U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

June 2, 2022

Ryann O'Toole

Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Ryann O'Toole with a 4-under 67. Ryann you played great out there. Only one bogey, pretty clean card. Talk a little bit about your round.

RYANN O'TOOLE: I definitely feel like my putting was on today. I think a lot of my putts today just I made some really good putts, some saves, some long ones, so that was nice to have for a change.

I feel like I can always count on my iron game, so it was nice to see that the putter really showed up. I think going into tomorrow, just take it as it comes.

Q. And you're coming off your first LPGA victory last year. How are you riding that momentum into this week?

RYANN O'TOOLE: I'm trying not to make it two hundred something starts before another one.

Q. That's fair.

RYANN O'TOOLE: Other than that, just I feel like my game has been in a good spot this whole year. It's kind of been trending in the right direction, kind of how was it last year at the same point.

I'm just trying to work off that and know that it paid off last year and see what it does this year.

Q. This is your tenth appearance at the U.S. Women's Open. Do you feel you're experienced at this point and you're really working off that?

RYANN O'TOOLE: Most definitely, yes. It was trying to think how many Opens I had played coming into this week, but for the most part, every time we played this the courses are so different. There are different things to expect; play is completely different sometimes.

So for the most part I felt like you can just expect the conditions to be hard, to have some challenges, and to really stay patient.

Q. When you saw that there was a 6-under on the board when you went out by an amateur, does that make you go out a little more aggressively in the afternoon? Can you be aggressive here?

RYANN O'TOOLE: To be fair, I actually didn't see the 6-under. I was on the first tee and I saw on Anna at 4 and I was like -- and tied for second, I was like, okay, so someone a better, someone shot lower.

So I was like, okay, it's out there. I knew we had some wind in the afternoon compared to the morning, but for the most part, yeah, it's out there.

These fairways are wide, even though we somehow still end up in the sand bushy area. For the most part, I just feel like if you really pay attention to where to leave yourself and give yourself opportunities that you can steal a couple.

So I think that's the biggest thing. There are a couple pins -- there were quite a few today that you just cannot be aggressive to.

Between my caddie and I we took really good notes, sacrificed trying to be too aggressive and leaving myself 30-footers instead. I felt that I actually stole a couple 30-footers today, and I think that ties into the patience part.

Q. What part of your game are you most pleased with right now?

RYANN O'TOOLE: I mean, today putting was really good. I'm curious to see what my strokes gained were. I was trying to look on the 18th board to see. My caddie yelled at me to focus on my putt instead.

I think -- I mean, today felt very solid. I struck it well also. I just feel like I can always rely on my iron game. I feel like that's where I'm most confident. I just feel like I think that's what this course kind of needs, is to be accurate with those.

So we'll see what happens.

Q. One more. How do you think the USGA will set up the course going forward? Do you anticipate it will be more difficult?

RYANN O'TOOLE: I mean, I always feel like it can get more difficult. We've been lucky to not have any rain so they can get this place firm and fast. I feel like the defense to this place would be firm and fast, especially with the runoffs around the greens.

I just feel like -- like I said, the fairways are a lot wider than typical U.S. Opens. Sometimes we play courses that are narrow and high rough; don't really have that here.

The greens have got to be the defense. Definitely a lot of pin locations out there that can be used that can bring in some trouble, so for sure.

I feel like today might have -- 7-under is leading right now, but it's day one. It seems to always do that, whether it be a U.S. Open or an LPGA event. Someone can go really low the first day, but scoring average isn't 7-under, so they kind of always average out.