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KIA CLASSIC

March 24, 2016

Jodi Ewart Shadoff

Carlsbad, California

Q. Great opening round today. You must be feeling pretty good. We were just talking, you've been working with David Leadbetter recently. Can you talk about some of the changes?
JODI EWART SHADOFF: Yeah, just over the past year and a half or so, making a lot of swing changes and improvements, and last year wasn't my greatest year but we were going through a lot of swing changes.

Finally they were starting to make a good impact. I'm gaining a lot of confidence working with my sports psychologist, Dr. Bob Winters, and everything is just really starting to gel together now and every part of my game has improved a lot over the past six months or so.

Q. Let's get into specifics. You said last year wasn't your best year. Are you talking performance-wise or was there anything else you were looking at?
JODI EWART SHADOFF: Just performance-wise. I had a back injury in the middle of it, so that didn't help either. I just lost my confidence overall. Going through swing changes and stuff, it's hard to keep that confidence up while you're playing, too.

It was kind of good having -- I didn't play in Asia last year, so having four months off just to really focus on my game and my strength and everything to do with golf, it was really good for me I think.

Q. And then what have you and David in particular been working on with your swing?
JODI EWART SHADOFF: Oh, God, a lot.

Q. Is there one thing you can pinpoint that's starting to click more than anything else?
JODI EWART SHADOFF: Before, I used to come down inside and flick my hands over. I had a bad wrist injury at one point and that movement hurts your back. So really, just trying to get the club working down more in front of me. I'm hitting the ball five to seven yards further than I was last year. My driving distance is longer. So it's good. My putting is starting to get there.

As I said, I'm working with my psychologist, Dr. Bob Winters, and he's really helped me in my short game and putting in particular.

Q. Is there something you used today out of that?
JODI EWART SHADOFF: I went to TaylorMade this week and I got on their putting lab thing, and I was consistently aiming like a degree left. And they put a piece of tape on the back of my putter, so they take away the sight line. Then I started aiming dead square.

So now I'm playing with a piece of tape off of the line on the back of my putter today. I putted great today, apart from one hole on No. 7. But it's doing a lot for my confidence and a lot for my feel.

Q. So when you are playing confident like that, do you go right to the putting green after this or what's your plan?
JODI EWART SHADOFF: I probably won't hit any. I'm striking the ball so good. Last week I hit the ball great, too. I think I averaged 15, 16 greens a round. So I don't want to wear myself out because this is a long stretch of tournaments. But yeah, I'll probably do a little bit of putting just to warm down.

Q. So you had that break after Australia, came back at founders. This is obviously a busy stretch you just mentioned. What were your goals coming into this stretch?
JODI EWART SHADOFF: I don't really -- obviously getting into the ANA, I'm in the final field right now, so I don't really know how I'm in the final field. I think it's Money List. I'm on the list though, somehow.

But I'm not really like, Money List or finishing in the Top-10s or winning and stuff. Really right now, it just gaining confidence that I've lost over the past year and I'm doing that.

Q. Let's do one final question course specific: Were you the first group off?
JODI EWART SHADOFF: Second group.

Q. How is it playing today?
JODI EWART SHADOFF: It's great. The greens are so good right now. So much better than they were last year and they were good then. It's in perfect condition. The rough is really thick and you have to be hitting fairways. I think I hit 12 fairways today, so that definitely helped.

The greens are holding nicely and yeah, everything is in perfect condition. No complaints.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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