LOTTE CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY HOAKALEI

April 15, 2023

Yu Liu

Hoakalei Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, hello, Yu Liu. You had a long time to wait.

YU LIU: Yeah.

Q. But how were you feeling as you headed into that playoff hole?

YU LIU: It was a bit unexpected to be honest. I felt pretty over achieved today. I didn't -- if I knew starting off the day I knew I would end up in a playoff I would be definitely very happy.

I wouldn't say I prepared the best, but I feel like I handled it pretty well. Yeah.

Q. My scoring isn't working right now, but if I remember correctly, you shot a 64 today.

YU LIU: Yeah.

Q. How do you do that in these conditions?

YU LIU: It's just really steady golf and just played to my strength this week. I mean, I start going through the swing change the end of 2021, and I just felt like the driver is still a work in progress.

I still struggle off the tee a lot. Like I didn't really hit a lot of fairways this week, but I just feel like I was able to manage quite decently.

And then the other parts of the game I feel like it's slowly starting to click, slowly starting to come together.

It's nice. Good week.

Q. Were you feeling any nerves in the playoff?

YU LIU: Honestly, no. Pretty calm. Number one, I felt like I overachieved, and number two, I felt a little stomach pain like starting on the back nine.

I think it helped me kind of distract from the nerves a little bit and then helped me focus. I just kind of tried to play through that, yeah.

Q. What did you do during your long wait? I know you went into the room. Did you eat?

YU LIU: Yeah, I ate a little bit and definitely there was live coverage out there, and I wasn't -- I didn't just feel comfortable watching it, so I kind of just moved around and I went to the range for a bit, hit some chip shots and putted a little bit.

Q. I know you went to Duke. Had a hard time finding more about where you spent some of your time in the earlier years. Were you in the United States?

YU LIU: Yeah, I played three years on Epson and this is my sixth year on the LPGA Tour.

Q. How old were you when you came from China?

YU LIU: How would I was? 17.

Q. So came over before your time at Duke?

YU LIU: Yes.

Q. But you came over before that to play junior events?

YU LIU: Yeah, I played a lot of AJGA in order to get recruited. It's nice, yeah.

Q. Overall what do you take from today, from this success, from this runner-up finish, as we move into the major and the rest of the year?

YU LIU: I mean, result-wise, outcome-wise, second place finish definitely gives me pretty good status going forward.

I mean, we're all professional players and those are the reality check things, so definitely just mentally more sounded going forward.

Confidence definitely. You kind of have an idea when things are slowly clicking together. I felt pretty solid at PV. Some parts of my game felt pretty solid. Definitely the score didn't show that.

But, I mean, just playing for so many years you sort of have an idea. It's just nice to seat result finally came in.

Q. One more question: Had you been in that college or wherever else, the leader in the clubhouse situation like that before?

YU LIU: Clubhouse, no, never. First time, yeah.