ARAMCO TEAM SERIES - BANGKOK ROUND ONE

May 14, 2022

Kylie Henry

Thai Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Okay, I think you're sitting in third. Tell us about your round today, first of all.

KYLIE HENRY: Yeah. I played really solid today. I felt like I could really trust my swing all week, so I was really happy with my long game.

And even I putted mostly good. Missed a few out there, but, yeah, I guess that's going to happen sometimes. Yeah, on the whole I'm absolutely delighted. This is my -- only my third tournament back after breaking my elbow.

It's obviously been something that when that happens to you, it's really pretty -- sounds traumatic -- but it's very devastating because it's very difficult to come back.

I'm delighted.

Q. Really rapid progress you've made in terms of coming back.

KYLIE HENRY: Yeah, obviously I'm really, really dedicated in what I'm doing. You know, like when it gets taken away from you like that, it is difficult. Yeah, so I am just so delighted to be back out here because I even missed going to tournaments.

Yeah, so it's just -- you know, like it's just been so good to actually go back to tournaments, but to put in a good, strong performance and be able to really trust my game all this week, I'm just so delighted, because obviously I couldn't hit a ball for like four months.

Relatively speaking, it is still really early days come back and I'm still testing the elbow to see how it's going and how much it can handle.

So, yeah.

Q. It seems to be able to handle quite a lot. It's been a scorching hot week and you've been scorching hot on the golf course as well. Do you get any pain from it?

KYLIE HENRY: You know, actually the heat is the best thing for it. The winter at home, the cold was definitely holding me back. So it was good when I flew out to the Middle East for Saudi and everything. That was a really big help. Did a bit of practice in Dubai before that and I knew right way it was a good move getting back to the heat.

To be honest, let's play in Thailand, even though I'm scorched, so burnt, and it's just so hard to stay hydrated and actually keep going.

We've now played in Thailand quite a lot over the years, so I do actually think I'm getting to grips with how to manage it.

Q. And do you feel like you're coming back after your injury to a tour that's in phenomenal shape?

KYLIE HENRY: Yeah, it's incredible how string the tour is now, and for me it's so exciting. It's a great time to be on tour. There are so many opportunities, and obviously the support from Aramco, especially. Obviously independently those five or six tournaments that Aramco are putting on for us is amazing.

But it's then the strength that that gives the tour for them getting other tournaments on board and getting other prize funds up. It's just everything is going in a great direction, and it is, it's -- I have even noticed the last sort of three years a lot of things improving, but now we're obviously really seeing it with prize money and everything.

Q. You must be absolutely delighted. Really strong field this week, big name players, and here you are I think sitting third. As well as everything else that's remarkable, three events back, you must almost be overwhelmed by it; it must give you great confidence looking ahead.

KYLIE HENRY: Yeah, totally. Played with Moriya Jutanugarn today who I have played with before, but she's such a nice girl.

You're right, like playing alongside some of the top players in the world is great. It's where I want to be. I suppose it's what we all want. When these girls come and support our tournaments it's brilliant for all of us full-time LET players to be measuring your game against these girls.

It's brilliant to see, because the strength and the quality on your tour has rapidly increased. This is my 13th season on tour and it's extremely different from when I first came on tour. The quality of golf has massively improved and it's only going to keep going in that direction as well. It's great.

Q. Looking ahead, three events, this must be so much faster than you thought to get anywhere near the success, third place finish in an event like this. Will you almost leave here reassessing your ambitions for the rest of the season?

KYLIE HENRY: To be honest, I try to -- all these years I've been playing I've tried everything. I tried to like not get ahead of myself. Definitely think that works well for me, just like going week to week and just -- obviously I have huge expectations for myself.

Fair enough, when you don't know where you're at you don't quite have those high expectations. But now that I can see my swing is holding up well and I can really trust my game, you know, like, yeah, I'm expecting good things. You know, like I am out here to do the best I can do.

Q. Where do you go from a here in terms of events? What's next?

KYLIE HENRY: Flying tonight to London and then playing U.S. Open qualifying and then fly to Jabra. So that's such a stunning place. I do love going back there, so looking forward Jabra next week.

Q. Just on that, like was there a point when you thought you might not come back for this?

KYLIE HENRY: That's the thing. Yeah, because you just don't know. You don't know how -- like because I was told I might not even be able to fully straighten my arm or fully bend my arm again.

Just different things like that. Obviously I was determined to do everything I could and I've really stuck to my program and rehab. I'm just so glad it's paid off. When it does get taken away from you, you don't know if you can come back.

I was in this very good form when it happened so I was devastated to miss the last few events last year because I only saw myself playing further up the ranking with those three events to go.

So, yeah, I mean, even if I could have come back from the elbow you don't know if you're going to come back to form, so I'm just pretty delighted as you can tell.

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