LPGA DRIVE ON CHAMPIONSHIP

August 1, 2020

Caroline Masson

Quick Quotes

Q. All right. Here with Caroline Masson. You just said that your round felt like 24 hours. Take us through the challenge that Inverness and the weather threw at you today.

CAROLINE MASSON: Yeah, Inverness is obviously a great course, a very tough courses. Obviously played a lot different to yesterday morning when it was firm and fast and the greens were great, and same, firm and fast.

Obviously we got a lot of rain and it got really soft, which obviously makes the approach shots a little bit easier. You can fire more at the pins, but makes the course play a little bit longer.

It's been basically pretty much raining all day. We're soaked. We stood on one green for, I don't know, probably close to 45 minutes. Just waited for the water to go away from the green.

So it's just been a long day and was just trying to hang in there and make birdies when I could and just make a bunch of pars when I was kind of out of position.

Q. Is it more mental when there is something like a weather delay?

CAROLINE MASSON: I mean, I think it was more physical here because you're just staining in the rain. It got pretty cold. It's not the cold now, but we were all soaked pretty much and just standing there. The wind picked up a little.

So, yeah, it's just -- it was actually in this case a little bit more trying to get warm again and get your rhythm back, so it definitely wasn't easy.

Q. I know you can check the forecast every morning, but how was it preparing for a round like this after not having a LPGA Tour event in the rain by any means for such a long time?

CAROLINE MASSON: Yeah, I got admit I didn't practice much in the rain, but I also live in Florida where usually it's stormy and gives me a chance to go in.

Yeah, we knew it was going to get wet. I was kind of hoping that it would be a good thing in terms of making the course a little bit softer.

But, yeah, it was a lot rain. I think just playing in your rain gear, haven't done that in a while, and keeping go your rhythm. I think that's one of the hardest things anyway when you haven't played tournament golf in a while.

Yeah, because you can practice as much as you want and play at home and it's different. The rhythm is different and the rain doesn't help, and the gear didn't help.

So, yeah, definitely a little bit harder than I expected.

Q. Now, are you one of those to be checking leaderboards throughout your round at all, or were you able to check and see where you were during the day?

CAROLINE MASSON: No, I didn't check. Usually I kind of peek over to the leaderboard and check it out. Maybe it's a good thing not to look, so maybe I'll keep that going.

But I think today was just you had to focus so much and try to be in every shot, and there really wasn't even much time to think about my score to be quite honest with you.

I was just trying to grind away and just hang in there. Any hole can get you here, so you really have to, I think, think about the shots a lot to where you want to pitch it and where you want to hit it, what the wind is doing, what the rain has been doing. The conditions just change so much, so it was a good thing to be into it.

Q. Shooting a 70 in a day like today with these conditions and everything, does it feel like you shot 5-under?

CAROLINE MASSON: Well, I shot 72. I don't know if you said 70 or...

I shot 72, so even par felt pretty good. I got to say this course, I mean, I had a bunch of birdie chances and didn't make those putts, and then I made a couple longer putts for birdie, which is kind of different.

And then I thought I was playing really well when the delay came. I three-putted right there when we went back into it, so that's a tough one. I had a long putt, and after sitting there for 45 minutes and not knowing what the green speed is going to be, it's kind of tough.

Three-putted that and birdied the next hole. It didn't feel like a great round. I definitely hit some shots that were off. But I think a couple long putts keep me going when I wasn't taking advantage of my birdie chances.

Overall it felt pretty fair for how I played.

Q. How much slower were the greens after you came back out?

CAROLINE MASSON: Well, I mean, slower obviously. It's late in the day. We were going to be slower anyway. Slower, but they're still very good in a way, you know.

So it's not like you can just hammer everything. It was just about, I don't know, finding the pace again. But when you're faced with like a 19 meter putt, which is pretty far, it's like almost 60 feet up the hill, you know, that's just a tough one to judge.

You're just trying to get out there with two putts, and I couldn't do that. Birdie the next hole is always good.

Q. After you played 18 holes here for the first time what was your overall impression?

CAROLINE MASSON: It's a great course. It's like a major course. It's a U.S.Open course, especially today with like wet and thick rough; didn't make it any easier.

So great impression. Obviously I'm thinking about Solheim Cup next year and how they're going to set it up for that. It's going to be match play. It's a little bit different. Maybe they set up the par-5s a little bit differently from this week, because two of them are just not very gettable right now.

But it'll be a fun course, and I think the best player and the best team will win in the Solheim Cup. Same for this week. It's a tough test, especially first week out.