ABERDEEN STANDARD INVESTMENTS LADIES SCOTTISH OPEN

August 15, 2020

Lydia Ko

The Renaissance Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You obviously mentioned that this is the first time you made it to the weekend in The Scottish Open. What has been the difference this week?

LYDIA KO: I was joking, I only made like two birdies the last time in like Gullane and then like two birdies over at Dundonald over the two days, two, and then I only played two birdies in the past couple days, anyway, so it wasn't really a huge birdie difference. But I think I was able to make quite a few par saves, and then make sure that when I'm out of position, take my medicine and just kind of find another way to make par or a save from there.

Q. What is it like for you, Martin talked about last week what happened with the Marathon Classic, being able to rebound so gracefully here at The Scottish Open, what's it been like for to you feel so confident in your game?

LYDIA KO: Almost having a tournament right after makes you focus on what's right there in front of you and I think maybe less think about what happened at Marathon. Obviously I would have loved to have had one more higher finish in the end. There's a lot about what happened to me on the last hole. But you have to talk about what amazing golf Danielle played. I just think it really wasn't meant to be.

I was joking, I haven't been in this position in a while, so it was just nice to be back in contention and just feeling those kind of different nerves and that excitement, but just having this tournament right after, it made me focus on just this week, and obviously links golf is a little bit different, so I've just been focusing on what's happening right now and not get too carried away about what happened, because most of it was some of the best golf that I played in a long time.

Q. You've definitely come into your stride over the last couple weeks. You were able to put together a bogey-free round today. How important is that for your confidence as you head into another day tomorrow in contention?

LYDIA KO: It's nice, no matter where you play, to have a bogey-free round like that. I think when I was out of position, I was able to make up-and-down. Sometimes you have to get lucky having a good lie in the bunker or just off the greens, as well, but I feel like overall, I stayed believing in my game and being aggressive when I needed to and then being a little bit safer when it was a tough pin position, as well.

I think you kind of have to manage that really well, and that will give me a good lesson for next week at the British Open.

Q. What is it like having David on the bag with you?

LYDIA KO: It's a lot of fun. I feel like we get along pretty good. We've talked about food. We've talked about all different things. He was just asking me, hey, what do you feel like for dinner on the 17th hole, and which is a lot later than the other days, because the other day I was walking down contemplating what's for dinner tonight. I've been having a lot of good time and especially with his experience, he's been able to help me manage my game for the past few days and hopefully we'll be able to have a solid one tomorrow and then have another fun week next week.

Q. What does that do for your mental game out there on the links when you feel like you have more fun and kind of be yourself and think about some fun things other than golf when you're competing?

LYDIA KO: I think you've just got to enjoy it sometimes, especially when you're pandemicing a string of pars, it just can get really -- like par, par, you can really get bored and I think what's when you can lose focus. That happened to me a little bit on the back nine yesterday, but I've just been trying to focus on every shot and give my 100 percent over every shot and I think that's all you can do.

I think course management is such a big key with links golf, and this is such a big lead-up going to Troon, even though they are two different style of golf courses.

Q. And you've got one more day ahead of you here. What are you going to focus on and what is the strategy for you as you take one more round here at the Renaissance Club?

LYDIA KO: I think smart course management is going to be something that I'm going to try and continue to do tomorrow. I thinking the more times you're in the fairways and greens, the better the score, so hopefully I'm going to keep doing into that.

I've said multiple times and it's something that I've talked with Sean is hitting every shot aggressive, and aggressive doesn't mean I'm going to every pin position or every target. It's more that I'm aggressively hitting the shot that I'm committing to. I think that's going to be a big key for me not only tomorrow, but my whole career, and it's something I'm working to get better at.

Q. Has your coach texted you any advice going into the weekend?

LYDIA KO: We had a long call yesterday. He told me to write a certain word on my yardage book. A lot of times, we don't talk about too technical things and he's able to give me -- talk to me about like his experience and obviously because he's been around so many players and coached for so long, it's just great to hear stories and his feedback and his philosophy on things.

So yeah, I think he's definitely helped, not only just technically being better and being more solid but just kind of clearing some things inside here, too (pointing to between ears, laughing).