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RICOH WOMEN’S BRITISH OPENAugust 3, 2017Mel ReidFife, Scotland COLIN CALLANDER: Good morning, everyone. We have Mel Reid with us. She's just scored a 67, 5-under par, leading in the clubhouse. It's a great start to the championship. MEL REID: Yeah, it is. You're not going to get it much calmer than what we had it this morning, so yeah, no, it was important to take advantage of that and post a good score. COLIN CALLANDER: You set out early, and it often is the case that it gives you an advantage. That was the same today, wasn't it? MEL REID: Yeah, it was. We were playing in maybe one or two club wind, but for the first five or six holes there was hardly anything. Yeah, I mean, I felt like there was a lot of birdies out there. I kind of feel like there was a 7-under out there. That's kind of what I had in my head. I'm pretty sure that 7-under will probably be leading by the end of the day at least. Yeah, I mean, it's just important when you get calm conditions out there that you kind of get off to a very steady started and roll in a few putts and make a few birdies. Q. Was there frustration coming in after missing a couple of putts that you had a chance to make? MEL REID: Yeah, but then I holed a great putt on 10, so I got lucky on 13, or 12, the par-3, another foot right and that's in the bunker. Kind of all evens out. Yeah, exactly, and it'll even out by the end of the week. I've had so many bad breaks this year, I felt like I needed a couple of good breaks in week or towards the end of the season. Yeah, I felt like I struck it really well, and yeah, I definitely left a few out there for sure. But hopefully I'm saving them for the next three days. Q. Have you had a better start in the British Open? MEL REID: I don't think so, no. No. Q. What would it mean to you to win the British? MEL REID: What would it mean to me? I mean, it would mean having a massive party. I'm pretty good at that. This is why we practise hours upon hours upon hours is to put ourselves in position to win big tournaments like this, and to win it here would be extra special just because it's one of my favourite places to play. I love links golf. British Open is always the highlight of my year. You know, and like I said, this is why we work so hard is to just even give ourselves a chance of winning tournaments like this. Q. Winning here would be a major achievement, but because you're British, would it mean slightly more? MEL REID: Yeah, I mean, I get all my family out here. There's a lot of my family here, and that's why there would be a big party on Sunday night. You know, it's -- U.S. Opens I might have a couple members of my family, but when it's here, it's a lot easier for them to come and watch me. My dad doesn't get to see me very much anymore play, and he's coming up tomorrow. It's important for me to try and play well in front of them, seeing as they don't see me very often, and it just so happens at British Open everyone always gets together, so I always try and put in a little bit of a performance for them to show off to them a little bit. Yeah, I mean, I just enjoy British Opens. I just enjoy links golf. Q. You mentioned at the start that you had a few really bad breaks on the year. Can you give us two of them? MEL REID: Do you know the answer to that? Bad breaks? I don't know really. I mean, where do I start. I played one in Australia, you know, then I picked up a back injury. I irritated one of my L5-L6 discs. I wasn't able to play Phoenix. I probably shouldn't have played Kia, definitely shouldn't have played ANA but felt like I had to because it's a major championship. You're always going to try to play in a major championship. I struggled with that for a while, and then went to Kingsmill, didn't quite feel 100 per cent, went and played -- I've missed three cuts in a row by a shot. I kind of feel like I'm missing cuts by a shot. On the LPGA missing a cut and contending is a very, very small margin. So I've felt like my game has been extremely close, it's just not happened for me. I just feel like we've just missed a couple of putts or I've just had a couple of bad breaks here and there with bounces. Me and Benji have both said we just don't feel like things have quite gone our way, but you've got to stay positive, otherwise what's the point. You know, me and Kev have worked extremely hard the last few days. We've brought a sports psychologist over the last probably 10 days. I only just saw him last week in Scotland. He's made a big impact already, a guy called Paul McCarthy, Irish guy. So yeah, maybe that's the little change that I needed, and this is the most amount of time I've spent with Kev all year. Q. Is the back okay now? MEL REID: Yeah, back's good. I'm having to do a lot of maintenance on it. I did it from sneezing. I didn't do it from -- I actually just sneezed at an awkward angle, which sounds ridiculous, but me and my trainer have done a lot of work. I'm trying to strengthen that as much as we can. Obviously during the season you're not going to lift as many heavy weights as you would in an off-season, but yeah, I mean, I'm feeling pretty much 95 per cent fit. Q. You've worked with Kevin for quite a while now. Can you talk about your relationship with him and what he's brought to your game? He's very good at motivating? MEL REID: He is, yeah. You know, I can't give the guy enough credit. He's like a second father to me really. Very, very close with him and his family. Yeah, I mean, I just get good energy from him. He's just a good guy, and he's -- in my opinion he's one of the best coaches in the world. You know, he's saved my career, and I've said that more than once, I would give him full credit for that. He really has. You know, I just -- he's got my best interest at heart, and sometimes that's quite hard to find in a golf coach. He knows when and when not to say things, and we're just very, very similar characters. You know, I just think that we just get on ever so well, and he tells me what I need to work on, he tells me when I need to back off. I just implicitly -- he's just a great guy. He's done wonders for my career. Q. Does that surprise you? MEL REID: It does. He coaches a little bit Sandy Lyle and Colin Montgomerie, but I've said to him I want him out on the LPGA a bit more with me. I feel he's a performance coach, I feel he's a Tour coach, and I feel that doing what he's doing right now, he's not getting the most out of his potential. I'm hoping that the girls will see him out on Tour and a couple girls will just go up to him and say, oh, by the way, do you mind if we have a chat. That's where I see his career. That's where he sees his career. At the minute he's just coaching me and Beanie. Yeah, I mean, fingers crossed he can come out with me a little bit more this year or towards the end of this year. Q. What does a psychologist need to tell you? MEL REID: I think the thing is with me is that I've been given a lot of information through my career, and I feel like some of it's stuck with me and some of it hasn't. From a sports psychologist point of view, I feel like with Kev I know what I'm doing with my swing. With Helen I know what I'm doing in the gym. I don't know exactly what I'm doing with my head in a sense because so many people are telling me different things, and I just kind of wanted to start again and just stick with one person that Kev recommended. Kev has worked with Paul before, and immediately from even spending two hours with Paul, he just said a couple of things that back to basics, and he was shocked really by how much I was a sponge and took in the information that he gave me. He said, have you not been thinking like this before, which is exciting, because he said, from what you've done, it's pretty impressive that you've thought the way that you have. But there's been times where I've dipped in and out of my -- like I think I'm mentally very strong at times. I want to be mentally strong all the time. There are times when I kind of dip in and out of it. Solheim Cup I'm mentally strong. When I'm going down the stretch I'm usually mentally strong. If my back is against the wall I'm usually mentally strong, but I need to be like that on a Thursday morning of the Phoenix Open, and sometimes I don't do that. That's hopefully what I feel that Paul is going to be a great addition to the team. Q. Can you just describe your season on the LPGA? MEL REID: It's been amazing. It's very different to what I thought actually. I thought it was going to be -- I mean, don't get me wrong, in Europe it's very friendly. It's a great Tour to be part of. The LPGA is more business. Everyone knows that. People kind of tend to bring their entourage and stick with their entourage. But I feel like I've stuck -- I've kind of got my group of friends now. It happens to be the legends of like Laura and Webby, but that's great for me because I feel like I can ask Webby questions. I'm going out to dinner with Webby tonight. I've stayed with Laura quite a bit and the boys. As long as you kind of find your network of friends, it's amazing. It really is black and white. You get treated very differently out there purely because the money is more. There's more money out there. The golf courses are in amazing condition, and you really do feel like an athlete out there. So it's just -- it makes you want to work hard, as well, because if you're really not on it, your weaknesses get shown up very, very quickly. You know, so it's kind of gave me a new drive for practising, for playing, and I kind of feel like I'm a little bit of a kid again and learning all these new things. So it really has been probably one of the hardest things for me was to get through Q-school because it really was a make or break of my career. I felt like at 29 I just didn't want to spend another season in Europe. Q. How long did it actually take to settle in? MEL REID: I mean, it is a hard adjustment but it's not. I've played with these girls for years. I know what it's like. It's just -- the hardest thing for me is travel. My family, my friends, my life is in the UK. I'm travelling back and forth every week, and that's probably been the hardest thing for me is coming back on a Monday, a couple days' rest, then I'm seeing Kev on Thursday. Well, then I'm back out again on a Sunday again. That's probably been the hardest thing for me. But you know, I think it's just the strength and depth of the girls out there is very, very strong, which is amazing to be around, because it just helps you get better. You have to get better. If you don't get better, then there's no point being there. I mean, that's where you want to be. That's why I've sacrificed a lot of things in my life is to be the best that I can be, and so that's why being out there is the ultimate goal. Q. Can you give us the highlights of your round? MEL REID: Do you want me to go through them? Four-footer down 4. I can't remember, hang on. Oh, okay. Hit a good drive, cut a -- no, I hit a really good 8-iron in there, like a three-quarter 8-iron, three foot, made birdie. 7, I've cut an 8-iron in there, wind was hard off the right, nearly holed it. I've put it to a couple of inches. 8, par-5, hit driver, 2-iron, two-putt. 9, hit my drive left, just a little 52 to about eight foot, holed it. 10th, hit a great drive. Was trying to cut a 120 shot with a 9, just didn't really cut, stayed up on the top of the ridge and drained quite a big putt there. 14, three-putt for bogey. Didn't really hit a bad putt, just got a little bit unlucky. 15, hit probably one of my best shots all day, hit a good 120 shot, drew a 9-iron in there to about three foot. 16, three-putt again, missed a short putt, just had a little look too early. And then 17, again, that's the toughest hole on the golf course I would say, and I've hit a great cut 7-iron in there, wind hard off the right, to about eight foot, and rolled my putt in. Q. How much is the Solheim Cup on your mind this week? MEL REID: Not really to be quite honest with you. I think that it's going to be on a lot of other girls' minds that are trying to get themselves in the team. But for me, my goal this week is to play well this week. If I play well this week, everything takes care of itself. You know, I want to win this week, so I'm trying my hardest to put myself in position on Sunday to give myself a chance, and started off pretty well, and same again the next couple of days to put myself in contention on Sunday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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