U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

June 5, 2022

Nelly Korda

Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Nelly Korda, 2-over 73; can you talk us through your round today?

NELLY KORDA: Hard. Yeah, it was definitely a battle out there. The greens kind of got a little crispy. Pins were obviously -- it's a Sunday of a major, Sunday of a U.S. Open. We were all expecting it. The wind was definitely gusting a little, as well.

In all, I'm pretty happy with how this week went. Had no expectations. I actually had my best finish in the Women's Open, so maybe I should just keep that going.

Q. You talked about it briefly there, but you came up a little bit short. What are some of the main takeaways from this week?

NELLY KORDA: Just the first week back you have rust, right, so don't really know -- you don't really expect much from your game. You don't know where your game is at. Knowing that I can play on a really tough golf course at a major and even kind of be in contention is definitely a positive.

Q. How did you feel emotionally out there throughout the course of the week?

NELLY KORDA: I felt great the first two days, even yesterday. Obviously I had the rough last three holes yesterday. That doesn't feel good.

But yeah, it definitely got a lot harder on the greens today, and I just tried to stay really positive and just to remind myself that this is my first week back after a couple months after and not touching a club for probably the longest I've ever touched it in a really long time.

I'm just grateful to be out here, honestly. That's what I was reminding myself.

Q. Did you notice that the conditions were more like maybe what you were anticipating coming into the week today?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, for sure. I think definitely at the start of the week the greens were softer, a little slower, and then finally today I was expecting it to get hard.

They didn't really move up the tees too much. They didn't play with the tees at all. My caddie and I were talking about that. But they definitely tricked out the greens. A lot of them were getting brown and very fast downhill. It came off my club, and I was like, sit, immediately.

Q. I know you just finished this tournament, but have you given any thought to what your schedule is going to be before the Women's PGA?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, so I'm not playing next week. I'm skipping ShopRite and I'm playing Meijer, defending there in Grand Rapids, and straight to another major.

Q. When you look at the top of the leaderboard at this event, so many countries represented, kind of like the golf rankings. I'm just wondering from your perspective from the highest ranked American in the world, what's the state of the game on the women's side in this country, and can the U.S. dominate the way the women do in other international sports like basketball, soccer, track and field, whatever?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, I feel like out here you don't really look at countries and flags. We're all like a family out here. You have 144, 156 girls every week, and we're all playing for something. We're all playing for a title.

Every year the girls are getting better. It's harder to win. With all the technology and everything that's coming out, people are practicing a different way. People are getting better. People are getting more confident.

It's great to see the diversity out on the leaderboard. I think that's what our Tour has always been about. But I do see that American golf is hopefully trending in the right direction. You hope so, as well, to inspire the next generation.

But it don't matter where you're from, you're always going to inspire the next generation.

Q. What aspects of your game were you happy with this week, and where do you feel like you need to keep working to get back to where you were?

NELLY KORDA: I was overall happy with every part of it. I think maybe my nerves played a little bit of an issue. I definitely got a little bit nervous out there going into the last couple holes, especially yesterday, as well.

So just the confidence aspect, which plays a big role.

But overall I think I'm happy, and I can always improve in every part of the game when it comes to yardages, accuracy, putting, chipping. You can always improve. That's what makes golf so frustrating, so great.

Q. I guess the trend now is for the women's Tour to go to the bigger courses and where the men have been playing, but would you like to see the Open come back to Pine Needles sometime in the future?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, I loved it here. I loved the golf course. I loved the atmosphere. The fans were amazing. I really liked -- this golf course suited my game. I haven't had the best U.S. Opens the past two years, so to come out here and finish inside the top 10, I really liked the golf course. Starting on Monday it really felt nice.

But again, the fans that we had come out, I've never seen this many people at a U.S. Women's Open.