JTBC CLASSIC PRESENTED BY BARBASOL

March 24, 2022

Leona Maguire

Aviara Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Leona, 3-under after day one. How are you feeling walking off Aviara Golf Club?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, played solid. Didn't give myself a whole lot of chances, but surprised myself with how well I putted today, which was nice.

Haven't said that about poa greens for a while.

So, yeah, overall pretty solid start.

Q. I know that I kind of looked into it too with the KPMG stats, but your putting numbers have been quite remarkable this season so far. You talked about at Honda that you kind of felt like an underwhelming putting performance. So what have you been working on these last two days gearing up for this round to kind of work on that and tackle these greens?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I think it's just a case of being patient. You don't really know what the ball is going to do until it makes its way to the hole, so just try and hit good putts and just accepting the outcome.

You just have to keep hitting putts and keep being patient, not getting too frustrated on the greens.

Yeah, I didn't drive the ball well today so I didn't give myself as many chances as I would've liked. It's quite hard. The rough is quite thick in spots, so it's quite hard to control into the greens if you're in the rough.

So try and hit a few more fairways tomorrow.

Q. What did you do last week?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Last week, after Thailand I went home for a few days and then I went back to Orlando.

Q. What did you do?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Not much. Rested a lot. I was pretty tired with the jet lag and everything. Got see my coach on Tuesday, and then took it pretty easy when I got back to Orlando. Just did a little bit of practice and got ready for coming out here.

Q. What do you do when you do have the time to try and get away from golf to do something else?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I'm a big sports buff, so March Madness is on right now. I been watching Duke, sort of cheering them on. We'll see. It's a big game against Texas Tech coming up. I'll be cheering them on for that.

Yeah, when I'm in Orlando maybe go to a Magic game or go out on the water at Lake Nona. It's pretty nice out there.

Q. Does finding that balance between having a life away from golf and golf a challenge for you, like it is for some players, or have you been pretty good about it?

LEONA MAGUIRE: No, I think after college the big thing for me was having so much free time, and then figuring out what to fill my time with. More practice isn't always the answer.

I think I got a pretty good handle on it. It's always tempting in the off weeks to do a lot of practice, but you also have to pace yourself a little bit and sort of this busy stretch as well that we have.