Lots of pre-tourney photos on my blog:
Michelle Wie, Lexi Thompson, Sophie Gustafson, Christina Kim, Melissa Reid and Laura Davies Shine Prior 2011 Dubai Ladies Masters Fairways and Forehands
Don’t close the book on women’s golf in 2011 quite yet. The 2011 Omega Dubai Ladies Masters boasts some of golf’s best ladies fighting it out for top honors at the Emirates Golf Club.
THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the media center, Michelle.
MICHELLE WIE: Thank you.
Q. How does it feel to be back at the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters?
MICHELLE WIE: Oh, it's so much fun coming back here. I was telling my parents on the ride from the airport we all agree this is one place we always get excited to come back to because there's always something new to do. I always find something new. I always feel like I've seen a lot of Dubai over the last two years, but coming here there's always something new to look for, always something new to try. It's such an interesting place; it's so mesmerizing, so I'm really happy to be here, and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.
THE MODERATOR: I guess that begs the question, what's new this year?
MICHELLE WIE: Well, I'm staying at the Jumeirah Hotel, and I'm staying in one of the villas, and I never knew the market place existed that was literally just upstairs. So that was really fun to kind of experience that, and there's so many cool things to do around the resort.
THE MODERATOR: Do we have questions for Michelle, please?
Q. Why don't we start by you summing up your year, 2011.
MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. 2011 was quite interesting, I think. I started off pretty good and then I kind of in the middle struggled a bit. Kind of one of those things where I kept kind of trying to work on my game and haven't played good a couple of weeks and then the weeks kind of turn into months. It was good, though. It was kind of a work in progress kind of year. I worked on a lot of things in my game. Obviously I didn't play as well as I wanted to, but hopefully I can end the year with a bang, and I didn't have a win this year, so a win this week would mean a lot to me. I think it was a year of trying to improve my game. I worked a lot on trying to improve that, and hopefully next year it'll pay off.
Q. Anything specific that you were working on, swing changes?
MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. I had a couple of swing changes, but just overall working on my game. You know, obviously when you do try to work on something, you know, the results sometimes don't come as quick as you want them to. But like I said, I worked on a lot of things this year, not particularly one in specific, but hopefully it'll pay off next year.
Q. Last year you were here back injuries seemed to be what was really bothering you most of the tournament. How is your health? I guess that's the first question. I mean as you've been at this for a while and winning and everything, to come into this tournament without a win, is it frustrating or how do you look at it?
MICHELLE WIE: Without a win this year?
Q. Yeah.
MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. I mean I had a couple of good finishes. But it is frustrating just because sometimes weeks didn't go my way, but at the same time you learn every week. Results aren't everything to me. They are almost everything, but at the same time every week I gave it my all; and as frustrated as I can be, I try to take a positive from it, and I feel like I improved quite a bit. Whether or not my results show it or not, I'm feeling like I'm getting healthy again with my body. My body feels pretty good. It's hard. I felt like I went through a lot of injuries with my back and whatnot, and I'm getting to a place where I want my game to be at, another level, and I'm working towards that. And sometimes it's not going to be all good weeks up to then, but like I said, I think winning this week would mean the world to me. I think it would mean more. So I'm really excited to play. I'm excited to be here and try to give it my all.
Q. Have you finished your studies or have some exams left like last year?
MICHELLE WIE: I took one yesterday, and I have one last one to take on Thursday. So I'll be quite excited afterwards.
Q. Considering that you're doing a course in journalism, do you give any more thought to what is being written generally in the newspaper and about you?
MICHELLE WIE: A little bit more, I have to say. It's interesting, I'm not really majoring specifically in journalism. I'm more like the research side of it, like more like the sociology side of it, but I just took a journalism class, and as a straight journalism class we wrote articles one of my articles got published in the Stanford Chronicle. You can look it up. But it's interesting because I'm usually on this side of the table. Being on that side of the table it's completely different, you know. You go out and try to find sources, and a lot of times there are ethics involved. If you're struggling to write papers, it's so easy to bring out a couple of words of what someone says and make a whole article about it. So I can see how that can happen. And a lot of times a couple of words are taken out of place and written a whole article about it, and it's sad because it's so easy to do it. I was tempted to do it, and I may have done it a couple of times where I was short on pieces, but it's interesting definitely to be on the other side of the table. I did learn a lot about it. I don't think I'm cut out for it, but it was interesting. It's a completely different way of writing, which I thought was really cool.
Q. Michelle, you've obviously been playing golf for quite a while now and from such a young age, people forget that you're 22?
MICHELLE WIE: 22, yeah.
Q. I mean just going on the back injury that you had last year, have you had to adapt your swing or ways in which you hit the ball, rather like Tiger, so you have a different way of hitting the ball so you don't get as injury prone? Have you changed your swing at all?
MICHELLE WIE: No, not since I was younger and I was working with David. That was always a big concern of ours. I want to play for a long time and be healthy and try to find a swing that promotes that. So David and I have been always working from the beginning to try and do that. Obviously none of my injuries really came from me pounding balls. All my injuries have been from me either falling or falling again and falling a third time. No, actually the back was really just a freak accident. There was a ball stuck in the ground, and I hit the other ball. So it never really happened for me over hitting or over playing or swinging too hard. Like I said, accidents happen, and unfortunately, I guess I'm pretty accident prone.
Q. Can you just talk about the course, whether this course is conducive for you to get a win that you want this week?
MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. I love this golf course. It's so interesting. You kind of play this golf course, and it's not like some courses where you have wedges every hole or it's very long every hole. There's a good combination; you have short holes, you have longer holes. You have holes you have to hit driver on, 3 woods, whatever. It just makes a really interesting golf course, and I played today, and the greens conditions are so magnificent. They're so great. They're better than last year, and last year was great, too. So it's pretty cool to come back here and play, and the course is very fun.
Q. Back to your studies, so after these tests you'll be done or do you have another year left or where are you at in your studies?
MICHELLE WIE: Well, after my exam on Thursday, I'll be done for this quarter, and I have one more quarter left, assuming that I pass all my classes.
Q. You've talked about this before, but in terms of school, what effect has that had on your game? Obviously practice is a big part of improving your game, and I think it was Sorenson that came out at some point this year and said you should be golfing but not at university. But obviously that's a choice you've made. What do you say about that and what impact has it had on your game having to study and things like that?
MICHELLE WIE: Someone's been asking me how is your golf different since you've gone to school, and I guess my answer I was thinking like ever since I've played golf, I've always gone to school. I've never a moment in my life had only golf and no school. So I guess it's kind of I don't really have any other thing to put it against. I mean I was never home schooled. I went to a full high school, so I've always had to balance between academics and my golf. I think for me, I think for college, especially high school was a lot for me. I had school every day from 7:30 to like 2:30, and practice then was limited, and that's arguably when I played really well. So right now, college I have class two days a week and practice three, four, five hours a day.
I have five days in a week I don't have anything, any school. So golf, I think college has actually provided me more time to practice. And also I've been playing in every single tournament. I've only missed like maybe two or three, which is like the normal amount. But I'm excited to graduate. I'm excited to get my degree. It's one of my biggest dreams since I was 4 to go to Stanford. Going there and kind of getting my degree, proving to myself that I can do that, I can get my degree, I think it just means a lot to me personally that I can do that. And once I'm done I'm excited to move on to the next step in my life where I kind of enter the real world where I can really focus on my golf. I'm excited for that.
Q. Michelle, somebody who should have been a big rival this year, how do you look at Yani Tseng's performance this year, and does that motivate you to do better next year? What does that do to you?
MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, for sure. She came out from the start to win tournaments, and you can see how much she improved, and that's definitely motivation for my off season this year to work really hard, extra hard to actually do the same thing, kind of from the beginning come out with a bang and start winning tournaments. That's definitely what I want to do. That's what everyone wants to do, and you know, when the game is moving to another level, you kind of have to move up to another level and that's really what I want to do.
Q. Do you foresee your results improving once you finish your studies completely?
MICHELLE WIE: I mean I don't know. I think a lot of people speculate that. You know, I hope so. I hope it does improve a lot. We'll see. I mean but I work hard, and whether or not I have studies or not to do, I always put practice first, so whether or not that's a good thing, I don't know. But I do love the sport. I want to improve and this year was very frustrating for me, and next year I want to definitely have all my wins under my belt by now.
Q. On the same note, Alexis Thompson has come up. As someone who's been in the limelight for so long and have these other golfers get the headlines, how does that feel?
MICHELLE WIE: I think in the sport headlines are brought on by people who win and people who play well, and rightfully so. I haven't been playing very well this year. I shouldn't be getting the spotlight. I mean that's fair. I mean I'm not saying that everyone should write about me just because of my past or whatever. I need to start winning. I need to start getting into the spotlight that way.
Q. Michelle, I believe Lexi is going to be on the LPGA tour full time next year. She's 16, 17 soon. As someone who's sort of been down that road yourself, have you come to know Lexi? What do you make of Lexi? Do you have any advice for her going forward because obviously it's quite a lot to handle at such a tender age.
MICHELLE WIE: I think so. It is a lot to handle. It is. It's going to be hard for her. I think so. But at the same time I think she's a very mature girl. I got a chance to putt past her a couple of times this week, and she seems like a very nice girl, has a very good head on her shoulders, knows what she's up for, and I think she's really excited to go out. I'm excited for her to be out there. Seeing her at the par 3 yesterday, she can hit the ball and she can putt as well, too. So I think she's going to be a really good player. You know, it is hard being out on tour whether or not you're 16 or 30. It is a hard life, no matter how you look at it, but I think her parents are very good supporting which is really important, especially at that age, and I think she's going to do really well for herself.
Q. Michelle, you are an LPGA member. Given the kind of sponsor situation right now on the LPGA tour and the fact that you're playing so much outside the U. S., what is the general thought of the players about the tour? Is there something being done to attract more tournaments?
MICHELLE WIE: We have our meetings where everyone comes together and talks about it. We're very optimistic as a tour, especially with Michael Ong coming in, we're going to plan a new direction. Obviously it's not going to be we're not going to do the same things that we did 15 years ago because the world is different. The tour is a lot more global. There's different markets in Asia, and we have to capitalize on that. I think every time we go outside the U. S. we get treated so well that we love going over there. And I love it personally because I get to see different parts of the world that I haven't before.
And I think that we're optimistic. It's tough for everyone. The economy is tough right now and we're definitely doing everything we can to get more tournaments and I think we are going to get a lot more tournaments. And I think in general thought of the tour is that we are definitely working very hard to try to bring some great attention to our sport and we're very optimistic on where our tour is heading.
Q. How did you like meeting Luke Donald?
MICHELLE WIE: I thought he was great. I'm a big fan of his. I think he's just awesome. And also him, how much he improved as well, too, in such a short period of time. I think it's sort of great motivation, and he's such a good player. I'm a big fan.
Q. One thing that you and Luke have in common is the love of painting and drawing. Have you had a one to one discussion about painting or drawing and stuff like that?
MICHELLE WIE: I've seen his stuff before and it's way out of my league. I'm nowhere near that. I'm like finger painting compared to him. (Laughs).
But you know, I would love to. I never really got I never took any classes, except for my 7th grade art class, which I'm pretty sure I finger painted then. But his stuff is phenomenal. I would love to get a lesson from him. That would be great. Or some golf lessons as well. (Laughs).
THE MODERATOR: Okay.
MICHELLE WIE: Thank you.
