ANA INSPIRATION

April 2, 2021

Patty Tavatanakit

Mission Hills Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Patty Tavatanakit with rounds of 66, 69, leads here at the ANA Inspiration. How would you describe your start to the week?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Pretty solid, you know. Just kept pedaling, grinding out there. It was tough. It's a major.

There was a lot of struggle but I embraced it, I embraced the challenges and I was having fun out there for the past two days, so that's important.

Q. You may be a rookie out here but you played like a seasoned veteran these last two days. What is it your young career that has prepared you so well for this position that you're in?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Got to go back to AJGA. I had an opportunity to play here when I was 17, I think, and then got invited again when I was in college through Golf Week, Golf Stat, you know, UCLA ranking. Those rounds honestly gave me a lot of good experiences.

And, you know, like you need those kind of rounds and you need those kind of struggles. I played three majors one year and that was really tough. So you learn from that, you know, like you have to act like a grown up on the golf course and you learn how to manage yourself out here.

It took a while, but, yeah.

Q. You have eight major champions lurking behind you on the leaderboard within four strokes. What will you do to maintain this momentum over the next two days?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Just keep doing what I'm doing, focusing on what's important, what I can control out there. There is a lot of -- there is going to be a lot of challenges on the weekend and I'm ready to face it. It's not going to be easy. If I were going to win it it's going to be tough.

Q. Patty, 69 today, and able to keep it together, keep it focused. As soon as those winds picked up I know it got challenging for you, but how you are feeling after day two?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I'm feeling good. You know, not going to lie, I was kind of tired. Making the turn I kept drinking water and I felt like I drank too much water so I was like, oh, my God I'm bloated.

Then I just got -- you know, keep sipping because it's hot out here, you get dehydrated pretty fast. I think that was the key focus for overall for today, you know, stay hydrated and stay sharp, make good decisions, and the result turned out great.

Q. I remember back at Gainbridge when I talked to you about one of the thing you do to mentally refocus is you take a big breath. How many of those big breaths do you think you took today?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Honestly, I think every shot I hit I was just like, ooh, and I hit and kind of like let it go.

Q. How much does that help you, especially here the seconds, you leading a major championship?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I didn't want to take it the way that like, oh, I'm leading a major championship. I just wanted to look at it as it's another round, it's another tournament, even though it's a big tournament.

But I don't want to, you know, put emphasis on like it's a major or it's -- like I have to do things differently. It's just another tournament. You plan well, execute the shot, and that's all you can do out here.

It's tough and you got to grind it out, too.

Q. Walk us through the eagle at 15. What did you hit in? Where were you on the fairway? What was the hole setup there?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: It was a little -- the wind was a little off the right. I've got 115 to the hole I think and the pin was pretty front. I only have five on, so -- and it was kind of windy. The greens are firm, so I wasn't going to play the short number, the front number.

So I told my caddie, I was like, I'm just going to hit like a 107 shot. Everything is going far right now. It's probably going to land a little further, which it did, and just slam dunk in there. It was really good shot, a little bit of a draw spin in.

I could feel it like moving right to left and towards the hole. I looked good and then I heard like (making noise) and it was a good feeling. Yeah.

Q. When was the last time you have slam dunked one?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I don't remember. Probably a chip somewhere when -- like when I was in college, I think, yeah.

Q. And how do you calm yourself down after you've hit a shot like that and you're like, Oh, it's kind of a walk-off eagle?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I didn't really do much. Just keep my pace. Didn't walk too fast or do anything more special. Just doing the same thing. Maybe take a little bit more deep breaths because I know I was getting excited.

Q. Was there any reaction on the greens, many people?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: No. I thought it was just a good shot. Like I thought it hit the pin and went somewhere else. I was like, No one clapped, there are no fans. We couldn't figure it out. It was bright we all couldn't see.

I walked up and looked in the hole and I was like, Oh, it went in. Kind of gathered all the picture together and it was just like a slam dunk in.

Yeah.

Q. Patty, you slammed one on No. 8.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Yes. No, that was a backspin.

Q. Little backspin?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Uh-huh.

Q. Slam dunk backspin. Yeah? Do you remember it?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: No, it landed past and then dribbled back in.

Q. Still a good shot.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Thank you.

Q. In 2019, it was probably a difficult decision maybe to choose which tournament to play in. You played here. Got I would imagine really good experience with those four rounds.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I did.

Q. Can you look back and see how that's helping you this week just to have had that experience as opposed to maybe last year being your first?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: You mean the year where I had to pick between --

Q. Exactly.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: -- Augusta and here?

Q. That other tournament.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: You know, I still was thinking a lot about it. Man, what if it I were to pick that over this. But coming into this week it made more sense to me because I was in L.A., I could drive here, I didn't have to fly out east and be in the cold.

It was just more convenient for me and it made more sense that I'm playing in a major, and I actually played here and kind of had a thought of turning pro. I played well. Finished like 26th I think, and that just made it more clear. Went back to school. Just mainly focused on golf. Gave up a lot of interesting classes that I kind of wanted to pursue and mainly focused on golf.

Q. Yeah, because you turned pro a month later.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Right. Yes, I did. So it was in March in 2019 when we played.

Q. That's right.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: And kind of had a feeling that I kind of wanted to turn pro. Figured out I had Symetra Tour status without even knowing, because getting into Q Series automatically gives you that. I didn't even know.

Looking back I think coming here and playing here enough to know how the course is, it's really good.

Q. And then in your off hours here this week, you still have people you played against competed against in college that might be in that event.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Yeah.

Q. Do you watch and what goes through your mind when you do?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Do you mean 2019?

Q. No, this week at the Amateur.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I haven't had the chance to like watch because my best friend is there.

Q. Who is that?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Amelia Garvey. Shout out.

Q. Good.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: She's supposed to be my rival but I really love her. I haven't had the chance to watch or look at the scores just because I've been occupied with a big week. I haven't really spent much time on social media or anything. Just some time to myself and my roommates.

Q. One more kind of active mind question. How do you put all this aside until tomorrow afternoon when you go back out?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: It's good that you have funny and really happy roommates. That helped a lot. I'm rooming with Jennifer Song and Amy Yang this week so it's been really nice. We go back and don't even talk about golf. We eat good food and we just, you know, stay funny and we laugh about stupid things.

This morning it was relaxing. I think that helped a lot and just kept my mind off of the stress.

Q. I was just going to add, staying with those, those are two seasoned vets out here on the LPGA Tour. Do they ever give you any words of advice going into this major week?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: A lot of time management and taking good rest, and we've all been doing that. We're just pretty dead I think every single day. We're just like -- you know, just get a good rest and go attack the day the next day.

Yeah.

Q. When you talked to Golf Channel earlier you said you're up for the challenge of what is to come this major weekend. How confident are you feeling heading into the weekend?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Pretty confident, but nothing too, you know, getting ahead of myself. I don't want to do that. That's a red flag right there. You don't want to be -- that to be in good position on the weekend.

Just keep doing what I'm doing and stay patient, stay with the present. I been doing that pretty well today. Just listening to different kind of sounds out there and just being in my own world.

Q. One, you started, you come off a really good round yesterday and started on ten today and you bogey.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Yeah.

Q. What was going through your mind as you walked from the green to the tee box? Was there any sort of self-talk or any sort of analysis, or you just took it in stride and on to the next tee box?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: No. The way I look at it today is a bogey is just a bogey. Doesn't mean anything. It's just one hole. You move on. There is plenty more holes and a lot of chances for you to play good.

You know, just got to think positive. You can't let that affect you. It's a major. Everyone is going to make bogey, make mistakes. It's tough out there. It didn't really bother me that I made a bogey. In fact, I hit a really good shot. Just went through the green.

Q. You seemed to t settle down a bit there with the series of pars before the eagle. (Indiscernible)

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I think so. After I made that eagle the momentum changed a little bit. I kept like swinging it really good and I did the club to just have it sink it in there and remember the feeling of hitting good shots over and over again.

And I did that pretty good and I think that helped too, just remembering all the good shots I hit during the round and don't really care much about the bad ones.

Q. One other thing then. Pretty good group there. Came up to 7 and you had that difficult tee shot.

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Yeah.

Q. What was going through your mind on the tee box before you hit the shot? Did you have a certain strategy in mind or line that you had?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Not really. I was just trying to hit it where I wanted to hit it. I was really focused on that tee shot. Just didn't hit it good. Just one bad shot.

Q. Afterwards you just take it all in stride and keep going, right?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Yes.