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U.S. SENIOR WOMEN'S OPEN

July 14, 2018

Laura Davies

Chicago, Illinois

THE MODERATOR: We are here with Laura Davies, 7-under today, which is the women's competitive course record here at Chicago Golf Club. Laura, we will start with the eagle on 12. We could hear the roar here in the media center. Talk us through the hole.

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, it was unbelievable really. I hit a good drive. Didn't hit it hard, but I'm just trying to hit that fairway because the cross bunkers are a bad distance for me, and left myself a 3-iron in. Hit probably the best 3-iron I've ever hit in my life, but it went way, way long to the back of the green. Had to be 65, 70 feet, but it had about four feet of break one way and then about three feet of break back the other way. I hit it about a foot outside right, and it went in, and it was good fun.

Q. Overall what was working well for you today?
LAURA DAVIES: The irons were great. I drove it nicely, I hit a lot of fairways, but my distance control with my irons was amazing. Just the very first shot, the 6-iron into the first, hit a 2-iron, and I didn't hole the putt, but I hit it to about six feet, and it was dead pin high. That was a nice way to get the round going. And just hit good irons from then. I had one bogey on the fourth when I hit it in the long stuff, which you can't do, so that was about a standard bogey from that point. Basically it was just a good, fun day.

THE MODERATOR: We talked pre-championship about the situation you were in in Phoenix, how you hadn't been in that position in a long time. What will you take from that now going in with a five-shot lead tomorrow?

LAURA DAVIES: Well, yeah, that's the thing. It's guaranteed myself a sleepless night now, which is probably not what you want. I'm not saying I'd rather be tied for the lead, but you sleep a lot better when you're tied for the lead. It's there for me to lose now. If I go and shoot 3-under, 4-under tomorrow, then it would be mine, but that's a lot of hard work in front of me. I've put myself under pressure. You like to be in those positions, and like you said, hopefully Phoenix -- it's a good six months ago, five months ago now, but hopefully that experience will help me tomorrow, because I know a big lead like that seems a lot, but it really isn't in golf, is it. We all know that.

Q. On 12, was someone joking with you about needing a driver to hit that putt for the eagle putt?
LAURA DAVIES: No, I walked back and forth and I walked up and I looked at the crowd, and I just said, Has anyone got a clue what this is going to do, but luckily no one said left, right, left, because then I would have been in trouble, but I was just having a bit of a joke with them. But that was why they were laughing.

Q. Do you feel like those course conditions and getting some rain out there was something that was a big advantage for your game?
LAURA DAVIES: Oh, we were very lucky. I mean, I thought if the weather had stayed nice, it might have been unbelievably difficult out there today, so that rain this morning has helped. It's never an easy golf course. This is one of the hardest golf courses I've played. But when it's soft like that, you do feel like if your irons are on, you've got a chance to make lots of birdies, and that's what happened today for me and Juli. Juli played really well.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind a bit of overnight rain again. That would suit me down to the ground. Distance isn't a problem. We all knew distance wasn't a problem this week, it's just finding the right part of the green and putting decent.

Q. How far were you out when you hit the 3-iron?
LAURA DAVIES: I think we had 191 front, and the pin was on -- so we had 207.

Q. Rosie was talking earlier about the tremendous short game facility that you have at your house. Is that your current house?
LAURA DAVIES: I used to. That was my old house. That was two houses ago.

Q. Two houses ago?
LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, I used to have a really nice green in the back garden and a big pot bunker. Yeah, it was fun. I never used to practice, but we had it.

Q. It was just there for show? I thought maybe that's how you honed your short game now.
LAURA DAVIES: No, that's the old days. Me and my brother used to go out hours upon hours on the range and round the chipping green, and that's how basically I learnt the game all those years ago with Tony.

Q. What, if anything, has age taken away from you on the golf course?
LAURA DAVIES: I think confidence. You feel nervous all the time. You don't -- you know the shots you can hit or used to be able to hit, and you can't quite do them, so your confidence takes a bit of a knock, I think, as you get older, and you lose some of the shots that used to be bog standard. Mainly short game, mainly chipping and some shots that you used to find very easy is the worst of it because the equipment keeps our games in check for distance and everything. Yeah, it's just in your mind really. It's not really a physical thing, it's more in the head.

Q. Laura, how much do you watch the scoreboards, or was there a point during the round where you noticed that you were starting to have a little bit of an advantage?
LAURA DAVIES: Well, the thing was we pretty much knew no one was particularly coming forward, although Danielle Ammaccapane has had a good round. She's now 2-under. But I knew my two playing partners were the two closest rivals, so you pretty much knew what was going on all day, and when I made that eagle putt, I think I would have had a five- or six-shot lead at that time. Maybe Trish was still on 4. But anyway, you don't worry about that. I mean, if you've got a six-shot lead going into the back nine tomorrow, then you'll start to feel like you're kind of enjoying it, but it's just an uncomfortable feeling at the moment, a lovely feeling but an uncomfortable lovely feeling.

Q. Did you hit as many irons off the tee today as you did the first two rounds?
LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, just the same because they had some of the tees -- because they've been mixing them up, it worked out really well that my 2-iron was on virtually every par-4. I don't think I hit a driver on a par-4. I hit five drivers on the par-5s, and then the par-4s I hit 2-iron and I hit a couple of 4-irons, the downwind holes. So yeah, the game plan is basically for us to try and hit as many fairways as we can because then we know -- as I keep saying, the course isn't long, and if you've got mid irons to short irons, then if you're in the fairway you've got a real chance of making birdies.

Q. As we all know, you're not known for spending a lot of time on the practice range, but when you were warming up this morning, did you feel something special might be on the cards today?
LAURA DAVIES: Well, I've been hitting it well all week on the range, and I just slowed my swing down, and I'm watching the strike. That's the only thing. So I knew -- I hit a lot of 7-irons to that -- there's a right-hand green pin, which is a perfect number for my 7, and I hit a lot of good shots -- I hit about 12 or 15 really nice-looking high 7-irons, and I felt I was swinging well. It's one thing hitting it on the range, then you've got to take it to the course. It's nice when a plan comes together, I suppose.

Q. I know that you know that this doesn't count for the LPGA Hall of Fame, but do you think that it should?
LAURA DAVIES: No, I don't think so, no.

Q. Why not?
LAURA DAVIES: Because you're not up against the absolute best players in the world. You're up against the best 50-plus players in the world, and it doesn't really have bearing on the LPGA Hall of Fame I don't think. That's just my opinion.

Q. You just talked about confidence being the thing that can go amiss, but do you feel more confidence this week, or did you coming into the week, given that it was a senior event?
LAURA DAVIES: Well, up until this point with a six-shot lead with one round to go, I've felt calm and enjoyed it, and I think the whole thing has been absolutely fantastic. Now, like I said, I've booked myself no sleep tonight and a really anxious day tomorrow. Up until this point, I've been about as relaxed -- because I mean, you obviously think you want to worry about the cut, but it's a lot easier making the cut this week than it was last week, for instance, when it was 4-under par. The pressure is off a little bit, but now it's back on again, obviously, because there's a USGA golf championship to try and win tomorrow, so I never thought I'd have a chance to win it again, win one again. Everything has changed. The fun is gone now; it's all turned a bit serious now.

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