An Interview with Suzann Pettersen

April 15, 2008

THE MODERATOR: Suzann, thanks for joining us today. You're coming off a great finish at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and coming off a season where you saw five victories, including your first win and your first major victory. Talk about playing here at this week's Ginn Open and a start of a lengthy stretch for you.
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Yeah, this is pretty much when the big stretch of the season starts. Up until now it's been warm up for the Nabisco, and now it's kind of the season has started.

Being home and staying in your own bed, that feels great. Coming down here to play, like it looks today, you know, it will be windy. I so think you have to be really patient this week. The greens will be tough. They're really firm, and it'll only get firmer as the days go by.

I mean, the finish out at the Nabisco, of course, gives my a lot of confidence coming into here. I had a great week off. Got a lot of work done. I feel pretty good.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions.

Q. Congratulations on last season. How has life changed since you won five tournaments and a major and have become the third-ranked player in the world now? How has life changed in the past 12 months?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: It hasn't really changed. I'm pretty much the same girl I was 12 months ago. I got a couple of wins and that gave me a lot confidence. Other than that, my game is improving every day. I don't know, I tee up every day because I love to. That's purely why we do this.

Q. Could you have foreseen what happened last year? Coming off '06, could you ever have forecasted you would win five times and soar to the top of the charts?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Yes. I mean, you believe in yourself. That's why you put all the work and hours in every day. I did a lot of changes in '06 to give myself some fresh blood and people around me, like a new start.

There was not an answer that that was going to be the right thing to do, but I gave it and go and it worked out. I'm working with great people and have great people around me. No, just try get better every day.

Q. Is there anything within the game that you did differently? Did you tweak anything in the swing or short game, long game? What was the key to the success last year?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I think I let myself play more with my instinct and nature. It's better than being too analytic on how to swing, but just go with the feel. I play most of my best golf when I have a good feel for what I'm doing.
So I probably let that have a big favor when I played. I would work on technique on the range, and once I got on the course I just let go and tried to hit all the different shots. I think that was a big part of kind of letting go and kind of more -- I mean, the ball is going to react. If you put a good swing, the ball will react naturally. That's what I was trying to do and I'm still doing it.

Q. After the Kraft last year, you had said when you won the McDonald's that you looked at that event and that kind of maybe was a slap in the face or woke you up, and that sort of drove you and maybe it was the key to winning McDonald's, what happened at Nabisco. Could you maybe rehash that a little bit and talk about that?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: It was obviously a pretty hard slap in the face, Nabisco last year. But I mean, I think I still believe that you learn from mistakes. That's the biggest learning curve. You learn. I don't want to analyze it too much, but you figure out how to do it different when you get in the same situation.

The more you're in that situation to be able to win on Sunday, the better you're going to know yourself. The easier it is to pull off the trigger you know it's always going to work.

So, of course. I mean, being in the Nabisco, I was in contention a couple weeks earlier than that and then kind of after coming up to and leading up to McDonald's. So it felt like I always kept myself competing. I think that's the most important thing: Give yourself the chance. If you give yourself the chance enough, sometimes you'll -- I mean, then you'll pull it off. I think that's important: Consistency.

Q. What was the feeling when you finished McDonald's and you knew that you had learned the lesson and now you're a major champion. What was that moment when you finished that tournament off, what was to like?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I don't know. I mean, all week I didn't feel like a favorite. I felt like an underdog. Even though I won once that year, I didn't feel like a big favorite. I just did my thing and felt like I was playing like under the radar. Then I just stuck to my game plan and it worked, even under pressure.
So that was nice revenge last year to actually get my first major after being so close the first time last year.

Q. Talk about taking the putter from the Pro-Am partner and you had just tell that story.
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, I didn't feel like I was putting that great. He is a very good friend of mine and been around me a lot of times. It's not like I brought in someone totally new that has never seen me play before. I asked him to look at my stroke because, like I say, he's been around me so many times. I been practicing and he's kind of got an eye for to.

He said, Why doesn't you try my putter. He came out with this big pink putter. I'm like, Yeah, this is just what I needed. Another big -- this in not what I need. Can you just look at my stroke? He said, Just feel it. It started rolling and all of a sudden what I've been trying to achieve with my putter came straight out of that putter.

He was like, I told you you should try it. It was rolling perfectly and I was like, That's it. It's mine. You want my old one? He was like, No, it doesn't work. I was like, That's true.

No, I wouldn't do it if it wasn't somebody I didn't know. He's a very good friend of mine.

Q. What's the relationship?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: He's one of my old coach's best friends, so he loves being around. He's a great player himself. He's been around a lot of good coaches and just one of those -- has an eye for something, and he's definitely got that one.

That was a nice little present the week before a major.

Q. (No microphone.)
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Like a day before we started.

Q. You said you made a lot of changes at the end of '06. What kind of changes?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Well, it wasn't a lot of -- yeah, it was maybe different. I changed coaches from a coach I've been working with for seven years. I didn't try to go too far away from what I had already been working on, but I tried to get somebody who was in the same area and had the same thoughts of how to swing the golf club. Mostly to just get some fresh blood. I mean, get some new thoughts going.

I thought that was good. And maybe -- sometimes working relationship gets almost too close and you spend too much time together. You can kind of get blindfolded. So to bring someone in from the outside who can probably see things a little different and explain stuff different, every now and again that's very healthy.

That what I did, and I, of course, started working with (indiscernible) and thatkind of sorted my head out. Not that to was totally off, but that helped me to get a little bit more structure in when I'm doing.

Together that just felt very comfortable and it felt good and I just have to go with to. It's been working very good. Good people.

Q. How do you feel you've been playing so far this year? Have you started as well as you might have liked? So far so good? Thoughts on that. A little disappointed?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Not really. I felt like, I mean, how our season builds up, the first that counts is the first major. I didn't get the start I wanted at Nabisco, but I still felt like I was playing good. I was so close to actually missing the cut. I told the people around me, I really hope I can play on the weekend, because it feels like my game is right there.

It just shows like how quick it can turn around in golf from being almost dead last and making the cut and being almost in contention on Sunday.

This season has been good. So far I'm better than last year, but I feel like my game is better than last year. I gave it a go in the first major, and that was what was planning to. It was a good build up.

Q. You kind of touched on a couple times here mentioning you actually from the start that this is kind of the stretch now where the season is starting. How difficult has it been with the early part of the LPGA schedule, two weeks on, one week off, you're in Hawaii, you go to Singapore, Mexico, hopscotching the ocean a couple times, and all a sudden you've got a major in front of you. Was it difficult to get a rhythm this year?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Everybody knows by the end of the year how the schedule is going to look for the next year. We have those two events in Hawaii, which is great. From there, we went to Singapore. Everything is optional. You don't have to play everything. You don't have to play an event before the major if you don't want to.

For me, it's like all the events I've played so far has just been -- there's been a purpose. Like Hawaii I wanted to go to see how everything was working with the new clubs and new ball. To get more comfortable. You actually have a scorecard in your hand.

Going to Singapore, of course you want to go there. You play great courses and great events, and, of course, a lot of the best players go there. I mean, I like traveling. I don't mind it.

I mean, like I'm saying, you pick your own schedule much. You play whatever you feel comfortable playing.

Q. Next week is the Stanford Pro-Am. First time in several years that the LPGA has had the full week Pro-Am on the schedule. Your thoughts on the importance of having a Pebble Beach/Bob Hope-type-type event on the LPGA schedule.
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I hope it will be fun. I've never played a tournament in that format before, so hopefully I'll get a good amateur. No, I mean, I've never played an event like that before. I can only tell you what I have seen from the LPGA Tour, how much of a big circus it is. I think it's good. It gives amateurs a chance to be around us when we actually compete. I think it'll be fun.

Q. Are you the type that enjoys the Wednesday Pro-Am enough to make to last over three or four days?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I mean, most likely you play with a bunch of good guys week in and week out. You build a lot great relationships. Next week it could be some new faces and it could be someone you might know. I don't know. It will be exciting.

Q. Have you had the chance to pick the brain of any PGA Tour players that you know as to what those events are like and what to expect?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: No. I just know the guys play their own game. They don't bother too much with the amateurs. Of course you're a team. You also have to think of yourself. It's a tournament, and you want to be there when that Sunday comes.

Somehow in all of the mixture you have to favor yourself and kind of play your own game. Of course, in between the shots you interact with the amateurs and try to make it as enjoyable for them as it is for you.

Q. Do you consider yourself a fast player when you're on the golf course? They've sort of reemphasized the pace of play this year the way they're timing players. I'm wondering whether you're in favor of doing what used to be done to ensure the pace of play gets moving?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I'm trying to be considerably fast. Yeah, I mean, I've only been on the clock once this year, so obviously I'm not one of the slowest out there. You want to keep up pace and make sure you get a round in in a decent time.

I think I was slower before. I sped up a lot since I came out here. You don't want to have that slow play nickname out here. That's not a cool thing.

Q. A lot of people would maybe assume that the PGA Tour would be the authority on certain things, but the LPGA is the first to drug test, and you guys are ahead of the curve on the pace of play. Is there a sense of pride that goes with being on a forward-thinking tour more so than other tours in some ways?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: Of course. I think the drug testing, I think that's a great assessment. I think it's great that we're doing it. Of course now it's easier for the PGA to take after us.

The pace of play -- just like some of these issues, I think it's the same policy everywhere. I think maybe LPGA has kind of headlined them maybe a little bit more than the other tours.

You just try to do the best for each tour. Yeah, I don't know how to answer that any different.

Q. Just Annika was talking about she has an appreciation for other things in life besides golf. Do you feel like she still has that aura about her of a dominate force? Do you still see that in her?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I kind of missed her last year. Just glad to have her back. You're so used to having her around and seeing her name on the board. She has made all of the younger players or all the other players on the tour work even harder to try to catch her.

Now Lorena is the one we're kind of trying to chase down. I felt sorry that Annika got injured last year. She's a good friend of mine, and it's just nice to have her back in the shape she wants to be and where she actually feels she is very competitive.

Of course she has the hunger. She's not done. She has way too much competitiveness in her and way too much game.

Q. Lorena is winning these tournaments by 11 shots and 5 and 6 shots. You guys play kind of a similar type of game: Aggressive and long off the tee. I'm wondering, those chances when you do get to play with her head-to-head if you really enjoy that? You guys flat go at golf courses the way most of these girls don't. They're playing for pars and you guys are playing for birdies.
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I enjoy playing with Lorena. We played a lot last year. Had some great matches coming down the stretch. Sometimes she pulls it off and sometimes I do.

She's a very enjoyable player to play with. She makes you feel comfortable around her. We just got to step up and make sure she doesn't win that many.
If you put Lorena under the gun, she will do mistakes like every other human being. I think we just got to step up and give her a bit of a challenge.

Q. Do you think your Nordic upbringing kind of creates a slower start to the season for you? When you were growing up you really weren't playing golf at this point in the year, were you?
SUZANN PETTERSEN: No. When I was a junior I played my best in like June /July. So it was a bit of a slow start when I was a junior. But now I don't think it really matters. I live here in Orlando. I have grass under my feet for 12 months out of the year. I can pretty much chose whenever I want to go hit golf balls.

But I think I would like to compete myself into form. I can practice day and day out, but to test yourself and stay sharp I need to play and compete. That's probably why Nabisco is a good time for me to peak. I've already had a couple months to tweak around.

That's why I'm actually looking forward to maybe getting to know Tiger a little bit through Nike. To pick his brain how he stays so sharp all the time. He can be six weeks off and he comes back and is as sharp as when he left.

That's a skill itself. Even when you practice, you're ready no matter what.

Q. (No microphone.)
SUZANN PETTERSEN: I mean, I'm a sports freak. Of course I follow the PGA Tour as much as I follow the LPGA probably. Of course Tiger, for me to just watch him on TV or the guys play, like the Masters this weekend -- I don't know, for me it's like a mental training.

I just really enjoy and get as excited as they do when they make putts and hit good drives. For me, it's like mental training to be watching other sports being played at a high level. Just use it as kind of a -- to your favor. I like to pick up stuff. You see guys hit certain shots.

And, yeah, I mean, like when he was younger I always played with the older boys in the club. I don't know. I just -- they're better than us and that gives us a challenge. At least me a challenge.

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