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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 9, 2015

Morgan Pressel

LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA

Q. How important was the par on 9, considering you were coming off a little bit of a rough stretch?
MORGAN PRESSEL: Yeah, I didn't hit the ball particularly well all day, and I hit an extremely poor shot on 9. And to make that putt was important to not finish with three straight bogies. I hit a great little flop shot in there, so it was definitely nice to capitalize on that and make that putt.

Q. What was the key to your start on the back nine?
MORGAN PRESSEL: I actually -- I think the key was making a putt for par on 10 from about 25 feet maybe. I hit a poor drive in the bunker and then laid up and made a long putt for par, so that -- on that tough starting hole, it gave me a little bit of a jump start, actually missed a pretty short putt on 11 and hit it really close on 12 and made a good birdie on 13.

Q. What was your overall takeaway of how you played today?
MORGAN PRESSEL: I'm not on my "A" game, and to shoot 2-under par I'll definitely take that. I grinded very hard today. I putted really well. That was encouraging, it's something that I've been struggling with. Just haven't putt as well as I would have liked to, but I certainly putted well today. These greens are pure. I'm going to go work this afternoon, try and work on getting the club in front of me a little bit more and hopefully I can hit it a little bit better out there tomorrow.

Q. How much does confidence build over the last couple of months for this?
MORGAN PRESSEL: Very much so. It's always nice to be playing well and to feel good about your game coming into an extremely difficult golf course like this one. And just my attitude and everything about it, I kind of stayed patient out there and I knew that I could rely on my short game when I needed to and made a couple of birdie opportunities when I had a chance. And it's just a lot of experience, I think just things that I've learned over the years.

Q. Do you know what it is you need to work on?
MORGAN PRESSEL: I know what -- I kind of have an idea of what I need to work on. I'm just going to go work a little bit on the range. It's mostly my tempo, and just gets a little too quick under pressure, I've got to slow down. It was nice getting to watch Amy and Mirim, who both have great tempo, out there today. But it didn't sink in at all.

Q. A putt like that on your first hole today, can that set a tone for the week? In a way, if that goes the other way, you try to shrug it off, but --
MORGAN PRESSEL: It's not -- when you leave yourself 25, 30 feet for par, you really aren't expecting to make par. I said, okay, if I bogey this hole, it's okay. There's birdie opportunities. I know the 10th hole is a tough hole. And 10 and 11 are tough starting holes, just like 9 and 18 are probably some of the hardest holes. I think you can throw 8 in there for as slow as it was playing today, for sure, how long it took people to play that hole. You know going into the day where your tough holes are going to be and where your birdie opportunities are, so when you bogey a par 5 like I did on 7, I wasn't real happy about that. I managed to take advantage of most of the holes where I had opportunities.

Q. How long was your par putt on 9?
MORGAN PRESSEL: Five or six feet.

Q. Had you made that putt on 7, which lipped out of the hole, you would have had just an incredible scrambling on the front nine?
MORGAN PRESSEL: I scrambled all day, but that's part of an Open, it's not going to be easy out there. You have to use all parts of your game. Even not playing particularly well, I was able to get it in in 2-under par.

Q. Did you feel like you played better on your opening nine on the back than you did on the front?
MORGAN PRESSEL: No. Even on the front nine, I didn't hit many fairways, so I scrambled a little bit more than I would have liked to.

Q. What was it like out there?
MORGAN PRESSEL: Very hot, kind of rainy, muggy day. And we've got a ton of people out there. It's really nice. The community has been super excited about this for a long time. It's finally here and everyone has come out to support us, and it's great to play in front of these crowds, everybody was cheering for me all day out there, great round, go get them. It was nice to feel that enthusiasm and that excitement.

Q. If you were going to put your finger on one thing that you brought back to allow you to play a U.S. Open the way you've always played, what would it be?
MORGAN PRESSEL: I don't understand.

Q. If you could put your finger on it, is there one skill that's returned or attitude that's returned that allows you to do your best in a major here?
MORGAN PRESSEL: I think it's an attitude thing more than a game thing. I really felt like I didn't play very well at KPMG. I hit the ball, I thought, very poorly that week, and I still was able to finish 5th. Today I didn't have my game. But it's just, okay, it's gone, move forward kind of an attitude. I think what was interesting to watch, too, is Louis Oosthuizen at the men's Open in the opening rounds and that never-give-up attitude that he had, and how he nearly came back and won. And that's what it takes to win, period, let alone to win the biggest championship in golf.

Q. You played in this event when you were so young, when you come back and play after so many years, does it cause any kind of reflection?
MORGAN PRESSEL: It's interesting, I mean I've played -- I think this is my 12th, maybe, Open. But to think I was here as a 13-year-old. I played with the young Japanese girl on Tuesday afternoon and I played with quite a few amateurs in the practice rounds this week. I played three times as an amateur, and it was such a special experience for me to be here among the best players in the world, players that I look up to and wanted to emulate for so long. So it's crazy to think that I'm the baby-sitter now, everyone was baby-sitting me back in the day.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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