U.S SENIOR WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 25, 2022

Laura Davies

NCR Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Laura, 2-under 71. Nice playing today. You got off to a hot start. Talk about that.

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, it was great. I had a good chance at the first and didn't take it and then bang, bang, bang, three birdies on the trot. They weren't long putts but they were ones on the rest of the way around I missed, so I didn't make many putts on the back nine and hit three poor drives.

It was a definite day of two halves, but overall have to be quite pleased.

Q. How was the achilles?

LAURA DAVIES: I think every day will probably be the same. It will be hard work coming in those back nine holes because it's very hilly. I hit a really bad tee shot up 6, the par-5, and had to climb up a really steep hill and jabbed my left knee. It's all related to one injury which causes other stuff. It's not an excuse; I can swing. It's walking that's hard; it's not swinging that's difficult.

Q. How did you feel the golf course was set up today?

LAURA DAVIES: Great. Yeah, I think it was very fair. I think there was a few holes they moved forward, which I understood why, and it brings -- where most players like the shorter hitters can hit drivers, the longer hitters can lay back and all hitting similar clubs into greens, so that was good stuff.

Par-5s probably a little bit too long I would say. That would be my -- if I get a drive away, I'm going in with 3-wood, so if I'm going in with 3-wood I'd say half the field, more than half the field probably can't reach. Overall, yeah, it's great.

The greens, funnily enough, I think they were very good with the pins today because we had a couple of difficult putts because we put ourselves in the wrong spot, but these pins today allowed us to get the ball in a good spot and then you had a nice easy putt. Very good setup.

Q. This being the fourth Senior Women's Open, how important is this to the women's sport and this tournament itself?

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, I mean, it's going from strength to strength. You see all the courses in the future that we're going to be playing, because that makes a great championship, the venue. You need field strength, obviously. Now we've got Annika, hopefully Karrie will be 50 in a few years and we gradually build the field strength up, because the courses are already there. So it's already a major event in my mind.

Yeah, so I think it's going in the right direction, and I think the field strength will only get stronger as these 45, 46, 47 year olds -- hopefully they'll drop the age because that would really help things.

Q. Competitive-wise, does it feel like the old days -- they call it the "Senior," but do you feel like old time?

LAURA DAVIES: It's the same people. Annika killed us last year by 10, however many shots she beat us by, and that was happening in the '90s and early '00s, so nothing has changed.

Q. Why do you think they should drop the age?

LAURA DAVIES: Well, just for field strength. It wouldn't help me personally, but I think for the tournament itself, 45, because there's a big gap. The men play right through until they're nearly 50, some of the better men, and then they come out flying to the Senior Tour, the Champions Tour, whereas the girls tend to retire a bit earlier and then all of a sudden they've got to wait 15 years to play in the Senior U.S. Open, and I just think it would help field strength.

Like I said, make it 59 years and I'll be fine with that. I'll be the youngest in the field. But if we're talking about this tournament getting bigger and stronger, I think field strength is going to be very important.