TRUST GOLF WOMEN'S SCOTTISH OPEN

August 11, 2021

Patty Tavatanakit

Dumbarnie Links

Press Conference

Q. You were at the Olympics, and you've had a really solid season since winning ANA. Can you talk about your season, how you've felt?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Obviously it's a confidence boost after ANA, and I feel like my game's been solid since the first tournament of the season. Last week I feel like my game was there. It's just a matter of scoring, like I basically had an off-season; I didn't play for a month.

But I felt like my game was at a good place. All the way through I've been seeing my coach, Grant Waite, a lot and I feel like that stabilises a lot on the course, just how well I'm feeling or how good my putting is, it just was a really cold week for my putter last week. That's probably why I gave a couple shots here and there every single day.

But you take it that way, I'm really satisfied with where everything is right now. I think everything is in place, and I've been looking forward to coming here and playing a links course. I've been preparing for that since the beginning of the season.

Q. You took a month off before the Olympics. Was that quarantining before Japan?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: No, it was something unexpected. I was supposed to play Marathon, Dow and then Evian and then I've been wanting to go to Marathon, but my body wasn't feeling well and I wanted to be rested for Evian. Through all the way to Michigan to go play Dow and I had some Visa issues to resolve to try to go to Evian. That didn't fall through, so I ended up having to miss Evian and that was four weeks unintentional weeks off in the season.

I'm not complaining at all. I feel like I'm refreshed and not burnt out. I feel like we're in the middle of the season and that's a good feeling to have and just looking forward to more tournaments to play down the end of the stretch.

Q. Most people arriving will be quite fatigued having flown in and played so many in a row. Troon last year was your first time on links. Did you play today?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I played yesterday. I haven't played today. It's a little different than Troon because obviously this is more like a little bit of a resort-y links, not like a true links.

But it's definitely different for sure. I'm looking forward to just have fun and play in a different kind of golf course.

Q. What do you like about links?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: You don't have to be perfect. You can just scramble your way around the course and you can try to like score out here. You don't have to hit it perfect.

Q. When you talked about links, just in our little chat here, you've smiled every time you talk about it, so you really like it?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: It's something that I haven't experienced a lot growing up, in Thailand, playing in the US, I just not something I've played a lot and be familiar with it. It's something that's different and I feel like even though I didn't play well last year as Troon, I still had fun. It was really different.

Q. Coming in as a Major Champion this year, third on the CME, your perspective coming into a major this, do you feel like even though you've not played a lot of different; that you have a chance here?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Yeah, my confidence is higher than last year. My swing is where it needs to be, a lot better than last year. Feel like I have more control than what the ball flight would do compared to last year, I'm just at a different stage compared to last year. Everything feels better. I'm more rested. I'm looking forward to play and ready for all the challenges with the weather, I'm just out here and I'm kind of ready to play.

Q. Almost is that like a confidence, even from ANA, that you're feeling so much more assured in your game and ready to deal with anything; do you think that winning a major totally changed your perspective, or changing your perspective helped you win a major?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: A little of both. I think it changed and helped me win a major, and afterwards, it was like, okay, I can actually do this and anything can happen. Like, who would have thought I would have won first tournament in a major.

But it was something unexpected and it just put everything in perspective.

Q. Anything out there that you would like to see?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: It's a nice day today with the sun. I feel like I can see a lot going on. Yesterday was a little cloudy, but it's Scotland and you never know what you're going to get with the weather.

Q. Anything else you like about Scotland?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I haven't had the experience to like explore, but I want to go do some more stuff here in the U.K. and in Europe that I haven't done. Like I'm a big fan of Game of Thrones and I want to go see where they film and stuff. Harry Potter, you know, just that kind of stuff that I haven't done, and I feel like U.K. is a really good spot for it.

Q. Do you think you might manage it on this trip or is that for a future trip?

PATTY TAVATANAKIT: We'll see. I feel like I'm a last-minute kind of person. I feel like if I want to go after the British, I'll do it. If not, I'll just go home and come back in the future.