AUGUSTA NATIONAL WOMEN'S AMATEUR

March 31, 2021

Pauline Roussin-Bouchard

Quick Quotes

Q. How do you feel overall?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: It was a tough day for me today. I really handled the par 5s really, really badly. So I lost a couple shots on that. Then I mean, it was tough out there with the wind and all that.

So I enjoyed playing, but it's a little bit frustrating to finish by a bogey on the par 5.

Q. Was the course firmer than yesterday?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: I think it's more difficult with the wind because there is more wind than yesterday for sure. Especially on No. 1 with the wind in the back, it was really tough to stop the ball at the flag. Same for No. 2. But definitely a bit more difficult than yesterday.

Q. Nobody's really going low, though, today. So even at 2 over, do you feel okay going into tomorrow?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: I really hit like a lot of good shots, and I didn't hole any putts, like I only had one birdie, which was really close. Then I had a couple of occasions like two meters, three meters, and none of them went in.

So I guess the greens are very, very difficult, and with the wind, it's even more difficult. So I guess that's the reason why there is not like very, very low scores. So yeah.

Q. This is a course where you being probably one of the longer hitters in the field, that gives you a big advantage. Does that matter, do you think, here?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: I think it matters, but at the same time, it doesn't really matter because -- well, for instance, the par 5s, even if I -- I mean, I hit it a little bit longer, I could reach the par 5s, but they are very tough shots, even if you have a 5 wood or a 3 wood in your hands.

It's always good to be a little bit longer, but on the course like that, it's mainly about putting and chipping.

Q. How many of the par 5s were you able to reach in two?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: I went for all of them in two except No. 9 because I missed my drive and I had to layup. But if I had a pretty decent lie, I would have gone for it.

Q. Did you play in this tournament in 2019?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: I did not, no.

Q. Did you qualify?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: I didn't have a world ranking that was good enough at the time. I was one week too late (laughter). It's fine.

Q. How do you explain your improvement you've seen over the past two years to become now one of the world class amateurs?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: It's a lot of work and dedication to what you do and patience and a little of hard work for sure. I'm surrounded by the right people, and I would say it's always about learning and getting experience and to reach my goals.

It's not losing sight of what I really want in the end. So I'll say it's like a little motivation and hard work.

Q. Did you make any changes to your game, or just kind of progression?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: I think over the last two years it was mainly about work on my behavior and how to handle my emotions and how to use them as a weapon and not like as something that's going to make me lose shots or -- I mean, I'm still struggling sometimes a little bit, do some mental mistakes.

But as we say in college and what your coach tells us is that we have to do our job, which means minimize mental mistakes, which is, I think, huge, as well as minimize three-putts.

Q. How were you on the course previously? Emotional?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: It was pretty good. I think I handled myself in the right way, I mean, the way I wanted to, because it's hard to -- at some point, you need to get mad a little bit, but on this course, if you slightly get too mad, then it bounce back at you, and it's just not the right way to do it.

But I would say it was -- I handled it pretty well.

Q. Sorry, I meant previously, like a couple years ago, would you have gotten too emotional?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: No. I would say at some point you have to kind of -- because I worked on my swing a lot, on my game, and then at some point, you get more mature, and then you grow up a little bit. Then it allows you to have a different perspective on the mental aspect of golf.

Sometimes it can give you a little bit more pressure, and when you reach like 17, 18, and you know that you want to do that as a professional, you know that you're going to need to like a strong mental -- you know, be mentally strong.

I would say in the good days it was really well, but then sometimes I would get a little bit too mad, emotional, and I would keep losing shots instead of limiting to pars or even sometimes bogeys if necessary.

Q. I think you were ranked No. 2 last year at this time.

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: No. 3, yeah -- 4, I think.

Q. Were you disappointed because of the timing? You had been playing quite well when this would have been played a year ago, and how hard was it to wait another year to get this chance?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: It was pretty hard because everything got cancelled at the same time, so we went from having a full season and a lot of goals and momentum and then suddenly like nothing. I had to go back to France, like down for two months in my house. So it was a little bit sudden. So I was sad, but at the same time, you need to see the bright side of it, spend some time with my family and get out of it even stronger.

Q. Can I just go back to the mental game for a second. Specifically, like expectations, especially for this week, it's probably one of the biggest stages for golf. How do you manage wanting to appreciate that but also to keep it in perspective?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: To be honest, I've been struggling, thinking about it like about how I want to do something very good in that tournament, and at the same time, how I want to enjoy it because there is so much more than just the game of golf right now. There's like friendship, being in Augusta. There is -- I mean, it's part of a bigger path.

So sometimes it's hard to see that it's part of a bigger path. It's part of a long journey, and I have to stay very patient. Sometimes in events like that, it gets a little bit more difficult because expectations are probably high. I think everyone is the same. Yeah, it's something that's hard to handle.

Q. How come you like to keep your expectations to yourself?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: Can you repeat that?

Q. Why do you like to keep your expectations to yourself and not kind of share it?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: Because I would say it's very -- at least for me it's very personal, and if I say it, then it belongs to someone else. So I would say -- I'd rather not say too much because, once it's said, you can't like take it back. I prefer to say I like keeping my expectations for myself, but I can say I want to enjoy it, which is completely true.

But I think people know what most of the girls' expectations are on a tournament like that. It's just I don't want to put words on it because like they belong to me right now. It's just that way.

Q. What was last night like?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: Oh, it was amazing. Being at Augusta National, and I just like had stars in my eyes just looking around and see how perfect the grass is and how everything looked perfect. I was there with friends, and I really enjoyed the night, which really helped to lower the pressure before starting.

Q. Did you and your teammates get to watch any of the women's basketball game last night?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: No, we did not.

Q. Your coach probably has a pretty good yardage book from Augusta National, having caddied for Ainhoa Olarra.

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: She does, yeah.

Q. Have you been through that book with her?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: I have not because I have a very different game than Ainhoa, but at the same time, she helped me getting prepared in terms of practice, you know, the type of shots I would need, like downhill, uphill, and all these shots that I would definitely need on Augusta National, but as well on this course, as well as work on the greens.

So in terms of preparation, it was pretty much the same as a regular tournament, collegiate tournament, because that's what we do. We kind of look ahead and then work depending on what we're going to have during the tournament. So, yeah, she definitely helped me practice some specific shots.

Q. What was maybe the most important shot you didn't have for this week, for either course, here or Augusta?

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: That I didn't have?

Q. That you needed to work on in the lead-up. That you needed to get better at.

PAULINE ROUSSIN-BOUCHARD: I think we can always get better in anything. On this tournament right now, my putting is a little bit off, and you know, you need putting (Laughter). So I didn't have any huge work to do before coming here. It was just like fixing details, but sometimes details can grow bigger when there's a little bit more pressure.