solheim Cup team. In this [format], you can’t really think of it that way. You just have to think of them as another competitor. We’re teammates but at the same time we go against each other every week so it kind of counterbalances it.”

“I had another good, tense match today. To last three rounds, after play I felt some like I passed some test or I grew up. I think I had a lot of experience in the last three days, even today. I have confidence with my game. I think I had a great day today.”

“I played really good today, much better than the last two days. Julieta played really good today too so it was a really good match. I think it was fun to play with her too.

“My putting was getting better. You get more confidence when you drop a couple putts in. She played so well so that pushed me harder.”

"It felt like the Solheim Cup walking up 18, but it was the U.S. against me. We both had our opportunities, played solid, but I felt like I should have won today. It was nice to finish it off."

“I played horribly. I didn’t hit the ball very well. I fought until the end, hit a good bunker shot, but she made a good putt and there is nothing I can do about that.”

On hitting the flagstick at 17

“I did. It was very unfortunate.”

On Gustafson’s drop on 15

“She deserved the drop. It was against the house.”

On Gustafson closing out the match on 18

“It was a hard putt. She’s a good player and she made a good putt. There’s nothing I can do about that. I tried my hardest. It’s march play, you just never really know.”

MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Paula Creamer into the interview room. First off, congratulations on your win today, beating Aree Song 5 & 4. Can you just take us through your match a little bit and kind of how things went out there today?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, I won the first hole. Actually, I won the first three holes, then I lost the fourth hole, then we tied 5 and I made a good up-and-down on 6, and then I won 7, 8, 9, 10. And from there on -- I mean, all day I hit the ball really well, I only missed a couple greens out there. These greens are fairly big but, you know, they're putting pin placements out there where you've kind of got to shape your shot in there and if you miss it a little bit, you are in a bunker or whatnot.

But overall I played very steady, a lot of pars. I made a bunch of birdies, too, which is what you need in match play. You know, it all kind of depends on how the match is going, if you need to force things or you can just kind of play with pars. But when you have those opportunities for birdie, you definitely need to make them.

MODERATOR: When you get off to a hot start like that in match play, how much of a difference does that make getting off to an early lead and winning the first three holes?
PAULA CREAMER: Yeah, that's the best way you want to do it. You want to get in the lead as soon as you can. I've always liked to do that. I mean, sometimes, you know, you're 3-down through 3 and you've got to fight your way back, but it is something that you look at. You want to kind of start off strong.

Q. I just want to double check. You play Karrie next, is that correct?
PAULA CREAMER: Yeah, I don't know who's winning that match.

Q. If you do play Karrie in the next match, match of that magnitude in the second round and if you do end up playing her, what -- how do you deal with someone like that who's had a hot start this year, a veteran?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, I'm just going to have to come out and play good golf. Playing Webby is going to be a great match. She's playing really well and today I kind of -- I played well also, so that's a good thing. With my confidence and I'm hitting my irons really well, if I can go in there and shoot some darts early on, who knows what's going to happen. But, you know, that would be -- it's okay if you have hard matches here or there, you're going to have them throughout the tournament.

Q. Surprise you any (inaudible.)
PAULA CREAMER: No, I really admire Webby. I think that she's -- she's a great golfer, she's very nice. You know, when I first came out here, she's definitely kind of taken me under her wing in a sense but in a tougher way, not as -- more as a competitor, feisty kind of relationship that we have. We can give each other grief back and forth. Same thing with Juli. And I really have appreciated kind of how she's talked with me over the years and helped me get to where I am. She's a great, great person for the game of golf and she's done a lot, number one player in the world and all of that, and to see her playing great again I think is wonderful. She's kind of the Se Ri of Australia and I think that's neat when you can have so much influence in your country for a sport.

Q. Yesterday you said you were a mudder. Was today a muddy course, or how was it?
PAULA CREAMER: It was -- there's a couple bad holes out there. I only took casual water once today. They did a great job of squeegeeing it. You saw number 2 where we were standing in the fairway and they were squeegeeing it for us out there. The staff and superintendent did a good job of draining the water out. But there's no rule. You can fly it to the pin, that kind of thing, but you are hitting longer clubs in, 5-, 7-woods and some 6-irons where you have to be very accurate with it. But it was -- it wasn't quite, you know, the muddiest golf course I've ever played, that's for sure, but it was wet.

Q. (Inaudible.)
PAULA CREAMER: It's an everyday, it's an ongoing thing. We have a very, very good relationship, Webby and I, and it's -- I think we have a lot of respect for each other, what we've done. I felt like I had to definitely earn my respect from her and I like that. She challenges me, she gives me grief, tells me -- talks about my pink balls, stuff like that, and it's fun. That's what -- those are the people that I really like to be around, that can take it but also they can give it pretty well.

Q. (Inaudible.)
PAULA CREAMER: No, goodness, gosh. It's pink, my goodness.

Q. Anything out of bounds in the give-and-take?
PAULA CREAMER: Yeah, it's pretty good. Like I say, we have a very, very -- there she is even. Look at Webby. No, I do -- like I said earlier, I think it's great when you can have that, especially in sports. You see in men's, you know, sports all the time and there's no reason why you can't have that out here and that's the fun part. We can play against each other, but at the end of the day, we go eat dinner or whatnot.

Q. Cristie was in here a little while ago and she, I guess, switched clubs, switched putters right before this event. I don't know if you've ever done that right on the eve of an event. How difficult is that to do, just to totally change what's in your bag?
PAULA CREAMER: I changed my putter last night, so it's not that hard, but, you know, I think -- I don't know about irons. I'm not much of a person who switches equipment much. I like to kind of tune it in in the off season, and then when I get out here, I don't have to worry about any of that, but sometimes you do have to figure things out. Like with my putter, I played nine holes with it yesterday and I went and put it in the bag today, so it just depends. It's not an out-of-the-ordinary kind of thing, but it's not something everybody does every night.

MODERATOR: All right. We would like to welcome Karrie Webb into the interview room. Congratulations on your 3 & 2 win. Can you just give us your initial thoughts on your match and how things went out there today?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, I was very disappointed that I actually picked Sarah on Tuesday. You know, I've known Sarah for quite a few years now and, you know, watched her progress with her career and she's been playing quite nicely, but she is so -- I didn't like the fact that I had to play her in the first round. Would have been better to meet her somewhere further down the track, I guess, but I was concerned how I would feel being out there. I mean, if it's someone that you're not necessarily friends with, you don't worry if you're making birdies or stuff like that and I worried if that would concern me.

But I played really nicely. We had a really good match actually. I was at 5-under and Sarah's at 2-under, so we both played really well. I hit my irons really well. I think I had six birdies, but four of them were quite, you know -- she gave me a couple, I didn't even have to putt. The one I played on the last was about three feet, so I hit the ball really quite nicely.

Q. How did your relationship that Paula was talking about start? Did you as a veteran player see her and say, gee, this is a woman who has promise, I'm going to help her out, or how did that work out?
KARRIE WEBB: Actually, the first time I ever played with Paula was here in her rookie year, played against her. Up until that point we really -- you know, I didn't know Paula very well at all. Obviously I knew she was a great player because she had won already a couple of times, but I actually -- I won that day and I actually think -- not that she didn't have respect for me because she'd never seen me play. I think after that day, that's kind of when things changed between us. My caddie Mikey probably initiated it a little bit more. He started giving her a really hard time, then I would chirp in on it. Paula gives it back as good as she can get it, so, you know, the back and forth, you know, friendly banter. And since then, you know, I think we've developed a friendship when we're out here on the road. I love playing with her.

Last year when she was injured, I really felt, you know -- I felt that the Tour really missed her presence out here. I'm not going to say any more because she's walking in, but I think we really did miss her presence out here. She's a great personality. She's a fierce competitor and I'm looking forward to our match tomorrow.

Q. Did you see something in her that said, I could help her, I could do something for her, because that's what it sounded like --
KARRIE WEBB: Oh, yeah? I didn't hear that part. Yeah, I think you know, because it's an individual sport, sometimes it's very hard -- I'm always happy to help people if they come and ask, but there's a fine line between offering help and not. So I'm not sure what Paula's referring to actually, but I'm glad I've helped her out.

Q. Is there a little bit of, you know, for a veteran player like you and a young player like her, do you feel like there has to be sort of a little bit level of respect from some of the younger players towards the veteran players?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, I guess so because I felt I gave that respect when I was starting out to the older players. I think the younger players have it easy now because as a veteran -- when I first came on Tour, if you didn't respect the veteran players, they let you know it.

I don't feel like there's a group of us out here that -- you know, I mean, we'll -- if there's someone that we feel is not respecting us, we'll talk amongst ourselves but we won't actually say something to that player as much.

It was made pretty well known if you were disrespecting a veteran player when I was a rookie, so I was always on my best behavior. And, you know, to me, I've always respected the great players of the game whether they're younger than me or older than me. When I came on Tour, to me the greatest generation of the LPGA were not quite in their peak when I came on Tour, but it's the late '70s and '80s generation with Nancy Lopez, Beth Daniel, Betsy King, Pat Bradley, Patty Sheehan, you know, Juli Inkster. You know, all of those players made the Hall of Fame and they competed against each other week in and week out, so when I came out on Tour, I was just in awe of actually playing alongside them let alone I was actually competing against them. So yeah, you know, I feel very lucky to have been able to play early enough to play alongside them.

Q. Why were you such a low seed in this with two victories?
KARRIE WEBB: I think it was off last year's money list is how they did it.

Q. Because of the way it was pulled out of the hat, there's no advantage one way or the other, but could there have been for you?
KARRIE WEBB: The only way I would have been a higher seed was if they did world rankings, but since they did it off last year's money list, I finished 23rd on the money list, that's why I'm 23rd seed.

Q. Seeding doesn't bother you, I assume?
KARRIE WEBB: Well, Paula and I shouldn't be playing each other in the second round if they did it off world rankings because I think I'm 8 and Paula's 10 or somewhere around there. we shouldn't be meeting probably for another couple of rounds, but they did it the way they did it and it's still going to be a great match tomorrow.

Q. Is that wrong the way they did it?
KARRIE WEBB: I don't think there's any right or wrong. You know, I think we have the Rolex World Rankings for a reason and, you know, I think that generally has the current form of players rather than someone who played not as well last year but started off the year well like myself.

Q. What's been the key to your success this year?
KARRIE WEBB: I don't really -- can't nail anything down specifically besides the fact that the ball's going in the hole quicker, but I got off to a really good start this year. I was able -- I played a couple of events in Australia before I started in Thailand, so I think I was able to get the roughs off there, which was nice. And probably Thailand, Singapore, which I won, and then the Founders, you know, I probably did a really great job mentally. My short game, my putting was really good, so the difference between winning and not winning sometimes is not necessarily doing everything great, it's doing the things at the right time and, you know, I think that's really the difference.
Early on in the tournament, I get up -- I miss a green, I get up and down and that keeps the forward momentum going rather than making a bogey and trying to play catch-up. I found that that's, you know, if anything, that's mostly the secret. I mean, it's -- neither here nor there, it's just a little bit of momentum going the right way.

Q. It seems in all the matches of the winners we've seen today, getting out for the early lead is key. I mean, how important is that?
KARRIE WEBB: It is and it isn't. You know, I don't -- you know, I didn't ever really feel comfortable with -- I had a 2-up lead through 10. I was 3-up through 4 or 5. I could have been 4-up -- 4-up through 6 and Sarah made a nice par putt, and then I was -- I hit the green in two on 7 and she missed the green, she chipped to about six feet, I 3-putted and she made it. Then it's 2-up and I hit it to a foot on the next, she gave it to me and she made a 20-footer. So you're never really comfortable with the lead unless you get out to 4- or 5-up. Once it's back to 2-up, you only have to lose one hole and there's really nothing in it, so Sarah really kept me on my toes that way. You know, I was glad I hit the ball so well, I didn't miss the green, so I was always putting the pressure on her.

MODERATOR: Any more questions? Thank you very much, Karrie.

KARRIE WEBB: Thanks, guys.

MODERATOR: Cristie, thanks for joining us. Congratulations on defeating Amanda Blumenherst today 3 & 2. Birdied four of the first five holes and kind of got off to a strong lead. Can you take me just through match a little bit today and some general thoughts on what happened out there?
CRISTIE KERR: Sure. Well, I played really well today. I switched irons two days ago because I just was not hitting my irons well and got a new feel with some new irons and started hitting it better and got off to a quick start. Birdied, I think -- trying to remember the holes now. I think I birdied three out of the first five holes and then made a great save at the sixth hole, and you know, I was 4-up through eight holes I believe and, you know, she started to come back.

I made a huge putt on the 10th hole for birdie because I knew she was going to make that one, and then got back to 4-up on the 11th hole and she hung -- she hung in there and she made some great putts to stay in it.

She took me to the 16th hole and we both hit it close, and I was just inside her tee shot on the par 3 and she missed her putt and I was just able to lag it down there, so that was kind of a synopsis of the round.

I drove it really well, hit my irons really well, and I putted -- I made a lot of putts. I switched putters this week, too, so just kind of finding some new feels in my game and it felt really good today.

Q. Wholesale changes like that the week of a tournament that's a little unusual.
CRISTIE KERR: Well, I had played around with these clubs the last couple weeks that we had off and I said, well, I'm going to give my irons one more chance when I get to the tournament and I just didn't hit them well, so I didn't really have a choice. Why play something that feels worse, right? It's a hard enough game.

Q. Ridiculously long because of the moisture and all that out there, or is that a bit overrated?
CRISTIE KERR: No, it is playing longer, but they were able to, on some of the really long par 4s, move the tees up a little bit. We're still hitting long clubs in, but instead of a 3-wood, we have a 5-iron and that's enough into some of these greens.

So it is playing long. I thought it would be a little bit more wet in the fairways than it was. I mean, they got so much rain yesterday, I was able to get nine holes in and practice before the three inches of rain fell at about 3:00 yesterday. But they've done a heck of a job with getting the golf course in shape and I think they made the right call at the pro-am. You know, having a couple hundred people out there I think would have just destroyed the course, and it's unfortunate but I think they were -- it was a tough call, but I think they made the right call.

Q. The birdies at the start, were they a result of approach shots or --
CRISTIE KERR: I'm trying to think. I hit a great approach into 1 and just missed the putt. Second hole, I was about 15 feet. Neither of us hit it really close on the par 5 and I made my putt. I made a great par save at the par 3. I hit it over the green, kind of hooked it and I made about a 15-footer for par. She ended up -- you know, looked like she had the advantage on that hole because she was kind of on the front left part of the green and she knocked it way by the hole, and I said, well, I'm kind of still in this hole, and she missed it and I made it to go 2-up. The next hole, hit it close. The par 5 next hole, I made probably about a 12-footer, so I did a lot of things right.

Q. (inaudible) play from in front when you get off to a good start like that?
CRISTIE KERR: Well, I think in match play, getting off to a good start's everything. You certainly don't want to have to fight and come back the whole round. Ideally, yeah, if you're one or two down, you can come back and win matches, for sure. But it's a lot more -- you can play in your comfort zone a little bit more when you're up. You don't really pay attention as much. So that's what my game plan was, to get her down quick and to keep applying the pressure.

Q. What brands are your new irons and putter?
CRISTIE KERR: They're Callaway, Callaway Diablo forged irons. You know, I've always switched back and forth. I've putted with about three putters my entire career, either that Marksman I won a couple tournaments with last year. I have a 2-Ball, Odyssey 2-Ball, I've putted with that many times. It's got a line on it, which is a little different for how I used to putt with that putter, and played with a Ping Craz-e, so three or four putters. I don't really switch around that much, but I have -- when I like a putter, I tend to make a lot of backup putters just so, you know, if something happens or change the feel up or -- you've got to see the ball going in the hole or even if you just have to change.

Q. And the shafts, are they men's regulars or stiffs?
CRISTIE KERR: They're just men Plus 10 steel shaft. They're in between a stiff and a regular.

Q. A couple years ago you said you had a place in New York. Is this a tournament where you can commute back and forth and sleep in your own bed?
CRISTIE KERR: No, no, the New York apartment is a great place to be able to hang out for 30 or 40 days a year, but it's mostly an investment property. But now with traffic, it would be at least an hour both ways. There's no way.

Q. When did you start to realize that you weren't really feeling it with your other -- was it something you could sense coming on?
CRISTIE KERR: Yeah, you know, it's -- I haven't hit my irons real well all year. I think this is probably the best I've hit my irons this year, which, hey, sometimes you just need a switch, you know? My coach, Bryan Lebedevitch, is here and we worked on some more basic kind of stuff and just really broke it down yesterday and I just started hitting it much better and I was a lot more comfortable on the course. I was standing very far away from it and just things have kind of started falling into place.

Q. Can you take momentum from this into tomorrow, or is every match sort of -- you know, does nothing carry over?
CRISTIE KERR: Well, I mean, you want to hope it carries over but every day's different. And, you know, everybody who plays tomorrow will have won today, so I guess you start fresh and try to do the same game plan over again.

Q. The way the schedule is set up this year, how important are the next six to eight weeks? I mean, if a player were to get hot, play well the next six, eight weeks, you could make your year, and I guess the opposite would be true, too?
CRISTIE KERR: That's the game plan. I feel like we've -- since our championship last year to this point, it feels like I've had six tournaments in six months and, you know, it's hard for me to play golf like that. I couldn't go over to Australia or Asia beginning of the year prior to Thailand because I had to take care of my mom. She had surgery in Miami for removing part of her colon. She had diverticulitis, so that's major surgery at her age. So I felt like I haven't played much golf and it's frustrating and you're like, well, it doesn't feel right, and then you realize, well, I haven't play much golf. I'm happy that we have a bunch of golf coming up ahead now.

Q. Does match play suit your personality more so than stroke?
CRISTIE KERR: I like them both, but they're different. I mean, I'm a Libra. It's hard to get a straight answer out of a Libra. So it's a different, you know, challenge. You have to -- you have to play your opponent but play your own game. There's a lot more strategy involved than just knocking it on the green and putting it in the hole. It's fun, it's fun to be able to get to play this.

Q. Kevin Na-type experience in stroke play over the years?
CRISTIE KERR: I don't know what that is.

Q. Kevin Na --
CRISTIE KERR: I probably don't care to.

Q. -- 16 in the woods a couple of weeks ago --
CRISTIE KERR: I don't know.

Q.  -- on the PGA TOUR.
CRISTIE KERR: I don't know. There's not many woods on this golf course so I'm not going to worry about it this week.

Q. On Tuesday you were a couple minutes late for the draw? Were you disappointed --
CRISTIE KERR: I was there 30 seconds late.

Q. Were you disappointed they wouldn't let you draw?
CRISTIE KERR: No, it's fine. I guess I was there late and there's something nice to be said that you don't pick who you're playing against anyways. I don't know, I don't think it matters. I was there, though.

Q. You said obviously with your mom and schedule, you haven't played much. When you were changing -- I mean, how much weigh rust versus this just isn't feeling right?
CRISTIE KERR: I think it was a little of both. For me I need to be playing to kind of know what to work on and obviously we haven't had many tournaments. Definitely rust and definitely okay, what are we working on, not exactly sure, so they all kind of add up. But it's nice, you know, from Mobile to now I only took like two days off. Before Mobile we had three weeks off after the Kraft and I took two of those weeks off because I need something to be motivated to practice for and there were just -- there were like two tournaments in five or six weeks and that's just hard for me.

Q. You've won before. Is that a driving goal for you, or is it more majors, more wins, more -- or is it a combination?
CRISTIE KERR: Well, yeah, I think obviously it is a goal and I've been there and I like how it feels being on top. You know, to do that, I'm going to have to win some tournaments and win some majors, so it all kind of goes together. It would be nice to do both.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Cristie.

CRISTIE KERR: Thanks, guys.

MODERATOR:  We'd like to welcome Paula Creamer, who's the number 10 seed in the 2011 Sybase Match Play Championship.  You'll take on Aree Song tomorrow. Paula, if you would, just talk about being here in match play.  You weren't able to be here last year because of your injury.  What's it like to be back?
PAULA CREAMER:  It's nice to be back.  They switched the nines, that was really the biggest difference that I noticed.  The golf course is playing really long.  It's a good thing kind of that you're playing your opponent; you don't really have to worry much about playing the actual golf course, you just have to beat the person that you're playing. But the greens are really good.  For as much rain as we've had here, they're pretty quick.  You know, they're soft, but like I said, you're just playing your opponent, you're not playing the course as much.

MODERATOR:  If you would just talk a little bit about your first round match-up, what you're looking forward to.
PAULA CREAMER:  Yeah, it's going to be a good match against Aree.  I know she got her card in the fall so this is -- she had such a good junior amateur career and everybody remembers that putt that she made at Kraft that one year on 18 for eagle, but she's a really strong player.  I know that I'm not going -- I'm going to have to go out there and play some good golf and not take anything for granted, see what happens.  That's the greatest thing about match play, you never know, just me versus her.

Q.  Two things.  What about this being the place of your first LPGA win and how much that means, but also coming back here and  playing in less than perfect conditions.  I know you're playing one-on-one, but how does rain change the way you have to play and the heavy course and just the conditions in general?
PAULA CREAMER:  Well, I won the Sybase but it was actually at Wykagyl, before it moved here.  So obviously there’s special ties with Sybase and now being part with SAP, which is one of my sponsors.  I feel good to be here and know that I'm excited to play.  I love match play, and the fact that the golf course is playing much different than what we played before, used to be -- when I played it last, it was I think more in the summer, so it was playing hard and firm and there was holes where we were hitting wedge into and now we're hitting 5-irons and 7-woods, so it's a completely different golf course.  It's playing -- with the heavy air and the rain, it's just playing long and, you know, hopefully we don't get too much today.  I think we've been lucky so far because it differently needs to dry out.

Q.  How does it change the way you play the game, though, as far as having to deal with the soggy conditions, just heavier air, that kind of stuff?
PAULA CREAMER:  It just -- you've got to add more club.  Unfortunately, you have to pull some more head covers off than what the golf course is made to.  Hopefully they move up some of the tees because of the setup.  There's some holes where it just is not meant to be played that way, but it is match play so it's a different concept of the way you think and the way you set it up because now it doesn't really matter, it's just what you're playing against your opponent.

Q.  You said you love match play.  Can you just talk about what you love about it and what makes it what you enjoy?
PAULA CREAMER:  I've always loved match play.  I think it's great because also we don't get to play it very often.  We play Solheim Cup every other year and we play this event once a year.  It's just a lot of fun.  I love playing one-on-one.  You know, you have to go out and make birdies, you have to -- sometimes par wins.  It's just any given person's day.  When we play golf normally, you're playing for four days.  Well, right now I'm just playing for that one match and you can't get too far ahead of yourself and you have to be thinking about that match at that time and I like that.  I like being able to, you know, play against someone.  I think it's a lot of fun.  It's a great way to play the game.

Q.  Obviously your sport in general is always fighting for its attention, portion of attention, and especially when you come around here.  Do you think matches might compel fans a little bit more?  Personally speaking, what do you think would help women's golf grow in popularity?
PAULA CREAMER:  Just new things, new exciting things, different ways to make the game creative.  It will always be a gentleman's game, you never want to take that away from it, but match play is a fun way to play golf.  It gets the fans involved.  It just -- who knows what's going to happen.  You could have -- look on paper and it should be a definite win, but it doesn't necessarily come out that way.  Sometimes underdogs will win and I think that's a neat thing for sports in general.

For golf, I do think that we're kind of being more creative, ways that we portray ourselves and go out there with tournaments, and right now I think that's a necessary thing to do, but as long as we don't get too far out of the box, I think that will -- starting to draw more attention to the game.

Q.  Does a day go by yet where you're not asked about finally winning a major?  And looking back on having won that, was not winning one to that point kind of like an albatross, you get the proverbial monkey off your back?
PAULA CREAMER:  Oh, without a doubt.  Now it's not -- now that you've won your first major, it's when are you going to win your next one?  I was like, man, I thought it was over after you won the first one.  I always looked at a person's career by how many majors they've won and I definitely don't want to just have one, I want to have multiple.  But to have two, you've got to have one, so for me, that was huge. 

It was an unbelievable week, just with everything that I had to overcome.  I was in a lot of pain, but at the same time it was what I had to do.  And having it, you know, my first win be a Women's Open, being an American, being very patriotic, it was pretty neat.  I've come so close in the past, maybe it was just meant to be in a sense, to be at Oakmont with the tradition, the history, all the top players there, I couldn't have been happier to be grouped with them.

Q.  About to enter into sort of the heart of the LPGA schedule, tournaments in America, lot of majors coming up.  Could you tell me a little bit, is it strange, this seven or eight week stretch (inaudible) is hot right now or emerge as the player of the year right now, just talk a little bit about playing well this time of year.
PAULA CREAMER:  For me, it's been a pretty hard year, just being able to try to figure out how to prepare for one tournament in a week and then you get three weeks off.  I'm a person that likes to play a lot, so I'm really looking forward to this next seven, eight week stretch where I can actually get out there and start playing and find my momentum. 

A lot of players, you know, they base their schedule by the majors or how they're going to play.  I'm a person that likes to play so I'm kind of glad that it's all going to be grouped in.  Now we're getting back to what I'm used to, of playing a lot of tournaments, so I'm looking forward to that.  It's tough that, yeah, eight weeks right now, we're going to have to play the best golf that you can because that's where the heart of the tournaments are.  But it's the way it is and we're just going to have to go out there.  I've been working really hard.  I've been trying to get back on track with things and I feel like my game is definitely coming to where I want it to be.

Q.  Obviously you want to play well in every event you enter, but the way the schedule's set up, is each event even heightened in performance because you only have so many chances to sort of make your mark?
PAULA CREAMER:  Without a doubt, you do have to go into every tournament like it's a major in a sense because we don't have as many.  You have to play well.  You can't get too far behind in the race to No. 1 or any of that because we don't have that many.  Not something that I looked at.  And unfortunately I haven't quite had the start that I wanted, but we still have a lot of tournaments left and hopefully I can get back into the mix of that.

Q.  When you won at Wykagyl in rain, much was made of your ability to play in the rain.  Is it still the case, that you're a mudder?

PAULA CREAMER:  I am definitely a mudder.  I like grinding it out.  I like playing when it's cold.  I like playing when it's rainy.  I think it's fun.  I think the tough competitors prevail from that.  I think that they -- you know, you have that, you have to have the heart to play in the nasty conditions out there, and unfortunately golf's not the best sport to be playing in the mud.  I would rather be playing football or something, but it is what it is. 

My dad and I when I was younger always practiced in the rain, but he made it a lot of fun for me.  Coming out here, I remember hitting out of puddles and things like that, so I still have a lot of happy memories of playing in the rain.  Winning at Wykagyl, you know, we had to pop open the umbrellas it was raining so much.  So I do like that, I like playing in the tougher conditions.

Q.  Do you root for rain?
PAULA CREAMER:  Sure, unless there's lightening.  Other than that, I do, I like it when it's hard.  I like it when it's a little more difficult than the average 80-degree sunny weather.  Golf's hard enough, so let's make it harder.

Q.  Any head games when you play match play?
PAULA CREAMER:  Definitely, there's always those little things that you can do out there.  You know, you have little things about who's going to putt, that kind of stuff, you know.

Q.  Do you?
PAULA CREAMER:  Do I?  Not necessarily.  No, I just go out and try to make as many birdies as I can.  The biggest thing about match play, you can't give anybody any extra, you know, free shots out there.  You have to definitely make your pars, make somebody make birdie on every hole.  You've got to take advantage of holes when they come up.  Par 5s are going to be big out here this week because the par 4s are so long, so the short game's going to have to play a factor.  Head games, some people play them, some people don't.  You just have to know your opponent.

Q.  Continuing on with the head game theme, when do you -- I don't know what word to use -- get nasty and say make that 2-footer?
PAULA CREAMER:  It depends, it all depends on the way the match is going.  You know, when you play certain people, I guess, you know their strengths and their weaknesses, but there's not like a moment where you say, oh, the 7th hole, I'm going to make you putt out a 3-footer, that type of thing.  You just have to feel your way through the match.

Q.  On Tour this year, I think this is the fifth or sixth event, only the third or fourth in the U.S.  What can the Tour do to get more events so that it's a full season?
PAULA CREAMER:  That's a question I think we're all asking ourselves, but I think our commissioner, he's doing a really good job with getting prospects of new sponsors and trying to figure it out.  It's been tough for everybody.  Unfortunately, our Tour has taken the brunt of that and the sponsors and whatnot, but there's a lot of people that are renewing, which is a good thing.  We have to look at the positives.  It's easy to look at the negatives all the time, and we do need to kind of fight through it and just grind it out and hopefully, by the next year, the year after that, we do have our 30-odd tournaments out here.  Hopefully we get some more tournaments in the States, and I think that's what all the girls want, even the international girls.  We want to play here.  This is our home.  Everybody has houses here, this is where we want to be, and I think that kind of gets overlooked in the fact but we do want to play here.  But I'm a global player and I don't mind going overseas and traveling, but I do want to play here as well.

Q.  Share your impressions having won the U.S. Open (inaudible.)
PAULA CREAMER:  I have not been to the museum.  I was going to try to make my way out there this week.  We don't get very often to come up into the New Jersey area, especially when we are this close, but hopefully this week I'll have some time between rounds or whatnot to get out there and visit it.

Q.  With the schedule, did you change your physical approach at all?  Is it more like you try to simulate tournaments or how does that work in your off time?
PAULA CREAMER:  I've taken my off weeks a little bit differently than looking back on it now I probably should have changed a little bit of ways.  I should have played more tournaments in the off weeks, whether it's Sun Coast Series or whatnot.  But I've done a lot with my sponsors, I've done a lot with them, I went to the Masters, things like that again.  I've tried to make my time -- you know, do things as much as I could.

But at the same time I've really been trying to rebuild my golf swing, so I've been working really hard on my technique and my swing plane and things like that, so I've definitely had to go backwards a bit.  You know, changing your swing is something that you don't really want to do, but it's something that I need to do to get to where I want and it's kind of showed on the golf course.  But, you know, it is what it is and you do have to play -- you have to be competitive, tough.  I think that's why Maria Hjorth has played so well; she's played a lot of events even in her off weeks and I think that was a really smart move.

Q.  I was just curious of just hitting out of puddles, how else could you possibly make practicing in the rain fun?
PAULA CREAMER:  Honestly, we would do -- we would do anything.  We would just go out on the range, hit a lot of shots out of the water.  We would have matches, him and I, short game kind of stuff.

Q.  Is this in California?
PAULA CREAMER:  Yeah, in California.

Q.  Did you get much rain?
PAULA CREAMER:  Yeah, northern California, it rained all the time.  But it wasn't necessarily spending five hours out in the rain.  An hour, 45 minutes and that's it.  That's all you need to do.  You don't need to kill yourself out there.  But those are the things, we would just play a lot of games and that kind of thing out there.

Q.  Just maybe -- the question I was asking is with your swing change, is that a result of the injury last year you had to change it, or did you just want to change it?
PAULA CREAMER:  A little of both, both.  With my injury before, or before I had surgery, you could see a lot I'd get really flat with my golf swing, and now after surgery it's the complete opposite because my hand, I have no motion in my thumb anymore.  It's like concrete in there, so now I'm trying to rebuild about that.  But most importantly, I need to have a stronger golf swing that I can duplicate every single time and repeat.  I've done well with what I have, but I know I need to do a little bit -- get a little bit tighter so that I don't have as much pressure put on my hands and my thumbs.  The bigger muscles in my body can take over.  And that's something also, being 24, when I first came out here I was 18, the life out here, you tend to go backwards with your golf swing just because of the pressure and I wanted to do it to fix that.

MODERATOR:  I'd like to welcome Rolex Rankings Number 1 Yani Tseng to the interview room.  Yani, you are the fourth seed this week, you'll be playing Marcy Hart tomorrow.  If you would just talk a little bit about the Sybase Match Play.  I know you've had a lot of experience with match play and amateur golf.
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, I play lots of USGA events with match play.  I love match play because you can be aggressive all the time and just play one hole like very focused.  It's not like you're trying to beat the whole field, you just try to beat the person you play with.  I mean, it gets me off the little pressure because I don't think who else plays better or something.  So it was fun.  It's going to be a very fun week this week and I'm really looking forward. 

I never played with Marcy before, so I think it's going to be fun, too.  And course is really long, I wish they could move the tee up.  It's just going to be ridiculous.  I practiced yesterday and hit 5-iron, 4-iron and 6-iron, it was pretty tough, very tough course. 

MODERATOR:  Do you think that would be to your advantage, though, since you are one of the longer players to be -- especially since it's so long?
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, it will be, but I try to make (inaudible.)

Q.  Could you talk about how you grew up learning to play golf in your country, how popular it is there, how popular you are there, especially since you've become Number 1 one of the top players in the world?  Was it hard for you?
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, it's getting popular now because we have so many great players in the 10 years, but after that it was kind of like no one was coming out to play better.  Then after this, me, Candie, Mi Hyun, Teresa Lu, we kind of started again playing on the LPGA, Taiwanese players.  So it's getting popular and now have more TV following, more fans are following golf, too, because in Taiwan it's the age for the golf is not really that young for the young people so it's really helpful.  But now they're really just started watching the golf and they start getting understand how we play and how tough is it and they just start realize what is golf.  

I started playing golf with my dad and my parents since I was five, and my dad used to be club champion and that was like five thousand at the club, so he's pretty good, but not now, he's not playing well now.

Q.  I assume you played on a good golf course with decent equipment; is that accurate, or at five years old, did you have to scrape for good clubs and things like that?
YANI TSENG:  No, I just played with kid's club and I started playing on the driving range, so I don't go to the course a lot, I just hit on the driving range.  Just so much fun and first time my coaches teach me hit as hard as I can, so that's how -- just hit as hard as I can, I don't care where my ball's going and it was just really fun.

MODERATOR:  Now we do have a tournament in Taiwan.
YANI TSENG:  Yeah. 

MODERATOR:  Do you feel like you helped that happen?
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, I think so.  We working really hard.  I went to -- I go to see the president and vice president to see if they can give us -- try to find a sponsor.  And then the golf course is very, very good.  They play lots of Asian and European Tour there.  I've been training there like three or four years in that golf course, in the hotel.  I go home.  I think it's a really, really good course.  And government and all the place is very excited now and they all really looking forward to that tournament.

Q.  Can you talk about this season?  You played well this season, but now you're coming into a stretch where it's going to be almost every week.  Are you excited about that?
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, I'm very excited, but I do feel a little pressure because when you're No. 1, everybody's chasing you.  I'm working hard to be more consistently and we get so many great players on the LPGA Tour, and you never know, they can win every week.  You just need to keep working hard to beat them. 

Q.  Do you think a lot of people know that you are the Number 1 player in the world?
YANI TSENG:  I don't know.  I hope so.

Q.  As you walk around here, like go shopping or something like that, would people know who you are?
YANI TSENG:  Yeah.

Q.  In this country?
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, yes, much better now.

Q.  People do recognize you?
YANI TSENG:  Yes, but mostly as a golfer, but I'm still very happy, because I'm Asian, I'm from Taiwan and I'm really happy to get recognized here.

MODERATOR:  And you've really gone out of your way to make sure that fans know that you speak English and you're approachable. 
YANI TSENG:  Yeah.

MODERATOR:  Do you feel like that's a really important thing for you to do?
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, I think so, because most of the people here, we're Asian and I don't know if they know we can speak English.  I don't know they are like not -- I feel I'm close like this is -- I feel like LPGA's a big family, so I'm really enjoying it out here.  I think when I enjoy here and I think the fans enjoy watching us here, too.

Q.  In your own country, I mean, how much are you recognized there?
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, it's a little crazy.  I just -- they would tell me, oh, you did a good job.  Like, oh, you're Yani Tseng, and so they want to take pictures and signature, all kind of stuff, yeah.

Q.  What do you like to do to sort of relax or get away from golf?  Do you have any other hobbies or anything like that?
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, most of the time I hang out with friends, just stay at their home, kind of little private, because when you go out it's hard to have a beer and everybody's looking at you, so kind of go to a little private place and just have fun together.

Q.  How popular is golf compared to other sports in your country, and has it changed since you and some of the other women have --
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, I think it changed a lot because most of -- when I walking on the street, most of the young people know who I am, know golf now, so I think it's getting much popular.  But our -- most popular in Taiwan is baseball, baseball and basketball.

Q.  Did you play those, by the way?
YANI TSENG:  Yeah, I played basketball.

Q.  What's the hardest part about the longer breaks in the schedule?  What do you do to keep sharp during that time?  Do you play other tournaments away from the Tour?
YANI TSENG:  No, I stayed home in Orlando these few weeks.  This feel like forever though because this is like six weeks, only one tournament.  It was really tough.  And I know they're working really hard for this, too, and hopefully next year could change, but this is how it is, you just need to stay patient.  You know, I'm working with my coach, I go shopping, do lots of things to keep me relaxed and back on track again.

Q.  Do you feel when you finally come back, is your game a little different, or do you kind of have to knock the rust off a little bit?
YANI TSENG:  No, I don't think much different.  Last week I don't play well, I missed cut and that's in good shape.  It's been two weeks I didn't play well.  I think I must be put too much pressure on me because after three weeks, I want to play well and then I didn't, so this week I relaxed and I still feel really good right now and really looking forward.