ISPS HANDA WORLD INVITATIONAL

July 29, 2021

Jillian Hollis

Galgorm Castle & Massereene Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. How good did it feel to start with an under-par round?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: Good. It felt great. I like this golf course a lot. It was kind of rainy all day so had to really focus, but it was good.

Q. It seems like -- I was looking at stats, I think it was your first under-par round in a while, since lot at this.

JILLIAN HOLLIS: I guess.

Q. What have you been working on or is it some Dow momentum?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: Yeah, definitely. I shot under par at Dow. That definitely felt good. It's just been tough. I've had a -- got into a really bad habit like a year ago, year and a half ago, with my swing, and just kind of been trying to get out of it.

I feel like I've finally found something that's been working and just sticking to that. I've been hitting it great like the past couple of tournaments, just not putting the scores together.

Obviously like you start to hit it better and you just have to trust that you know how to shoot under par and you've got to remember those good rounds.

But yeah, it's been a pretty emotional change, but it feels good now?

Q. Emotional change?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: Emotional change.

Q. What about it?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: Just emotional, like with the swing, getting frustrated at that the ball is not going where I want it to. I've played my whole life and I've hit it well or I know where it's going and then just kind of being lost for a little while swing-wise. It feels good to finally have like a grasp on that. Kind of like when I hit it bad, I know what I'm doing.

Q. What did you do with the off week last week?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: I went home, went back to Cleveland, spent some time with the fam. Always good to hang out with them.

Cheered on my buddies at Evian, obviously like Lauren, and watched the final couple rounds, and just cheering on my friends, and it's cool to see them play well and do well. It inspires me for sure. Lauren has been a great friend, helped talk with me a lot just off the golf course and everything.

Just kind of hanging out, practicing, getting the game feeling good, head feeling good.

Q. Nothing too crazy?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: Nothing too crazy. Tequila. No, just kidding.

Q. Did you play both courses practice rounds?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: I actually only played the other course and then I played five holes on this course. We got double rain delayed, so I ended up just later during all the rain walking the last however many holes and just seeing the course.

I think not having to hit shots off tees, not hitting shots into greens and just kind of like walking it and saying, this is where I'm going to hit it, this is where I'm going to play from, and then hitting some putts on the greens to get the feel, I think that helped. That felt good. I told my caddie, I was like, it's kind of nice not hitting shots in the practice round. I don't feel like I'm working on anything, I'm just like, this is where I'm going to hit it.

Q. Mentally focusing on what you need to do?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: Yeah, mentally it was fine. I had to like get up there today and kind of figure out which club I was going to hit off the tee, so I was like, I don't know where this is going to bounce. Obviously it's a lot wetter today, so have to account for that.

Q. From what I've heard or what players have said, Massereene is a little more scorable?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: Is it?

Q. I don't know.

JILLIAN HOLLIS: That's great.

Q. You tell me.

JILLIAN HOLLIS: I don't know because I had never played this course before.

Q. After seeing it today and then seeing Massereene the other day --

JILLIAN HOLLIS: Yeah, I like Massereene a lot. I like this course a lot. There's a lot of par-5s, which definitely makes it gettable. 18 is kind of tricky. You have to really place it and then like obviously going for it in two is hard with the water on the left.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. It kind of rained during my practice round at Massereene the other day a little bit, but it was definitely firmer, so I'm expecting it to be a little softer, which will actually be better.

Q. Five birdies today, 2, 4, 10, 13 and 18, that includes a bogey-free back nine. You had it rolling.

JILLIAN HOLLIS: I did.

Q. Which one of those maybe stood out to help get the round going or maybe just to keep the round going?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: You know, I had a couple good looks at it on some other holes, as well. I think definitely got off to kind of a slow start, and I made a birdie on the second hole but then made a bogey on the par-5, which was a little bit frustrating. It really started to rain then.

Then the next hole I drained like a 35-footer, so that felt really good. I think that gave me like a boost.

Q. On number -- which one was that?

JILLIAN HOLLIS: No. 4, yeah.

I definitely could tell myself, okay, it's raining really hard or if it starts to rain hard, you can just hit it on the green and I'll have like -- I had a lot of really good lag putts and obviously made some longer putts and some shorter putts, as well, today. Been feeling good with the putter.

The 18th birdie was pretty cool, 18th hole. Just kind of having like -- it was like a medium range putt and I wasn't really making those. So to have that and then have people watching obviously was pretty cool.