Flash Area interview with:

HILARY LUNKE

HILARY LUNKE: It was a joy to play in the event. To come away as the winner is just fantastic. I'm so thrilled that my husband and my family on both sides could be here to go through it with me.

Q. When did you start believing?

HILARY LUNKE: After two rounds, I'd say, when I think I was tied for 2nd leaving the course that day. I was very surprised I was tied for 2nd with the score I thought. And I thought maybe if I keep playing like this, I can keep hanging in here and finish top-10 and maybe I can finish this thing. And after I took the lead, after the third round, I was just living -- I was in the zone. I mean I couldn't even -- I couldn't think about anything. I was -- except where I was at, and focusing on that. And I was thrilled that I got through that round yesterday, because I was not hitting the ball that well. And I definitely had my bad round yesterday and was thankful that I got through that and still had a chance to win it today. My ball-striking, I've still got a little bit of work to do on that, but my putter came through for me.

Q. 18, you obviously rolled the putt in to win. But I think you won the tournament in the first three holes with all the scrambling you had to do?

HILARY LUNKE: Yeah. A lot of times when you start off a round it can calm you even more if you make a couple of great saves than if you hit great shots into the greens. I was definitely scrambling those first couple of holes. I've been working on my swing a lot lately, and it's not where I want it to be right now, and I knew it wasn't about me hitting 16 greens out there today. And I tried to focus on what I'm good at and keep my short game in check, and hope those putts went in.

Q. Seems like you might not have a hard time bouncing back from not making the putt yesterday. Did you worry about that at all last night or were you all set and ready to go today?

HILARY LUNKE: I thought about it. I didn't feel too badly about it, because I felt like I put a pretty good stroke on it. And I didn't want to have to mark my second putt, that was for sure. I tried not to focus on that. I tried to say, hey, at the beginning of the week, would you have taken a playoff? I think so. Let's move on from there. It was the same thing today, a couple of times when I made mistakes, like on 11, when I hit that great shot in there and I knocked my putt way by. My husband turned to me and said, hey, after you hit your tee shot or hit your second shot, you would have taken an 8-footer for par. Just focus on that, you would have been happy with that. I tried to play my game, play stroke-play. And I'm thrilled.

Q. How do you like being the center of attentions? You were kind of under the radar the first couple of rounds.

HILARY LUNKE: I don't mind it. I like talking to the media. I like representing the LPGA. I'm proud to be a member of it. Hopefully I can be a good ambassador for women's golf.

Q. (Inaudible.)

HILARY LUNKE: He's kind of right. I felt a little pressure. I tried to focus really hard on my game and just try to -- I know that I can hit that fairway. And I know -- I would do it anytime I was playing a normal round, so why wouldn't I do it now? And I just tried to focus on that now. My dad told me there's no such thing as pressure being put on you, you can only put it on yourself. I absolutely believe that. I tried to focus out there and say, hey, it's just golf. There's a lot of other things going on in the world right now, and the fact that I can be here, outside, doing this for a living is an incredible blessing, and no matter how the outcome turned out I was just happy with where I was at.

Q. Has pressure always been a part of your game?

HILARY LUNKE: I think that I tend to play the same game, like I said, under any circumstances. Actually I tend to play better under pressure a lot of times. In college we'd go through qualifying rounds and I would shoot terrible in qualifying, when it wasn't really competition, I'd barely qualify to go to the tournaments. And then when we get in the tournament I'd always be No. 1 or 2 on the team. When I get under the gun I tend to focus a lot better. And no matter how I'm hitting it on the range, I say hey, anything can happen when you're out there.

Q. You entered this tournament with about $60,000 in tournament winnings, and now you have 565,000.

HILARY LUNKE: We just bought a house last week, so this is good timing. We know we can pay for it now. We're going to have to call our mortgage broker, and change our plans a little bit. That's one thing I said when we were looking for houses last week, even if I go out and win the U.S. Open next week, I'd still want this house (laughter.) I just threw that out there, and I can't believe it's true. Yeah, same house, I guess we'll have a little more cash to put towards it now.

Q. Where is it?

HILARY LUNKE: It's in Austin, Texas,.

Q. Can you talk about what your husband has meant caddying for you, talk about what he's meant to your game, especially this week?

HILARY LUNKE: Yeah, he has been an incredible caddy. I think he would be an incredible caddy for anybody. He was so calm. He hid his emotions from me very well. He just kept reminding me, kept me kind of in the present, kept me focused on what I was doing, but at the same time kept reminding me, really in the grand scheme of things, this isn't the biggest thing ever, this is golf. We have got a great life, we're living, we're walking out here playing golf today, isn't that awesome? He helped me keep things in perspective. Even more than being a great caddy, it was an awesome experience having him on the bag this week, and even if he can never come out and caddy for me again, once he goes out into the working world, and even if I don't do anything else in my career, we'll always have this to look back on together.

Q. You're 24 years old, you won the U.S. Open, the future lies ahead, as they say.

HILARY LUNKE: I'd like to think so. I'm not going to go into -- I'm not going to go into any event any differently now than I would have before, but I'll have it in the back of my mind, that, hey, I can really do it. You always thought you could, but now you proved that you can. I hope it's the start of something big. We'll have to wait and see.

Q. That one down side, the shot on 7, how bad was that lie?

HILARY LUNKE: No. 7? Oh, it was awful. I knew that it wasn't imbedded, but it was so bad that I actually almost wanted to check and see that it wasn't imbedded. I had basically a brick of mud that I had to set my club on, just an absolute rock. And where my club went it would only touch the very top of the ball, the ball was down in a hole in the mud. So I knew -- I was just hoping I could get it anywhere forward into a better lie. I guess probably the worst lie I've ever had.

Q. Were you worried you would drive it even deeper in the mud or did you see it right away?

HILARY LUNKE: Oh, no, I could see the ball then, and so I knew that I was at least going to be able to get a club on it and chip it back into the fairway.

Q. How far did you advance it?

HILARY LUNKE: Probably 12 feet. I said to my husband, I don't think I can get it out of there. And he was more concerned with that I was going to hit it solid and maybe hit the tree. But every time I put the club down, this is the worst -- I'm not even going to be able to hit it. Finally we backed down and went to the highest lofted club we had and tried to get it out there. I knew that I could hit it. I was going to top it, is what I thought would happen. I knew I would advance it forward. That rough was so deep there if I had taken an unplayable, I could have dropped it back into a lie like that. I was trying to get it back more towards the fairway where the grass was shorter.

Q. That was a tremendous hole.

HILARY LUNKE: I was thrilled to make bogey there. As soon as I saw where my ball was, I would have bought bogey there. Especially after my third shot ran all the way through the fairway, because I thought I hit a pretty good shot out there. Bogey, I was very happy.

Q. What did you hit, you had the stance, the ball was above you?

HILARY LUNKE: I took out my 11-wood, that's the only club I had for that shot, unless I was going to try to wedge it back in the fairway, and just choked it all the way up to the very end of the grip and tried not to let the grip hit me in the stomach, and tried to make a baseball swing.

Q. Yesterday you said it was great to be playing with Angela. And then coming out again today, playing with a friend of yours?

HILARY LUNKE: Yeah, it was just -- I couldn't have drawn it up any better the way the last couple of days have gone. It was so much fun to play with Angela. And I'd never played with Kelly before, and she was an absolute pleasure to play with today, as well. And I just -- Angela is such a tough competitor, and when she kind of went sour early, a little while in the middle there it looked like it might be just me and Kelly, believe me I was not counting Angela out, I knew she was going to make birdies and get right back in it. When she chipped in on 14, I knew I was in trouble. I thought right there, maybe this is her day. Maybe this is what's supposed to happen. But I knew that God had a plan, and He has this day all figured out before we even lived it. So however He wanted it to end I was going to be satisfied with that.

Q. And then again on 18, when she hit the shot there, how were you feeling at that point?

HILARY LUNKE: I was prepared going to 18 thinking I had to make birdie. And I hit a great drive, I hit a great second shot. And when she was over in the rough I had no idea what kind of lie she had. But I figured that she could probably get it pretty close. So I wanted to make sure I had a decent look at birdie, I didn't want to just hack it up on the green somewhere. So I was pleased with my shot and when she missed the green short, for a split second I thought, okay, good, 2-putt, here we go. But as soon as I saw her walking up and had her putter out I had the feeling -- same feeling I had yesterday when she was on 18, and I said, she's going to make this. Get yourself into match play mode, she's going to make it. Look at your line, be prepared, be ready to make it right on top of her. And I can't believe I did.

Q. Looking again at your husband being your caddy, how often has he caddied for you in the past, is this rare?

HILARY LUNKE: This is very rare. I think he caddied for me one time last year, maybe twice, just on certain weeks that he could get off work, and he came out for the weekend. I'd get a local caddy for the first practice rounds, and he'd come out for the weekend, just so we could spend time together, more than anything else. He applied for business school this spring, and got accepted. When he did, he said I'm going to quit my job early and come out and travel with you for a few weeks. I said why don't you try caddying for me, we can save money that way. If it doesn't work out, you can keep traveling with me and I'll hire a caddy. He has caddied with me the last four events. I wish he would stay and be my full-time caddy. It's so much more fun being out there together.

Q. You could pay him now?

HILARY LUNKE: Yeah, I can pay him now. He's got dreams and aspirations of his own. And I'm happy to support him in going to business school.

Q. Did you say Texas?

HILARY LUNKE: Yes.

Q. Is he a teaching professional?

HILARY LUNKE: He played collegiate golf at Stanford. He was a great player. He decided not to turn professional.

Q. (Inaudible.)

HILARY LUNKE: By far I think the course played the most difficult yesterday. The pin positions were so difficult. You could hit great shots and still just be having to do all you could to make par. Today a few of them on some key holes were a little easier I thought, like 6 for example. For me it's almost impossible to get in that back left location, so to have it on the right was a huge advantage for me. A few pin positions I thought I could attack, and it made the course play easier today. But at the same time the greens, to me, seemed to be running faster today. I don't know if it's because we played in the morning as opposed to the afternoon yesterday, so the grass was a little shorter when we started. But the greens were faster, and getting up-and-down was a chore today.

Q. How long do you think it will take your mom to get it back together?

HILARY LUNKE: I don't know if she'll ever get it back together. Oh, my gosh, I don't know how any of us will.

Q. Is this good for short hitters everywhere?

HILARY LUNKE: I hope so. My dad said just play your game. Absolutely, that's the beauty about golf, that's what's so great about this game is you can play it so many different ways, Jane Crafter told me that this morning. I don't play the game that people would have necessarily picked to win an LPGA tournament, let alone the U.S. Open. But I believed in myself, I trusted my game, I didn't try to change anything, and I'm very happy.

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