ARAMCO SAUDI LADIES INTERNATIONAL PRESENTED BY PUBLIC INVESTMENT FUND

February 17, 2023

Johanna Gustavsson

Royal Greens Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Johanna, very good second day here at a place where you came second last year. How have you found your first opening days?

JOHANNA GUSTAVSSON: Yeah, it's been good. I've played very solid. Yesterday I think I played even better actually. It was very windy yesterday. And I've putted very good both days, which obviously helps.

But, no, it's good to be back. I like it here obviously. See what the weekend brings.

Q. And what are your memories from last year and obviously the finish that you had?

JOHANNA GUSTAVSSON: Yeah, it was the biggest thing I've done so far in my career at that point. I was very proud of myself, how I handled the weekend, especially the last day.

Obviously set me up quite nicely for the year, and, yeah, just good memories.

Q. And you just mentioned your putting. Obviously in Kenya you were working on that a little bit. What have you been doing over the three weeks that you've been back on tour?

JOHANNA GUSTAVSSON: Yeah, it's obviously we played quite different greens these three weeks. First not the quickest, and then very quick, and this week it's more normal speed, I would say.

So I've just been trying to trust my reads and I'm trying this year to be very precise where I aim, which is maybe easy to say but sometimes it's hard to do.

But I'm really trying to stick to it, and, yeah, it's going good so far.

Q. And when I saw you in Kenya, you were obviously working on a couple things in your swing, trying to find something. Then you played very well in Morocco last week. Is that just getting used to the start of the season again?

JOHANNA GUSTAVSSON: I think so, because I hadn't been on grass in Kenya coming from Sweden. I usually have a week where I can be outside first in Dubai but I missed that this year.

So obviously it was tough course, that. I didn't feel like I played that bad. But, no, I'm just trying to keep doing what we're doing. Alex and I, we have a goal for the swing this season. I haven't looked that much on the numbers these three weeks, but it will be interesting to see when I get back how it looks.

But I'm doing the drills that he's telling me to do. (Laughter.)

Q. And as you say, last year was so successful. From this point you kind of kicked forward. How do you kind of reset over the winter? Was it difficult to like take time away or come back to golf? What did you do?

JOHANNA GUSTAVSSON: Yeah, I think it was nice to have the time off, and it was a bit difficult getting started in the sense of what's my goals, what's the next thing to do here.

Because I had the greatest season of my life and I still want to improve and get better, but sometimes maybe that isn't looking at finishing second. Like improving as a golfer and lasting the whole year for me is important this year.

Q. I was going to say, on that, obviously you said that back end of last season you were just tired.

JOHANNA GUSTAVSSON: Yeah.

Q. You played too much.

JOHANNA GUSTAVSSON: I was sick of it.

Q. It was a bit too much. I know you obviously, as you said, entered a lot of events, but how are you going to manage that more this year?

JOHANNA GUSTAVSSON: Yeah, I have entered a lot, and I am planning on playing a lot, too, but I am going to go home more in between events because the Europe Swing is quite nice for that.

And then just having these different goals and having a different mindset this year, that's the big thing. Yeah, so I don't know how it's going to go at the end of the season yet obviously, but I'm hoping I will feel more into it.

Q. And does it help that obviously because you came third in the order of merit you already know that summer part which you didn't know last year?

JOHANNA GUSTAVSSON: Exactly.

Q. You're already aware of which tournaments you're in.

JOHANNA GUSTAVSSON: For sure. Like last year I really obviously fought to get into the British and Evian, and now I kind of know I'm in. I haven't seen the criteria yet but I think so, which makes it easier of course. And, yeah, less pressure.