LOTTE CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY HOAKALEI

April 14, 2023

Lauren Hartlage

Hoakalei Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Lauren Hartlage who has just been Mrs. Consistent this week. Another great round out there today. Bogey on the last, but really solid golf. Tell me about your round.

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, really solid today. Ball striking was well. Honestly I've been putting really well all week, so keeping that up and making some good birdie putts and some saves.

With it being so windy you're going to hit a bad shot here and there, so it's important to get up and down when you can and leave yourself in some good positions.

Q. Obviously played college golf in challenging conditions, but where you did you really learn to play in this kind of wind?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: You know, that's a good question. I mean, I haven't been to Hawai'i really, so this is kind of a different wind. You just kind of learn just playing in tournaments, just traveling different places, playing in wind.

I mean, PV was pretty windy, so that was some good prep for this week.

Q. Were telling me off camera you were making a swing change and started off the week trying to work on some things on the range, not really caring where the ball goes. Obviously it's paying off; playing some good golf. How has that transition been taking that swing to the golf course?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, it's been good. I been working on a swing change, like you said, and just kind of practicing working on those feels and not caring where the ball goes on the driving range and taking those feels to the course and just swinging, and it's been working really well.

Q. I have to ask the question. We were talking about it offline. Can't really figure out if there has ever been a Kentucky LPGA Tour winner. Might have been one. What would it mean to add your name to that list or even become the first?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, it would be really awesome. Kentucky, growing up there there are some good golfers, but I don't know if anyone has won on tour.

To be in that ranks would be awesome, and be great to represent the state like that.

Q. Grinding it out here, and especially with the wind and stuff takes a lot of discipline, right? So were you able to remain as patient as you would like to be?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, kind of like right now, the wind will gust a lot, so you have to be patient, maybe step off if it's not the right wind.

You know, you're going to hit a shot, the wind might take it where you don't want to go or might take it where you do want to go.

It's just taking it shot by shot and not thinking about past shots.

Q. Were you aware that you were kind of climbing up the leaderboard?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, I mean, I've been playing well. Knowing how windy it is it's kind of hard to shoot a really, really low score, so under pars are always a good round, so just kind of keeping that same momentum going into tomorrow.

Q. Just finally, mindset heading into tomorrow? Going to be a couple back but not too far.

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, honestly doing the same thing: Just staying patient, taking it shot by shot, not getting ahead of myself. It can be easy to, oh, the next hole, worrying about shots coming up, and that's just not going to keep me in the moment hitting some good shots in the present, which is what I need to do if I want to play well.

Q. When it's windy like this it's going to be up for grabs.

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, you never know what's going to happen in the wind like this. That's the good thing.