THE AMUNDI EVIAN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 22, 2021

Matilda Castren

Evian Resort Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Your year continues to just keep on chugging along at an amazing pace. How do you keep doing it? You keep putting these rounds together. We're not shocked anymore. Are you at all?

MATILDA CASTREN: I mean, I just try to take it like hole by hole and shot by shot. This morning I felt pretty tired, so I mean, honestly, I just tried to do one swing at a time and just, I don't know, make it until the end of the round.

Q. Do you have a little jet lag, tired?

MATILDA CASTREN: Not jet lag because I was in Finland and it's only like an hour difference, but it's my fifth week in a row. I'm starting to feel it in my legs a little bit, or maybe it's just the course is quite hilly.

Yeah, I mean, I just keep doing my thing and see where it goes. Every day is a new day, and anything can happen really. I'm just really enjoying it here, and the course is beautiful.

It's just hard not to enjoy it here. I feel like I'm in a good mood and good mentality, and I have Daniel here, so everything is just really nice right now.

Q. You're coming off a win; knowing what was at stake, we've talked about that -- where did we talk about that? VOA, I think we talked about your schedule and where you were going next. When you looked at your schedule and you realized, oh, I really want to play Solheim, want to win one of these events, was there more external pressure headed into the start of the stretch of events you needed to win or did you put a lot of pressure on yourself?

MATILDA CASTREN: Well, obviously there was pressure, but I tried to not take it as it would bother me because I was talking to my coach and she was telling me, yeah, there's pressure, but it's really your decision if you're going to let it get to you or let it affect you or if you're just going to go out there and play your game and see what happens, and I was like, yeah, that's a good point. I can't really blame anyone else for having pressure because it's all if I'm going to take it or not.

Yeah, I knew the people in Finland really wanted a Finnish winner, and I'm just really happy and honored that I was able to give it to them. Another Finnish girl finished second, so if I wasn't there, I'm sure someone else would have done it.

But yeah, I'm really relieved that I was able to win that one because it was probably on paper the easiest to win out of the four, so it'll help me moving forward.

I actually decided I'm not going to play the Scottish Open. I'm going to take that week to rest and practice. I haven't practiced in a long time because I've been playing so many tournaments, so it'll be a good week to be home and then come to the British Open.

Q. Do you think that as good as you've played, maybe even under a little pressure over the last couple months, do you think after winning that event and now you come out here and post a low number, do you think you can just play even more free than you already were playing?

MATILDA CASTREN: Yeah, I mean, right now I'm not really feeling pressure, like I don't need to keep my card, I don't need to -- like I already won this year, so I just feel like I'm in a really good spot.

If I have a bad round or a couple bad shots, it's not really going to affect me as it might if I was in a different situation. Like I said, I'm really enjoying it here. It's my first time here, and it's just so beautiful. The course is playing really good. The greens are perfect.

Yeah, there's just not many things that I can complain about, so it definitely helps that I can just play.

I feel like I played really steady today. I missed a few putts, but made a couple birdies on the par-5s and somewhere else, too, I think on the par-3.

So yeah, it's just really steady and just trucking along.

Q. It seems like a lot this year whenever you bogey your first hole of the day and then you went bogey-free the rest of the way. I feel like you've been doing that a lot this year, like you might have a down hole but then it's quickly forgotten about and it's almost completely erased a few holes later. What do you tell yourself in those instances that if a bogey does come along, where you're putting together holes or stretches of holes that are really solid but you're putting everything else that may have happened before on the back burner and it looks like you're completely forgetting about it. Do you tell yourself anything or is there anything that runs through your mind to get back the focus?

MATILDA CASTREN: Yeah, I tell myself there's a lot of opportunities out there. I'm hitting the ball well, so I'm going to have some putts for birdie and just give myself a chance to hit a good shot and give myself a chance for birdie, or if I miss the green, just give myself a chance for par. That's all I can ask for. I feel like I've been really patient this year, and I've managed to kind of get in the mental space that I've just let things happen and not trying to like force things.

That definitely helps me minimize the mistakes and recover from them, make birdies and just kind of play really steady golf.