KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

June 24, 2021

Cydney Clanton

Atlanta Athletic Club

Quick Quotes

Q. The Solheim Cup, is that something that's been on your radar over the last year?

CYDNEY CLANTON: To be honest, I try not to. I talked to Pat. I was like, Pat, it's probably going to be really hard for me to earn points, and the only thing I can do is get picked. These are things I know I bring to the team and just kind of left it at that.

You can't really -- with where I am position-wise and how good the American players are playing right now and how many wins they're collecting, it's going to be tough to get on that team, and the girls are playing so good.

So I try not to. I try to just keep playing my game, and whatever comes comes.

Q. What did Pat say to you when you told her that. Did she say anything?

CYDNEY CLANTON: No, I think she appreciated with me. I think she agreed with everything I told her. I was like I'm a ball striker. I said, I can guarantee you that I'm going to be very consistent.

I might not always have the best short game, I might not always have the hottest putter, but you can guarantee I'm going to be in position, and I tend to make people feel more comfortable when I'm out there because they don't have to worry about me. I'm going to be in the fairway, be on the green, and other players who have hotter stuff can maybe get going. I'm not saying I'm not going to get hot, but I'm just saying I'm very consistent when it comes to ball striking.

Q. Even though there are a lot of Americans playing great this year, are you still working at it? Is that something you'd like to do and make this team?

CYDNEY CLANTON: I hesitate to say this. I want my play to earn me a spot in Solheim. I'm not concerned about getting picked or whatever. So if my play allows me to play on Solheim, that would be great. But if not, maybe next year.

Q. Speaking of your play today, a solid 2-under round for you here. We're not seeing a lot of people go low here. How satisfied are you with today?

CYDNEY CLANTON: Really good. I hit the ball really well. The driver got a little away from me on the front nine, which was my back nine, and I had a couple free wiggles.

Other than that, I could have gone really low today. So it was good. It was nice to have a good start.

Q. What's it been like for you preparing for this major championship test?

CYDNEY CLANTON: My goal going out in San Francisco and Grand Rapids was to try to get some momentum. I saw some really good stuff in San Francisco. I just struggled on the greens last week. They were just too slow for me. I like to roll putts. Hitting putts is not my forte. A lot of girls went really deep and bless them for being able to hit the ball hard enough.

So there was a lot of really good things. I felt good going into it. You just got to kind of play -- each day you have to figure out how to get the ball in the hole. Today I figured it out.

Q. I was going to say, on top of that, I feel like you've been building the momentum to this. What's it like for you channeling that momentum into something like Atlanta Athletic Club with kind of this major championship pressure?

CYDNEY CLANTON: It's good. Any major requires ball striking, which, again, I said I feel very comfortable over the ball. I hit a lot of really good iron shots. I had a lot of really good looks for birdie, and I was able to take advantage of a couple par-5s.

So that was huge. So the ball striking kind of settles everything else, so the ball striking was good today.

Q. And what will you focus on heading into tomorrow? You said you're impressed with your ball striking. Will you think about maybe hitting the putting green a little bit.

CYDNEY CLANTON: Just some speed work. Wanting to make sure you dial in some speed work. If you do hit it offline, you want to play to the center of the green or the front of the green, and you have these really long putts. Just making sure your speed is dialed in, that's probably all I'm going to focus in on this afternoon.