Creamer Rises to the Top

Editor's Note: Paula Creamer has officially arrived as a star of the LPGA Tour. The native of Pleasanton, Calif., thrilled her hometown fans with a victory in the season-ending Samsung World Championship. Creamer won the elite-field event, which boasted only the top 20 players in the world, with a nine-under-par 279 at Half Moon Bay Golf Links. The win was worth $250,000, propelling her to third in the world rankings behind Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam.

After her win Sunday, which was secured only after she sank a testy 3-foot par-saving putt to beat Korea's Song-Hee Kim by a stroke, Creamer met with reporters.

MODERATOR: Paula, congratulations on your fourth win of the season, eighth of your career. Let's get right to it. How good does it feel to win the Bay area?

PAULA CREAMER: This means a lot. That is big win for myself. I put so much pressure on myself every time I come here and to finally have one, it feels really good. I'm very excited. I briefly looked at my phone and people kept saying, did I see you cry? I didn't think you had emotions and all of this. It does. It really means a lot to me, this win.

Q. Was No. 18 an example of sort of your maturity as a player that you just played it safe instead of maybe trying to go for it on two?

PAULA CREAMER: Definitely. I mean I had a one shot lead. Colin (Cann), he didn't even give me a front yardage number. He just said okay. He knows me, I probably would have hit a 3 wood down there. You have to play it smart. It was hard to hit a 4 iron. It's actually one of the hardest lay ups on the golf course. I hit a 4 iron, it isn't something you want to be doing. It was a smart way to do it. Unfortunately the putt, I hit a little too firm, but we 2 putted.

Q. All day it seemed like your instinct is to attack and yet you just got to the middle of the green and gave yourself lag putts, how difficult was that given your nature?

PAULA CREAMER: Early on I hit the ball. My irons, I hit them really well all week long. A couple of the holes I hit six or seven feet, look after look after look. It's something that today I needed going into it. I couldn't be too aggressive but I knew I had to shoot 3 or 4 under because that means everybody else would have to shoot 6 or 7 to beat me. Going into the middle of the greens, I knew my speed has been the best it's ever been right now. I think I had a lot of confidence doing that.

Q. Congratulations, how long was the first putt on 18? The putt that won the tournament, did you think you hit it or did you hit you hit it a little too far to the right?

PAULA CREAMER: It think it lipped in. I don't know. I try to keep my head down a lot when I putt with the short putts. I saw it and it kind of went in on the right side. But the first one was, I'd say 25 feet, 25, 28 feet. Probably four and a half coming back.

Q. So were you holding your breath on that last one?

PAULA CREAMER: Honestly, I didn't see it go in. All I heard was the people cheer for it, then I was like, it was like the longest two seconds of my life having it roll into the hole.

Q. Paula, as you maintained the lead from the 5th until a birdie at the 15th were you aware of everyone else chasing you down, and did you also know that Kim sank a birdie to tie the score a couple of holes before you?

PAULA CREAMER: Let's see, what scoreboard did I look at? I looked at the one on the par 3, No. 7, and I had an 8 or 9 footer for birdie. I saw Suzann putting very well. She came out of the gate strong through 9 holes. And you can tend to dwell on that too much, and I tried to say, ok, keep playing your own game, keep playing your game. And then I saw on a couple of the leaderboards people were 6, going to 7, going back to 6, 7. And then I did see her make her birdie putt to par 5. I believe she birdied 14. I did see that.

Q. When you saw her make that putt, that birdie, what went through your mind?

PAULA CREAMER: Well, I was on the tee. I saw her actually pick it up out of the hole. I didn't look at the board. But I knew I could put it on top of her. It was a par 5. My wedge was strong enough, get it close. I knew I had a six footer to tie it. The next hole it felt like all day long I was hitting such good putts and nothing went in. On 15, like I said earlier, I told Colin, we were lining up, I'm going to make this. I knew finally it was about time something was going to fall and it went in.

Q. Given the way Friday's round ended, A, could you have pictured then playing Saturday and Sunday without a bogey? And as a corollary to that, do you think how you played Saturday and Sunday was in part because of what happened Friday?

PAULA CREAMER: Without a doubt. I haven't played a tournament for two weeks. I knew yesterday, and we talked what happened those last six holes, a lot of maturity, immaturity, I guess you could say. I know I'm better than that, and I know that Colin works so hard out there. We are such a good team. There is no reason why that should have happened. But honestly, we both learned a lot. We really did. These last two days we played great golf. No bogeys out on this golf course, that's very good, managing ourselves around it, saving par when we had to, making the birdie putts. Like I said earlier, I couldn't have done it without Colin. And we did, we learned a big lesson on Friday.

Q. Given that you came in today with a lead, and at times you played well with a lead, and times struggled on Sunday, how did and you approach today? Was it more about not making that costly mistake, that bogey?

PAULA CREAMER: You know, I went out today like it was a new day. I didn't think of the board. I didn't think of what was going on. I just went out to play 18 holes of golf. You know, kind of having my own goal was no bogeys. If I did that, and I had birdies, like I said I'm hitting the ball so well I knew I would make some birdies. My putting, my speed has been great. I'm surprised I didn't make more long putts because my speed was so good. But like I said, I just went out and I just tried to stay patient and just kind of stay in my own world and not get upset and enjoy what I was doing. And the walk down 18, it was nice having a one shot lead after everything that's go on this week.

Q. Paula, along those lines you talked about controlling your emotions. Can a win like this and what you did learn over the last few days carry you and give you some momentum with your mental game as well?

PAULA CREAMER: Oh, without a doubt. It just shows I'm the same person as I was on Thursday and Friday. The same person today and yesterday and just how different golf really was. That's the game. You just have to learn. It's good that I can go back and look at my mistakes that I made and determine positives, and that's what we did. I practiced really hard the last four weeks and it's great to come out and play good golf and to win at the same time.

Q. Now that you won this you're obviously in for next year's Samsung, would you like to see it back here in your hometown? A toll bridge away from your hometown?

PAULA CREAMER: Without a doubt. Of course, this is such a great venue. You couldn't ask for a better golf course with the views and the hotel right on the 18th green. It was a very special week. We have wonderful fans. So many people came out these last couple of days, even when it was raining a little bit and freezing cold and windy it shows how much people in the Bay area love golf. That's kind of one of the reasons why I think my golf has become to where it is today because there is so many people that support golf.

Q. Paula, you're not the only one who struggled in tournaments in their hometown or close. Tiger has never won the L.A. Open. Lorena hasn't one every tournament in Mexico. What do you think is that play there?

PAULA CREAMER: It's hard. It's hard coming to your hometown. People watch you all the time play. But it's a different feeling when you are at home. You are constantly hearing, go Pleasanton, go Pleasanton. I'm trying so hard, I want to win so badly especially for everybody. It's a different feeling, it really is. It's just that extra pressure sure that you put on yourself that normally at other events you still do, but it's a different kind, it's a different type of pressure.

Q. Given the field you won against, given the fact it's your hometown, of your eight wins, is this the most meaningful?

PAULA CREAMER: It's right up there with Solheim Cup. It's hard to go against representing your country and wearing red, white and blue. But this really does mean a lot. It's a good win. Especially like you said the Top 20 players in the world are here. It seems to me that I proved a lot to myself, you can come out here and you can play average on those other days, but still be right in contention every day and finish strong.