U.S SENIOR WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 1, 2021

Liselotte Neumann

Brooklawn Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Liselotte, a lot to be proud of this week. Could you just sum up the week for us as a whole?

LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, as a whole I think if someone would have said I was going to finish second in the beginning of the week, I probably would have been pretty happy. You know, but it was fun going out there today just being in contention and just starting out with an eagle on the first hole. I was like, Let's go.

But then slowly things just started to shift for me, and I just didn't hit the ball that good kind of in the middle of the round. I never got my putting going today.

Turned out to be a little bit of a long day, little bit disappointing, but still happy to finish second.

Q. Did you see some of the comments a few days ago that Annika had said about kind of looking up to you when you had your U.S. Women's Open win and you inspiring her to kind of work --

LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, she's said that a few times and I've read it a number of times. It's really nice for me to know that I was a little bit part of her golf career and her start and her inspiration.

I think she probably felt that I was young when I won the Open and came from a small little town with a nine-hole golf course and sort of probably inspired her to just really work on her game and become a good player.

What a career she's had. She's just been absolutely amazing, and it's been really fun to follow her and just super proud to be walking down the fairways with her today. She deserved the win. She's still a great player.

Q. What language do you guys speak on the golf course?

LISELOTTE NEUMANN: It was a combination actually. A few times when it was just the two of us we'll speak Swedish, but if Mike or Evelyn was around it was mostly English.

Q. What was your nervous system like over the putt for solo second?

LISELOTTE NEUMANN: I was trying not to look at the board, but I did peek up, so I kind of knew I had to make it. That's why I called in Evelyn, can you look at this putt just to make sure I saw it straight and just tried to kind of breathe, and I just hit it in the back of the hole, so it was a good putt.

Q. What's your assessment of Annika's play this week? You played with her a few different rounds here. Obviously there was a lot of anticipation going, but it's been 13 years since she's competed here. Are you surprised with this? I'm curious what your assessment is.

LISELOTTE NEUMANN: No, I think she's still pretty solid. She hits the ball well. I think she struggled a little bit with her putting this week. She had a little hard time getting the speed right on the greens, but I think today she kind of found it.

She putted well and she still has a great game. She doesn't make too many mistakes. So it's still there. She was also lucky she got to play quite a few events leading up to this. You get a few tournaments under your belt, I think that really helps.

But obviously she still has a very nice game, and it was fun to watch.

Q. Is there a particular aspect of her game that impressed you most this week?

LISELOTTE NEUMANN: I'm trying to think. I mean, probably her iron game, like her shots into the greens were -- distance control and all around the greens. Her short game is still there.

Like I said, she had a couple of drives that she was a little bit in the rough, but overall she drove the ball great. For her it was probably -- if you would ask her it was probably her putting probably wasn't really up to speed, but today she had a good putting today, and you can tell she just kind of ran away with it.

Q. What did you feel like you needed to do to try to win today? You got it obviously -- cut it to one early on. Did you feel like there was something you could do to turn the momentum around?

LISELOTTE NEUMANN: I figured I had to go and shoot at least 5-, 6-under. That was kind of my number in my head, and starting out so good with eagling the first hole, I was like, Okay, let's go. But slowly my game just kind of -- I don't know if I should say went into pieces, but just way too many mistakes and I didn't putt well today at all.

I couldn't give her a fight. I felt like it was pretty much over after -- probably after 7 or 8. She went birdie-birdie and I went par-bogey, so it was too hard to catch up to her then.

Q. When did you know, when could you tell that Annika was really feeling it, that she was back? Was it that shot out of the bunker at 8 maybe?

LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, that was a great shot. I think, yeah, and 7; 7 she drove it down there. She didn't lay back, she went for it, and she had a little bit of a tricky bunker shot. She hit a great bunker shot up there, made her birdie, and then birdie.

On 7 and 8 I think that was kind of the change in the day. She goes birdie-birdie, I went par-bogey, and like I said, that was kind of it.