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RICOH WOMENâ€™S BRITISH OPEN

July 28, 2016

Azahara Munoz

Woburn, England

AZAHARA MUNOZ: I hit every fairway and I hit a lot of really nice irons and then a few greens that I actually missed, I made some really nice up-and-downs. Making five- to 10-footers for par, so that kept me going. I don't know, I just didn't get myself in trouble, so that was just a stress-free kind of day.

Q. How lovely, stress-free, does that apply from the start?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Of course, you get a little nervous, but I don't get crazy nervous, either, unless I'm playing Solheim Cup. Sometimes, but not on the first tees. I'm not going shaking or anything but always a little nervous.

Q. And is this your type of course then?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: I really like it, yeah. I didn't get to play until Tuesday, and then I played nine holes yesterday.

Q. Does this course remind you of anything from home?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: No, nothing like home. Definitely don't have this many trees and it's definitely not this green.

Q. Maybe any other courses you've played before?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: I don't know, we used to play like the French Amateur, pretty similar to that one actually.

Q. How does this differ from the usual links course?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: It's very different. Obviously you can still get in trouble, but in a normal links course, you can make a triple without thinking about it. Here, it's not so much like that. I like to have a stress-free year. I was talking to Marta yesterday, I was like, it's nice to get a little break every now and then, because they are stressful and they are really hard. Obviously the weather is much nicer, too, which I enjoy as well.

Q. But you quite like the challenge when you go to a links course?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Yeah, I guess you have to take what it comes. This year, it's not a links and I'm loving it, and if it's a links I'll try to love it, as well. I'm really enjoying it. I really like the course. It suits my eye, so I like it.

Q. What was the best shot today?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: I think the best shot I hit was on the ninth. I hit an 8-iron and it was perfect. We said like a few yards left of the pin and let it come in and it did that, so that was really good.

I would actually choose on 10, I hit an okay shot but we misjudged the wind a little bit and I went over, and I made probably a 12-footer for par. So I think that was probably the shot of the day.

Q. How do you feel about your position after day one?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: I feel really happy. I played really well today. I gave myself a lot of chances, made some really nice putts. I'm feeling comfortable. I've been playing pretty good lately and today it showed. I just want to keep that going.

Q. But the good score, did you feel like this was a golf course that you can attack easily; what was your strategy?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Yeah, it was I don't think I would say easily. You have to be on the right sides of the hole and you don't want to short-side yourself but you also have a lot of birdie chances if you hit good shots. I feel that it's a golf course that if you hit good shots, you get rewarded, so I like that.

Q. After such a good score after day one, how much confidence does that give you moving forward?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Obviously it's always nice to start round one with a good score. But I'm just going to take it day by day. Obviously I'm really happy with it. I'm going to enjoy my afternoon and hopefully I have three more days like this.

Q. Obviously you would have liked to have been in Chicago at the International Crown. What was it like to watch that? Did it give you extra motivation to go out and get on a leaderboard?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: It was painful. Especially I had to be there, so normally I watch it on TV, and then I was watching them teeing off on Saturday. Yeah, we saw the crown. I took a few pictures. I was like, this is no fun.

Definitely motivation. I want to make that team in Korea in 2018. It's such a fun event, so it's a shame we weren't there, but we'll fight our into way for Korea.

Q. How have you felt about your game this year? What's coming together for you?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Yeah, the beginning of the year I wasn't hitting the ball that well and I was struggling with my short game. I was working really hard and lately it been clicking. I'm hitting the ball much better. I guess it's not that much of a difference. Like I always talk to my husband and he said, it's just little things. But I don't know, I'm hitting the ball much better, so I'm giving myself more chances. I normally hit a lot of greens and I was struggling with that. So finally I'm hitting more and more greens, and my short game is much better. So that's also a little different.

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