DANA OPEN PRESENTED BY MARATHON

September 3, 2022

Leona Maguire

Highland Meadows Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Leona Maguire. Leona, we've talked to you over the last couple days. This is a course that you have some good memories at. Just take me through what was working so well on day three.

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, got off to a really nice start. Birdied three out of my first five holes, which was nice. Gave myself a lot of chances, hit a lot of greens. Probably the best I've hit my irons in a while, so really happy with that.

Q. What were your looks like on those first couple of birdies?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Hit it into about ten, twelve feet on the 1st.

Same on the 3rd.

A little bit closer on the 5th.

Yeah, nice to have those chances early.

Should have probably birdied the 7th and didn't, but had a nice birdie on 9 to keep that momentum going into the back nine.

Q. When you went through the back nine, especially those two par-5s closing, we don't have that every single week out here, how crucial is it to take advantage of at least one of them?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Would've be nice to birdie 18. Didn't quite get there. Yeah, 16, 17, 18 are three really good chances to finish. At least I got two out of three of them.

Yeah, some good momentum heading into tomorrow.

Q. What was going well on 16 and 17? Walk me through those two.

LEONA MAGUIRE: Hit a really nice shot into 16. Hit it into about five, six feet there.

17 the tee was up, so that was nice. Got up close to the green and nice chip-in putt there for birdie.

Q. No one is really running away with it. Some really nice scores out there today. What do you think it will take tomorrow to continue that momentum?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, the leaderboard is really bunched. There is a lot of big names up there. Obviously Lydia was going low today and there is a low score out there.

I think the weather is not supposed to be quite as nice tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. But in a good shape heading into tomorrow, and just try and post another low one.

Q. When you talk about the weather, knowing there is the rain that is incoming, how much does a score like today help when it comes to tomorrow?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, you're trying to put yourself as in a good of a position as possible. Hopefully it's not quite as rainy as it was last year on Sunday.

But, yeah, I mean, birdies will be a little trickier to get maybe in the rain, so try to get as many of them as you could today.

Q. We talked about your time off earlier in the week, about how was it nice to get away from some of the golf after Northern Ireland. You weren't the ones coming from Canada, so as you look back over the last three days, did that rest really impact what's going on this week?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, definitely. I really enjoyed my time at home. It was nice to be back in Europe for six, seven weeks or whatever it was. And then two weeks at home to sort of reset, recharge, and go again and be excited for the second half of the season.

I think at this point in the season it's kind of easy to get frustrated and lose patience, so that time at home, kind of come out with a little bit fresher perspective and just enjoying being out here.