U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

December 10, 2020

Lydia Ko

Champions Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. I guess you'd call that a mixed round; I think you had an eagle in there, a double bogey, plenty of birdies and a few dropped shots, too. How would you assess your performance out there today?

LYDIA KO: Overall I thought actually I hit the ball pretty well. I drove one in the water, too, but I had a couple three-putts but led to a few unnecessary bogeys or doubles in that case. The greens are rolling pretty good, so I think I need to work on a little bit of speed work after the interview today, but other than that, obviously nice to be able to finish with a birdie on the last to come back to even par.

Q. Tell us about the eagle on the par-4; obviously a good drive and then?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I drove it really well, and then I hit -- I was kind of in between is this a pitching wedge or a 9-iron. There's a little falloff on the right, and I said, I'm going to grip my 9-iron, but sometimes I have a tendency when I grip it to not swing it fully. But I was able to put a good swing on it and it was going right towards the pin.

I think Les said, "get in," or something, and I was like, ooh, it's tracking, and it landed -- we were trying to pitch it a couple short of the pin and it landed two short and ended up being perfect. I was very surprised. I might have said, WTF, when it went in.

Q. Obviously you get a shot like that, it gives you some confidence. Just in general, it is a different format with the two courses for a major, and of course you've got Jackrabbit out of the way, I suppose, in the first round. The next three rounds for you will be on Cypress. Do you think that's a good thing?

LYDIA KO: You know, all the players are going to play once on this side and then once on the other side. In some ways you have one course out of the way, so you're focusing on the Cypress. I think it's more dependent on the course condition rather than what day you're going to play each golf course.

Yeah, you know, I think they're two very different characteristics of golf courses. Jackrabbit, with it being firmer, I think you have to think a little bit more around it, but I think the back nine on the Cypress is kind of the signature nine. Hopefully I'll be able to play some decent golf, keep hitting it solid and keep giving myself good opportunities.

Q. You know the old saying you can't really win the tournament in the first round but you can lose it. You've put yourself in a solid position to really attack tomorrow, and as you know, Amy Olson, the leader, she's 4-under, so it's quite a tight leaderboard, so if you play well you're going to be in the hunt come the weekend?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I feel like obviously I could have gained a couple more shots out there that were more unnecessary mistakes, but at the same time you've got to realize it's the U.S. Women's Open. It's not going to be easy. You just have to be really patient out there and never give up until the end and just got to accept what's coming your way, and I think there's obviously a lot of golf to be played, but at the same time I've just got to focus on my game and go from there.

Q. What's it like to have another Kiwi on the leaderboard in the field, Amelia Garvey, the amateur who I think you played 18 holes with yesterday, shooting 1-under today. That's just a terrific start, and I guess you'd be incredibly pleased with her performance.

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I've gotten to know Amelia a little bit through the years where we played in the same tournament or through the scholarship a couple years ago. But she's a really good player. I played a few holes with her yesterday, and she was striping it.

Yeah, I think obviously experience is important, but I think this is a great opportunity for her, and whoever is playing has got obviously a chance to be at the top of the leaderboard, so really cool to see her doing well.