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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 3, 2018

Marina Alex

Shoal Creek, Alabama

Q. Five birdies and two bogeys today. That's a really good day on the last day of a Women's Open. Tell us about that a little bit.
MARINA ALEX: I really felt like for the first three days I had struck it well and was putting pretty below average for I guess like how -- I feel like I putt consistently well and I was just making nothing. It kind of started to wear on me. Yesterday definitely showed that. I finished poorly. Just tried to push too much.

Today I just was optimistic that I was going to come out and be firing. I made a birdie on the first which was great. I got an atrocious mud ball on the 4th hole and couldn't really figure out what to do with it. Ended up hitting it over the green. Made a bogey. There was nothing there. That's one of the toughest holes on the course.

Made a great birdie on 6. Hit a nice wedge.

Then a really great 7-iron on the par-3 downhill. Then just picked up some momentum from there.

Got an awesome break on 11 out of the rough off -- I hit it in the rough off the tee and didn't have a great lie and tried to muscle it over the hazard. Actually one hop short and over the hazard. Ended up wedging it up there to like 15 feet and made birdie.

And I just made one error on I believe it was 15. I had a three-putt. I just got a little probably too aggressive with the putt, trying to make it. Had like five, five and a half feet coming back. Just kind of didn't match the speed on the break. I mean, it was a pretty good breaking putt. It wasn't a bad stroke, just didn't execute it exactly right.

Had two good looks on 16 and 17 and they didn't drop. Just played solid tee to green.

Q. What kind of conditions can the leaders expect later on? I know it's not firm and fast yet, but is it getting closer?
MARINA ALEX: It definitely is. I felt the green speeds today. It could have just been difficult because I didn't play yesterday morning. When we went out for our third round, I mean, there was a ton of foot traffic on the greens. They had grown quite a bit. It was just difficult to roll the ball and get some true end-over-end rolls over there yesterday afternoon.

This morning that's not the case. The greens are rolling great, and they might dry out a little bit. The pins are in really good locations in the sense that it's difficult to get it really close. With the exception of a couple par-5s, you really have to kind of pick where you want the ball to land and play for release. But then there's some instances where you have to carry it almost to the flag. You end up being past it because they are firm greens.

It's as you expect for a U.S. Open.

Q. Does Ariya's length combined with her cushion make her really, really tough to catch?
MARINA ALEX: She's awesome. I would say that that -- I don't want to jinx anything obviously for her, but she's got such a complete game tee to green. She's a great putter when she has to make putts. I have seen her make some unbelievably clutch putts to win some golf tournaments. If anyone has the total package right now, that's definitely her.

Q. Now that you have finished with the Women's Open, considering what you were dealing with on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, take us through your thoughts about how just everything shaped out.
MARINA ALEX: I mean, the green staff -- the maintenance staff, did a tremendous job. They did the best they could to get this course in playing shape for us. I know they had a tough winter and there were some areas that were suspect on a few holes and the fairways. But that's out of their hands in terms of prep. So my hats off to them for doing everything they could to make this a championship condition golf course given the substantial amount of rain that we had.

I believe even prior to this week they had a ton of rain, and then the tropical storm. Just not in our favor.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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