Bravo, Julieta! LPGA Rookie Wins Final Event

Julieta Granada earned her first LPGA Tour victory in a timely fashion at the recent ADT Championship, where the winner collected an unprecedented $1 million check. The rookie from Asuncion, Paraguay grabbed her first LPGA title two days after her 20th birthday and charged up the LPGA's season money list from 19th to fourth with earnings of more than $1.6 million. Completing her rookie season with seven top-10 finishes, including two as runner-up, here's what Granada had to say to Lisa D. Mickey after the ADT Championship:

Q: You won the Duramed FUTURES Tour's final tournament in 2005 and now you've won the LPGA's final season event this year. What is it with you and your late-season charge?
JG: I don't know, I guess I just leave myself with the hardest possible situation. I had nothing to lose both times. And at each of those tournaments, I was just enjoying the moment. At the ADT Championship, I was relaxed all week. My dad came to the U.S. to visit for my birthday and I think he is my lucky charm.

Q: What does it feel like to win your first LPGA Tour event in your rookie season and are you surprised you won this soon in your LPGA career?
JG: It's so hard to win out there. I'm just very happy I now have that [first win] under my belt. I'm very excited and grateful. But to me, it felt like it took forever. I was close in Rochester and in Mexico this year. At the ADT, I tried to pace myself and have a lot of patience.

Q: Patience isn't always a quality that a lot of 20-year-old rookies have. Are you normally a patient person?
JG: I'm very impatient actually, but my mom [Rosa] is patient and she tries to point me in that direction. When I don't listen to her, that's when I'm in trouble.

Q: What does it feel like to be 20 years old and win $1 million for four rounds of golf?
JG: I haven't even thought about the prize yet. A million dollars is a lot of money. I'll try to invest it well. I'm really more excited just to get my first win.

Q: Which are you most excited about -- the million-dollar winner's check or your first LPGA Tour victory?
JG: The win. Just to win a prestigious tournament with a great field of players on a great golf course is pretty exciting. I've heard from a lot of people who have called or e-mailed to congratulate me. My grandmother has Alzheimer's back home and I was on the news the other night. My family said that a picture of me came up on the TV and my grandma recognized me. She said, "That's my granddaughter!" That is just the best.

Q: What are you most proud of this season?
JG: Well, I was struggling a little bit in the middle of the season. I was losing my patience. Just to be able to come back was good because I wasn't very happy with my game at one point this year. I was trying to play my best, but after the tournament in Rochester, I was missing cuts and wasn't playing very well. I was like, "What's going on?" I read books and tried to find in myself what was wrong. It was pretty bad for a period of time, but then I got back on track and turned it around. Another thing that I'm pretty proud of was something that happened on the Sunday that I won. We had an election for the mayor in my hometown of Asuncion and I was told they stopped coverage of the election on TV to say that I had won the ADT Championship. I feel like I put my town on the map. And maybe with my win, it will let people know that when you work hard, it pays off.

Q: How did the Duramed FUTURES Tour help prepare you for this year's LPGA rookie season?
JG: It helped me tremendously. It taught me things about traveling, staying in hotels, eating out all the time in restaurants. I learned how to shoot under par every day. It's great training with great tournament fields. Playing on the [Duramed] FUTURES Tour gave me the chance to learn how to deal with being a professional. All the travel and the tournament schedule gets a little more complicated when you move on to the LPGA Tour, but all of the little things I had learned on the FUTURES Tour added up. Through it all, and on both levels, you have to learn how to have your best game every week.

Q: What was your biggest adjustment this year as a rookie?
JG: I played in every single event, so the biggest adjustment was the traveling, for sure. The challenge is how to stay fresh. It's very hard being a rookie because you don't know the golf courses yet and you feel like you can't take time off.

Q: You told the media at the ADT Championship that there were times when money was tight for your family while you were at the David Leadbetter Academy in Bradenton, Fla. People tend to think kids who go there are all wealthy.
JG: I was really lucky that I got a scholarship to go there for golf and for school, so my family took advantage of it. We've had so many opportunities here in the United States and I'm very thankful for everything. I was 14 in my first year here in the States. We rented a car every week, but then we decided it was too expensive, so my mom and I bought bikes and we rode around on bikes for a year. We only rented a car to go to tournaments. We rode our bikes to church and to Wal-Mart. It seemed like we were always riding into the wind! You can't buy a lot at the supermarket because you can't carry very much on a bike, so my mom had to go every day.

Q: Do the hard times make these moments more meaningful?
JG: Well like they say, if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. All of that definitely makes this win a little sweeter.

Q: As a 14-year old, how scary was it for you to come to the U.S. to play golf and go to school?
JG: I spoke English, but just the basics. I remember that my first day of school was horrible. It was a good decision to come here, but I was very quiet in the beginning. My mom came with me and back home in Paraguay, she always helped me study. Now, I was pretty much on my own. We'd turn on the TV and try to understand everything in English. We'd try not to watch Spanish TV, but to pick up a lot of English just by listening to the TV every night.

Q: It sounds like your budding golf career has been a true family effort.
JG: Oh yeah. I'm the only child and my parents put so much time and energy into helping me improve at each level. They wanted me to have opportunities. This is definitely a family win.

Q: What made you so determined?
JG: I just love winning. I turned pro at age 18 [at the 2005 Duramed FUTURES Tour event in Ann Arbor, Mich.] because I thought I was ready. Finishing second that week in my first tournament as a pro gave me a lot of confidence that I had made the right decision. It showed me all the positives, but things started happening so soon. I had to pace myself and use a lot of patience. I think that's what I learned on the [Duramed] FUTURES Tour and again this year, and so far, it's turned out very well.

Q: What have you learned this year from players like Lorena Ochoa, Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam?
JG: I had the chance to play with Lorena three times and twice with Karrie. I still haven't played with Annika. They are all so patient, so professional and they can make some putts. After playing with them, I know what I need to improve.

Q: What kind of interest has the media in Paraguay had in your win?
JG: I was really surprised. The whole country celebrated on the Sunday of my win and I did about 20 radio and newspaper interviews the next day. My country is really happy and supportive. I hope this gives them something to be excited about. There are more courses available now back home and schools are more open-minded about golf.

Q: When you won, what did Rosa, your mom and caddie, say to you?
JG: She was just so happy, sort of laughing and screaming. It's a dream come true for my family. My dad [Alejandro, a golf course greens keeper in Paraguay] was excited, too. I didn't see him on the last three holes and I found out later that he was so nervous that he stayed ahead of me in the gallery and watched from a distance.

Q: Your mom carried your bag during your Duramed FUTURES Tour career and all season this year on the LPGA Tour. Why?
JG: Well, we played so well on the FUTURES Tour and in LPGA Q-School that we said, let's keep going and take it one tournament at a time. It just turned into the whole season. My mom is very strong. We played some hilly courses this year, but she managed.

Q: You certainly can afford a professional caddie now. Will Rosa stay on the bag?
JG: Yeah, she'll continue as long as she's healthy. There's no reason to change now.

Q: How important is it for players from smaller countries where golf isn't as popular to have success?
JG: It's huge. We're trying to open the door for a lot of kids from the same background. I want to let them know that it's possible to make their dreams come true in golf or in anything else they work for.

Q: You've said you plan to buy yourself a new car with your winner's check. Have you decided what you're buying?
JG: No, I'm still thinking about it. We can't fit into those little cars with all the stuff we carry. Golfers need big cars to travel around.