ABERDEEN STANDARD INVESTMENTS LADIES SCOTTISH OPEN

August 13, 2020

Emily Pedersen

The Renaissance Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Being able to end the first day here in Scotland at 3-under, how are you feeling?

EMILY PEDERSEN: I'm feeling good. It was a little bit slow. I got off to a really hot start and then we kind of played those holes into the wind on the back nine, and I hit -- I hit 17 greens. I hit more greens, but I just didn't hit any of them close. But it was nice to have a good score after this long out of competition.

Q. You've had quite a bit of break since we've seen you last. What have you been up to? I know you had a very impressive finish on the ECCO Tour. Explain that a bit, as well.

EMILY PEDERSEN: Yeah, so I played an amateur event and then I played obviously the ECCO Tour event and one on the Swedish golf tour. So I won on the ECCO Tour and it was super cool to beat the boys, and I had two good rounds, and I haven't had that in a while. It kind of showed me that my practice was going in the right direction because you want to test where you are when you compete and it's so hard to know if you're practicing on the right stuff when you don't have any tournaments. It was really nice to have those few things to kind of practice.

Q. What was it like to gear up for competition again, whether it was the ECCO Tour event and now the LPGA LET event?

EMILY PEDERSEN: It was fun. I was so nervous this morning that I was like, what do I do. We've just been using our lasers, so I was like, I have to step the yardage, I have to talk to someone something about the greens. I have to kind of get into a rhythm. But it was nice.

Q. I know you've been spending a lot of time with some friends in Denmark during the break. What did that do for you maybe mentally just to kind of unwind? I know usually these breaks we don't really have as members of the LPGA and LET Tour.

EMILY PEDERSEN: Yeah, it was good to be home like consistently. It was nice that I didn't have to schedule every single day when I was home, like went to catch up with my mates, but it could be a little bit spontaneous like hey, do you want to come for dinner, do you want to do that, and I could, and it was really nice to be home. It was nice to be home with my family, and my brother is only 18 and I've not been spending a lot of time with him because obviously since he was very little I've been traveling as an amateur and then as a pro, so it was super nice to get to hang out with him a little bit and get a little closer, I think. It was nice to be home, as well.

Q. Taking a look back at this first round here in Scotland, you had quite a hot start there in the beginning. You said you were nervous, but what made you feel more comfortable out there?

EMILY PEDERSEN: I just -- I was like saying to myself, look, you're nervous but you've been waiting five months to do this, like just go out, try and hit it in the fairway, try and hit it on the green and try and see if you can make the putt. Breaking that all down kind of made it a little bit easier.

Q. And then you did have a double there on the front, and after that parring every single hole after that. That's kind of impressive in these winds. What would you say about that?

EMILY PEDERSEN: Well, the double was weird really because it was like I didn't hit that bad a shot, I just maybe thought the wind was doing a little bit too much and then I fatted it a little bit and then I duffed a chip and then I three-putted, and I was like, wow, that came out of nowhere because I'd been playing so well, and then I just said to myself, let's just try and hit a good shot on the next, and I do feel like I hit a few good shots on the back nine, they just didn't go in. I had a 12-foot putt for birdie on the back and that was really it, and the rest was like really good lag putting, not really close to making a bogey, so I guess that's a good thing, and then hopefully I can hit it a little bit more close tomorrow.

Q. What is there to take in after today to look to improve upon tomorrow?

EMILY PEDERSEN: Yeah, so on the first holes I hit a lot, a few I made the putts, but on the last 11 holes I didn't really hit to a good birdie chance but hit loads of greens, which showed that my game is somewhere stable. Hopefully I can produce a little bit more really good shots tomorrow so I can get a few more good looks for birdie.