PELICAN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP

November 12, 2022

Leona Maguire

Pelican Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Leona Maguire after her second round at the Pelican Women's Championship. Really good start. Six birdies in nine holes. What did you eat last night? How did you manage that?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Just figured out how to putt again I think. I hit the ball great yesterday. Gave myself so many chances. I just didn't hole any putts.

Spent a few minutes on the putting green last night and holed one on the 1st, and just kind of kept going from there.

Q. What was it about the front nine that suited you today?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I just gave myself a lot of chances. Hit some really nice shots, hit some really nice putts, and played the hard holes well. It was nice to sort of pick up bonus birdies on the 2nd, on the 8th, which are playing pretty tough out there.

Yeah, nice 5-hybrid, 9-wood into 8, so just suits my eye pretty well.

Q. So really nice round. I know there is that one spot on your card. Sort of take us through what happened there, what sort of challenges that was.

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, 12 I thought I hit a nice shot. Got a little bit of a gust of wind and was probably a foot from being very close to the flag, and suddenly came back downhill and into the water.

It's that kind of golf course. Yeah, didn't hit a bad shot. Annoying to double 12 and kind of killed my momentum a little bit. Felt like there was a chance at 59 if I had kept going.

No, I mean, it was nice to sort of pick up an early birdie on 14, and to birdie 18 was a bonus then to finish.

Q. What was the iron you hit into 18?

LEONA MAGUIRE: That was a 5-hybrid.

Q. From how far?

LEONA MAGUIRE: 176 I think.

Q. Finish easy?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I mean, lucky and unlucky I guess. Absolutely flushed it. Pitched on that little downslope and hit the flag. Would've been nice if it stayed in, but always nice to finish with a tap-in birdie.

Q. You're well into the CME. What's the biggest incentive for you this time of year to finish strong?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I mean, you're just trying to be in contention, finish as well as you possibly can; doesn't matter where on the leaderboard.

Yesterday didn't go my way, but wanted to move as much as I could this week and have a good round tomorrow and some good momentum hopefully heading into next week.

Obviously next week there is a lot of incentive to do well next week as well, so you just want to finish off the season as strong as you can.

Q. Were you surprised when the putting wasn't really working yesterday? Is that something that was kind of a shock to you, or is that something you've been working on these last few weeks? How much of a surprise was it when it didn't work yesterday?

LEONA MAGUIRE: No, I mean, that's golf. Been working a lot on my putting, but these greens are slick in spots, they're grainy in spots. I got above the pin quite a lot yesterday, which is tricky when you're -- I didn't quite have the speed dialed in yesterday either, so gave myself a lot more uphill putts today, which is a lot nicer on these greens.

Q. You mentioned I think 59. When you have a front nine like that, is that crossing your mind?

LEONA MAGUIRE: You're just trying to make as many birdies as possible. The hole looks pretty big at that point, so I was just going for it as much as I could.

Yeah, like I said, trying to undo some of the damage from yesterday and move up as high as I could.

Q. With just 18 holes left to play, normally you would have 36, is that going to change your mentality or strategy going into tomorrow?

LEONA MAGUIRE: No. I think it's the same as today: Try and make as many birdies as we can and give myself as many chances, and hopefully the putter behaves like it did today and not yesterday.