GAINBRIDGE LPGA

February 27, 2021

Patty Tavatanakit

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Patty Tavatanakit. You just said to Golf Channel that you were trying not to be greedy today. How does that compare when you end your round 6-under one off the lead heading into the final day?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: You know, like if you're disciplined that's what takes you I would say. I didn't try to go for the pin, to be honest, but it just happened to be in the range where I can make some putts down the stretch, which I did.

Just one of those days where putts dropped.

Q. I was going to say, take us through how comfortable you were feeling on this course today.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Yes, I was. I was driving the ball pretty well. Hit it pretty well. Felt a little slow in the start. My body wasn't feeling the best in the morning, but hung in there and got through it and just keep my head down, just kept playing golf.

Q. You had two birdies but then the bogey. What do you do after the bogey to reset, especially on the closing holes that we saw some brilliance?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: A bogey is a bogey. You will have bogeys here and there when you play golf no matter how great you are. I mean, it's golf. It's like you would make mistakes here and there. I moved on from that and just didn't really take it in any kind of way. Just, oh, it was another hole. I have a lot more holes to play. Meaning more chances to make birdie.

I just kept my head down and just stick to my game plan and be not conservative, but smart around the course.

Q. It's funny, we had Lexi in here who also birdied the last three holes and she said she looked at her caddie and said, We're are just going to go birdie these. What happened right before those closing holes where you started to feel some of them start dropping in?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Yeah, so I missed my birdie putt on 15, par-5. I was like you know what? It's okay. Let's try to do this. Let's get it dialed in. I just happened to play three birdies in a row, so it was pretty cool to see that.

Q. So what does it do for your confidence to be able to close with such nice birdies like that?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Oh, definitely. My confidence just boosts up a lot during off-season, and then coming back with three good rounds it's just -- I'm just really comfortable. Not like over-confident but I know it's golf. It's a hard game. There is still a lot out there tomorrow. Just going to do the same thing.

Q. We talked yesterday about the technique of breathing before shots. Did you have any of those deep breaths today?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I did. The last three holes, so I denial look at the leaderboard for the whole day. Well, I did and then I just kept missing the first page. I was like, Oh, I'm probably still up there, so I didn't think too much about it until 15 I saw that I am two back, I think.

Yes, two back. So I was like, Okay, let's see what I can do here. Not going to lie, coming down the stretch those putts were a little shaky, but before I felt -- before I was putting I felt my heart rate was rising so I kept breathing one, two, three, four.

Q. We've talked about how confident you feel in this new year, it's a new Patty Tavatanakit. With how you're playing right now, how much would it mean to you to be able to leave tomorrow as the Gainbridge LPGA champion?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: It would mean the world to be able to win my first LPGA event tomorrow with Grant on the bag. It would mean the world.

But at the same time, I just want to take tomorrow as a learning opportunity to be this contention, and if I can close it, I can. If not, it's still a great week.

Q. What is something you and Grant have been working on that you're seeing coming to light?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: We've been working on my swing mainly. I get a little like all over the place in a very tiny spot. We narrowed that down to kind of be (Wind interference.)

But other than that, you know, he was the only one who's there or next to me playing out on the course saying that I actually hit good shots. So we just focus again on seeing what was good enough, good, and great, and just kept focusing on that and it's been working out pretty well.

Q. Good enough, good, and great?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Yeah.

Q. How many great shots were there today?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: There were a lot of great shots. Even though there was some shots that were a little off, I still like, Hey, that was good enough. It was not somewhere else. I can still make this.

So it's been good. He is really good at like maintaining training what I needed to or feel my swing on the course, and the rest is just course management. We work hard on this ever since we start working together, so it's been good.

Q. Is that his terminology, good enough, good, great?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Lane that's actually (indiscernible).

Yes, I tend to take it really hard on myself and obviously get frustrated, but it wasn't anything like at all this week.