U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

May 31, 2021

Haley Moore

The Olympic Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Please welcome Haley Moore to the U.S. Women's Open media area. Haley will be competing in her first U.S. Women's Open championship. Haley you've tried to qualify for this event a number of times. Talk about what it means to make it through that 36-hole grueling qualifier and be here this week.

HALEY MOORE: Yeah, it felt amazing to make it through because honestly the last time I played 36 holes in a day was in college. I kind of had to think about it, because I was like, wow, when is the last time I did this, how is my body feeling and everything, and I tried to get ready for it. I was just so excited just because a U.S. Open is a U.S. Open; you've got the world's greatest golfers out here competing for one thing and one thing only, and you know it's going to be a great challenge out here, and I'm just excited to be at a historic golf club like Olympic, as well.

Q. Your tee time was early, you finished and you posted a number and you weren't really sure if you were going to get in. Talk us through the last hour or two at your qualifier.

HALEY MOORE: Yeah, I'd say I was more nervous kind of waiting instead of being out on the course just because I was fourth off, and with 80 of us trying to qualify, 36 holes coming down the stretch, it's tiring and mentally you're just out of it. You just don't know what could happen. It was very breezy when I had played and it had stopped right when I had to finish playing.

The last couple holes on each side are very scorable, and so I just -- I mean, at the end of the day I was just like, wow, just wait and see, and if you have to go in a playoff, just quickly regroup and just get ready for that. But it fell in my favor.

Q. Now that you're in this event, what are your expectations?

HALEY MOORE: I mean, I'm just out here to, first, enjoy the experience. I mean, this is a U.S. Open. I've been working really hard on my game just because I know to be here your game has to be top, but it's also a challenge out here. I'm walking around, first time playing the course today, walked it yesterday, I just saw how thick this rough is. It's gnarly. I think keeping the ball in the fairway is going to favor you.

I mean, it's a challenge out here no matter where it is, so I'm excited for the challenge, and no matter what happens, just try and come out here and have fun and enjoy the experience.

Q. What do you think of the golf course?

HALEY MOORE: This golf course is amazing. Just so much history behind it, and there's some scorable holes but then there's also just holes where if you make par or -- if you make par or even bogey, you're fine. Patience is key out here at a U.S. Open.

Sometimes I feel like here at a U.S. Open there are such things -- there are good bogeys and doubles being good here, just because you just never know what could happen. So I'm just excited to get ready in a couple days.

Q. A lot of attention has been on you with the launch of your foundation and your Drive On story, and I think a lot of times we kind of overlook the golf. Can you evaluate your golf so far as a professional and where you think you stand?

HALEY MOORE: Yeah, it's definitely from last year when we had about half of a season only just because of COVID, I definitely learned that kind of half of that season, I definitely learned a lot, I feel, with my game. And every week I have definitely improved on parts of my game, which is key, and I think just kind of -- I mean, like right now we're at this stretch where we're going to be traveling back-to-back weeks, so that's the next kind of thing I'm going to be learning is how many weeks can I play until I have to like tell my body, hey, I need to rest and stuff like that.

But I feel good with everything out here. I played today and hit good shots to some parts and just really -- I've been trying to work the ball a little bit more in both directions just because out here you definitely need it. Just ready to just keep practicing and put some more final touches in.

Q. How hard is it to have patience with yourself as you go through the rookie learning curve and adjust to life on Tour?

HALEY MOORE: Yeah, it's hard just because you could just -- you can have a lot of weeks in a row where you're just not playing your best or you're just kind of struggling with your game, and you're just kind of missing cuts, and you're just like, well, what's going on, how do you kind of motivate yourself. But golf is not a game of perfect. I think once you have one good week, a good couple weeks out here, then you can kind of start adjusting really well and be like, okay, this week when I had my best, I know whatever practice I did before clicked and worked, and that's what you have to keep doing.

Q. You mentioned you've been working on your game a lot. What in particular have you been working on leading into this event?

HALEY MOORE: It's definitely been my ball-striking. Ball-striking I think is something that's very key out here and just kind of putting yourself in position. There are some pins that you can't go for, some pins that are attackable, and so when you see the attackable pins, you're like, you've got to attack and make birdies.

Even on just the par-5s, some are reachable, some are not, so the ones that are reachable you really kind of want to go for and really get a good birdie into there. Every week we have like a risk-reward hole, so depending on what kind of hole it is, par-3, par-4, par-5, sometimes it's always good to take a risk because you never know. You have to just always kind of believe in yourself.

Q. Your first time in a Women's Open. What's been the coolest part so far of the experience?

HALEY MOORE: Just kind of the hospitality and being here at Olympic. It's just amazing how much USGA and the women's game has grown to come to golf courses like these. In the coming years all the venues we get to go to, it's great. Playing in past Girls' Juniors, Junior Ams, Women's Ams, we picked spectacular venues, so it's always great to come to these venues and just have great staff, great courses and a good challenge of golf for the week. That's always nice.

Q. You might have already answered this, but what's the toughest part of this track do you think?

HALEY MOORE: Toughest part is I think it's going to be your patience and your mental game. You have to -- I know I'm going to hit good shots out here, but it's not going to -- I know I'm going to hit good shots into the greens or a good shot out there, but it may not stay on the green or it may not end up how I was processing it to. So when that happens you just kind of have to mentally just kind of take a deep breath and get over it and just be up to the challenge of getting up-and-down and just be up to the challenge of like this is what a U.S. Open is. It's not always perfect out here.