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CANADIAN PACIFIC WOMEN'S OPENAugust 20, 2019Brittany MarchandRegina, Saskatchewan, Canada THE MODERATOR: Here for our last press conference of the day. Happy to be joined by Canada's Brittany Marchand, straight off the course, where you were at another outing today. We are really glad to have you come over here and join us. It's got to be great to come back to Canada and play in your national championship. BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yeah, it's great. I'm pretty close to home this week. I actually get to stay in my bed, which is nice. So, yeah, it's really good. Always great to be back at a tournament and have the support from all the Canadians. Especially this week I'll have a lot of family and friends, which is really nice. Q. How far away do you live? BRITTANY MARCHAND: 56 minutes this morning. I live Orangeville, which is pretty much west of here. I kind of skip all the terrific which is nice. I'm on the top end. Yeah, it's always nice coming to this tournament. It's kind of cool to have it in the Toronto area this year. THE MODERATOR: How do you feel coming into the tournament in your second full season on tour? Getting adjusted out there to tour life? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yeah. This year has been a little bit of a grind, to say the least. It's always been really fun. I'm so lucky to have a lot of really great friends and other Canadians out there with me. Just trying to navigate the waters of expectations of myself. Kind of had a tough year. I'm trying to -- I feel like I'm kind of getting out of the hole and seeing the light, which is great. I'm hoping to kind of finish this year off strong, starting here at this tournament. THE MODERATOR: Have you played Magna yet and what are your thoughts on the golf course? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yeah, I was lucky to play it a couple times before this week. I mean, it's unbelievable. It's so beautiful and the grass is amazing. It's really perfect. It's going to be a good week, I think. It's definitely off the tee more forgiving, but I think you really still have to be smart about where you hit into the greens and when they're going to get quick and make the putting a little bit more difficult. I think it's going to be really good week. THE MODERATOR: Not only are we here to talk about your play this week, but to catch up with you off the course. You are a proud North Carolina State alum with a degree in chemical engineering, and have really gotten into working for STEM education for girls and women. How did this become such a passion for you? BRITTANY MARCHAND: I mean, I think it kind of aligns with what we're going through with women's golf already, too. It's just a male-dominated area. STEM has always been male-dominated. I've had this passion to try to influence girls to not only get involved with golf, but also get involved with STEM, not to shy away from those things that are male-dominated. Kind of goes along with LPGA's DriveOn campaign. I had a lot of no's said to me when it came to engineering and having the idea of studying engineering and playing NCAA golf. There were a lot of coaches that didn't think that was a great idea. A lot of people told me it wasn't a good idea to have such a big focus outside of golf. So I wanted to prove them wrong and I did. I think that I wanted to show other girls they can do that, too. You don't have to necessarily just choose one over the other. I think it's great to kind of be involved in both. THE MODERATOR: We're really excited to talk about your work with the She is Foundation and the If Then Initiative, which we're going to show a video momentarily. How did you get involved with this organization? What's the goal for you for this partnership? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Well, Katie Donovan from She is kind of reached out to me and knew my story a little bit. They're doing a STEM series, Stem Meets Sports series showing how there is so much science and math and technology involved in sports and how there are a lot of athletes that are also involved. Like me, I had an engineering degree, but there are also other athletes who are doing a STEM-related job on the side. Or the other side, having a job in technology or math that's related to sports. Just kind of bridging the gap between the two. I think, again, they both have that same trying to influence women since it's usually such a male-dominated area. So we want to kind of have a piece in the series about my experience, and I think the goal is just to influence girls and show them anything is possible really. THE MODERATOR: We'll take this opportunity to show the video. (Video shown.) That's got to be a pretty good feeling for you to see what you've been working for coming together. BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yeah, for sure. It's definitely a really cool thing that I have outside of the golf course that I can put my attention to. It's more of a passion project, I guess, of mine. Like I said in the video, I just think that it's great that I get to play golf for a living, but I think what is cool is the platform I have to be able to inspire others. Yeah, absolutely. THE MODERATOR: Thank you for doing that. And you're right, it fits right in with the DriveOn campaign. Yes, we're on the golf course and we're athletes, but there is more to it than just the competition. BRITTANY MARCHAND: For sure. Definitely. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Brittany. Q. I have three questions. You said when you were applying to schools and you wanted to do engineering they were kind of discouraging you. Was it because you were female or was it's hard to be a varsity athlete and take engineering, which is a tough program? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yeah, more the sense of -- I don't think it was anything towards me being a female. It was just more towards it's hard, and I don't think they wanted my focus being pulled away from golf. Not many of the schools really said, Well, no, you wouldn't or no, you can't, but they said, We highly encourage you that you -- like you shouldn't. I think it would've been harder to manage the two if I had a coach that was kind of butting heads with that a lot. Q. By the way, my day job is teaching math. 150 students, and over half of them are females. BRITTANY MARCHAND: That's awesome. Q. Word is getting out. BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yea, that's great. Q. Back to golf. Last year, your first year on the tour full time. Kind of a magical year: 17 events, made the cut 13 times, 89th on the money list. This year almost the opposite I think. I think made one cut out of 13. What have you found this year that's made it a little bit more difficult? Almost like the sophomore jinx maybe. BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yeah, definitely heard that a few times, sophomore, second year issue. But I just think I came out of the off-season not really too confident. I had a lot of time. I didn't get into a lot of the Asian events. I only got into one of the Asian swing events, so I felt like I almost had a five-month off-season. I was off from October until Australia started. I just started kind of tinkering with stuff that I don't think I should have. I think I was in a really good place, but I tried to improve stuff and most went the other way. Felt really uncomfortable in my golf swing, and then it kind of started a domino effect. Then I put pressure on my short game, which I usually feel like is my strength. Then it became 98% mental. Then you start missing a bunch of cuts and it starts to get to yourself. Yeah, unfortunately I think it was just a really tough start that I was trying to fight fires during season with. Yeah, I'm finally starting to feel like myself out there again. It's unfortunate, but I think that just it's one of those learning experiences. I've definitely learned a lot about myself this year. Q. My final question. This is your livelihood. You have to make cuts to make money obviously. You're having some difficulty early in the season. How does a professional golfer like yourself overcome that? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yeah, can be very difficult. I obviously didn't do too good of a job overcoming it this year for too long. I think that it's tough. I think you really just have to focus on the process. You have to know yourself that you are improving in certain areas. It may not come together and it may not -- the score might not show it and the money might not be there. It is hard, but you have to put the money and the result aside and try to focus on the small things you're working towards every week. I feel like that's what I did a good job of kind of the second half of the year. I've just been really focused on those small things. I feel like I'm improving and feeling more comfortable. It hasn't translated 100% right away, but I can see it starting to come back together. I think you just have to trust that. Q. Can you use the experience of being told that you couldn't do something as you were earlier in your career and knowing the success you've had academically and on the golf course, can you use that as a kind of incentive or learning experience, that, yeah, you can go out and do it even facing tough times? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yeah, for sure. I think that part of my life was a perfect example of kind of the more someone kind of tells you you can't do it you really want to prove to them that you can. Not that I have anybody telling me I can't do it. Actually it's the opposite. It's myself telling myself I can't do it at this point in time. I think that's the hardest part, is you internally believing in yourself. You got to a point where you start not believing in your self-because you're in the seeing results. Everyone else is telling me they know I can do it, which is great. I'm glad I have support. It's being able to reflect and look inside. I think I said this in an article recently. I think you need to -- I need to just take a step back and kind of look at the perspective of everything, all these other great things I'm doing. As much as this year result-wise hasn't been what I wanted, I've also done a lot of great things off the golf course. I just try to look at the positives that way and keep moving forward. Q. What were you tinkering with? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Just my golf swing. I think I wanted to get a little distance, a little more distance, and I also wanted to just refine a few things. I kind of got off track and forgot where I was actually like -- not that I don't think gaining distance is great. I just think that I've kind of forgot the long-term where I wanted my swing to go. Started just messing with it a little bit too much, and then all of a sudden I was having trouble remembering what swinging the golf club was like. Back on tack though, so, yeah. Q. You work with Tristan Mullally, right? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yeah. Tristan is the head coach of the young pro team, and then I also work with my coach, Ann Carroll. So I'm worked with her since I was 14. She's been huge this year for kind of helping me remember who Brittany is again. Q. Right. She knows you more than anyone, doesn't she? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Sorry? Q. You've been with Ann for years. BRITTANY MARCHAND: Yeah, exactly. She immediately sees me after not seeing me in a while and can know these things she sees different. It's been good, because Tristan has had his eyes on me for a long time now, the last eight years. It was good to kind of have her. She hadn't seen me as much because she's busy here at home. Just an outside perspective was kind of good, because she was able to kind of see things that looked really different from how she had seen me before. Q. Anything specific you're working on? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Specifically in my golf swing? Just working to try to make my lower body move a little bit more efficient and focusing more on my lower body. Earlier in the year I was thinking a lot about arms and arm position in the backswing, and I think that's where I kind of lost a little feel. Q. Broader question. Other than getting to sleep in your own bed, which is always nice, what do you think having the tournament in the greater Toronto area generally or at Magna specifically means to you and other Canadians I guess and just the field in general? BRITTANY MARCHAND: Well, I think obviously this venue is amazing. It's really like I call it kind of a magical place. So I think everyone is over the moon about having it here at Magna. For me, I've always really liked playing at home. I know that some people tend to think it might add pressure. I kind of like having a lot of support. I have friends and family this year that will come that have never seen me play ever. It's kind of a cool experience for me. Being so close to most -- almost all my family live in this area and a lot of friends of mine. I just think it's always great to have lots of support. And the Canadians - I'm obviously biased - but are great fans and supporters of golf. I think it's just going to be a great week no matter what. THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much. What you're doing with She is and STEM are wonderful, and we appreciate the opportunity to talk to you today. BRITTANY MARCHAND: Thank you so much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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