THE CHEVRON CHAMPIONSHIP

March 31, 2022

Gabriela Ruffels

Mission Hills Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Gabi Ruffels, 4-under 68, one, two, three, four, five birdies; just three bogeys on your card. You've always played well here overall. How do you feel after your first round?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, definitely a good round, nice start. I was excited to come back here. Last year here. I feel like I'm a local. My parents live 20 minutes away, so, yeah, I love it out here.

Q. Clearly the course seems to suit you. Played twice before, two top 20 finishes, and now another good start. Tell us about your round today. What do you think were some of highlights and the key to your strong play?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, so I started off good. I started on 10 and then made birdie on 11 to kind of get me going.

And then I kind of stayed steady there throughout.

And then I made a pretty good putt on I'm pretty sure it was 15. Could have been like a 30, 40-footer.

Then turned that nine -- oh, made good birdie on 18. That was cool, in front of the fans. Turned at 3-under and struggled middle of the round a bit; the wind kind of picked up.

But was happy to make a pretty good birdie on 7 and a good birdie on 8, too.

Q. You played Epson last week on the Epson Tour. How much did that kind of prep help you for this week in the desert?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, for sure. I feel like whenever you kind of struggle you assess your game and you see what went wrong. You try and improve and try and fix it.

Obviously I didn't have the greatest week last week, but went back to my coach, sports psych, and tried to work on a few things.

I feel like it paid off today.

Q. Having that time to work on those things, how critical is that coming into a major week with the last leap into Poppie's Pond on the line?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: Oh, for sure. I went back to my home course, Toscana Country Club, and worked on a few things that my coach wanted me to work on with my swing.

Couple mental things, too. I definitely feel like I was ready to go on the first tee today.

Q. Overall what is the major experience like here? You seem to thrive here, seem to enjoy it. What's the experience like being back here, especially this first year getting to play in front of the fans?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, it was different. This is -- I've played the past three years. This is my third year. This is the first year with fans.

So as I said, that birdie on 18, that was pretty cool to have fans cheering and clapping. I haven't really experienced that before, so it's cool. And feels like kind of a home event, so it's, yeah, even more fun.

Q. Sort of piggybacking off that, why do you play so well on this particular course?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: No idea. Good question. I think it's just kind of like I keep saying, kind of that home feeling. I feel comfortable out here. I feel like I practice on similar courses. I play at Toscana Country Club and they have two courses that are pretty similar, similar grass to this.

Yeah, I just feel like I feel comfortable out here.

Q. A lot of people may not know that you're in this event because of how you played last year and that you don't have any LPGA Tour status right now. When you look at this as the opportunity that you have, what does that do to your mindset and your game?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: I mean, I can't really control that. Yeah, I don't have any status, but I just feel like I'm so grateful to be out here. When I do get a start, I'm just so grateful to be here.

It's really cool to be out here again. I had exemptions last year on the LPGA Tour but couldn't quite get status through Q-School. I just think it's just being grateful to be out here and just having a lot of fun playing against the best in the world.