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ABERDEEN STANDARD INVESTMENTS LADIES SCOTTISH OPEN

July 27, 2018

Tiffany Joh

Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland

Q. Well, congratulations. Another great round of golf. So hard to follow up a good round, but you did that. You must be delighted with yourself.
TIFFANY JOH: Yeah, you know, I had pretty low expectations for today, to be honest. I honestly probably would have taken anything under par, but on the first hole right away we made like a 45-footer, and I just started laughing. Like I didn't even know what to say. So yeah, it was like a really good start, and I guess I just kept rolling with it.

Q. What is it with you and these greens?
TIFFANY JOH: Yeah, you know, I think there are so many little subtle breaks on these greens that, you know, you're almost better off just kind of like taking a really generalized approach to green reading and not really overthinking it, which is perfect because I never overthink anything. If it Bears any problem for me, it's like under-thinking things. So yeah, I think maybe they just fit my eye really well.

Q. We spoke yesterday. Your short-game coach is here. Did he say anything last night after you got back?
TIFFANY JOH: Well, he actually left last night. Well, no, he doesn't really like to like make a big deal out of it when his students are playing well, I don't think. He likes to kind of just fade into the wall. So I mean he watched maybe my last hole, and even then I don't know if he was watching because every time I looked at him he was looking down at his cellphone, but it would be really cool if I get to play with Ariya tomorrow because he teaches Ariya as well, and that would be very easy for him to follow.

Q. Are you surprised you've still got a three-shot lead because you would have thought everyone was going to make a big charge this morning because there was hardly any wind this morning?
TIFFANY JOH: Yeah. I definitely figured there would be some low scores out there, and Ariya took it pretty deep. So yeah, I think it was exactly what I expected.

Q. Well, great start. Wonderful golf. Well done.
TIFFANY JOH: Appreciate it.

Q. Talk us through the putts you had because I saw one on 10 that was off the green.
TIFFANY JOH: Yeah. So funny story, I was playing a U. S. Open sectional qualifier with Rebecca Artis, and she hit this amazing like 80-foot putt from the fringe and she made Jeff go get it out of the hole, and I was like, oh, man, I wish I could do that one day. Like I wish I was like cool enough to pull that out, and there was one time where I probably had an opportunity but my caddy and I awkwardly started kind of heading towards the pin at the same time and we were like you, no, oh. And then I ended up getting it. But right when I made that off of the fringe it was like a huge putt like down a tier. I kind of saw him going towards the hole and I was like, yeah, yeah, go get it. And I kind of walked off the green and I felt really cool.

Q. What's your caddy's name?
TIFFANY JOH: Zac. Zac Maybank.

Q. What about the other birdies that you made today? How did you make them?
TIFFANY JOH: Yeah. I mean they were all pretty long putts, to be honest. There were only maybe like one or two putts that were like inside 10 feet. Yeah, they were all kind of like those bombs that are just total gifts that you just never expect to make. But I did take out some recycling last night. I saved a lady bug on one of the greens, so I feel like I'm putting out some really good karma points.

Q. Obviously you've got the bottom number, two, three and four breathing down your neck. Do you sort of relish that challenge over the weekend?
TIFFANY JOH: I don't know. I try not to think too much about scores. Like I think you just kind of go out and do the best that you can and, you know, if it works out, great, and if it doesn't, like go get them at another tournament. Right?

Q. And obviously you're on a high at the moment. You're enjoying life and enjoying golf. But you had a little scare earlier on the year. Tell us what happened and obviously you're better now.
TIFFANY JOH: Yeah. I've always kind of felt that I'm like an incredibly lucky person, and it was kind of the same case where I actually ran into a friend of mine. This was the beginning of last year. I ran into a friend of mine before I went surfing and I had planned on going down to Mexico, so I invited her to come and she said, no, I have to get surgery for this melanoma that's on my leg and I had developed this kind of weird like almost like a nervous habit of like touching this spot on my scalp that was like a little raised but it was underneath a ton of hair, like no one could have ever seen it. But yeah, I did that whenever I was like stressing out for someone. So she was telling me about her own melanoma scare. I started touching that spot on my head and all of a sudden I kind of made the connection and made the appointment for pretty much the next day. Yeah, I was really fortunate. I caught it early enough and I was able to treat it with surgery and didn't have to do chemo or any of that stuff. So like I feel like that's just one of those instances where I got incredibly lucky. And although the situation was really scary, I really caught the good end of it.

Q. Does that change your outlook on stuff at all because people sometimes do that when they've had a scare like that.
TIFFANY JOH: Yeah, I think it's funny because I took a couple of tournaments off at the beginning of last year to get surgery and everything, and I came back and I thought I was going to have this amazing attitude, and I was like, no matter what happens, I'm going to have this great perspective. And I think the first tournament I like cold topped one of my shots and like still slammed down my club, because you know, when you're competitive, you're still going to be competitive.

Q. You've won twice on the Symetra Tour, still trying for the first win on the LPGA. What would it mean to connect that ^ for you and what would it mean to make it here?
TIFFANY JOH: Oh, man. It would be great. I'm such a fan of links golf. I've always loved playing links golf. It would be huge, but at the same time, you're right, I try not to get ahead of myself, and regardless what happens, my caddy and I are having a blast out there.

Q. Do you keep an eye on who's behind you?
TIFFANY JOH: No. Anytime you see Jutanugarn on the leaderboard, you kind of freak out a little bit. But yeah, no, I try not to look at leaderboards. Inevitably you end up catching it with your eyes, but yeah, I try not to focus too much on that.

Q. Tiger had some tape on his back at the Open. You've got some tape on your leg.
TIFFANY JOH: Yeah, so this is actually just for like shin splints, and I think it's because when I first got here I wanted to try like every single bunker shot possible, and I'm sure that's basically what happened. Like I saw some of the men playing the Scottish Open and I saw like Patrick Reed hitting all these bunker shots and getting stuck in that one bunker. And so I think right when we got here we were like, we're going to try it from our knees. We're going to try like one leg out and we're going to try sitting down on the lip. We've tried pretty much every alternative to like just standing in the bunker. And that's probably what it's from. It's probably my own fault.

Q. Did you watch a lot of the men's Open?
TIFFANY JOH: We were playing a tournament, so I didn't catch a ton of it. But like you scroll through Instagram and you see all the trouble, the highlights and the low lights. Right?

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