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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 8, 2015

Brittany Lincicome

LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA

MIKE TROSTEL: It's my pleasure to welcome Brittany Lincicome. Brittany is playing in her 12th U.S. Women's Open. Three top 10s, including a 5th place finish in 2009. Brittany, off to a great start this year in the majors. Your second career major championship victory at the ANA Inspiration, a little bit earlier on. A really dramatic finish, eagle on the 72nd hole, and then you won the playoff. Talk a little bit about the emotions of winning your second major.

BRITTANY LINCICOME: Winning any tournament is pretty special, and to have won that tournament twice, it was a dream come true. Jumping in Poppie's Pond is one of the coolest traditions we have on the Tour. To get to do that for a second time I thought was pretty amazing. To have my fiance there, my dad there and my caddie with me, what more could you ask for.

MIKE TROSTEL: Here we are at another major championship this week. The majors have been clicking for you, you had a 4th place finish, what has been clicking for you in 2015?

BRITTANY LINCICOME: I think just being a major, obviously it sets up more difficult. The scores aren't as low, which I like. I love tournaments that just a couple under par wins. When it gets to like 15 or 20-under par, it brings in the rest of the field and more out of my reach. So 1, 2, 3-under par wins, it's kind of up my alley. And being a longer hitter, this golf course is very long. It's very wet, so we're not going to get a lot of roll. Hopefully it fits into my game. I like when they're playing longer. I wish there were more par 5s out there, so I could attack those. The longer the golf course, the better for me.

MIKE TROSTEL: You mentioned that you're always near the top of the Tour in driving distance. How does Lancaster Country Club play into those strengths? How aggressively can you play off the tees on some of these holes?

BRITTANY LINCICOME: There's a couple of holes where I have got to back off a bit and hit a hybrid or 3-wood. But for the most part, I'm hitting driver on most every hole. It's definitely going to be whoever keeps it in the fairway is definitely going to win. Any time you get it in the rough, you're almost 99 percent of the time you're going to have to chip out sideways. It's that thick out there now and today's only Wednesday. It's definitely whoever can hit it the straightest, basically, and the greens are obviously going to be another challenge. But if you can keep it in the fairway, it's definitely going to be an advantage.

Q. You're the second longest driver so far this year on the Tour. How important is length going to be this week?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: It's going to be a major factor. Like I was talking about, if I can keep it straight, keep it in play, there's no reason why I can't be at the top of the leaderboard come Sunday. You keep it out of the rough and you can hit it in good spots on the green, there are definitely spots you can birdie. The greens are fast, but if you leave it in the right spot, most of the holes you can make birdie on. Just keep it in the fairway.

Q. Has the water changed the dynamic of the way you're thinking about this? Has it made the course longer, do you think?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I didn't play any practice rounds prior to this week, so my first practice was on Monday. And from Monday to today, it's been about the same. The wind has switched a couple of different times since playing it Monday to today. But, you know, it's -- I think we're hoping it was going to play firm and fast, and it's definitely going to play wet. Wherever the ball lands in the fairway, that's where it's going to go. And the greens the same. You're throwing darts to most of the pins, which is nice.

Q. How are you going to play hole No. 10 and 15? Do you draw or shape the ball?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I can remember 10. 10, I just take it, I believe, over the left side of the bunker.

Q. What are you playing into the green?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: That's -- I haven't hit the fairway yet, but I believe it's about a 7-iron, about 150 yards, 155 yards. I can't remember 15.

Q. 15 is the dog leg right, kind of down the hill, but then straight up the hill.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I think -- is there water? I think I hit 3-wood there.

Q. No, it's a bunker right at the corner. It's just a long hole if you draw the ball.
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I naturally hit a draw. If you're asking if I'm going to hit a fade, no. I don't know how to hit a fade.

Q. Knowing that they'll never play lift, clean and place at a USGA event, can you practice hitting mud balls?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I don't remember getting too many today. There's more mud on the ball hitting the shot into the green, for sure, which is nice. But it hasn't been too bad in the fairway yet, which is good. I don't pick it up in the fairway and clean it off or anything. I just hit it. So I've been practicing, I guess.

Q. Obviously everybody talks about your length off the tee. And at any USGA event accuracy is important. But given the wet conditions, the lack of roll out with your drives, does that help with confidence to let you rip it a little more knowing there's less of a chance that you're going to run through and get one of those lies in the rough that you don't want?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Absolutely. I fly the driver about 250, 260. Even if it just goes that distance, I'm still ahead of a lot of the players in the field, which is nice. You're right, there is holes where I'm kind of aiming at something and hoping that it doesn't run out, because if it does, it does go into the rough. It definitely makes the fairway a little wider, knowing that it's not going to roll out much further than where it lands.

Q. They announced the purse was bumped to $4.5 million, how much do you as a player notice that and does that speak, do you think, to sort of the upswing of this Tour is on, even though this is a USGA event?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: Absolutely. I just actually saw that on Twitter. What would we do without social media? Going into a tournament I want to win every tournament, I don't normally pay attention to the prize. But I thought that was very neat. Obviously women's golf is going up, and it's great that the USGA and Mike Davis and his team, we're all going in the right direction. It's amazing to see the purse go up that much. It's gone up significantly over the last couple of years, which is pretty amazing. Women's golf is going up, and it's a great time to be a part of the Tour.

Q. Can you tell us how you play 18 and the difficulty of it as a finishing hole?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: 18 is really long. I've hit hybrid into that green twice now. It's almost like a par 5. Definitely keep it in the fairway and kind of hope that you hit the right shot. Because the hole in front of the green slopes off. If you don't get it far enough, it rolls all the way back to you and then you're stuck with a 30-yard pitch shot. But if you hit it too far, obviously you don't want to be in the rough long. It's definitely a fine line. If I'm hitting hybrid, gosh, Mo Martin, I don't even know if she can get there, poor thing. It's a long hole. It's almost like a par 5. Hopefully I have a couple shot lead going into the last hole, so if I make a 5 I'll be happy.

Q. Speaking of holes, par 5, No. 7, with your length, you can reach that in two. Have you been out there practicing going for that hole, it's a par 5 with that pond in front of it?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: That hole is just going to be kind of in the moment of whether we go for it. I've gone for it twice. I've had hybrid. It doesn't matter where the pin is. We've talked about it with the caddie, aim to the left side of the green to take the water out of play. If it's in the hybrid range, we'll go for it. If it's a 4-iron or 3-wood, it's going to be a little bit iffy. It will be a game time decision. It's a bummer not being able to go for it because I want to go for it so bad. We'll see what happens.

Q. 26 million people watched the women's soccer game Sunday night. Do you think of the LPGA sort of as a pioneer in that sort of sports thing?
BRITTANY LINCICOME: I watched the whole entire match, especially when they were winning. I wanted to see what it looked like when they celebrated at the end and how they cheered and everything. It brought more back to me, Solheim Cup, Solheim Cup here in September. I saw Morgan was tweeting about it, Paula was tweeting about it, we were tweeting together, and Jessica Korda. It was getting us all back together and in the feel for things, getting ready for it. It was great to see them win and it gives us a boost that we need to get that Cup back.

MIKE TROSTEL: Brittany Lincicome, 1:58 off the first tee on Thursday. Best of luck this week.

BRITTANY LINCICOME: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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