AUGUSTA NATIONAL WOMEN'S AMATEUR

March 29, 2023

Andrea Lignell

Quick Quotes

Q. 67 to open Augusta National Women's Amateur. Did you see a 67 out there? Talk about your play.

ANDREA LIGNELL: To be honest, I definitely did not see a 67. This is my first time, so I heard it played really tough last year. I expected to score maybe around par. It's so much fun. It's unbelievable.

Q. What was clicking the most for you out there today?

ANDREA LIGNELL: Definitely putting. Like putter was really hot today. It has not been this great in a while. So I'm really grateful for my putter today.

Q. You still put together a really nice college season. What's clicked for you this season as opposed to your previous few years?

ANDREA LIGNELL: I talked with my coach about it. I think it's just about me making less mistakes and my mistakes were not as big. Missing in the right spots. So, yeah, that's probably the biggest key, I would say.

Q. Had you worked on your putting to kind of lead to this point this week? What did you do?

ANDREA LIGNELL: I did actually start a putting project at the beginning of this year. I kind of just worked a bit extra on the putting because in the past it hasn't been as good. So, no, maybe it's actually helping now.

Q. What's the project? Like what's your routine with that? What are you doing?

ANDREA LIGNELL: I just try to put in a bit more work and focus on the putting. So like every practice session that I have, to always make sure that I'm doing an hour or so of putting to just keep it going.

Q. Is it alignment normally that you struggle with? Is it a green reading or stroke?

ANDREA LIGNELL: It's usually like a combination of reading and speed. Like my speed is not matching up with the line that I want to have. Yeah, it's definitely getting better.

Q. Did you switch to like AimPoint or anything like that?

ANDREA LIGNELL: I actually changed putters three weeks ago.

Q. To what? Like mallet to blade or the other way around?

ANDREA LIGNELL: Just from like mallet to mallet, but just a different one. Still like a Ping putter, but it's working.

Q. You've had good results with that putter so far? Were you runner-up or third in your last college tournament?

ANDREA LIGNELL: I was T-5, but they had like four winners or so.

Q. How do you think your freshman year you would have responded to today in this tournament? Maybe confidence-wise or game-wise.

ANDREA LIGNELL: I would have definitely been way more nervous because I was dying nervous like before the 1st tee shot today. But while I was out on the course was actually just me having fun.

Compared to freshman year, I would have been way more nervous, I think.

Q. To see Rose Zhang up there, is it just not surprising anymore about what she's doing in her golf?

ANDREA LIGNELL: Not really. She is incredible. She's just so good at golf. Like she keeps winning. She never finishes out of the top five. She's such a good golfer.

Q. What do you have to do to take down Rose this week?

ANDREA LIGNELL: I guess I just have to keep going, like hit a lot of fairways, which was really good today. You give yourself a lot of good chances from the fairway.

Yeah, just like the greens are tough out here. So just need to hit them in the right spots on the green.

Q. Could you take us through your birdies, I guess three of the par-5s. Just kind of what shot you hit into the green and what putt.

ANDREA LIGNELL: I actually did not have that far to the pin, about 185 meters. So I just hit a wedge into 1 1/2 meters, made the putt.

Q. In the par-4 4?

ANDREA LIGNELL: That one, I was just happy to walk off with a par. I hit a drive, had like a 5-iron, and just wanted to go middle of the green. It released a bit more. So I had a 12-footer for birdie and made that one.

Q. 9, par-5?

ANDREA LIGNELL: 9, I actually went for it. Had a 5-wood in. Just carried bunker, so two-putt birdie.

Q. And then 10 and 11?

ANDREA LIGNELL: The 10, hit it middle of the fairway, hit it to about 3 feet.

Then same on -- oh, 11, yes. Hit it to about 2 1/2 meters, made the putt.

Q. To go bogey-free on this golf course, how good does it feel? There are not a lot of clean cards out there.

ANDREA LIGNELL: It feels absolutely insane. I did not expect a bogey-free round today. There's a lot of tough holes out there where you can easily be okay walking off with a bogey. So I definitely did not expect it, but I'm really happy.

Q. How does it feel to be in this position after the first round, not knowing what to expect and how nervous you were?

ANDREA LIGNELL: It does feel great because like how nervous I was before the round today, and just knowing that I could just go out there and have fun. It's very calming knowing that for the next coming days as well.

Q. Who's caddieing for you?

ANDREA LIGNELL: My coach, my swing coach from back home.