COGNIZANT FOUNDERS CUP

October 8, 2021

Caroline Masson

Mountain Ridge Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Caroline Masson; a 3-under 68 today. Take us through your round.

CAROLINE MASSON: Yeah, it's been fun but it's been a little bit of a grind at times. You know, I played really well for the most part. Pretty solid.

Then I had a few just bad tee shots on par-3s especially and made some good up and downs.

So I went over like early on my front nine, 1-over par, and then just made a few good birdies coming in, especially on the par-5s.

So nice to get it back.

Q. A lot of players have been calling this a major championship test. Have you found the course to play that way?

CAROLINE MASSON: Yeah, definitely. It's a big golf course. It reminds me of majors, KPMG, U.S. Opens. So definitely. I think the fairways are pretty generous. That helps because the rough is deadly.

I've been lucky enough to hit it in the fairway for the most part, but definitely a good test. You got to be in control, know where to hit it, and get pretty creative on the greens at times.

Q. Speaking of that, heard a lot about the greens being very undulating. What's the strategy been this week?

CAROLINE MASSON: Yeah, I think we've been, if anything, defensive I would say. Which is not a bad thing, because it keeps you below the hole. Uphill putts I think are big.

Just checking out where the slopes are and what the better side is to miss. Yeah, we haven't been super aggressive but I feel like I've been putting last week and this week as well.

If it happens to be a little further, I feel pretty confident with my lag putting and just take that. But it's kind of been a little bit of the strategy so far.

Q. You had a little bit of a tough stretch there; playing well now these past two weeks. What changed?

CAROLINE MASSON: I got a little bit of a break. You know, I honestly felt pretty burned out after the whole stretch in Europe and Olympics. It was just a little bit too much. I wasn't playing great.

I said that earlier. It's very hard to be happy when you're not playing well, especially for me. So I really tried to just -- I was home for a month back in Florida. Took a couple weeks after. Really didn't play much.

And then, yeah, just jumped back into to working on the stuff that I have been working, that I know will eventually work. Just felt like I needed a little bit of a break and get excited to play again and find the joy in it.

It comes with better scores obviously, but I think the mindset plays a big role, too. So I'm pretty excited that that break helped me that much and that I'm back out here enjoying it.

Q. What are some of those things you've been working on?

CAROLINE MASSON: Technically we have just tried to -- for me personally it's always kind of shallowing the golf club, seeing the ball a little bit more right to left, and it's been a process. I started working with Jim Gormley kind of at KPMG I would say or U.S. Open actually.

We've just been -- we haven't been seeing each other very much, but just kept doing the same things and send videos. So just believe in it and believe that eventually it'll work and it'll feel good on the golf course.

It does right now, so it's a nice feeling.

Q. (Regarding burnout.)

CAROLINE MASSON: Yeah, it's definitely about not playing too much. That break was just really I think all I needed, just to get away and evaluate a little bit what went wrong.

I was on the road for seven weeks. Olympics was just such a cool experience, but at the same time, really short week and exhausting week. And then back it up with Scottish and British Opens that are never easy.

Yeah, you just got to be honest and say it was a little bit much. Maybe I should have scheduled it a little bit different. I think we all have an idea what's best for us, but sometimes it's very hard to stick to that plan, especially with a lot of highlights coming, like majors and Olympics.

So it's only human to I think sometimes think you can take on more than you maybe can. But the big thing is just learn from it.

And going forward the rest of the year is pretty simple. I'm going to play next week on the LET. Should be a fun event. Then we have hopefully two more, including CME. So pretty chill ending to the year I think.

Q. This is more about this lifestyle out here. How difficult is it to work on something that you know you need to work on when you're in competition week after week after week?

CAROLINE MASSON: Yeah, I think that was part of -- you know, that's the thing. You really don't have time to work on technical stuff. Once you get out there you obviously want to forget about it a little bit, and you have to keep a really good balance of working on certain things after your rounds and maintain what you're trying to do, and also get out on the golf course and just play freely.

So sometimes that works better; sometimes it's easier to do that; some weeks it just didn't really work. For me, I think it was more the mental side of the game to be honest with you.

Q. We all know golf is linear. You'll go long stretches where you know you're working on the right things and going down. How do you not say, Eh, that's not working; I'm going to go try something else?

CAROLINE MASSON: Yeah, I've done that in the past. You just have to believe in it. I think if you believe in it you're convinced it's going to work out eventually, I feel like I've always known quite a bit about the golf swing, so I'm -- you know, I have a pretty good idea if it suits me or not, 6if the ideas with work for me or not.

I was very convinced that this was the right path to go down. It just needed some time, maybe a little bit of a break, fresh start, fresh mind. Feel like I got that.