DOW GREAT LAKES BAY INVITATIONAL

July 16, 2021

Sarah Schmelzel

Bianca Pagdanganan

Midland Country Club

Press Conference

Q. Here with Bianca and Sarah, Team BS. You both are trending in the right direction at this tournament. Bianca, I was talking with Sarah and she said at times you're leaning on her, she's leaning on you. What has the partnership been like the last couple days?

BIANCA PAGDANGANAN: I think this partnership is more having trust and just confidence in each other. I mean, I wouldn't say that I purposely hit bad shots because I know that she can recover, but it's like, if I do hit a bad shot, she'll try to put me back into position so I can hopefully make a good recovery, and I think we've done a pretty good job with that over the past few days. So yeah, I think we work pretty well as a team so far. That's what I think. I hope you think that.

Q. Sarah, what do you like most about this kind of format?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: I think we don't get much of an opportunity to play in a teammate format. I would say Bianca and I knew each other pretty well, but this has been a really fun week getting to another her and having like a lifelong friendship form out of a week like this, it's just really fun. The camaraderie and everything has been just a nice change of pace, I think.

Q. Bianca, what type of format, today's format or yesterday's format, do you think better suits your game?

BIANCA PAGDANGANAN: I really enjoyed yesterday's format. Sarah just hits it pretty straight, hits greens, so I can be aggressive when I know she's in a good position, so I really enjoy that, so I'd say definitely the four-ball is what I think is a lot more fun.

Q. Sarah, would you agree?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, I think it's good for us. Alternate shot is fun because she can hit it so far and I'm playing from places that I wouldn't ever be playing on my own ball. But I think we played really, really well in the four-ball, and it just really suits our game. I can be kind of like she said, Steady Eddie, middle of fairways, middle of greens, and she can take pins on and everything. It really worked out yesterday, and we're looking for another good one tomorrow.

Q. Strategically what have you learned from each other?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Bianca is just so aggressive, but not in a bad way or a dumb way, it's just this fearlessness that I think is also from being young, too. Even though I don't think she's ever really worried about where the next one is going to go, and I think I can take a lot of that away from this week and apply it to my own game, so I really learned a lot from her with that.

BIANCA PAGDANGANAN: It's kind of funny because I was going to say with you being steady, I can learn so much from her game. Like she said, I can be very aggressive at times. I think I need to learn how to be a little bit aggressive but in a smart way. So I guess just trying to hit more fairways, more greens and just trying to be able to save shots because I've seen her do a couple of those from my not-so-great shots, so there's definitely a lot to learn about her game that can definitely help mine.

Q. You both have been close to breaking through in individual events. As a team now, what do you think it's going to take to get over the hump tomorrow?

BIANCA PAGDANGANAN: I just think that our games work really well together, and like she said earlier, we do a pretty good job with the four-ball format. I think it's more just trying to stick to our own games because we've seen how good it's actually kind of gelled together, so I think just a little bit more steady, probably try to drop some more putts, then hopefully we can see good results tomorrow.

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, same for me. I think how we both play frees the other one up, and so I think we just stick to what we're trying to do. We know that we can both make a lot of birdies out there in a different way from one another, which is kind of fun and exciting to be a part of, so we'll just keep going with that tomorrow.

Q. I know you guys had a lot of birdies yesterday. You closed with a 62 in that best ball format, which you both said is your favorite format of the two. Bianca, how much did that give you both confidence for today going back to the alternate format?

BIANCA PAGDANGANAN: I guess we just knew that we can make a lot of birdies out there, and that's kind of -- I guess for me, it helps with my confidence knowing that I can make some more putts. With Sarah being really steady and solid, I know that she gives me -- I know she gave me a lot of good approach shots and I tried to maximize and just make the most out of the good shots she gave me, so I think that's what really helped with our game today.

Q. Sarah, taking it back this whole week right now, being able to walk up -- we were just talking about your walk-up song, but how cool is the atmosphere here on a Friday at Dow?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, this tournament is honestly one of the best if not the best in terms of just the amenities, the fans. Everyone is so welcoming. They really treat us like royalty. It's awesome to have fans back and you can sign some autographs for kids afterwards and everything. So we're really grateful for all Dow does for us to put this event on, and we really feel special here.

Q. Bianca, you said your walk-up song was chosen by your caddies this week?

BIANCA PAGDANGANAN: Yep, I was really nervous. Brandon kind of threw out like two songs, and I was just like, you're not doing that. I think he was thinking like "What Does the Fox Say" or "Baby Shark" and I was like please just choose a good one, some song that'll probably make me laugh or pump, and I think he did a really great job because honestly I've listened to Olivia Rodrigo's album for like a month straight now.

SARAH SCHMELZEL: I think we're secretly really big Olivia Rodrigo fans.