NW ARKANSAS CHAMPIONSHIP

August 28, 2020

Gaby Lopez

Pinnacle Country Club

Press Conference

Q. Gaby, today you had a lot of sun in your way. How do you feel about tomorrow maybe playing a little earlier?

GABY LOPEZ: Yeah, definitely I feel better playing in this heat than in Scotland playing in much colder and much more wind.

But I'm happy to be back. I'm just blessed to be able to play again at home. This is an amazing golf course. The greens are playing a little soft so there is a lot of birdie opportunities.

Yeah, I'm happy to be back. Even though I didn't probably make a lot putts I hit it solid, and we'll see tomorrow how it goes being aggressive and giving myself as many chances as possible.

Q. Do you think putting will be something you focus more on tomorrow or maybe your long game?

GABY LOPEZ: I think the greens look a little faster than they are, and that's why I didn't get the ball in the hole that many times. I was very kind of conscious of how much I was going to hit instead of the speed, so probably just being a little more aggressive on the uphill putts more than anything.

Q. And then how about your mental game-wise tomorrow? What are you thinking of? What are you focusing on?

GABY LOPEZ: Well, I'm probably just going to go have -- go at home and have a good sleep, and tomorrow is going to be same mentality as today. At the end of the day you're putting as much -- as better as you can, and sometimes they drop and sometimes they don't.

So probably just being a little more aggressive on my uphill putts, and that's it I think. Just staying patient. I mean, there is so many opportunities out there. The less mistakes you have the better of course you're going to play and you don't have to compensate that much.

Q. Lastly, we don't have any fans here this year, but we do have a lot of really loud neighbors here. What's that like playing with them, and did anyone on any particular hole congratulate you and clap?

GABY LOPEZ: Yeah, I think hole 6 was probably the loudest. They have a couple houses on the tee and you see the fans very excited for us to be playing back.

Yeah, I mean, as much noise as we can have since we don't have 17, I think it's nice to have that energy and to see some of the familiar faces out there.

Q. To kind of piggyback off that, how weird was it to walk to 17 and not see that grandstand, not call the Hogs, not have the loudest hole in golf here this year?

GABY LOPEZ: I felt like empty in my heart. That's how I felt. Just because I love the noise. I love the energy. I've very passionate when play. I make putts and I'm fist pumping, and having that kind of emptiness on that hole feels a little sadly.

But I'm just happy to be able to be back. We can't complain anything about this week. Wal-Mart and P&G have done an amazing job raising the purse and having us here against all the adversities we've faced this year.

That just means a lot for women's sport, for the LPGA, and for me.