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RICOH WOMEN’S BRITISH OPENAugust 3, 2017Laura DaviesFife, Scotland Q. Incredible front nine, a nice way to finish at the end, as well. How do you assess the round as a whole. LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, very pleased. I played pretty well but putted great. It's the best putting round I've had for a donkey's year, so very pleased. Let a couple get away there after the delay, but a nice birdie at the last, so yeah, pretty good. Q. The rain delay sort of seemed to knock you out of your stride a little bit. How does it affect you out on the course mentally? LAURA DAVIES: Well, if you're going well, you don't want a delay. If you're going badly, sometimes you get that delay and you can regroup and come back. Certainly just having made that birdie on the 14th, probably the hardest hole on the course today, I hit 5-iron in there, we knew something was coming because I hit a terrible tee shot but I was trying so hard to hold it up against the wind, and then of course the delay and we got soaked, and it's hard to regroup. But luckily I made a good par on 17 and I had a chance for a birdie, but settled it down after the double bogey-bogey, and yeah, a couple of good shots at the last. Q. It was great conditions when you went out earlier on today. How was the course playing, how did it change over the rain delay and how much does it suit your game? LAURA DAVIES: Well, I love the course. This is the first round I've ever had on it. I only walked it yesterday because I had to qualify Monday, so I didn't actually have a practice round. I loved what I saw walking round and loved playing it. There's a couple of really hard shots you've got to hit on the back nine, back into the wind on the coast lines down there, 15, 16, very difficult shots, and overall, it suits the long hitters, so I think it's a bit of an advantage for us this week. Q. It's incredibly your 37th consecutive Women's British Open. How do you feel coming into the event? Do you still have the same buzz you had back then? LAURA DAVIES: Oh, absolutely. I can remember the first one, it was at Wentworth near where I lived. I was an amateur, and I've actually just saw on the leaderboard, it's the 41st version, so I've only missed four. Not a bad effort. I suppose. Yeah, I've still got the same excitement to come and do well. I'm under no illusions of winning it, but I would love to have a good week and just try and scare the leaders a bit. But there's some really good players on this Tour now, so it's hard to beat them. Q. Extraordinary day. LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, I putted well. I putted great. I hit a lot of good shots, and I putted really well. I got up-and-down a couple times to keep me going early on, and then just had that patch in the middle where I thought I was going to hole everything. But kept hitting it well. The best shot of the day was 14 when I hit the 5-iron to about four feet, and then the rain delay, and that kind of punished me a little bit. When you're going well, you don't need that. You want to keep -- even when it's raining, you still want to just keep going because you've got the momentum. Q. It was great the way you did keep going, though, came back after that? LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, it was a nice birdie on 18. It was two really good shots, 2-iron, 8-iron to 12 feet and knocked another one in. Yeah, that's what I've been saying for a long time now, if I could just hole some putts, I'd be dangerous. Like I said, putting four rounds together -- it's all very well doing it once. Doing it four times is not going to be easy -- I just said to the BBC I'm not under any illusions of winning it. It's just nice to know the good stuff is still there. Q. Does the birdie on the 18th sort of change your mentality tomorrow? LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, definitely, yeah, because I was 2-over on that back nine for a while, and just to come back in 37 rather than 38 or 39, it could have gone out of control because -- I actually played 17 really well, as well, could have birdied that. But yeah, you always want to get -- you never want to finish on 2 or 3. That feels like almost a bad day, although 2-under around Kingsbarns is never that bad. Q. Was it difficult to start and stop? LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, it just was awkward is all. I'm glad we came off because my umbrella couldn't cope with it. What are you going to do? Q. Were you surprised at the scoring when you first -- LAURA DAVIES: No, just purely because of the weather. If this course -- it's not called links golf -- I think I said last week at the men's Open, Birkdale is quite easy, and I meant it in calm conditions. People thought I said Birkdale was easy, and that's not what I was saying at all. As soon as the weather turns it's a monster, so you've got to make hay while the sun is shining and you're not being blown off the course. It's always like that. I've forgotten what day it was, I think the Saturday round, they started shooting crazy numbers at Birkdale because that's links golf. It's about the weather. Q. How good did it feel to get the juices flowing again? LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, it was great, yeah. Yeah, it was nice. It was a shame that Michelle got to 8-under because it would have been nice to have been the leader at some point during the week, but I blew that on 15. But yeah, no, it's always nice to see your name on the leaderboard. Q. Is it strange, though, as youngsters get fitter that the experienced players seem to be thriving in the Open? LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, I think links golf you've got to think your way around a bit more. We've hit a lot of shots out there that we've worked out that we don't need to smash driver, just play the hole -- what it gives you. If it gives you a chance not to hit driver, don't do it, and I think some of the younger ones probably just get out there they're they're so good and so straight off the tee, they just keep smashing driver. It's not always the thing to do. Q. Are practice rounds overrated? LAURA DAVIES: Definitely. Q. And the confidence you got from qualifying, was that really helping you today? LAURA DAVIES: Well, that's probably the first meaningful round of golf I've had since -- it was a Legends event where I finished third, and I had 68 on the final day, and that was a meaningful round because it got me third from about 15th. But that's the first time I can remember actually coming off the course feeling like I've achieved something because you don't want to be 50th or 40th. You feel like you've achieved nothing when you do that. Yeah, that was actually a bit of a confidence boost to be honest with you. I said to my caddie, I said, we feel like we've achieved something finally after two and a half years. Q. I think Paula felt that being put under pressure helped her. LAURA DAVIES: I agree totally. You don't want to have to do it because the down side of it is if you don't play well and you're not in the British Open. The upside is you do get in and now all of a sudden you feel like you've done something. Yeah, sometimes you've got to be put under a bit of pressure that you wouldn't like to be under. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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