DOW GREAT LAKES BAY INVITATIONAL

July 16, 2021

Carlota Ciganda

Mel Reid

Midland Country Club

Press Conference

Q. We're joined by Mel Reid and Carlota Ciganda after a 4-under 66. Solo third right now, 14-under par. Let's start with the putt on 16. If you can just both take us through your vantage point on that and what was going through your mind at that point.

CARLOTA CIGANDA: Yeah, so I think Mel has been playing really good this week and I've been trying to keep up with her, so I did hit more putts on the back nine today. I told her, Can you help me with the breaks and everything, so she was just telling me where to hit, and that's what I was trying to do. My putting got really hot on the back, so we made good birdies on 11, 12 --

MEL REID: 14.

CARLOTA CIGANDA: -- 14 and then 16. 16 was a great birdie because I hit it on the right. She hit an amazing shot from the trees, as she always does. And then yeah, just made a great putt. Very happy with the round. I think we stayed very patient out there, which I thought it was key, because it wasn't easy playing foursomes.

I think if you shoot under par it's a great round, and I think we are where we want to be tomorrow and can't wait.

Q. From your vantage point?

MEL REID: Yeah, I thought both of us played very solid today. We couldn't get anything going. They were holing everything and we were just missing a little bit.

Yeah, we stayed patient, which was key. It was really tough this afternoon. The wind picked up, especially the back nine. Like it played completely different to the first two days. I mean, Carlota played great. We just kind of combined really well on the back nine.

And like she said, her putter got very,very hot so I just had to give her lines and she was hitting them and holing them, so that's always nice as a partner. Yeah, overall we're extremely happy with 4-under, and like she said, exactly where we want to be.

Q. To put yourself in contention like this, do we expect some Solheim Cup kind of focus tomorrow out of you two?

CARLOTA CIGANDA: I mean, we just want to win. So we're going to go out there, we're going to try to play our best, and I think we're going to be very close because I know how she plays. I know she likes the pressure. I like it, too. We're going to be up there. We're going to try our best, see what happens.

There are good teams out there, but I think to put ourselves right there on Saturday, I think it's great.

Q. Can you talk to that, liking the pressure?

MEL REID: Yeah, I think we've been in these situations many times, and I think it does help that we've played so many Solheim Cups together. I don't think there's much more pressure than that. Yeah, we just have said all week, we have a good chemistry, we feel very comfortable together, and I know both of us are going to go out and give it our absolute best tomorrow and try and get as many birdies as possible, and yeah, we'll just see what happens.

But yeah, there's no way that we're not going to play aggressive and play our best.

Q. We often talk about moving day. Is there maybe a little bit too much hype surrounded by the idea of moving day or is the hype legitimate? Obviously with a tournament like this, it looks like it's been pretty legitimate.

MEL REID: Yeah, I think especially in foursomes. You don't really need to do a lot work for you to go backwards on the leaderboard. I thought the scores were -- they weren't as low as I expected. I actually thought people would probably get to 17-under today, but it doesn't seem that way.

But it's tough. Like it's definitely tougher than it was a couple years ago. The wind is up there. Obviously foursomes is the hardest format because you can very easily get the momentum the other way. We luckily got it the right way on the back nine, and again, we keep going back to it.

But I think that's what happens with the chemistry. I don't care if she hits a bad shot, not that she hits many. She doesn't care if I hit a bad shot, which is more than her, and it's just a nice little mixture.

Yeah, honestly I think we just are a very, very strong team together.

Q. I did want to ask about the walk-up song. Thought process in selecting it, feeling of when it was being played, kind of getting the crowd going? What was that like?

MEL REID: I think it's stupid, but I think that it was the only song that I thought, it's going to be on a Friday so might as well do a Friday. I know she would dance to anything, so she wanted some Spanish song and I was like, Absolutely not.

We were going to have our team name as Team Name just because I just don't like this kind of stuff, naming teams and having songs, so we came up with -- well, Carly again, give her credit. My fiance came up with Reidy 2 Fiesta. Quite inventive, well done. And then the song, I just thought, It's Friday, so let's just get something with Friday in it, and that's about as far as it went really. Chiggy just chances to anything, so it didn't really matter what I picked.

Q. That was all your selection, Mel, even though you hate it?

MEL REID: Yeah, if it was up to Chiggy we still wouldn't have put it in yet. She is so laid back she's horizontal. We had to do something. It was 8:00 on Tuesday night so I had to pick something, so I just went with Friday. I don't even know what the name of the song is.