Céline Herbin: “It’s going to be a great week”

You qualified for the US Women’s Open a few weeks ago. Is it already a great satisfaction to participate?
Obviously, it’s a great thing to have qualified, especially since it is really difficult to find a place in these events which are played on 36 holes during the day. It’s tough physically and mentally, and it’s always a bit of a lottery. This is going to be my second U.S. Women’s Open, my eleventh or twelfth Major, so I come to San Francisco with some experience behind me. I’m feeling great, I’m going to have an experienced caddy from the American Tour by my side, and this is a place in the States that I really enjoy.

You know the Olympic Club course (interview carried out last week, editor’s note) ?
No, but we play a tournament every year LPGA Tour on the path of Lake Merced, right next door, which looks a lot like him. There are the same big trees, fairly large greens, you never have your feet flat, you have to turn the ball on both sides, etc. And there are a lot of characteristics specific to this US Open which correspond to me: it will undoubtedly be cold, the type of greens is the one I prefer … So all the signals are on the green to let me believe that it will be a great week.

How are you going to prepare for this tournament?
As I arrive five days early, the first thing I’ll do is walk the course, maybe with the putter in hand, just to feel the atmosphere and understand what the architect wanted to do. as a challenge. And then, never more than nine holes per day, quietly, so as not to tire myself too much before the start of the tournament, because it is a very hilly course. So let’s take it easy, to be as fresh as possible from Thursday to Sunday! And afterwards, like every tournament, I’ll spend a lot of time practicing the little game and putting, because the work on the swing is done.

How was your start to the season, between LPGA Tour, Symetra Tour and European circuit?
I resumed in mid-February, a little wandering between the Monday qualifiers on the LPGA Tour and a few events of the Symetra Tour history of having an active preseason with competitive laps that follow one another. My first tournament on the LPGA Tour was in Hawaii in mid-April, and the second the following week in Los Angeles. There have been a lot of positive things because I feel good physically and golfingly since the resumption. However, I had some problems with my putter recently, because during a flight the upper part of my grip was damaged and detached from the handle, and I could not find the right grip to replace it. It disturbed me during the last tournament I played, the Pure Silk Championship in Virginia, because I had to add weight on the clubhead to respect the swing weight I am used to, but on the ultra-fast greens of the Kingsmill Resort I did not manage to find good feelings. The first day, I missed a fairway and hit fourteen greens in regulation, but I took 37 putts … On top of that, I was coming back from theopen from South Africa where the greens were very slow so I couldn’t adapt. It’s a shame, because the game is there. But since I have since resolved this putter problem, I feel ready for the challenge of the US Women’s Open this week.

You have already traveled a lot, is it not too complicated to manage?
It is true that I have already made a lot of trips! I have already made two round trips between Spain (where she lives, editor’s note) and the United States, plus a trip to South Africa and fairly long trips to the USA, so it already does not hurt! And I will do one more after the US Open since I will play the mixed tournament in Sweden before coming back here for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. It’s still a long journey, but I really wanted to be part of the adventure of this first truly mixed tournament organized by Annika Sörenstam and Henrik Stenson. As I am very well physically, it helps me a lot to cope well with travel and jet lag.

Did you work specifically on the physical this winter knowing that you were going to travel a lot?
Yes of course. I made a lot of changes in my staff this winter, and one of those changes is a collaboration with a new physical trainer and osteopath, Paul Dorochenko. He comes from the world of tennis, he spent thirty years taking care of the best in the world in the sport, and we did a great physical job together this winter. Thanks to that, I am at my best! He lives in Spain in Valencia, not far from me, so that makes our work a lot easier.

What other changes have you made in your surroundings?
Since last September I have been working with Jean-Pierre Cixous in terms of putting, and there is already a great evolution in terms of performance on the greens. He also helps me in the overall analysis of my game, he is in a way a “performance coach”. In addition, I no longer train with Vicente Ballesteros since last summer, and in October I started working with another Spaniard, Jose Manuel Carriles, which is still active on the senior circuit. As the senior circuit has been quite limited for a year and a half, we have a lot of time to work together. Finally I saw a few times during my training sessions in Miami Rick Smith (the first coach of Phil Mickelson, editor’s note), which gave me good lines of work in accordance with what I do with José Manuel. There has been a lot of good work done in the last few months, and I really feel ready to take full advantage of this season, which has only just really started.

Are you in the optics of favoring the LPGA Tour, despite your unfavorable category?
There are several options, which makes this season quite special. For now, I have a one-month vision: the US Open, Sweden and the KPMG. Afterwards, depending on what will happen in these tournaments, I will see if I favor the Ladies European Tour or not. The only reason that would push me to do this would be to have played really well in these three tournaments, and accumulated a lot of points for the Solheim Cup. Because for me the only way to play the Solheim Cup is through the European ranking. I’m too far in the world rankings and I don’t even know if winning a Major would put me in the team … So even if there are only two places to take via the LET, I will try to take this opportunity if I am in a good position in a month. Otherwise, I will favor the LPGA Tour.

Are the Olympics in the back of your mind too?
Being third in the standings, I can afford to have this goal in the back of my mind, but again it will be very difficult since it is played only by the Rolex Ranking. We’ll see, it’s up to me today to focus on playing well, and if I manage to qualify for the ALREADY, it will be a great happiness. But for that I would have to play hard on the LPGA Tour, where you can really score points in the world rankings … So for the moment, it’s still a long way off!

The next Major, the KPMG, will arrive quickly …
Yes, in four weeks. It will be played atAtlanta Athletic Club, or Keegan Bradley won his PGA Championship in 2011, and which I played last week. It is a magnificent course, but very different from theOlympic Club since the grass is Bermuda and not bentgrass. It was interesting to go there in advance, I could also see that they were setting up stands, which is nice since on the LPGA Tour, unlike the boys, we didn’t not yet recovered the public … I can not wait to find the normal atmosphere of the big tournaments, because even if we will have a few people at the US Open, it remains limited, and it lacks a bit of adrenaline at the start of the 1.

There has been a lot of good work done in the last few months, and I feel really ready to make the most of this season.