AIG WOMEN'S OPEN

August 22, 2021

Leona Maguire

Press Conference

Q. An up-and-down day but how pleased or disappointed are you with that?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I mean didn't get off to a good start. Kind of had to get off to a fast start I felt like today. Bogeyed my first two holes and it was a case of trying to hang in and claw back. But happy how patient I stayed and I didn't let the golf course beat me up, which is so easy to do out here. So yeah, 3-under for the back nine, it was a really nice back nine and really nice par on the last to finish as well.

Q. The birdies on the back nine, obviously opportunities out there. Is that something that you think the leaders can take advantage of as well?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, the tee is up on 11. 11 is drivable today. 12 is a good chance. 14 is also a good chance. But it's playing tough. 15 is into the wind, 16 is into the wind. 18 is into the wind.

So there's no guarantees coming up those last four holes. I'm sure Minjee will be refreshing the leaderboard for next hour or two.

Q. Has this been the typical Carnoustie test you expected?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, Carnoustie is a test regardless of the weather we got. We probably didn't get quite as bad of weather maybe as we could have got, so it probably didn't show its full, full teeth but I don't think it has to do an awful lot to make this golf course really tough. Yeah, I think it's been a really good test but a really fair test and I think everyone's really enjoyed it this week.

Q. How do you feel about your own performance, threatening but maybe not challenging as you'd hoped?

LEONA MAGUIRE: It was a solid week. To was nice to get that bogey-free 5-under on Friday and would have liked to make a bigger run at the weekend. I was a little off here and there, and you don't have to be much off on this golf course for it to really bite you. Stayed patient. Hung on, but yeah just wasn't good enough to make a move.

Q. More major experience, these are big events; are you learning all the time?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, absolutely. I take the experience from this week. I felt like we plodded our a around quite well this week. Probably didn't take advantage of the par 5s as I needed to this week. Didn't take advantage of 6 at all. A few bounces here and there and could have been a completely different week.

Didn't putt as well as I could have. I should have been a lot better yesterday and ultimately those few putts made a difference this week.