LPGA MEDIHEAL CHAMPIONSHIP

June 10, 2021

Leona Maguire

Lake Merced Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You tied the 18-hole scoring record. 7-under 65 at the end of the day one. Had it going pretty well, I would say. Take us through the day.

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I got off to a really nice start. Birdied my opening two holes, which kind of settled me in quite nicely, holed some really good putts and in general it was a pretty stress-free day, hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens and, yeah, my putting was nice. I felt like I putted really well in Vegas and sort of kept that going here, which was nice.

Q. When you got here did it feel a lot like home in two regards, both the weather, maybe across the pond and also your pairing with a fellow Lake Nona member?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, definitely. I suppose the weather is similar to home, even the golf course is similar to home. It's very green and sort of tree lined a little bit like what we get at home. Northern California's been good to me and I won my first Symetra event not too far from here, so these kind of golf courses suit my eye and it was a lot of fun to play with Lydia and we played a lot together over the last few months at Lake Nona and she's a great player and obviously Sei-young as well and they know what they're doing around here, they have had some good success, so tried to learn a little bit from them.

Q. Can you draw on any old Irish experiences?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I mean, it wasn't quite as windy today as we have got in practice, definitely in practice and in the pro-am yesterday I was hitting a few wind shots. Didn't quite need them today, but I'm sure they will be coming out again before the end of the week.

Q. When you were talking you were mentioning some of the bumps in the road to get comfortable on the LPGA Tour. What in particular were those bumps that you need to adjust to succeed out here?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I think you just have to get used to playing back-to-back weeks a lot. College golf you don't play that many events in a row. Getting used to different golf courses, different grasses. Poa annua is something that I haven't particularly putted well on, I really struggled in L.A. on it and I went home a few weeks ago, saw my coach and we prepared specifically for poa annua because we knew we would be coming back to it. So, yeah, I think he's going to be pretty happy with my putting this week. And, yeah, it's just getting sort of getting comfortable out here and having that belief that I belong against the best players in the world and the girls that I've grown up watching and trying to put myself in those positions.

Q. What changes have you made to your preparation to get used to playing back-to-back weeks?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, probably conserving energy a little bit more. Went from college, having papers, writing papers, exams and golf to play, and then all of a sudden I had all this free time so I just practiced all the time. Maybe learning that I don't have to play 18 holes every day once I get here and focus a little bit more on short game and plotting my way around so I'm still fresh come the weekend.

Q. Take us through just the to put yourself in this position after one day, how do you move forward the next three days?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Same game plan. Lots of fairways, lots of greens and the rough is thick in spots so try to stay out of it if at all possible and, yeah, I feel like I plotted my way really nicely around. I have a new caddie on the bag this week and so we really picked our spots and I hit them today. So hopefully I can keep doing that for the next three days and keep giving myself as many chances as I possibly can.

Q. Have you guys worked at all together before this week?

LEONA MAGUIRE: We have not, no. No, but he's from Dublin, he's an Irish guy back on the bag, so this was another sense of home this week.

Q. You also have another set of eyes from home this week in a sister is out here. She said it's the first time she's been on the road since early last year. How nice is it to have some family out?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, mom and dad haven't been able to watch in quite awhile and she hasn't been out since Australia of last year. So, yeah, she was giving me a few pointers on the range yesterday evening and it was nice to have her out here and go to dinner and we're going to go see the Golden Gate Bridge this afternoon, so that was the condition that she came to San Francisco, she had to see something when she was here, so we'll go do that this afternoon.

Q. When you arrived in San Francisco some Windsor Golf Classic memories come back to mind?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah we got a lot of rain that week, hopefully we'll not get that this week, but, yeah, the golf course is a little similar and some trees, some rough, and, yeah, try and do that again.